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Premchand
Premchand (1880-1936) remains indisputably the greatest writer of fiction in Hindi and Urdu. Widely regarded as the definitive biography of the writer, His Life and Times is also an invaluable sourcebook for anyone who wishes to understand the origins and milieu of Hindi and Urdu
writing in the twentieth century.
writing in the twentieth century.
First published December 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 24, 2023
Truth be told, biographical writing does not have much stand in India as it is in west. In the preface of the original text, the author laments the absenteeism of good biographies in Hindi. He holds the view that this work should have been done by someone else and much earlier.
He writes, "In all the developed countries the genre of biography writing has made considerable advance. But our language Hindi is famished in this respect. Either we don't know what good biographical writing is or we have and idee fixe in our mind that it is not a creative genre. Or else fear, just fear of the impediments in the way…..'
He then goes on to articulate that almost all the writers and scientist and artists have more than one biography written on them. He proclaims that biographical writing is no less artistic and inspired than the novel.
The reader might recollect that in a comparable vein, Ramchandra Guha in his essay 'Why South Asian don't write good biographies' says; "We know how to burn our dead with reverence or bury them through neglect but not to evaluate, judge and honour them.” Guha further says that the reason that the art of biography writing remained immature is the Indian tendency either to exalt a person or censure him/her entirely.
It should be understood that biographical writing is an incorporation of both historical facts and esthetics of literature, which makes it one of the most problematic writing genres. It is important that the biographer should be compassionate to the person he/she is writing about but at the same time he/she must not be blind and should be able attain a critical attitude where required.
The idea should be to present the comprehensive picture of the life of the person and world around him/her.
And that is why this biography written by Rai is considered to be the masterpiece in the genre of biographical writing.
Rai's biography of Premchand brings the author as a person of astonishing talent and enthusiasm for social cause but still a modest and unassuming man at heart.
At the beginning of the introduction of the biography Rai uses three anecdotes to stress the utter simplicity of Premchand even after being established as a successful writer. The most famous example of his minimalism is the photograph in which we see him seating on a chair wearing dhoti & kurta and canvas shoes. It is clear that the shoe of his left leg is torn and his toes can be seen protruding.
To say that Rai's relation with Premchand has affected his writing would be an allegation which Rai does not deserve. While there is little doubt that Rai has drawn the life of the author, he has done so with a wide-ranging objective stance, without getting involved in it subjectively.
One example is in the episode wherein he deals with the charges of plagiarism against Premchand for ‘Rangbhoomi’. Here we see that he does not try to defend Premchand at all. Rather he tries to bring the whole hullabaloo as it was.
Another instance of this objectivity is in the Rai's criticism of Premchand's fascination with the idea of acquiring his own press. He says that Premchand's financial condition was not strong enough to support this undertaking but still he put everything on stake to support it, which was not likely to succeed.
The entire biography is filled with such instances where we can literally witness the objectivity retained by the Rai while putting his father's life on the pages.
To conclude, some of the characteristic features of Rai's biography of Premchand are:
1/ His graphic demonstration of Premchand's changeover from the reader of magic and fairy tale to a writer of social cause
2/ His unpretentious and leisurely style
3/ The employ of humour
4/ The biographer’s willingness to replicate and soliloquize on his own behalf as well, at times, his subject's
5/ The detachment maintained by the biographer throughout the biography
6/ Rai's style to produce the evidence first and then draw the conclusion from it
All in all, this book, to this day stands an an epitome of modern Indian biography writing.
He writes, "In all the developed countries the genre of biography writing has made considerable advance. But our language Hindi is famished in this respect. Either we don't know what good biographical writing is or we have and idee fixe in our mind that it is not a creative genre. Or else fear, just fear of the impediments in the way…..'
He then goes on to articulate that almost all the writers and scientist and artists have more than one biography written on them. He proclaims that biographical writing is no less artistic and inspired than the novel.
The reader might recollect that in a comparable vein, Ramchandra Guha in his essay 'Why South Asian don't write good biographies' says; "We know how to burn our dead with reverence or bury them through neglect but not to evaluate, judge and honour them.” Guha further says that the reason that the art of biography writing remained immature is the Indian tendency either to exalt a person or censure him/her entirely.
It should be understood that biographical writing is an incorporation of both historical facts and esthetics of literature, which makes it one of the most problematic writing genres. It is important that the biographer should be compassionate to the person he/she is writing about but at the same time he/she must not be blind and should be able attain a critical attitude where required.
The idea should be to present the comprehensive picture of the life of the person and world around him/her.
And that is why this biography written by Rai is considered to be the masterpiece in the genre of biographical writing.
Rai's biography of Premchand brings the author as a person of astonishing talent and enthusiasm for social cause but still a modest and unassuming man at heart.
At the beginning of the introduction of the biography Rai uses three anecdotes to stress the utter simplicity of Premchand even after being established as a successful writer. The most famous example of his minimalism is the photograph in which we see him seating on a chair wearing dhoti & kurta and canvas shoes. It is clear that the shoe of his left leg is torn and his toes can be seen protruding.
To say that Rai's relation with Premchand has affected his writing would be an allegation which Rai does not deserve. While there is little doubt that Rai has drawn the life of the author, he has done so with a wide-ranging objective stance, without getting involved in it subjectively.
One example is in the episode wherein he deals with the charges of plagiarism against Premchand for ‘Rangbhoomi’. Here we see that he does not try to defend Premchand at all. Rather he tries to bring the whole hullabaloo as it was.
Another instance of this objectivity is in the Rai's criticism of Premchand's fascination with the idea of acquiring his own press. He says that Premchand's financial condition was not strong enough to support this undertaking but still he put everything on stake to support it, which was not likely to succeed.
The entire biography is filled with such instances where we can literally witness the objectivity retained by the Rai while putting his father's life on the pages.
To conclude, some of the characteristic features of Rai's biography of Premchand are:
1/ His graphic demonstration of Premchand's changeover from the reader of magic and fairy tale to a writer of social cause
2/ His unpretentious and leisurely style
3/ The employ of humour
4/ The biographer’s willingness to replicate and soliloquize on his own behalf as well, at times, his subject's
5/ The detachment maintained by the biographer throughout the biography
6/ Rai's style to produce the evidence first and then draw the conclusion from it
All in all, this book, to this day stands an an epitome of modern Indian biography writing.
December 19, 2023
Beautifully articulated life of Premchand ji and reflected the picture of India and the era.
July 18, 2015
This book gives a good insight into the milieu of Premchand, his beliefs, and outlook on the political situation of India during the pre-independence years. This book being a literal translation of the Hindi biography, "Premchand: Qalam ka Sipahi", has isms that are applicable to Hindi language, thereby the proverbs, idioms, common phrases used seem implausible to English readers. However, the author Amrit Rai and the translator, Harish Trivedi have successfully put together a comprehensive picture of Munshi Premchsnd, a humble but great man of Hindi literature.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews