Study Of Gender Exploitation In Munshi Premchand Stories

Indian society has been divided on basis of Varna system which was the core of the social life of the society in the past. One could not think of going beyond that or violate the set norms for them. The condition of woman in particular was very pathetic and weak in this classified society. The present paper is going to discuss the oppression of the weak and poor at the hand of rich and powerful through Premchand’s stories Vidhwans (Catastrophe) and Garib Ki Hai (Power of Curse). Vidhwans is the story of an old childless widow named Bhungi who has to sacrifice her life in fire because of the exploitation of the village owner, Pandit Udaibhan Pandey and Garib Ki Hai presents the exploitation of Munga, a Brahman widow by Mushi Ramshevak. He did not return her money which leads to the miserable and untimely death of Munga. After her death, the destruction of the family of Ramsavak begins. These stories narrated the conditions of rural India where these varna system is religiously followed. Munshi Premchand (1880-1936) was a famous writer. His real name was Dhanpat Rai Premchan started his literary carrier in Urdu. He depicted the patriotic upsurge in his early short stories. Soze-e-Watan (1907) is a collection of such short stories. Premchand started writing in Hindi in 1914 till then he had established his reputation as an Urdu writer. He was the first writer in Hindi who presented the contemporary problems through his writings. He presented the problem of urban middle-class and the country’s village. He wrote with a purpose. He didn’t follow the principle of ‘art for art’s sake’. But he has written with social purpose and this is the main reason that he is read by the readers of all ages. Premchand was a prolific writer who had penned a dozen novels and nearly 250 short stories. His famous novels are Nirmla, Godan, Gaban, Sevasadan, Rangmanch. His famous stories are Kafan, Vidhwans, Bade Bhaiya, Garib Ki Hai etc.