Truly a classic. That was quite basic and preachy story. I didn't admire that writing at all. His short story 'Kafan' gives you goosebumps. This novel is a sensitive portrayal of rural life in s India and exploitation of humans in different shapes. The novel has Truly a classic. The novel has quite a big scope as it touches various social issues including heavy interest on loans affecting generations, untouchables, religious and communal blackmailing, yellow journalism, etc.
Definitely a re-readable novel. View all 4 comments. Godaan is a social commentary of life in villages in the early 20th century and I don't have words to express how amazing I found this book! I began reading the Kindle edition but then switched to the audiobook because I was loving the narration by Shaswata Sharma. She was simply brilliant!
I was in tears in so many places and now that the book has ended, I cannot feel my heart. This is a must read for everyone who at least understands Hindi.
Listen to the audiobook at least. You'll understand wh Godaan is a social commentary of life in villages in the early 20th century and I don't have words to express how amazing I found this book! You'll understand why I'm so emotional!
Indian village is a conflicting entity. The opinions are broadly divided into the Gandhian and Ambedkerite view. While Gandhi saw village as a self sufficient little harmonious republic, it was a den of localism and cess pool of ignorance for Ambedkar. After reading Godan, I felt the reality of Indian village is somewhere in the middle. Munshi Premchand's book takes around 15 pages before one gets used to the language being used.
But post this, it's a smooth ride. You begin to identify with the c Indian village is a conflicting entity. You begin to identify with the characters and their emotions resonate with you. Do read! Jun 30, G rated it it was amazing. Godaan is not a novel of peasant India. It is a novel of contrast. It depicts how, the peasant India dies day-by-day under the burden of debt which compounds exponentially within years, while those in the higher class are busy with their own little schemes.
They play out their own games and suffer their own defeats. But the rigidity of the society does not leave any room for morality to prevail. It is a picture of India as I had never seen before.
Written before , it hardly mentions the Briti Godaan is not a novel of peasant India. Written before , it hardly mentions the British, which at the time were ruling India. I wonder if it was due to apprehension on part of the author that the novel will face governmental apathy if it spoke against it, or, because the British plainly did NOT figure anywhere in the scheme of oppression that the poorest classes of the masses in India underwent.
I believe in the latter, that for the most part, it was the Indians themselves who were oppressing the Indians. We got freedom from ourselves. And I don't think India would be an exception with this realization. Wherever there is oppression, there are bound to be sentinels of the lower class positioning themselves as the gaolers and the upper class, as the go-between for all forms of slavery.
Everywhere, the hand cracking the whip on your back has the same tone of skin as the bloody one on your torn back. The characters are mostly independent in their thinking. They are what you might expect to see in a Hindi film belonging to the decades of 70s and 80s. An overtly free feminist; a professor who has rudimentary ideas about women while talking about progress of the country; a land-lord who is not heartless as to see his 'asaamis' farmers suffer, but cannot avoid to partake in the bribe that they have paid; a banker who hounds the feminist woman like a pup; his wife, who is the most ideal woman that can ever adorn a household, the very definition of sacrifice; an editor of newspaper which self-confessedly dedicates itself to the rights of the rurals and a lawyer who would sell his soul for commission - these characters make up the high society of the novel.
It becomes necessary then, that the novel should not be called a portrait of peasant India, but a depiction of India as a progressive and free society, wherein, as it happens everywhere, those who can, oppress those who can not but suffer it all.
To top it all, there is the social pressure of belonging to class, caste and creed, which makes the lower classes descend deeper into the abyss of indebted servitude, for this feeling of belonging is much more important to them than the naked sword of indefatigable debt dangling right above their tenderly exposed necks.
The isolation of the upper class from the suffering of the lower ones does not mean that they have it easy either.
They have their own crosses to bear, their own imagined "prestige". But it does look a little self-indulging to worry about the nose, when right under your nose, there are peasants of your land dying of starvation. The subplot of the pragmatic feminist and the incorruptible professor gradually falling in love alternately with each other and deciding finally that the mutual respect they have for each other will be the most they will ever have - this is contrived very well.
Prem Chand also criticizes the newspapers which intend to make the masses aware of the real condition of the world. He shows the dichotomy of intention and desperation which leads to someone speaking one thing and doing another. In all, it shows how everyone in the country is bound, without room to flex even their limbs, in the rigid weaving called society and how they are bound to die in it without moving, without making the slightest change.
It is a keen, rather acidic portrayal of the progressive India with characters who do not progress at all. There is something heart-rending in his defeat which touches you in the most tender places and tears out you that little emotion which you never think a novelist can reach at.
It is the defeat of your self-belief. It is also the defeat of the tiny hope that things get better at the end. In real life, they don't.
And this novel is nothing if not the bare, unashamed, truth in its most extreme honest rendition, of the India of that time. In this book I like most is the commendable exposition of human nature by the author. He beautifully revealed that even after giving one's full And when I was brooding over Life of Hori the protagonist of this novel somewhere proves that even if we work with our absolute will and disposition i.
Blows of life reminds us that earthly life is ephemeral. Fleeting moments of life do not allow us to achieve that everlasting contentment. Because we mostly forget the most essential thing of life i. Like Newton's first law Thus for the growth of the subtle soul TransmissionThe Love of God; an external force for its maximum growth.
A wish that was not fulfilled. Not when one was alive, not on one's death. After all what are the desires of a man, those that were never fulfilled.
What is a man attracted to? Of course not to those wishes which were attained in his lifetime but to those that never found their destiny. A story of lessons, of connections, of society, struggles, faith, cheating, theft, of every problem, of every positivity that existed in society then, exists in society now!
Patriarchy, feminism, atheism Go-dan. Patriarchy, feminism, atheism - all have found their way in this one story. How women exercise their power in a society where they are supposed to be completely dependent on their men?
What are the thoughts of a rural woman when she sees her urban counterpart with all her independence? How does a man reacts to the movement of feminism gaining it's ground in India?
What reactions go on through the mind of a recently converted atheist? How problems throw you on roads you never want to take? How situations change the relationships that exist around you? And many many more things. The most beautifully highlighted was the rural life which circulated around Hori.
His being good at heart despite all the trouble he was going through and the unwanted paths he was taking. The yet so demanded peace which Hori did not attain even at his death bed was another phase of the story which leaves the reader at yet another awe.
The sudden reaction of Dhaniya on making the 'Go-dan' and the story ends with many questions unanswered creating a craving for more. Moreover, at no point you can make out what actually were the viewpoints of Premchand. Describes the Life of a poor farmer Hori and his struggle to keep alive in the milieu of British Raj. Hori is a poor farmer, who has 3 acres of farmland, which he and his 2 daughters, a son and wife till.
However, he is perenially in debt and is therefore never really the master of his own destiny. He is, however, largely at peace with his life and the only thing he wants is to own a cow. One day, he sees a milkman coming toward him with exactly the kind of cow he wants, but he has to hold his h Describes the Life of a poor farmer Hori and his struggle to keep alive in the milieu of British Raj.
One day, he sees a milkman coming toward him with exactly the kind of cow he wants, but he has to hold his horses as he cannot afford it. However, the urge to own it only intensifies.
As it happens, he is able to get the same cow. The book is a wonderfully written account of the trials and travails of farmers during the time of British raj and Zamindars.
It also describes diverse characters that lived in the then Lucknow city. The story really starts off as at least two distinct life-threads, but through introduction of various characters, meshes into a single, interconnected story which still manages to portray the life of various characters quite well. The biggest draw for me was the character development.
Each character is introduced, and developed beautifully. Godan is a story of various people from different backgrounds and of different personalities. The beauty of the story is in the interaction of these characters, and their subsequent development and the unmasking of the various layers of their nature. The ban was lifted later by the Government of India after independence.
The national song of India, Vande Mataram, was first published in this novel. The prologue and the first thirteen chapters of Part I were translated by Sri Aurobindo, the rest by his brother Barindra. A wide interminable forest. Most of the trees are sals , but other kinds are not wanting. Treetop mingling with treetop, foliage melting into foliage, the interminable lines progress; without crevice, without gap, without even a way for the light to enter, league after league and again league after league the boundless ocean of leaves advances, tossing wave upon wave in the wind.
Underneath, thick darkness; even at midday the light is dim and uncertain; a seat of terrific gloom. There the foot of man never treads; there except the illimitable rustle of the leaves and the cry of wild beasts and birds, no sound is heard.
In this interminable, impenetrable wilderness of blind gloom, it is night. Roxane Member. Public repository Member. Muhammad Kaleem Member. Nicolai Woodenko Member. Anushika Member. Cristina Bordianu Member. Baltimore Town 1 Oct 28, pm Oct 28, pm Re: does every collection come with its own forum? Jeff Kaplan 1 Oct 28, pm Oct 28, pm Re: does every collection come with its own forum?
Rob Kam 0 Aug 19, am Aug 19, am An item does not finish deriving dcapillae 1 Jul 27, am Jul 27, am Re: An item does not finish deriving Jeff Kaplan 0 Jul 27, pm Jul 27, pm Is there any way to get this video? Corey White. Dec 14, pm Dec 14, pm.
Re: thumb. Dec 15, pm Dec 15, pm. Help my item didn't derive. Strange Anomaly. Dec 13, am Dec 13, am. Re: Help my item didn't derive. Jeff Kaplan. Dec 13, pm Dec 13, pm. Dec 8, am Dec 8, am. Nov 23, am Nov 23, am. Converting text to audio? Nov 22, pm Nov 22, pm.
Re: Converting text to audio? Nov 23, pm Nov 23, pm. Derive waiting for admin. Nov 22, am Nov 22, am. Re: Derive waiting for admin. Nov 16, pm Nov 16, pm. Baltimore Town. Oct 28, pm Oct 28, pm. Re: does every collection come with its own forum? Oct 29, am Oct 29, am. Reason for a Collection? Oct 20, am Oct 20, am. Re: Reason for a Collection? If someone asks him what happened to your brother, he would say very simply — he has gone away to play. It is said that Mukhtar sahib had beaten a poor man so much that he had died.
All three boys continued to fight within his three years. Since then the poor people used to walk very carefully. Gently, feet were burning, milk was burnt, buttermilk also used to drink bitterly. What more support in the life of mother and father? Whenever Deendayal goes to Prayag, he will bring some ornaments for Jalapa.
There was no idea in his practical intellect that Jalpa could be more happy than anything else. Goodies and toys he considered futile, so Jalpa used to play only with jewelery. You must be logged in to post a comment. Hindi Literature , Hindi Novel. Leave a Reply Cancel reply You must be logged in to post a comment.
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