Short stories: Idgah, Kafan, Poos ki Raat

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Overview

Munshi Premchand, who wrote in Urdu and Hindi, is regarded as a founding figure of modern Hindi and Urdu fiction. These three short stories, published in the early to mid 1930s, show rural north Indian life under debt, caste and poverty. Idgah follows a child at an Eid fair, Poos ki Raat a farmer on a freezing night, and Kafan two men who spend money meant for a burial cloth. Together they show how hardship shapes conscience.

Context

Premchand was born Dhanpat Rai in 1880 and died in 1936. He wrote under the name Nawab Rai before settling on Premchand, and his stories deal with peasants, debt, caste and colonial rule. He was closely linked with the Progressive Writers' movement, whose first conference in Lucknow in 1936 he addressed. Publication dates of individual stories vary between Urdu and Hindi journals.