Remembering Munshi Premchand, the legendary author
New Delhi: October 8, 2014 is the 78th death anniversary of Munshi Premchand, a pioneer of modern Hindi and Urdu social fiction.Munshi Premchand's real name was Dhanpat Rai. He was born on 31 July, 1880
In May 1934, he arrived Mumbai to try his luck in the Hindi film industry. He had accepted a script writing job for the production house Ajanta Cinetone. He wrote the script for the film Mazdoor. Some influential people managed to get a stay on its release as it inspired the mill workers to stand up against the owners.
Premchand was elected as the first President of the Progressive Writers' Association in Lucknow, in 1936.
He is often referred as the ‘Upanyas Samrat' by some prominent Hindi writers.
Godaan (The Gift of a Cow) was Premchand's last completed work. It is generally considered as his best novel and one of the finest Hindi novels.
Premchand died on October 8, 1936.