RABINDRANATH TAGORE

LIFE AND BACKGROUND

Family background[edit]
Tagore was born at No. 6 Dwarkanath Tagore Lane, Jorasanko the
address of his family mansion. In turn, Jorasanko was located in the
Bengali section of northKolkata . He was the son of Debendranath Tagore
and Sarada Devi .
Childhood (18611872)[edit]
Tagore, nicknamed "Rabi," was born the youngest of fifteen children
(fourteen survived to adulthood). As a child, Tagore lived amidst an
atmosphere where literary magazines were published, musical recitals
were held, and theatre performed. The Jorasanko Tagores were indeed at
the center of a large and art-loving social group. Tagore's oldest brother
was a respected philosopher and poet. Another was the first ethnically
Indian member appointed to the elite and formerly all-white Indian Civil
Service. Yet another brother, was a talented musician, composer, and
playwright.
[6]
Among his sisters, Swarnakumari Devi earned fame as a
novelist in her own right.
Tagore started writing poems around age eight, and he was urged by an
older brother to recite these to people in the mansion including to an
impressed Brahmo nationalist, newspaper editor, and Hindu Mela
organizer.
When tagore went out with his father, they also read English- and Sanskrit-
language books, exposing Tagore to astronomy, biographies of such
figures as Benjamin Franklin. Later, in mid-April, Tagore and his father set
off for the remote and frigid Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie, India, near
what is now Himachal Pradesh's border with Kashmir Some two months
later, Tagore left his father in Dalhousie and journeyed back to Calcutta.
[20]

Schooling in England (18741900)[edit]

In early October 1878, Tagore traveled to England with the intent of
becoming abarrister. He first, attended a Brighton school. In 1877, his
nephew and niece the children of Tagore's brother were sent together with
their mother to live with him. Later, after spending Christmas of 1878 with
his family, Tagore was escorted by a friend of his elder brother to London;
there, Tagore's relatives hoped that he would focus more on his
studies.
[22]
He enrolled at University College London. However, he never
completed his degree.

STYLE OF WRITING

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a Bengali poet, philosopher, artist,
playwright, composer and novelist. India's first Nobel laureate, Tagore won the
1913 Nobel Prize for Literature. He composed the text of both India's and
Bangladesh's respective national anthems. Tagore travelled widely and was friends
with many notable 20th century figures such as William Butler Yeats, H.G. Wells,
Ezra Pound, and Albert Einstein. While he supported Indian Independence, he often
had tactical disagreements with Gandhi (at one point talking him out of a fast to the
death). His body of literature is deeply sympathetic for the poor and upholds
universal humanistic values. His poetry drew from traditional Vaisnava folk lyrics
and was often deeply mystical.

MUNSHI PREMCHAND
Life and background
Early life[edit]
Premchand was born on 31 July 1880 in Lamahi, a village located
near Varanasi (Benares). His ancestors came from a large family, which
owned six bighas of land.
[3]
His grandfather Gur Sahai Lal was
a patwari (village accountant), and his father Ajaib Lal was a post office
clerk. His mother was Anandi Devi of Karauni village, who could have been
the inspiration for the character Anandi in his Bade Ghar Ki
Beti.
[4]
Premchand was the fourth child of Ajaib Lal and Anandi; the first two
were girls who died as infants, and the third one was a girl named
Suggi.
[5]
His parents named him Dhanpat Rai ("the master of wealth"),
while his uncle, Mahabir, a rich landowner, nicknamed him "Nawab"
("Prince"). "Nawab Rai" was the first pen name chosen by Premchand.
[6]

When he was 7 years old, Premchand began his education at a madarsa in
Lalpur, located around 2 km from Lamahi.
[5]
Premchand learnt Urdu
and Persian from a maulvi in the madarsa. In 1895, he was married at the
age of 15, while still studying in the 9th grade. The match was arranged by
his maternal step-grandfather. The girl was from a rich landlord family and
was older than Premchand, who found her quarrelsome and not good-
looking.
[10][11]

Premchand read a lot during these days. After racking up several debts, in
1899, he once went to a book shop to sell one of his collected books.
There, he met the headmaster of a missionary school at Chunar, who
offered him a job as a teacher, at a monthly salary of 18.
[12]
He also took
up the job of tutoring a student at a monthly fees of 5.
In 1900, Premchand secured a job as an assistant teacher at the
Government District School, Bahraich, at a monthly salary of 20
In 1936, Premchand also published Kafan ("Shroud"), in which a poor man
collects money for the funeral rites of his dead wife, but spends it on food
and drink. Premchand's last published story was Cricket Match, which
appeared in Zamana in 1937, after his death.
[38]

STYLE OF WRITING

Premchand is considered the first Hindi author whose writings prominently
featured realism.
[7]
His novels describe the problems of the poor and the
urban middle-class.
[7]
His works depict a rationalistic outlook, which views
religious values as something that allows the powerful hypocrites to exploit
the weak.
[27]
He used literature for the purpose of arousing public
awareness about national and social issues and often wrote about topics
related to corruption, child widowhood, prostitution, feudal system, poverty,
colonialism and on the India's freedom movement.
[39]


Summary
Kabuliwala
Abdur Rehman Khan (Balraj Sahni), a middle-aged dry fruit seller from
Kabul (Afghanistan), comes to Calcutta to hawk his merchandise and
befriends a small Bengali girl called Mini the daughter of Rabindranath
Tagore who reminds him of his own daughter Amina back in Afghanistan.
He puts up at a boarding house along with his countrymen. Since he is
short of money he decides to sell his goods on credit for increasing his
business. Later, when he goes to collect his money, one of his customers
abuses him and in the fight that ensues Rehman warns that he will not
tolerate abuse and stabs the man when he does not stop the abuse. In the
court Rehman's lawyer tries to obfuscate the facts but in his characteristic
and simple fashion Rehman states the truth in a matter of fact way. The
judge, pleased with Rehman's honesty, gives him 10 years' rigorous
imprisonment instead of the death sentence. On the day of his release, he
goes to meet Mini but discovers that she has grown up into a woman and is
about to get married. Mini does not recognize Rehman, he realises that his
own daughter must have forgotten him too. Mini's father gives Rehman the
money for travelling back to Afghanistan out of Mini's wedding budget . The
story ends with Rehman travelling back to his homeland.

God lives in the panch
Jumman Sheikh and Alagu Chowdhari are intimate childhood friends. They
till their land in common, are partners in money lending business and also
take care of each others households, in case of eithers absence. They are
neither close friends nor belong to the same religion, still they share an
inseperable bond.
Jumman has an aunt who gives all her property to him in return she asks
him to give her clothes and food. After getting the property jumman ignores
her. She takes the case to panchayat. She calls everyone to support her,
which included alagu. He refuses to take part in the proceedings as he had
a really good friendship with jumman.
The aunt declares alagu as the head panch and the case is won by the
aunt, seeing this jumman starts hating alagu. Their inseperable bond is
destroyed.
Many years later alagu sells his bull.due to a lot of work the bull dies, and
the man had not paid the full price of the bull. When alagu goes to the man
for the money the man starts fighting telling him that his bull was weak and
because of this reason his gold and ghee and many more valuable things
were robbed. Hearing thing alagu got furious and decided to call a
panchayat. Samju sahu the person who bought the bull declared jumman
as the head panch. Alagu, who had all along expected the verdict against
him, is overwhelmed at jummans fairness in dispensing justice. He praises
the panchayat aloud and village folk join in.
Everybody praises the decision and regards it as the work of god.