5.9 Culture Notes

Premchand was born in 1880 in Lamhi village, near Benaras. His family belonged to the Kayasth Caste. His mother passed away when he was only seven years old, and his father died right after he got married at the age of fifteen. The burden of supporting his family fell on his shoulders. He started to work as an assistant master in a local school on Rs.18 per month in 1899, and then he moved to Allahabad where he was admitted into the Training College in 1902. In 1904, he was appointed headmaster of the model school after he passed the C.T (Certificate of Teaching) examination. Premchand is called the Emperor of Hindi novels and short stories. Premchand started writing in Hindi with the linguistic culture of Urdu and Persian languages. He presented a new form of language, which is a mixed language of Hindi, and contrary to the Sanskritized Hindi. Later, it was accepted as a standard form of Hindi. Premchand selected his own new path in language usage, and he brought about revolutionary changes in subject, character creation, motives and topics, and started a new period, the “Premchand Period”. No other Hindi writer has been successful in establishing an alternative period or a new period.