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Tag: Hindi literature

  • Tomb of Sand

    After her husband's death, Ma, an elderly woman in a north Indian family, takes to her bed and turns her back on the household gathered around her. When she finally rises, it is as a changed person: playful, unpredictable and keen to do things her family never imagined, including moving in with her unconventional daughter, Beti, a writer who lives independently.

    Ma's new friendship with Rosie, a hijra, adds to the family's confusion, and her desire to cross the border into Pakistan leads her back to a past from the time of Partition that she has never spoken about. Beti, who has always been the free one, finds herself watching her mother outdo her in rebellion.

    Originally published in Hindi as Ret Samadhi, the novel is playful and digressive, with talking crows, puns and stories within stories. Daisy Rockwell's translation won the International Booker Prize in 2022, the first time the award went to a book translated from an Indian language.

    Book details

    AuthorGeetanjali Shree
    First published2018
    Original languageHindi
    Translated byDaisy Rockwell
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    SettingDelhi and northern India, and Pakistan, present day
    AwardsInternational Booker Prize 2022

    Themes

    • Old age and renewal
    • Mothers and daughters
    • Partition memory
    • Borders
    • Gender

    Who should read it

    Adventurous readers who enjoy playful, experimental prose and stories about women reclaiming their lives.

  • Godan

    Hori Mahto is a peasant farmer in the village of Belari in the United Provinces, struggling to keep his small plot and pay off debts to landlords, moneylenders and priests. His one dream is to own a cow, a symbol of status and religious merit, and the cow he finally acquires sets off a chain of jealousy and misfortune within his own family.

    His wife Dhaniya is outspoken and fearless where Hori is cautious and anxious to keep up appearances, and their son Gobar defies village customs and leaves for Lucknow. A parallel plot follows the city's educated elite, including a philosopher, a doctor and a landowner, contrasting rural hardship with urban debates about reform.

    Published in 1936, the year of Premchand's death, Godan is often considered the greatest Hindi novel, an unsentimental portrait of exploitation in colonial village India. Gordon C. Roadarmel's English translation appeared as The Gift of a Cow. It remains essential reading in Indian schools and universities and is a touchstone for rural fiction.

    Book details

    AuthorMunshi Premchand
    First published1936
    Original languageHindi
    Translated byGordon C. Roadarmel
    GenreClassic
    TypeFiction
    SettingBelari village and Lucknow, United Provinces, 1930s

    Themes

    • Rural poverty
    • Debt and exploitation
    • Caste
    • Dignity
    • City and village

    Who should read it

    Readers who want the essential classic of Hindi literature about peasant life under colonial rule.

  • Nirmala

    Nirmala is a teenage girl whose engagement collapses after her father's death leaves the family unable to pay the expected dowry. Her mother arranges a match with Totaram, a lawyer about twice her age with three sons from his first marriage, and Nirmala enters his household as a wife barely older than his eldest son, Mansaram.

    Totaram, insecure about his age, grows jealous of Nirmala's friendly relationship with Mansaram, and his suspicion sets off events that slowly poison the entire family. Premchand shows how each person, including Totaram's widowed sister, is trapped by customs they did not choose. Gossip and rumour do as much damage as any villain.

    First serialised in the magazine Chand in the mid-1920s and later published as a book, the novel is a powerful critique of the dowry system and marriages between young girls and older men. Alok Rai's English translation is widely read, and the story was adapted for Doordarshan television.

    Book details

    AuthorMunshi Premchand
    First published1927
    Original languageHindi
    Translated byAlok Rai
    GenreClassic
    TypeFiction
    SettingA town in north India, 1920s

    Themes

    • Dowry
    • Child marriage
    • Jealousy
    • Women's oppression
    • Social reform

    Who should read it

    Readers interested in classic Hindi fiction and early literary critiques of dowry and child marriage.