Premchand ki khaniya, Ekada, Westland Books
Today is Premchand’s 145th birth anniversary. He was born on 31 July 1880. Dhanpat Rai Srivastava or Munshi Premchand as he was known is famous for his stories in Hindustani. Premchand was a pioneer of Hindi and Urdu social fiction. He was one of the first authors to write about caste hierarchies and the plight of women and labourers prevalent in the society. He is one of the most celebrated writers of the Indian subcontinent and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindi writers of the early twentieth century. He began writing under the pen name ‘Nawab Rai’, but subsequently switched to ‘Premchand’. He published his first collection of five short stories in 1907 in a book called Soz-e-Watan (Voice of the Nation). His body of work includes more than a dozen novels, around 300 short stories, several essays and translations of a number of foreign literary works into Hindi.
Even though he died in 1936, his stories continue to be read and are very popular. Although, I have to say that I have read some recent versions of his stories and they are nothing like the original. New editions tend to “revise” his stories into Hindi rather than retaining the original Hindustani — a mix of Hindi and Urdu that many generations, including mine, grew up speaking and writing. We are familiar with it. Westland Books imprint, Ekada, focusses on Indian language books. Ekada Classics is a curated list that revives beloved literature from various Indian languages. This month, Ekada Classics released माँगे की घड़ी और अन्य कहानियाँ and मोटर के छींटे और अन्य कहानियाँ.
Premchand’s stories will never be out of fashion but will they be permitted to survive as he wrote them, only time will tell.
31 July 2025
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