Godan.
This happens to be the first Hindi Novel (of such length) that I’ve read. I’ve read a few excerpts before and even watched the on-film version of this long back, but reading this book has been an experience that I’m glad to have done.
Premchand is a genius. Probably, as everyone already says, the greatest Hindi novelist. This definitely piques my interest in reading more of Hindi literature.
Godan, or more phonetically ‘Gau-Daan’ or ‘The gift of the cow’ as the translated version is referred as, is ideally on how a poor farmer’s innate desire to own a cow, so that when he dies, can be given away to a Brahmin as is customary. Of course, the death acts as a metaphor for the countless deaths that the farmer (and his family) go through.
The book largely paints the terrible state of farmers in the pre-independence era, the zamindari system, caste system, society’s treatment of the poor and low-caste, the lifestyle of the rich and their own problems and how all of this constantly crosses each other’s path.
The language in the book floats from the hindi-urdu to hindi, and is reminiscing of the way it’s spoken in the Oudh region (around Lucknow) and helps in the transition of the stories along with the characters’ laments.
Even though the book is set in the pre-independence era, it doesn’t meddles too much into the freedom struggle. In a way, this symbolises how cut-off the villagers were or how engrossed they were in their own problems.
I’m still amazed at the numerous stories stitched together to portray the life and times of that time. Godan has been a wonderful read and not only because it was in Hindi, which is another reason to love it, anyway.
There’s a translated version of Godan available and if you cannot read Hindi, you should give that a try.
I loved it. Hope you’ll love it as well.