BOOK REVIEW : NIRMALA by PREMCHAND

Nirmala is written by great Hindi writer Munsi Premchand Ji, his life was full of struggles and miseries but he achieved greatness in the literary world through his hard work and will power. His works are based on the prevailing social problems as he also belongs to the same social strata.
I got this book from my colleague Shaalini, she liked this novel very much so I also thought to read this book to find out its specialty and after reading this book I realized the cause for the greatness of Munsi Premchand. This book is based on harsh realities of the life and society, this novel is fully based on realisticism, in Hindi we call it as yatharthvaad.

This book is woven around the female characters and the problems they are facing, this book fully justifies the gender problem and it also provides solution for that, hence we can see that the name of the book is on the name of the main female character “ Nirmala” and whole play revolves around her, and writer has beautifully shown the problems related to females like dowry, widow marriage, female as property of male, her exploitation, early marriage etc.

Play portrays the life of Nirmala from her early childhood to old age, and it shows the up and downs faced by her and how she tackled them, it also shows the balance that Nirmala tried to maintain in her life, writer has not exaggerated the fighting power of Nirmala she is portrayed as a normal character of the society, simple with heart of wax. She is shown as a typical Indian women burning her as a candle and giving light to her family. She was married to a man of old age who had three children’s already because her mother did not have enough money for dowry, and Nirmala compromised with the situation by thinking that it is her destiny. But it was not an end to her problem she faced so many problems later on, even her loyalty was questioned by her husband, and on every front of life she got the defeat, her whole life passed like this and no one cared about her and her feelings, in the last she died suffering with diseases both physical and mental and she got the liberation from cage of her mortal body.

But before dying the words said by her are very important they show the nobleness and purity of her heart, I will quote them as it is “poorav janm mein naa jaane kaun se paap kiye thae jiska prayaschit karna pada is janam mein kante boti to kaun gati hoti”.

I will say this is an extraordinary play giving the message to eradicate the social evils and the orthodox norms of the society one should must read this book as it has power to change the thought process and motivates to work for the upliftment of the society.