The Holy Panchayat: Premchand

Subject: English

Lesson : The Holy Panchayat: Premchand

Course Developer: Anand Prakash

University / Department: Hansraj College, University of
Delhi

And
Course Developer: Richa Bajaj

University/ Department: Maitreyi College, University of

Delhi

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 The Holy Panchayat: Premchand

Biographical Note

‘Premchand’ was the pen-name of Dhanpat Rai, an ordinary middle class individual from
Lamhi in eastern Uttar Pradesh. In childhood, he was witness to poverty and deprivation in
the immediate surroundings of U. P., Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, only to realize later that
the condition of the rest of India was no better: the country suffered untold exploitation at
the hands of the British colonial regime.

Premchand was born on 31 July, 1880. He was pampered by his mother for being the first
male child in the house after three sisters, two of whom had died at a young age. At the
local Madarsa Premchand had his initial schooling and learnt both Urdu and Persian. These
were additional to his mother tongue Avadhi. His knowledge of the broader world came from
English that he learnt in the Middle school. At the age of 36 in 1916, he passed the
Intermediate examination and did B. A. in 1919. He had lost both his parents by the time he
was fifteen years old. This may have partly necessitated his early marriage which did not
prove successful. He decided later (1906) to marry a widow Shivrani Devi and settled down
with her in comfort and peace.

In 1900, Premchand started his teaching career in a government-run school. The job
continued as he moved from one place to another in Uttar Pradesh and later became the
deputy inspector of schools. Early in this phase, Premchand had undergone the trauma of
seeing his collection of short stories Soze-Watan (The Lament of the Nation) confiscated by
the authorities for its alleged seditious content. This had happened in 1908. The book was
banned by the British government for being provocative and subversive. Certainly,
Premchand’s anger for the British rule in India brought to him several revelations vis-à-vis
the nature of oppression. He realized that no conciliation was possible between the
oppressor and the oppressed and an alternative political paradigm was the need of the
hour. Such insights about life can be identified clearly in his writing.

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In Kanpur his writing career took concrete shape and he expressed his views on politics and
society in an Urdu journal, Zamana, which in turn made him acutely aware of the existing
phenomenon. This happened in the second decade of the twentieth century. In this process
an ideological evolution took place and Premchand’s creative skills were further honed to
experiment and innovate. This was also the period when he shifted to writing in Hindi in
preference to Urdu. It was a demanding decision since he had to learn Hindi from scratch.
In Premchand’s view, Hindi would give him wider reach and connect him with people far
beyond North India. The socio-cultural requirements of the emerging nation at the time
stood to gain from modern ideas at the grass root level; Hindi being closer to Avadhi, Braj
and other dialects was considered more accessible to the common masses. It can be said
that Premchand proved to be one of the makers of Hindi prose, whereas the new linguistic
medium broadened and enriched his comprehension of issues immensely. As a result, he
wrote socially-oriented fiction in which important questions such as child marriage,
prostitution, the role of youth in society, etc. got highlighted.

In 1921, Premchand heard Mahatma Gandhi in a political rally and felt immensely inspired
by the message of the great national leader. In consequence, Premchand resigned his job
and took to writing full-time. His decision to quit the government job and adopt the
Gandhian perspective to depict the reality of his time was indeed a form of resistance. Being
in service of the British government, how could he oppose the colonial regime? Would that
not amount to assisting the rulers in the act of colonization? The decision to resign from
service proved to be the turning point in Premchand’s literary career and made his
endeavour more sharply critical and focused. Premchand edited several journals (Hans,
Jagaran, Madhuri, and Maryada) in this phase and established his own printing press called
the Saraswati Press. He consciously developed a mode of writing that would orient the
reading public toward debating and analyzing problems and concerns.

Social and Political Background

Early decades of twentieth century India were marked by antagonism between tradition and
modernity, faith and rationality as well as loyalty to the colonial masters and love for one’s
motherland. The years around the First World War were particularly crucial in terms of
gaining knowledge of happenings at the economic and social level. There was a whole
section of the educated middle class that raised questions about policies of the colonial
regime. Was the War good for India? How did it contribute to the interests of Indians
through the length and breadth of the country? In addition, the issue regarding unity in the
country around commonly shared concerns assumed vital significance. All these
necessitated publication of newspapers, magazines and books as also establishment of
libraries, book clubs and cultural forums. The narrow scope and elitism of erstwhile
education system stood questioned by spread of ideas in the common idiom and through
fictional narratives such as folk tales, short stories, novels, poems, essays, etc. Close on the
heels of First World War came the infamous Jalianwala Bagh massacre in which thousands
of innocent men, women and children were gunned down in Amritsar by the British army.
This sent shock waves through the country. The celebrated author and Nobel Laureate
Rabindranath Tagore returned the title of knighthood to the government in protest against
the massacre. Mahatma Gandhi’s rise on the political horizon at this time lent an edge to
the National Movement that scaled new heights and inspired people to spread the message
of freedom from slavery. All this had its roots in the economic exploitation and
impoverishment of India under British policies.

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The urban India of the time was able to see the condition of the peasantry in a new light;
the fate of this productive section of population was entirely in the hands of the state-
supported landowners who exploited the agriculturists cynically. Not to be missed in the
context was the stranglehold of caste system, religious rituals and age-old prejudices of one
section against another. There is no wonder that literature of the day addressed these
issues with utmost seriousness and engagement. A whole trend of realist writing led by
Premchand emerged as a consequence of this phenomenon. Realization had dawned at this
time that India’s obsolete social structure came in the way of attaining independence; the
country could be united under one cause, that of freedom, only when ills such as
untouchability, gender inequality and other injustices were done away with.

Works
Premchand wrote close to three hundred short stories, the most popular amongst them
being: “Panch Parmeshwar” (The Holy Panchayat); “Shatranj ke Khilari” (The Chess
Players);

Chess Players

“Sawa Ser Gehun” (One and a Quarter Seers of Wheat); “Kafan” (The Shroud); and “Boodhi
Kaaki” (The Old Aunt). These depict various facets and aspects of life in India. More
importantly, they emphasise the depth and profundity of community values in Indian
society. In the many novels that Premchand wrote, such as Sevasadan (The house of
Charity),

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Sevasadan

Nirmala (name of the protagonist, literally the ‘pure one’), Premashram (The Abode of
Love), Rangabhumi (The Stage), Karambhumi (The Field of Action), Kayakalpa (The
Metamorphosis) and Godan (The Gift of a Cow), we come face to face with poverty and
exploitation of Indian peasantry as also the difficulties that people in general confronted.
These latter works of long fiction are of epic proportions in that they capture issues and
concerns of great sweep; in them we have a panoramic view of India’s socio-cultural
landscape. The multiple layers of experience as well as varieties of sensibility that
Premchand wove into the texture of these novels bear testimony to the wide range of his
creative involvement. Even as the writer shared with the reader his own sympathies for the
common folk, he also pointed an accusing finger at the causes behind the oppressive Indian
phenomenon.

Critics have noted a pronounced idealistic streak in Premchand’s early writing. It is believed
that the trend was rooted in the reformist movements of the nineteenth century India. As
an educated middle class individual, Premchand drew inspiration from the prominent Arya
Samaj figures who laid great stress on education as also other early visionaries such as
Vivekananda. The latter boldly interpreted matters of faith as well as modernity to cover the
lives of the poor and downtrodden in the country (Premchand also wrote a long biographical
account of Vivekananda). ‘The King of Fiction’ (Katha-Samrat), as he was appreciatively
referred to, Premchand also set much store by the youth in whom he saw hope for a new
and progressive India. These youth, scattered in a large number of Premchand’s short
stories and early novels, state their views with courage and conviction.

Later, however, Premchand saw the prospect of hope receding, with political struggles
getting embroiled in clashes driven by narrow sectarian tendencies. Around the nineteen
thirties, his interests turned toward a more assertive and strident politics along socialist
lines; he stated unequivocally that India could achieve her political goals of justice and
equality only through a Bolshevik-type orientation. It seems Premchand’s last novel Godan
published in 1936, a few months before his death, underlined the need to reject the
exploitative social structure in its entirety.

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Godan

Premchand’s Contemporaries
Premchand lived in a period when most of the writers in colonial India considered
themselves to be part of a great cultural mission; they worked towards the furtherance of
the nationalist cause aimed at attaining freedom from British imperialism. Each writer in this
mission interpreted freedom in his/her own way and strengthened the collective resistance
to foreign domination. Premchand’s contemporaries included the thinker-editor Mahavir
Prasad Dwivedi, the nationalist poet Maithilisharan Gupt and Chhayavadi (Romantic) poets
such as Jaishankar Prasad, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, Mahadevi Varma and Sumitranandan
Pant. Prasad made a substantial contribution to drama as well as fiction, whereas Nirala and
Mahadevi Varma wrote analytical comments, sketches, short stories and reminiscences.
There were lively debates and meaningful exchanges among them many a time. Outside the
domain of Hindi, such mature voices as those of Bangla writers Rabindranath Tagore and
Sharat Chandra Chatterjee and Urdu poet Mohammad Iqbal provided inspiration to
Premchand and his fellow writers. Soon, others like Mulk Raj Anand (English), Sajjad
Zaheer, Sadaat Hasan Manto, Krishan Chandar and Faiz Ahmad Faiz (all Urdu) Subhadra
Kumari Chauhan, Yash Pal, Vrindavan Lal Varma and Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh (all Hindi)
joined the literary campaign. Zaheer, Anand and others floated an All India Organization of
Writers under the name ‘Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA) in 1936. Its inaugural
session was addressed by Premchand as its President who read out his historic statement
titled “Sahitya Ka Uddyeshya” (The Aim of Literature) on this occasion.

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What is to be particularly kept in mind is that National leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi
took keen interest in the writing of the period and regularly corresponded with litterateurs.
Names of Tagore, Premchand and Mulk Raj Anand, among others, come to mind in this
regard. The common thread that bound all these writers and leaders was the mission of
ousting the British from India to establish a democratic regime. Politics, literature, and
social thought worked to that end.

Premchand in Our Times

Premchand Jayanti Seminar in Darbhanga house

Premchand has continued to remain an inspiring presence in Hindi writing and influenced a
large part of critical thought in the academic world. He has been translated in almost all
languages of India as well as English and other European languages. He received wide
acclaim in Russia in the nineteen fifties and became a significant literary figure as also a
constant reference point in countries of the socialist world, such as Hungary, Bulgaria,
Poland, East Germany and Cuba. Premchand was interpreted in an entirely new manner in
the nineteen seventies in the wake of socio-political changes in India that democracy had
ushered in. The country was witness to a variety of ideological and philosophical
developments manifested in political shufflings and sharp debates about issues of vital
importance. These were offshoots of the increasing social crisis as the underprivileged and
deprived in India were subjected to economic and cultural domination even after the
attainment of freedom. Premchand’s birth centenary in 1980 became an occasion to
investigate a different set of preferences and values in his short and long fiction, as many
journals brought out special numbers devoted to his writings. The same happened with an
increased gusto when the 125th anniversary of his birth was observed in 2005 in the
country.

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 The Holy Panchayat: Premchand

During Premchand’s time, the mode of writing was explanatory descriptive? and didactic.
This was because rural masses in colonial India were illiterate and could not be approached
at the developed level of complex representations. For this reason, Premchand had to
become a teller of tales, so to say. At the same time, he had to convey the message in clear
terms. This made his writing didactic, indeed pedagogic. Still, one can discern a great
amount of subtlety at the level of ordinary people’s responses captured in his fiction. His
writing earned wide appeal and in the later years, he made a great comeback, as is clear
from the full-length and short films made on his fictional works. Godan, for instance was
filmed in the nineteen sixties. The same happened in the case of the short story “Do Bailon
Ki Kahani” (The Story of Two Bullocks) on which the film Heera Moti was based. Still later,
Satyajit Ray made two films based on Premchand’s “Shatranj Ke Khilari” (The Chess
Players) and “Sadgati” (Salvation).

The Chess Players

At present, short films made on his stories are more than twenty. This doesn’t include
adaptations that are legion. Many are being added to the list every year. There is no doubt
that Premchand has turned out to be a whole phenomenon in our time.

Premchand’s The Holy Panchayat: The Text Resisting the

Tale
The Holy Panchayat is a tale told by the author-narrator who himself plays a significant,
indeed a decisive role in it. Even as the two main characters Algu Choudhary and Jumman
Sheikh undergo an unsettling experience and come out entirely transformed at the end,
what centrally catches our attention is the ‘moral’ of the story, the educative principle that
governs it: “A panch cannot see anything except justice.” Do we thus not see a tension
between the living vibrant characters and an idea that the author-narrator wishes to put
across? In answer we could say unequivocally that the said tension is the soul of this story –
it is this that lends appeal and power to “The Holy Panchayat.”

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Apparently, there is nothing extraordinary about the story. It is a simple sequence of

events in the folk tale mode that lets the readers know about two friends who fell out for
some reason and were later united. This plot structure is firm; never does the author allow
any deviation from its logic and discipline. Still, the space within this structure is fully
exploited to present a complex village situation difficult to comprehend vis-a-vis the
antagonisms that attend it. A brief view of these antagonisms to enter subtle authorial
intention embodying the story may be useful.

First consider a few pot shots the narrator is taking at the social landscape in India around
the time the story was written, in 1916 to be precise. The year is significant as being a
colony India had then become an indirect participant in the First World War. The author-
narrator’s mood is clearly defiant in the context. Early in life, Algu, for instance, did not
take much interest in studies: “He never allowed his teacher’s hukka to get cold even for a
minute, because each time he escaped to fill the chillum, he could avoid his books for half
an hour.” As Algu avoids books, his father provides the rationale for the act: the father
“would say that education is not derived only from reading books, but one learns more from
the teacher’s blessings. One only needed his teacher’s benevolence.” Following the view of
his father, Algu “would console himself with the thought that although he had worked hard
(filling the chillums assiduously?) for his education, if knowledge was not in his kismet what
could he do?” The second critical act relates to the two shopkeepers in the story: ‘Samjhu’
and ‘Jhagru.’ The former is the villain in “The Holy Panchayat.” What does his name, for
instance, signify? The word has associations with cleverness, shrewd understanding and
compromise. Stretched a bit further, it may suggest double-dealing and trickery. This is
precisely what Samjhu does in his role as a counter-weight to Algu. The other shopkeeper
‘Jhagru’ is the cruder version of the same: a quarrelsome, trouble-making person. In the
village the duo would be quite a nasty combination as buyers, sellers and moneylenders.
And of course, the story is about “justice” that is supposed to come from the panch.

These we come across early on. Later, towards the end of the story, we mark an extremely
sharp and all-embracing comment by the author-narrator in which he compares the two
assemblies (panchayats): the human one and that of birds. As humans are disturbed by
the noise of birds, the birds are amused at the way men and women of the village are busy
‘managing’ their affairs. This makes the scene move from the unreal to the surreal. By the
side of the panchayat, says the author, “In the field some crows were having their own
panchayat. Their topic of discussion was whether they had any right over the peas growing
in the fields. And until the matter was resolved, they felt they had every right to disapprove
the chowkidar’s loud yells as he went about guarding the fields. A group of parrots sitting
on the branches of some trees had raised the question of how men could call them
dishonest when they themselves did not hesitate to deceive their friends.” In a lighter vein
(or is that really so?) the author makes the point pertaining to the role of the state
(chowkidar) vis-a-vis the basic right to food and the broader principle of fellow-feeling
(deceiving friends). There are many more instances of this kind but these would suffice to
give us a perspective on the story.

We see women on the margins of life in the village. Their number in the story is four – the
old aunt, Jumman’s wife Kariman (she is given a name unlike others who have none),
Samjhu’s wife and Algu’s wife. Apart from the old aunt, all these women support the cause

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of their husbands appearing to be their appendages merely. That this is not accidental
becomes clear when we read the reference to wife-beating to be their appendages merely.
That this is not accidental becomes clear when we read the reference to wife-beating (“Algu
quietened his wife by using a stick”), something that Premchand disapproved of and, in fact,
hated. The most marginalized of these all is the old aunt. What is her role and place in the
story? A close consideration of this question would afford an altogether different
interpretation of the story and free the account from the fold tale mode. The tale says one
thing and the text another. The former asserts the relevance of wisdom, human values,
justice and a kind of godliness under which “God lives in the heart of a panch” is a truth we
have to believe in. The tale thus has a happy ending. “Algu began to cry. His tears washed
away the misunderstandings that had accumulated in their hearts.” The tale has termed
the issue “misunderstandings.” The text, however, reworks the tale in a different direction,
putting to naught the projected ideal of reconcilability of the opposites.

Of the many antagonisms in the story (education and illiteracy, inherent faith-based
distance between one community and another, conduct of merchants and peasants, men’s
attitude towards women, etc.) the one picked up by the author as the most crucial is the
ownership of property: this is the bone of contention between the old aunt and her nephew
Jumman.

The old aunt’s career graph indeed constitutes the story’s plot that begins with her
transferring the little property to Jumman, in return for which he would give her shelter,
food and clothing. Realizing that after the “papers were registered in the court”, the aunt is
entirely at his mercy, Jumman with wife in tow becomes indifferent towards her and flouts
and tenets of the deal. This leaves the old aunt with no option but to approach the village
panchayat. However, exercise of the option involves running around to mobilize support for
her cause. Can she do this? As per the narrator, “In the days to follow, the old aunt, a
stick in hand, went around from village to village. Her back was bent like a bow. Every
step she took was painful. But a problem had come up; it was necessary to solve it.” The
said “problem” in this case is linked with the very existence and the aunt takes its resolution
as a necessity and challenge. The narrator’s articulation of the task being that “it was
necessary to solve it” sets the tone of things to follow, much beyond the scope of the tale
since the job in hand of mobilizing support would require discussion and persuasive talk at
the broader community level. Not bothering that Algu is Jumman’s friend, she approaches
him for support and is told, “I’II come along, but I won’t open my mouth during the
panchayat.”

One can’t miss the intellectual passion in her response to this, as she says:

“ ‘But why?’ she asked.

‘What answer can I give to this? It’s my wish. Jumman is an old friend

of mine and I can’t afford to spoil my relationship with him.’

‘Will you turn your back to justice for fear of ruining your friendship?’”

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Mark that the debate here is about higher matters – friendship, justice and moral fear,
also, the character pursuing the issue is an illiterate old widow whom none in the village
takes seriously. Has this character been consciously chosen by the author, and if so, with
what specific purpose? We are left to wonder.

In the text stage, the old woman is raised to the level of a leader meant to exhort a whole
gathering to come out in the open against the wrong and immoral ?? in village life. Mark
the way the case is argued and words used with loaded message in the long speech the old
woman delivers:

“Members of the panchayat! Three years ago I transferred all my property to the name of
my nephew. All of you know this. In return for this, Jumman had agreed to feed and clothe
me. Somehow, for a year, I managed to suffer through, but now I cannot bear their ill-
treatment. I neither got enough food nor adequate clothes. I am a poor helpless widow,
unable to fight in a court or durbar. Except for you all, who else will listen to my grief? I
am willing to accept whatever you decide. If you think I am at fault, you can punish me. If
you find Jumman guilty, explain matters to him. Why does he want to suffer a helpless
widow’s curse? I will be happy to abide by your decision.”

The moral anger as well a sense of deep resistance at the back of this speech is
unmistakable. We have to consider whether at this moment the author-narrator and the old
woman have merged into a unified voice that represents the view of justice.

Interestingly, the old aunt disappears at this point in the story and there is no direct
mention of her hereafter. However, the story is far from over and the dynamic that she
brought in continues. Thus, there is a virtual extension of her presence in the form of Algu
bearing the brunt of Jumman’s anger assisted by Samjhu’s introduction in the story. This
takes us towards the regulating idea of coincidence (the next one in the dock being Algu)
that may seem to act as the hand of fate, not allowing human intervention beyond a point.
In consequence, “The Holy Panchayat” re-enters the mode of the folk tale which in the
context is significant.

A form that defines parameters of possibility in given situations, the folk tale as a form used
by the narrator to educate and entertain a gathering reminds the audience that faith in
human goodness is essential, in spite of the many obstacles that occur in common life. In
the present case of the “The Holy Panchayat”, the larger goal of achieving harmony and
working out resolutions in specific cases is reached when gods and humans combine to
resist evil. In India, the twentieth century being witness to a long and sustained fight with
British imperialism, the folk tale would change its nature, as it has, and offer the hope
through a vision where humans would become gods – the latter would not intervene now
through miracles but speak “through a panch’s lips.” Does the fold tale convince us about
possibilities of such a combination of gods and humans every time specific individuals in the
community faced difficulties?

The answer to this question could well be: yes and no. Yes, because the vision of the good
succeeding finally would inspire the aggrieved party to struggle, in whichever way, to set
the anomaly right; no, because collective might of the evil ones would devise new methods

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to further their “unjust ways.” The faith, then, would have to decisively shift from the godly
will to the social act of the good ones getting united through discussion and campaign. Let
us not overlook the presence of the weak and the destitute in the village at the end of the
story: they have achieved a minor, though significant goal, but issues of hunger,
deprivation and cruelty to the weak remain as before. Thus, the folk tale hero in “The Holy
Panchayat” is Algu whereas the hero of the text of the story is the old aunt – she like many
others is yet to acquire a name but has shown the grit to confront evil. Mark that in the
story this is not an idea, characteristic of a tale, but an indication of things to emerge
sooner or later through awakening and spread of awareness. This links well with
Premchand’s literary mission of contributing to India’s secular-nationalist identity at a time
when the commoners were exhorted to come together on principles of persuasion and
debate by the political figure called Gandhi.

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