Mahaan Kahaniya & Upanyaas Of Munshi Premchand Status

In 1914, when Premchand switched over to Hindi, he had already established his reputation as a fiction writer in Urdu.  Premchand was the pen name adopted by the Hindi writer Dhanpatrai who was born on 31 July 1880 at Lamahi near Varanasi.  Soz-e-Watan, a collection of such stories published by Premchand in 1907, attracted the attention of the British government.  Premchand was the first Hindi author to introduce realism in his writings.  He supplemented Gandhiji's work in the political and social fields by adopting his revolutionary ideas as themes for his literary writings.  In his early short stories he depicted the patriotic upsurge that was sweeping the land in the first decade of the present century.  Premchand died in 1936 and has since been studied both in India and abroad as one of the greatest writers of the century.  His greatness lies in the fact that his writings embody social purpose and social criticism rather than mere entertainment.  Premchand's literary career started as a freelancer in Urdu.  Premchand was also a social reformer and thinker.  He believes in the principle: 'hate the sin and not the sinner. ' His best known novels are Sevasadan, Rangamanch, Ghaban, Nirmala and Godan.  Premchand was a prolific writer.  He pioneered the new art form – fiction with a social purpose.  He has left behind a dozen novels and nearly 250 short stories.  He wrote of the life around him and made his readers aware of the problems of the urban middle-class and the country's villages and their problems.  He believed in social evolution and his ideal was equal opportunities for all.