Premchand on Culture and Education

Premchand on Culture and Education is a select collection of Premchand's journalistic articles, essays, and editorials, in English translation, written in journals like Madhuri, Hans and Jagran from 1928 to 1936. Indian society then witnessed an extemely perilous phase with British imperialism, capitalism, and aggressive nationalism distracting indians from the path of honesty, equality, and brotherhood. The present collection of Premchand's non-fiction prose is an amalagamation of his impressions of, and responses to, the upheavals taking place in the politically and socially charged decade of the 1930s of the 20th century. Like a torchbearer, Premchand educated and guided public opinion on a wide range of issues such as education, culture, communalism, language, arts, and the Gurukul system of education, famous universities, broadcasting, and cinema. Nearly all the articles/essays/editorials were written to combat the topical crisis, but the nature of the articles and the solutions provided have a bearing even today. Just as non-fiction is called the genre of the future, this collection of Premchand's non-fiction prose will be conducive for posterity and will facilitate fresh avenues of research on Premchand.

This book is co-published with Aakar Books, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the print versions of this book in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Shuby Abidi teaches in the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Her areas of specialization include Diaspora Studies, Indian Writing in English, and Muslim Women's Writing. She has a keen interest in Translation Studies and has translated Shahid Nadeem's play Dekh Tamasha Chalta Ban for the book Islam in Performance: Contemporary Plays from South Asia edited by Prof. Ashis Sengupta. She has also translated several short stories by Premchand in English.