TRACING THE RIGHTS OF THE MINORITIES: A READING OF SELECT WORKS OF MUNSHI PREMCHAND

Joshua Gnana Raj PSt. John’s College, Tirunelveli,

joshuaraj10@gmail.com

EVOLUTION

“What had religion to do with eating habits and customs … I may commit theft or murder or

deceive someone, but my religion won’t disown me, but if I drink water from the hands of an untouchable I lose my religion, what kind of

religion is this? We cannon relate at the level of the soul to anyone outside our religion.

Religion has tied down souls, has restrictions even on love. This is not religion, this is a

disgrace to religion.” (Premchand, 2009, p. 82)

In the work The Thakur's Well an untouchable woman, Gangi rebels against the caste laws

that forbid untouchables from using the same water that the villagers use. She reasons

within herself saying, "Why are we considered low and these so people high? Is it because

these people wear a thread around their necks?" (Orsini, 2004, p. 85).

, “the same event or situation does not leave the same impression on everyone. Every

person has a different mentality and point of view”. (Premchand, 2004, n. pag.)

In Karmabhoomi he again satirizes education of the west, which has its base only upon the

idea of business where one has to pay for everything in the process of education. No one is free from it, the protagonist of the

novel Amarkant, runs away from school only owing to the money to be paid as fees.

PREMCHAND AS A FEMINIST

Women characters of Premchand are not to be seen as total slaves of men. They refuse to keep calm, and so does Kalyani also do with her words fighting up with her husband saying,

Kalyani-Then manage your household too! I’ve no desire to have anything to do with a house in which I’m treated without respect. I have as much as right to this home as you. Not one whit less! If you think of yourself as some sort of king, I’m no less than a queen in my own eyes.

You’re welcome to this house of yours, I will not want far a few rotis to feed myself. You can do as you please with

your children, feed them or starve them according to your fancy. So long as I don’t have to see anything it

happened, I will be spared the pain. Out of sight, out of mind! (Rubin, 2006, p. 9)

The very sentence of saying this doesn’t make to look as if she doesn’t looks to be

caring towards her children, and not be taken as to the effect of radical feminism,

modernity, on the side of Kalyani. For after leaving her husband she goes, and talks to one of her child saying with tears, and said “No, my loved ones, I will not abandon you. For your sake, I’ll put up with everything-insult, humiliation, outrage, harsh, cruel

words, this and more I will endure for your sake.” (Rubin, 2006, p. 11)

She cares much more for her sons than she does for her daughters ... She owned a

house, she had some ready cash, jewellery worth thousands, but still had to bring up her two sons, see them through their education. Another daughter will be ready to marry in another four or five years. This is why she cannot even think of giving a large sum of

money as dowry; after all, the boys must get their due. (Rubin, 2006, p. 34)

This anger is seen different in Nirmala on her mother, is also revealed. It also shows how a real young bride would feel while she is married off to a man older than herself:

Everytime Nirmala dressed up in all her finery and stood in front of the mirror,

admiring her radiant beauty, her heart would fill with longing and desire. She would be consumed with a burning sensation in her

heart. She felt like burning the house down. She felt angry with her mother, of course; but

her greatest anger was reserved for poor Munshi Totaram. This burning resentment was always with her. (Rubin, 2006, p. 40)

"a balanced, realistic level" (Schulz, 1981, p. 18) that surpasses his earlier works, and manages to "hold his readers". (Schulz, 1981, p. 18).

Three generations of Indians have wept with her and, despite the immense changes that

have come to India during this time – changes in attitude, sensibility and aspiration – it is very likely that generations to come will

continue to sympathise with this girl whose greatest sin was to require a husband who would accept her without a dowry. (Rubin,

2006, p. 32)

Finally most critics believed that the nationalist movement in India was borrowed from English books. It is also said that Indians learns their ideas of freedom from English books. Even, Gandhi declares his philosophy, by changing the phrase from the Holy Bible as, hate the sin but, love the sinner. Premchand was also a follower of Gandhi, and also Premchand talks of exploitation, equality, and fraternity; which is said to be attached to Marxism, for it was originated from the west. However, Premchand approach goes into the process in a very different way. Premchand justifies that violence is not bad for the defense of one’s dignity for peace is to be won at times by

“war!”

MUNSHI PREMCHAND