Munshi Prem Chand s The Shroud A study

Munshi Prem Chand ‘s The Shroud -A study in subalternity Submitted To Dr. Sanjay Panday Submitted By Lovleen Kaur (41500145)

Introduction � "The Shroud" (1935) is the last story by Dhanpat Rai Shrivastav "Premchand" (1880 -1936), father of the Urdu and Hindi short-story tradition(s). � A quintessential Premchand short story ‘Kafan’ was first published by Jamia, in 1936 and is a sharp critique on human selfishness. � The story was translated from the Urdu and Hindi by Frances W. Pritchett � It was also made into a film by Mrinal Sen.

From the glasses of critics � Aditya Mani Jha in The Sunday Guardian while giving a review of the book ‘Temple and the mosque : A best of Prem Chand’ says , ”The injustices of the caste system, the vicious circle of poverty, social ostracism, usury and the evil moneylender; these motifs became synonymous with Premchand’s works”. � Nirmal Verma hailed "Kafan" (The Shroud) as the first modern story of Hindi that marks "the birth of pure, individual consciousness unshackled by any kind of social bondage". � Mohandas Naimishray questions Premchand to be a storyteller with Dalit chetna particularly in view of ‘The shroud’ though he depicts his low caste characters as simple, morally strong, hardworking and compassionate. � Dr. Dharamvir, a noted Dalit Hindi literary critic, in his book Samant ka Munshi suggests that in Kafan Premchand would have been on the side of Dalits if only at the end of the story he had written that the Dalit woman Budhia, whose painful death in the course of delivering a baby lies at the poignant centre of the story, was made pregnant by the lumpen son of the village zamindar.

Story line A t the outset we meet Ghisu and Madhav, two village wastrels really, outside their home inside which Madhav's wife, Budhiya, is in agonising labour. The air about the two men is shockingly calm as they peel potatoes that they've stolen to eat after roasting them. Even as Budhiya is dying inside, Ghisu remembers the feast that he had 20 years ago at the Thakur's wedding. Madhav's wife dies and, along with his father, he sets out to collect money to conduct her last rites. After collecting enough money, they set out to buy a kafan to cover the dead woman's body with for the funeral pyre. But they get waylaid at a 'madhushala' (bar) inside which they blow up the money they had gathered to buy the funeral shroud and other items, on booze and snacks. He leaves them in the last line of the story "finally sozzled and falling to the ground. "

A look upon Subaltern � Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is of the opinion that the subaltern cannot speak and the postcolonial intellectual must represent it. � I am moving with the premise that Subalterns are not unique to the post-colonial period only; neither are they homogenous categories, all with similar concerns and in need of representation in equal measures. � Also it will be naïve to assume that there were no instances of labour, peasant, Dalit, minority or tribal movements in the precolonial, colonial and the post-colonial periods. � Or to believe that the lower and oppressed classes and castes were never in a position to resist or rebel against the forces of oppression and exploitation. Powerless though they were in bringing a meaningful change to their status, they could always negotiate the cracks of dominant discourses.

Subaltern in story Munshi Premchand (1880 -1936) is one such writer we can rely upon for showcasing the whole gamut of subaltern experiences. Writing in the first three decades of the 20 th Century he exposes the socio-economic deprivation of the dispossessed sections of colonial India, not by the colonial rulers but by feudal India itself. � Premchand begins his story in a depreciatory tone castigating the father and son for their slothful nature. They are described from the upper caste point of view and branded as useless fellows. Value in the society is measured in terms of his utility to the dominant class. � “Ghisu was notorious for working for one day and taking off for three days. Madhav was such a shirker that if he worked for half an hour, he would stop and smoke his pipe for an hour. So the two of them seldom found work. If they had even a handful of grain in the house, they would swear off work”.

Women are doubly Marginalised � The story is a record also of the invisible violence inflicted by and the dehumanizing effect of poverty. � While Madhav’s wife, Budhia, was screaming and thrashing in pain, Ghisu and Madhav sat, inactive. They couldn’t get medicine, neither a quack, for everything needs money and they were neck deep in debt already. � They knew, the society which refused them money now would help, if a child was born or Budhia died. So they sat still waiting for either of the two to happen.

Victimhood � If Ghisu and his son were victims of economic deprivation, the civil society was a victim of social mores too that can be negotiated. So, when Madhav heckled Ghisu for failing to provide Budhia a shroud even, Ghisu assured him: “I tell you, she will get the shroud. Why don’t you believe me? ”(53). “Hell, we’ll say the money slipped and fell from our waist-bands. We searched all over but couldn’t find it. They might not believe us but the same people will again give us the money” (52). � This awareness gave Ghisu an upperhand over the upper caste and he succeeded in subverting the latter’s superiority to his advantage.

The Rich at the Centre � The rich form a separate block. They are the adulated ones occupying the central positions around which the margins are created. � They provide the subordinates with food and other necessities of life but on their own conditions. The money they have is given to them by the system and the system works to help them sustain the power they have. This power that they have secured because of money, makes the rich imitable for the poor. � Whatever they do and believe in becomes acceptable and exemplary for their subordinates. When the landlord of the Shroud gives the alms for Budhya’s funeral, the rest of the peasants and farmers start following the charitable act reluctantly.

Money Matters � And Ghisu pretty soon collected a tidy sum of five rupees negotiating the hypocrisies and sentiments of a society which gave precedence to social pretensions and values like kindness, sympathy, donation etc over sharing resources in the real sense. � Such subaltern resistance and subversion is unique and rare though not impossible to find in real society. It inverts their position as the dispossessed. � We see Ghisu and Madhav for the first time having a good time in life though not without any niggle of conscience. “She was a good woman, poor thing! Even in her death, she ensured us a hearty meal!”. � Ghisu’s philosophical justification of expedience in relation to Budhiya echoes the logic of domination often put forward by the upper castes vis a vis the lower castes. “If, because of her, our souls are gladdened, won’t it bring her God’s grace? ”.

Conclusion � The subaltern in Premchand’s story ‘The Shroud’ not only resists the forces of exploitation, but subverts dominant social mores and traditions to gain an advantage over the master class, forcing them to shell out money which they wouldn’t have otherwise in ordinary circumstances. This glory of victory is attenuated by the realization that the subaltern in turn is also an exploiter of the woman in the family, who in life and death is used for sustaining self-interests of the males of the family.

Works Cited � Singh, Dr. Sukhdev. Tales of Life. Ninth ed. G. N. D. U, Amritsar: Dr. R. S. Bawa, 2007. English. � Kumar, Nigam Yatendra. “Treatment of Dalits in Premchand’s The Shroud’ (Kafan). ”The International Journal of Humanities & Social Studies 3. 5(May 2015) : 150 -151. � Chaturvedi, Vinayak. “Critical Theory of Subalternity: Rethinking Class in Indian Histiography. ” Springer (2007) : 9 -28. � Ludden, David. “A Brief History of Subalternity. ” Reading Subaltern Studies (n. d. ): 1 -27.