Munshi Premchand
Munshi Premchand lived from 1880 to 1936 and can justly lay claim to the title of the best Hindi fiction writer ever. He was born on 31July 1880 in a small village, Lamhi, near Varanasi. His parents named him Dhanpat Rai. He started writing at a young age. Initially, he wrote in Urdu. Later, he wrote only in Hindi.
Munshi Premchand was the son of a postal clerk. He lost his mother when he was very young. Just 7 years. And his at the age of 14, he lost his father. With his father's demise, young Premchand took over the responsibility of earning bread for the family. In the face of great economic hardship, he matriculated. He then found employment as a schoolmaster in small village schools.
While working, Premchand continued his studies and completed his F.A. (parallel to A-levels) and his B.A. He was keen on doing his Masters in Literature, but circumstances in life prevented him from doing so.
In 1921, influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's call to leave Government jobs, Premchand resigned from his schoolmaster's job. He was in dire economic straits. Yet, he gave up his 23 year old secure inflow-paying Government job. In this decision, his wife willingly supported him.
For a few months after that, he worked for a private school in Kanpur. He could not keep his job, because he was too principled and was the victim of office politics. He resigned from there and left for Varanasi where he taught at the Kashi Vidyapitha for a few months, and edited 'Maryada'. He then left for Lucknow where he edited 'Madhuri'. Both 'Maryada' and 'Madhuri' were literary magazines with very low circulation and an uncertain future.
In a few years, he shifted back to Varanasi to launch his own literary magazine, 'Hans'. Sometime later, he launched 'Jagaran' as well. But both magazines were loss-making enterprises. At a certain point in time Premchand was so heavily in debt because of editing these magazines, he had to wind up operations and shift baggage to Mumbai.
He had come to Mumbai to
Munshi Premchand was the son of a postal clerk. He lost his mother when he was very young. Just 7 years. And his at the age of 14, he lost his father. With his father's demise, young Premchand took over the responsibility of earning bread for the family. In the face of great economic hardship, he matriculated. He then found employment as a schoolmaster in small village schools.
While working, Premchand continued his studies and completed his F.A. (parallel to A-levels) and his B.A. He was keen on doing his Masters in Literature, but circumstances in life prevented him from doing so.
In 1921, influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's call to leave Government jobs, Premchand resigned from his schoolmaster's job. He was in dire economic straits. Yet, he gave up his 23 year old secure inflow-paying Government job. In this decision, his wife willingly supported him.
For a few months after that, he worked for a private school in Kanpur. He could not keep his job, because he was too principled and was the victim of office politics. He resigned from there and left for Varanasi where he taught at the Kashi Vidyapitha for a few months, and edited 'Maryada'. He then left for Lucknow where he edited 'Madhuri'. Both 'Maryada' and 'Madhuri' were literary magazines with very low circulation and an uncertain future.
In a few years, he shifted back to Varanasi to launch his own literary magazine, 'Hans'. Sometime later, he launched 'Jagaran' as well. But both magazines were loss-making enterprises. At a certain point in time Premchand was so heavily in debt because of editing these magazines, he had to wind up operations and shift baggage to Mumbai.
He had come to Mumbai to