Realism In Munshi Premchand: The Father Of Short Stories

Introduction

Munshi Premchand is the Father of short stories. He started the trend of writing short writings. His writing reflect the social and political conditions of its times. They act as mirror to the society. He has excellent story telling technique. He used simple language. He has avoided the use of highly Sanskrit language. His novels describe the problems of the urban middle class and the rural peasant class. He used the dialect of the common people. In his early short stories he depicted the patriotic upsurge that was sweeping the land in the first decade of the past century. He also emphasised on the hindu-muslim unity. While writing he emphasised on presenting the realities of life. He made the Indian villages his theme of writing.

Literary realism is a trend that started in mid nineteenth century French literature and continued till late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It depicted contemporary life and society as it was. Realist authors opted for depictions of everyday and banal activities and experiences, instead of a romanticized presentation.

George Eliot novel Middlemarch stands as a great milestone in the realist tradition. It gives a picture of nineteenth century naturalization of the burgeoning capitalist marketplace.

The late nineteenth century was a period of tremendous change. The political empire broke up and nationalism arose. Aristocracy was replaced by the emerging middle class. Colonialism began flourishing. The industrial revolution greatly changed the social and economic structure. Steam engine increased transportation and urbanisation. Despite the industrial growth, emergence of middle class, growth in freedom and liberty, opposition emerged for challenging the new political and social order. The society was not happy with the materialistic consequences of the industrial revolution.

There were efforts to revive religious interest. The consequences of the late nineteenth century led to the end of religious beliefs. People were moving towards spiritual, moral and philosophical

There was seen the simultaneous co-existence of the post colonial state apparatuses with a ideology which was liberal and humanist. This was a markedly seen in the areas of public life. Secularism was seen co-existing with the persistence and reconstituting of mythological symbolics. Modernizing forces such as women’s education and employment go along with reactionary practices like dowry and sati. It was the existence of these kinds of dual realities which produced a variety of subjects for the realistic novel. All these themes were sought to be represented by the realist novel. Various regional crises such as famine, peasant and popular uprisings, drought, tribal uprisings, and partition constitute traumatic events represented in fiction for many