Social Scientist

The Nature and Purpose of Literature

Author(s): Munshi Premchand
Source: Social Scientist, Vol. 39, No. 11/12 (November–December 2011), pp. 82-86
Published by: Social Scientist
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23076335
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DOCUMENT

The Nature and Purpose of Literature

Munshi Premchand

Presidential Address of Munshi Premchand, delivered at the First All India

Progressive Writers' Conference, held at Lucknow on 10 April 1936. (Translated
from Hindustani.)

This conference is a memorable occasion in the history of our literature.

Hitherto we had been content to discuss language and its problems; the
existing critical literature of Urdu and Hindi has dealt with the construction
and the structure of the language alone. This was doubtless an important and
necessary work. And the pioneers of our literature have supplied this pre
liminary need and performed their task admirably. But language is a means,
not an end; a stage, not the journey's end. Its purpose is to mould our

thoughts and emotions, and to give them the right direction. We have now to
concern ourselves with the meaning of things, and to find the means of ful
filling the purpose for which language has been constructed. This is the main
purpose of this conference.

Literature properly so-called is not only realistic, true to life, but is also
an expression of our experiences and of the life that surrounds us. It employs
easy and refined language which alike affects our intellect and our senti
ments. Literature assumes these qualities only when it deals with the realities
and experiences of life. Fairy tales and romantic stories of princely lovers
may have impressed us in olden days, but they mean very little to us today.
Unless literature deals with reality it has no appeal for us.
Literature can best be defined as a criticism of life. The literature of our
immediate past had nothing to do with actuality; our writers were living in a
world of dreams and were writing things like Fasanai Ajaib or Chandra
Kanta tales told only for entertainment, or to satisfy our sense of wonder.
Life and literature were considered to be two different things which bore no
relation to each other. Literature reflects the age. In the past days of decad
ence the main function of literature was to entertain the parasitic class. In
this literature the dominant notes were either sex or mysticism, pessimism
or fatalism. It was devoid of vigour, originality, and even the power of obser
vation.

But our literary taste is undergoing a rapid transformation. It is coming

more and more to grips with the realities of life; it interests itself with society
or man as a social unit. It is not satisfied now with the singing of frustrated
82 love; or with writing to satisfy only our sense of wonder; it concerns itself

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 Document:The Nature and Purpose of Literature

with the problems of our life; and such themes as have a social value. The
c
literature which does not arouse in us a critical spirit, or satisfy our spiritual 3
co
and intellectual needs, which is not 'force-giving' and dynamic, which does
not awaken our sense of beauty, which does not make us face the grim reali "D
-s
fl>
ties of life in a spirit of determination, has no use for us today. It cannot even
be termed as literature. η
3"
Ρ
In the past, religion had taken upon itself the task of striving after man's 13
Q.
spiritual and moral guidance; it used fear and cajolery, reward and retribu
tion as its chief instruments in this work. Today, however, literature has
undertaken a new task, and its instrument is our inherent sense of beauty; it
tries to achieve its aim by arousing this sense of beauty in us. The more a
writer develops this sense through his observation of nature, the more effect
ive will his writing become. All that is ugly or detestable, all that is inhuman,
becomes intolerable to such a writer. He becomes the standard bearer of

humanity, of moral uprightness, of nobility. It becomes his duty to help all

those who are downtrodden, oppressed and exploited - individuals or groups
- and to advocate their cause. And his -
judge is society itself it is before
society that he brings his plaint. He knows that the more realistic his story is,
the more full of expression and movement his picture, the more intimate his
observation of human nature, human psychology, the greater the effect he
will produce. It is not even enough that from a psychological point of view,
his characters resemble human beings; we must further be satisfied that they
are real human beings of bones and flesh. We do not believe in an imaginary
man; his acts and his thoughts do not impress us.
The question may be asked, but what is beauty? Why does a waterfall, the
sunset, and other such natural scenes and phenomena affect us? Because,

there is a certain harmony of colour or sound in them. We ourselves are

created by a harmony of elements, and our spirit always seeks the same bal

ance and harmony in everything else. It is the harmony which creates beauty.
Nature demands that this harmony should exist everywhere, and, the more
art keeps in touch with nature and with reality, the better it will be.
In this the name writer' is defective - an artist or a
sense, 'progressive
writer is by his very nature progressive. But perhaps it is necessary to use this
qualifying word because progress has a different meaning for different
people. For us 'progressive' is that which creates in us the power to act; which
makes us examine those subjective and objective causes that have brought us
to such a pass of sterility and degeneration; and finally which helps us to
overcome and remove those causes, and become men once again. We have

no use today for those poetical fancies which overwhelm us with their insist
ence on the ephemeral nature of this world and whose only effectis to fillour
hearts with despondency and indifference. We must, resolutely, give up writ
ing those love romances with which our periodicals are flooded. We have no
time to waste over sentimental art. The only art which has value for us today
is that which is dynamic and leads to action. 83

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Social Scientist

According to us, subjective art is that which drags us down to inaction

0 and passivity; and such an art is good neither for the individual nor for the
fS
υ society. I have no hesitation in saying that I judge art from the point of view
OD
Ω of its utility. Undoubtedly, the aim of art is to satisfy our sense of beauty; and
1 it is the key to our spiritual happiness. But happiness itself is a thing of 'uti
O
Ζ lity'. The same object from this point of view, may stir in us feelings of joy or
sorrow.

<N But beauty like everything else is not absolute; it too has relative value.
Τ The same thing which gives happiness to one, causes pain to another. A rich
man sitting in his beautiful garden and listening to the song of the birds
l/J
O thinks of paradise; to a poor but intelligent human being who regards this
pomp of wealth as being tainted with the blood of workers, it is the most hate
Ζ

ful thing.
o
ΓΟ Brotherhood and equality, from the dawn of human culture and civili
sation have been the golden dream of idealists. Religious leaders have made
repeated attempts to realise their dream by creating religious, moral and
spiritual sanctions. But they have not succeeded. Buddha, Christ, Moham
med, all the prophets, tried without success to lay the foundation of their
equality on moral precepts without any success. Today the distinction be
tween high and low, rich and poor, is manifesting itselfwith a brutality which
has never been surpassed before. There is a saying amongst us that to try that

which has already been tried is a sign of stupidity - we shall fail again if we
attempt to attain our goal with the help of religion or ethics.
Are we then to give up our ideals? If that were so, the human race might
as well perish. The ideal which we have cherished since the dawn of civilisa
tion; for which man has made God knows how many sacrifices; which gave
birth to religion - the history of human society is a history of the struggle for
the fulfilment of this ideal - we too have to place that ideal before ourselves;
we have to accept it as an unalterable reality and then see the vulgar pride,
ostentation and lack of sensibility in the one, the strength of modesty, faith
and endeavour in the other. And our art will notice those things only when
our artistic vision takes the entire universe within its purview; when the
entire humanity will form its subject matter; then it will no longer be tied to
the apron strings of a particular class. Then we shall no longer tolerate a
social system under which a single individual can tyrannise over thousands
of human beings; then our self-respecting humanity will rise the standard of
revolt against capitalism, militarism and imperialism; and we shall not sit
quiet and inane after doing a little bit of creative work on pieces of paper, but
we shall actively participate in building that new order which is not opposed
to beauty, good taste and self-respect. The role of literature is not simply to
provide us with amusement, or recreation; it does not follow, but is, on the
contrary, a torch-bearer to all the progressive movements in society.
We sometimes complain that literary men are not given an honourable
84 place in society, that is to say, in Indian society. In other civilised countries,

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 Document:The Nature and Purpose of Literature

literary men are placed very high on the ladder of social esteem. The highest
placed people in the land consider it an honour to meet and to know these 3
«Λ
men. But, then, India is still in many ways living under medieval conditions.
If our writers have played the sycophant to the rich to earn their livelihood by "Ο
~Ι
re
flattery, if they are unaware of the dynamic forces working in modern 3
η
society, if they choose to shut themselves up in ivory towers, completely obli
vious of their surroundings, it is not surprising that they find themselves as a
class more and more discarded by society. It is true that writers are born and
not made, but we would not forget that rigorous intellectual, moral, spiritual
and emotional discipline which Aristotle has prescribed for them. With us a
simple inclination to write is considered sufficient reason for a man to take
to the profession of writing. He need not equip himself for it, he need have no
knowledge of politics, economics or psychology; and still he will be a writer.
This should not be so, for it is a sign of stagnation.
The ideal which we want to put before literature today is not that of
subjectivism or individualism, for literature does not see the individual as
something apart from society, but considers him as a social unit; because his
existence is dependent on the society as a whole. Taken apart from society he
is a mere cypher and non-entity. It follows, therefore, that those of us who
have the good fortune to be educated and who have been endowed with a
trained intellect, have certain obligations towards society. Just as we consider
the capitalist to be an usurper and an oppressor, because he lives on the
labour of others, in the same way we should strongly condemn the 'intellec
tual capitalist', who, after having received the best education uses it for his
own private ends. It is the duty of our intellectuals to serve society in every
possible way. They should acquire not only the art of writing well, but should
also acquaint themselves with the general condition of society. If we read the

of International Writers' Conferences we find that there is hardly a

reports

subject concerning life, literature, economic problems, historical contro

versies, philosophy, which is not discussed there. When we compare our
selves with these people, we really feel ashamed of our ignorance. We must,
therefore, raise the cultural level of our writers. I know it is difficult under
the present economic system, but let us at least strive after this. If we do not

reach the top of the mountain, we shall at least raise ourselves from the sur
face of the earth to a higher place. With love to guide our activities, and with
service of humanity as the outward manifestation of this love, there is no
difficulty which we cannot overcome. For those who are after wealth and
riches, there is no place in the temple of love. If we place our services at the
disposal of the masses of this country, we shall have done our duty. The
happiness which we get from serving humanity will be our reward. We stand
or fall with society, and as true artists we should disdain self advancement
and cheap exhibitionism.
Such are the objects which have led to the formation of the Indian
Progressive Writers' Association. It wants literature to bear the message of 85

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Social Scientist

efforts and action. It is not concerned with problems of language as such.

o With a correct ideology, language will become simpler and better. So long as
<N
υ the content of our writing is on the right lines, we need not worry about the
<L>
Û form. The literature which is patronised by the privileged classes will adopt
I
> theirforms of expression; the literature which is of the masses will speak their
O
Ζ language. Our object is to create such an atmosphere in this country as
would help the growth of progressive literature. We want to establish bran
CN ches of our Association in all the literary centres of India; we want to organise
Τ the creative literary life in those centres, by reading papers, by discussions
and by criticism. It is in this way that our literary renaissance will take place.
</>
o We want a branch of the Association in every province and in every linguistic
Ζ zone, so that we can our to all parts of the For some
carry message country.
time past, Indian writers have been feeling the necessity for such an organi
o sation. At various places some steps have already been taken in this direction.
m
Our object is to help all such progressive tendencies in our literary world. We
writers suffer from one great defect, and that is the absence of action in our
lives. It is a bitter reality; we cannot shut our eyes to it. Indeed, this absence of
an active life was considered to be a virtue by our writers, for it was agreed, an
active life leads to intolerance and narrow-mindedness. A puritan, enfor
cing his doctrine on others, is certainly a greater nuisance than a libertine;
the latter may save himself, whereas there is no hope for an arrogant puritan.
So long as the object of literature was mere entertainment, so long as it was a
means of escape from life, when it demanded a mere shedding of tears over

life and its sorrows, an active participation in the social struggles was not
required from a literary man. We, however, have a different conception of
literature and the duties of a writer. We shall consider only that literature as
progressive which is thoughtful, which awakens in us the spirit of freedom
and of beauty; which is creative; which is luminous with the realities of life;
which moves us; which leads us to action and which does not set on us as a
narcotic; which does not produce in us a state of intellectual somnolence -
for, if we continue to remain in that state it can only mean that we are no
longer alive.

86

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