Book 35: Godaan by Premchand (100 Great Books)

Over a thirty-year career, Premchand produced roughly a dozen novels and nearly three hundred short stories. He began writing in Urdu under the name Nawab Rai, but after the colonial government banned and destroyed his 1909 collection Soz-e-Watan for sedition, he increasingly turned to Hindi and adopted the name Premchand.

His career unfolded during a period of political upheaval, from the aftermath of the 1857 Revolt to the rise of Gandhi and the communal and agrarian tensions of the interwar years. In 1921, he resigned from the colonial education service in response to Gandhi’s call and thereafter supported himself precariously through editorial work, a small printing press, and a brief, unsuccessful period in the Bombay film industry. He died in 1936 at the age of fifty-six, shortly after completing the novel now widely regarded as his finest.

The Novel: Godaan

At the centre of Godaan is Hori Mahato, a tenant farmer in a village in the United Provinces whose ‘dream’ is to own a cow. For him, it represents a small increase in dignity.

From this simple desire, Premchand builds a slow and deliberate tragedy. Hori buys a cow on credit from a neighbour. Soon after, his younger brother poisons it out of jealousy. To protect the brother from prosecution and thus preserve the family’s honour, Hori must pay bribes to officials. These payments force him into debt, and each loan leads to another. The novel traces, almost transaction by transaction, how Hori’s attempt to own a cow turns into an expanding cycle of loans, penalties, and obligations.

Premchand avoids melodrama. There are no clear villains. The landlord is not cruel, but distracted and burdened by his own concerns. The priest who collects ritual fees appears sincere in his beliefs. Even the village council, which punishes Hori for his son’s actions, consists of men who are otherwise his companions. Oppression here is ordinary, familiar, and sustained by the very people it harms.