Afif Ikhwanul Muslimin
State Islamic University of Malang
Kinds
of the text : Narrative
Narrative
: Author reflects the real
story of Indian Culture in a fiction story
(Use of Past Tense)
Orientation :
•
Keshav
belonged to Brahma caste familiy
•
Prema
belonged to Ksatriyas caste family
Complication :
•
Outcaste
marriage is not allowed in Hindu’s tradition
•
At
first Keshav’s and Prema’s parents were not agree on outcaste marriage
•
Prema’s
father disagreed with the outcaste marriage. Then, he sent out his daughter
from school
•
Keshav’s
father refused Prema’s father offer
•
Keshav’s
father commanded Keshav to send repelion letter to Prema
Resolution :
•
Keshav
followed his father order
•
Keshav
commanded Prema to forget all his words before about their relationship in the
letter
•
Prema
commited suicide in her room
PREMCHAND BIOGRAPHY
Achievements: Premchand brought realism to Hindi
literature. Premchand wrote on the realistic issues of the day-communalism,
corruption, zamindari, debt, poverty, colonialism etc. He avoided the use of
highly Sanskritized Hindi and instead used the dialect of the common people.
Premchand popularly known as Munshi
Premchand was one of the greatest literary figures of modern Hindi literature.
His stories vividly portrayed the social scenario of those times.
Premchand's real name was Dhanpat
Rai Srivastava. He was born on July 31, 1880 in Lamahi near Varanasi where his
father Munshi Azaayab Lal was a clerk in the post office. Premchand lost his
mother when he was just seven years old. His father married again. Premchand
was very close to his elder sister. His early education was in a madarasa under
a Maulavi, where he learnt Urdu. When he was studying in the ninth class he was
married, much against his wishes. He was only fifteen years old at that time.
Premchand lost his father when he
was sixteen years old. Premchand was left responsible for his stepmother and
stepsiblings. He earned five rupees a month tutoring a lawyer's child.
Premchand passed his matriculation exam with great effort and took up a
teaching position, with a monthly salary of eighteen rupees. While working, he
studied privately and passed his Intermediate and B. A. examinations. Later,
Premchand worked as the deputy sub-inspector of schools in what was then the
United Provinces.
In 1910, he was hauled up by the
District Magistrate in Jamirpur for his anthology of short stories Soz-e-Watan
(Dirge of the Nation), which was labelled seditious. His book Soz-e-Watan was
banned by the then British government, which burnt all of the copies. Initially
Premchand wrote in Urdu under the name of Nawabrai. However, when his novel
Soz-e-Watan was confiscated by the British, he started writing under the
pseudonym Premchand.
Before Premchand, Hindi literature
consisted mainly of fantasy or religious works. Premchand brought realism to
Hindi literature. He wrote over 300 stories, a dozen novels and two plays. The
stories have been compiled and published as Maansarovar. His famous creations
are: Panch Parameshvar, Idgah, Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Poos Ki Raat, Bade Ghar Ki
Beti, Kafan, Udhar Ki Ghadi, Namak Ka Daroga, Gaban, Godaan, and Nirmala.
Premchand was a great social
reformer; he married a child widow named Shivarani Devi. She wrote a book on
him, Premchand Gharmein after his death. In 1921 he answered Gandhiji's call
and resigned from his job. He worked to generate patriotism and nationalistic
sentiments in the general populace. When the editor of the journal _Maryaada_
was jailed in the freedom movement, Premchand worked for a time as the editor
of that journal. Afterward, he worked as the principal in a school in the Kashi
Vidyapeeth.
The main characteristic of
Premchand's writings is his interesting storytelling and use of simple
language. His novels describe the problems of rural and urban India. He avoided
the use of highly Sanskritized Hindi and instead used the dialect of the common
people. Premchand wrote on the realistic issues of the day -communalism,
corruption, zamindari, debt, poverty, colonialism etc.
Premchand's writings have been
translated not only into all Indian languages, but also Russian, Chinese, and
many other foreign languages. He died on October 8, 1936.
CASTE SYSTEM AND MARRIAGE IN INDIA
Caste System
The origins of the
caste system in India and Nepal are shrouded, but it seems to have originated
some two thousand years ago. Under this system, which is associated with
Hinduism, people were categorized by their occupations. Although originally
caste depended upon a person's work, it soon became hereditary. Each person was
born into a unalterable social status. The four primary castes are: Brahmin,
the priests; Kshatriya, warriors and nobility; Vaisya, farmers,
traders and artisans; and Shudra, tenant farmers and servants. Some
people were born outside of (and below) the caste system. They were called
"untouchables."
Marriage
Marriage
is deemed essential for virtually everyone in India. For the individual,
marriage is the great watershed in life, marking the transition to adulthood.
Generally, this transition, like everything else in India, depends little upon
individual volition but instead occurs as a result of the efforts of many
people. Even as one is born into a particular family without the exercise of
any personal choice, so is one given a spouse without any personal preference
involved. Arranging a marriage is a critical responsibility for parents and
other relatives of both bride and groom. Marriage alliances entail some
redistribution of wealth as well as building and restructuring social
realignments, and, of course, result in the biological reproduction of
families.
Some
parents begin marriage arrangements on the birth of a child, but most wait
until later. In the past, the age of marriage was quite young, and in a few
small groups, especially in Rajasthan, children under the age of five are still
united in marriage. In rural communities, prepuberty marriage for girls
traditionally was the rule. In the late twentieth century, the age of marriage
is rising in villages, almost to the levels that obtain in cities. Legislation
mandating minimum marriage ages has been passed in various forms over the past
decades, but such laws have little effect on actual marriage practices.
North
|
South
|
·
A family
seeks marriage alliances with people to whom it is not already linked by ties
of blood
·
Hindu
bride goes to live with strangers in a home she has never visited.
|
·
There is
no clear-cut distinction between the family of birth and the family of
marriage.
·
In sharp
contrast, marriages are preferred between cousins (especially cross-cousins,
that is, the children of a brother and sister) and even between uncles and
nieces (especially a man and his elder sister's daughter)
|
Almost
all Indian children are raised with the expectation that their parents will
arrange their marriages, but an increasing number of young people, especially
among the college-educated, are finding their own spouses. So-called love
marriages are deemed a slightly scandalous alternative to properly arranged
marriages. Some young people convince their parents to "arrange"
their marriages to people with whom they have fallen in love. This process has
long been possible for Indians from the south and for Muslims who want to marry
a particular cousin of the appropriate marriageable category. In the upper
classes, these semi-arranged love marriages increasingly occur between young
people who are from castes of slightly different rank but who are educationally
or professionally equal. If there are vast differences to overcome, such as is
the case with love marriages between Hindus and Muslims or between Hindus of
very different caste status, parents are usually much less agreeable, and
serious family disruptions can result.
VOCABULARIES
•
Fraud
•
Lingred
•
Hypocrites
•
Intangible
•
Life
weeping
•
Betrothed
•
Quandary
•
Faint-hearted
•
Swarning
arround
•
Agitated
References
Gardner, Peter S. 2005. New
Direction: Reading, Writing, and Critical Thinking. USA:
Oxford
University Press.
_______, Caste. Http://Wikipedia
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