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The Gift of a Cow A Translation of the Classic Hindi Novel Godaan By PREMCHAND Tiaxslated by Gordon C. Roadarmel Wath « new introduction by Vasudha Dalmia @ En Public by PERMANENT BLACK D-28 Oxiord Aparimeins, 11, LP Bazin, Delhi 110092 Distibied by ORIENT BLACKSWAN PRIVATE LIMITED Bangione Dhbanebiue Calcates Chewai Eruakulany Garaahati Hyderabad Loeknew Mumbai New Deli Patne (UNESCO 1958, for the Engl translation. ‘©Vauudls Dalia 2°12, Bor the fntroduction ++ this wew reprint Soyenth Impussston 2017 ISBN $1 TH24- 049.8 Promchants Godaan was first published ix India in 1935. “This Feglish tanslation was fst pin by Allen and Urwin (London) and wa Unaversty Press GBlooesamgen) us 1965, The prosens edition har been puidished under an exclmsive sgreersent with UNESCO by Permanent: Black, D-28 Ovfoed Apt, 1, IP Extersiot, Delhi 110092, Indi, Ths ection iv mo. for sale in Pasta, A sights reserved Printed and bourd by Sapra Brothers, Dulha 119.992 INTRODUCTION 10 ‘LHE NEW EDITION Godan ig an eminently poliical novel. It wat wrstten in 1936 by Premchand, the best-known Hindi writer of the twenticth century, who had gained a vast reputation for his gripping tales of social unrest and changesin a language measused but also polemical eleva’ ed but also colloquial." A nationalis: at odds with tke British, by the 1920s Premehand had con:e to subscribe almost entirely to the Gandhian ethos, and cowards the end of his life he wns formu a more radical message. As he was to say in his now funous speech at the :naugural mecting of the Prugressive Writers’ Associagion in Lucknow in 1936: A litseraveur or an arcist js, ly’ mae, progressive. He probably would a lincrateur if chis were not his natme, He fecls inade- Gacy invade as well as outside himself Lie most cemain restless in order to fill shis deficiency He does not perceive the i #11 chase conditions of happiness and freedom in which he wants to see ot hive bo dual andl society ‘them in his imagination, For shis season, heulways foes dissatisfied wich the present mental and social conditions. Te wants to end these disgust ing conditions so chat che world become 2 beeice place to live im and dic in? The individual and society in“Godaan are set within ewo nartetive frames which draw upon each other, namely the economics and social codes of village lifs in Awadh (on she easzern Gangetic plaives in the heart of North India), and of the wider network of colonial and nacionalise policics in the city of Lucknow; Awadh’s capital, At the apex of the village social pyramid is Rai Saheb, the local landowner. Himself exploited to some extent, 3 has inherited the mantle of exploitation. A Rajput, obliged to the British for The best and most easly accessible biearapliy wf Preuachean! i by Ait Rai, Pronchands A Life (1982) Ac translates! and cited by Coppola (1986: 26) nainiaining, his position and penser, he is now in the process of shifting his «llianze ¢o the Indian Natioaal Congress, He his keen to jal for his pert in the independence s:raggie and has thus pained another kind of moral aathority in tae cyes of his tenants, But the wide base which supports his existence is itse‘f in disrepais, Over three-quarters ofa century of British vole, the iot of she peasunt has degenerated to the barely tolerable In his fiction, written over three decades in the early cwontieth century; Premchand presented what academic scholarship was to fice squareiy only sowards che close of that ceutury. Colonial tas tion policies, peacant unzest, and the failure of the nadionalist lead enhip to respond to these issues wete to be addressed from the Peasant-subaltern viewpoint i the pionecring first volumes of the altern Studics collective which appeared in che early 1980s. respond €o and partiripaw in Premchand’s literary language—inelf stratified, generic, period-bound—and to comprehend in some measure its socio-ideological conceptual horizon (Bakhtin 1981: 272, 275), it is necessary to possess sortie understanding of the social and political biscory of the province of Awach in Premchand’s time, and for chis purpote it is to some of the essays in che Subaliern ‘Studies volumes that we tnrn. One of these essuys tells us thar— In 1856 Awadh vas brought under direct Briash cule in one, ie was Said, to rescue the provitice from the effects of mist ule and anatchy:The ‘mutiny and civil rebellion of 1937—9, which brought saat of che ficre- ‘st fighting and severest reprisals of the cenisiry, formed, fiom that point of Viewsan ur fortunate interlucie. After that the benefits of Pax Britannica flowed freely, towards some, Chief among the beneficiaries were che (wo hundred and eighty ur so talugdars who, Sr their pazein the recer= uprising, were now held up a: the ‘netural leaders’ uf the people, The talugdars were mostly local rajas avid heads of clans, officials and tax farmers who had secued an independent position in tke land before he Bris sation, plus # handfai of ‘deserving chieS’ who were piven eitates confiscaced Som the moa nutazious af the rebels. On tig twotley crowd the new rulers formally conferred many of the rights of the landowning gearry of Brit. Three-fifhs of the cultivated area cf ‘Awadh was settled with them in ceturs: for dee regula: paysnent of reve Hie and assistance in maistaining order in the coaatryside. And British olicy was now directed! towards ensuring the talt-qdars the wealch, st (up andl security necessary co full this wole (Pandey 1982: 149) vi ‘Village social life was entirely subordinate to the politics and inter esis of the telugdars or zamindars, The intolorance of any kind of deviance from social norms began at the smallest tnit of social con aol. The tirade, ot brotherkood, of the jati or caste kept check aad control over individual behavior, which was further kept in place by village heads who zealously guarted the complex hierarchical network of the various biredaris which constituted the village social onler. Premchand delineates these village heads, these “guardians of justice in the village,” with masterly strokes in Godaan, and with the “pazadic stylization” he so excels in, which he teserves entirely for these dignitaries and their counterparts in the city Pandit Nokheram, the agent of the vansinudar’s estate, was a very high caste brahman. His grandfather had held a high pesition with a local ruler but them fia laid all his possessions atthe feet of God and become an ascetic, His father had alo spent his fe singing praises to Rama and now Nokhicram had inherited that same piery. By dawn he would be sitting at prayers, and until en would go on writing the name of Rama ‘As soon as he left the presence of God, however, he would throw off all restraints and let loose venomous thoughts, words and deeds (157). Another, nore Giee-floating, authotity was the Brahman Datacin: He was the village troublemaker, sticking his nose inte everyane’s busi ness. He had never committed a theft—that was too dangerous, But ‘when it came time for the loot to be divided up, he was always present Soinchow he always managed to get off unscathed, He'd not yer paid a single pice of rent to the zamindar. When the bailiff showed ap, Daracin ‘would threaten to throw hinwself in the well, kavioy: Nokheram help less. ¥et Daradin always managed to have mioney to loan cue at inezrest to the tenants (154-3). ‘Then there is the local Rajputs" the biggest Guiancier was Jhinguri Singh, who represented a rich moneylendcr in the city” He looked harmless enough: Baldi descr stjlvation’ a6 one of a: number of “internally dialogied sate of Ianguayes” where “che intentions of the fepme— secting discourse are at elds with the mentors of the tepreiented éiscours,” Which fighss against chem, depieting'a real word of eject mot by using the r= presented Langage 2 4 productive pat of view, be tater by using 325 31 €3- post to destay the represented language” (1981: 363-4) vii Joorgoes Singh was siting brushing his testh with a cwig He looked like a clown—a short, ft, bald dak mar with a long tose anda big moustache. And he was quite a joker as a wsatter of fact, calling che village dhe hoine of fs inlaws and thereby assuming, the right to make disparaping vemarks about all the men a3 brother-in-law or fathersia-lew, aad about ail the women: 2: sisters-in-law ot mochers- ow. «Ib business martors, however, he showed 9 atetcy, « ing the lst pice of incerestand camping cn people's doorsteps until they proruced the msoncy. (126) ‘And finally the village zecountant: Lila Patweshwari could alsy he benevolent at umes, Daring the nna senion he acquired renown by distributing fiee government quinine and by showing concern for those laid up with fever. He wonld also arbitrate al kinds of petzy quarrels. And for weddings he was the salva fon of che poor, loaning out his palanguins and carpets, and tering thom use his lirge canopy He never mnisied an opportunity to unk money, but he wonld also aie those he devoured, (155) He was, he pointed ou:, answerable only to the very bighest:* ‘I'm. nota servant of the zamiadar or ofa money lender. L serve the royal government [‘sarkar bled ka naukar’], which rules the whole world and is the master of horh your zamindar and your moncylender’ ” (228-9). As the protagonist of the novel—the sinall-time tenant Hori—acknawledges willingly: “The village council is the voice oF God, Whatever they think fair must be accepted cheerfully” ” (158), But in the India of the early 1920s, even the stusdiest ‘peasant could be driven to fury aud revolt, though it took a Jot to bring him to this point When a peasant rose in revolt ataty time cr place under the Raj,he did so necessarily and explicitly in violstion of a series of codes which de- finest is very exisenee as a membe- of chat cclonial, and still legely setui-Ceudal saciery, For his stcbalternity was materialized by the scruc- ture of property institutinalized by liv, sanctified by religioa and made tolerable and even desirablo—by tradition. Ta zebel was indeed to des ‘roy unany’ of those fannhar signs waich he had Isasned ta read and smunipulate in order to extracta meaning out of the harsh word aroand bin: andl live wich it, The rik in ‘tasning things upsice down’ ander condisions was ineeedl so great that he could hardly affued co on- gage in such a projece in a stare of absenunindodness (Guha 1983; 1} Premchand’s village is, at this st-ge, not in revolt, though deep dis- corte: simmers below its surface. It is at all eves faz Gor co presenting the agricultural idyll, the stable unchenging village comemsity conjured up by eslomal officials exiy in the ninetcenta century4Tt pulses with Life, with hope, disappointrasnt, intrigues and love affairs, Heit and illicit. In the years when there is a good harvest, Lori, werk bis small trace of laud, prodaces just enough to feed himself, his wife Dhaniya, and cheir three children; the two girls, Sora and Rupa, and bis son Gobar, Amicht all the uctivicy and movement in the villzge, it is Hori who is the focus of the narrative. [Ze is endlessly compassionate, led by his own notion of dhanna und nid (righteousness dad siorality). Itis as if he cacties the mora! weight of this world, 2 weight which threatens to crus him at several points in the story, His utrerance at the beginning of the novel, when he is departing to nay his respects to the landlord, is prophetic: “I'll never reach sixty, Dhaniya’ ” he said, picking up his stick,“ ‘I'll be gone long before that’ ” (16). Ashe tells Bkola, the cowherd who will strike a deal with tim and ive him the cow he so longs te own" ‘My grain was all weighed out at the village baru, The master took his share and the money- lender his, leaving me just ten pounds. I carried off che straw and hhid it during the night, or not a blade would ave heen left mie" " {36}. As Premchand noted ir relish ir his diary entey of fara ary Z, 1936: Lori's debts at the op-ning Mangrn Shah 60 grown co 309/~ Dalaci 100 Data Din 100 Rent 25 25 + OLS This det never relinquishes ils stranglehold os Hori and his family, even the best of mes. Iris litde consolation tha: Hori is act alone in this fare, Lhe i:scensitication of comaodity production in this part of she Indian comarryside meant, s Shalid Arce hes pointed * The one occasion when it doosfezeae ito an adil x when these isa vast the city Ir becomes ten a picnic set aid the charselers are redhiced 70 the one A:mensional Or the chenging British visions ard views of the vdhye ard de policy changes aecompanyi.g <8 Dewey (1972), S.As ritod in Goyuaiza (L081), Vel, Lp. 214, ix ‘our, that “the reprocuction of small peasant houschelds came to be depeadear on the cultivation of sugarcane for usurious dealers” (1982: tween the farm calendar and the soutine of rent collection” (Amin 1982: 52}, For one thing, there was the “waat of congruence be ‘he rent is offen seesived by thr landlord in che autamn, some sis months before the came feu, the time when the tenant receives the greater parcof the adyauces nn the crop feom the manufacturer. In fart the newt is, for his own security, Commonly paid by the manufacuuree dlitece to the landlon! andi deducted fiom the advance to be puid to the cultivator: thus the lindlord, though me necessarily himself raamafactuter, has it interest in encouraging the cultivation. By this custom the eenant has ta harrow in onler to pay rent six months before he can receive anjy return by sale of the produce.* As another Settlemecit Officer poinced out in 1917, the peasant was deep in dec, usually to his own landlord. “He is in the hubit of borrowing money for seed, tor his rent, even for his subsistence. All these loans carry 25 per ceut incerest, anal che inerese forms the first charge on the ensuing crop" (as quoted in Amin 1982: 82) According to this zeckoning, the tenant ended up paying a more or less permanent enhancement of 25 per cent on his recorded zene. As if this was not enough, he was denied his lepitinnate share of the market price at each stage of production: “within a complex system of incebtedness and dependence, all avernues market price, rate of interest, weights and measures und jure of implement of production—were manipulated by moneyleading traders and re- finers to flush our this important commodity at as low a price as posible” (Amin 1982: 72). Hori, though so deeply entang'ed in this web of debs and social obligations, longs to own a cow. “For him tke cow was not only au object of worship aad devotion; it was also the living image of prosperity. He wanted it to beauty h’e door and to raise the pres tige of his housz, He wanted people to age the cow at his door and ask, ‘Whose place is that?” " (53) When be does menage to negoti ate a deal with hola the cowhenl, and tae cow arrives at his door step, “There was no sopping the hubbub, After al. the cow had not © Report of a revenue official in 1870, cited in Amin (1982: 81), x come hidden: in a bridal palanquia. How could sein a great event take place withoue causing 2 commotion? As soon as people heat, they dropped their work and ran co take a look, This wat no oni nary Local cow. She'd beet bought from Bho‘ for ciphty rupees!” (33) He arouses the envy and jealousy of the village and of his cstzanged brothers. Eedly in the story, che cow is poisoned by his brother and the downward slide of the family bepins 15 Godaan then primarily a story of :nremituing suffering cold with unrelenting sententioussess, both of which Premchand has been understood to represert? Is this what has made the novel a chisic of modern Hindi literature? Te seems to me tht it is the ‘minense tension. within the novel, between the kind of dlama Hot tries to fulfil and the pulls—soctai and political away from: it, that fills the novel with a poignancy and a defiance ta which Teaders through the deciles have responded. The movel can be reud as containing, both in the sense of har- houring and of not allowing co ultimately step out of hounds, two Kinds of rebellion—vidwit’ in Hindi—and Premchondl uses the term The first rebel is Hori son Gobar, who falls in love with Jhaniya, who is of a lower, cowkerd caste: she is Bhola daughter, [He leaves her pregnant at his parents’ doorstep and rans away to th ity bee cance he cannot face his parents, but also because ae cannot bear the yoke of eterna! debt and humiliation. He enjoys the freedom which comes fom earning money in the city bus is eventually caught up ia a new Kind of exploitation, diat of the industrial worker in industriakizing economy, with its own retwerks of exploication Working in a sugar mill ke looks back to the life of the village: Gobar had to start out erly in the morning, and by the time he re- turned home at dusk afer full day's work, there was noc a spark of’ (eft im his body: In the village he'd bees forced to work just a3 hard, but hie had mevor felt she least bie sired. The work kad been interspersed with Lnghter and conversation, and she open fieldsand broad skies hal Seemed to esse the strain, Flowever Juri hit body worked dices, his ‘mine bad remained free. Here, although his body was taxed less, the hubbub, the speed and the thuntlering noise weighed him down. Thee yas ako the constant approheasion of rebuke, The workers were all in the «wun boat ané they owned thcir physical figue and mesval weet fess fa palra toddy or cheep ligne, Cobar took to drinking alsc. (339) oa Tied with the headercss of kis own early success, at one stuge Gobar snacks his fathers" Thar's wha: comes of heing too good (261-2); but by the ced of the novel he has learnt to respect the Signity Hori has zctained th-ougia all his tials. Gohar also sees that the waditiors fostered in the village—even if he sees through them aad can to seine extert overcome them—ate ullimnately too strong for him to try and overcome on behalf of his futher, The second, more sustained bus also more hopeless, rebellion is represeated by Hori wife Dhaniya.At the start of the novel dhe has turned thirty-six, yet she is already grey and aging. But she is full of insight and courage. This 1s how she is introduced: “Why bother with all this flattery for land that could not even provide food for their stomachs? Rebellion kept welling up in her heart—but then a few harsh words from her lrusband would jolt her back to reality” (16). Sho resists the agents of colonial law and onder’; she refuses to pay the police afficer who comes to investigate the killing of their cow and who promptly allies himself with the village headmen. he village is thrilled by her defiance. But the village is less thrilled with her resistance to caste laws, which forbid the alliance of her son with Jhuniya. Yer she chooses to take in the abandoned Jhuniya: “Suddenly Dbaziya put her arm around Hon'’s neck. ‘Look, she pleated, ‘swear to me you won't hit hex She's crying already, I! fate weren't against her, she'd never inave fillen into all this trouble’ ” Not conteat with all the trouble this action will get them cluding the ruiacus fines they will have to pay at rhe behest of the village council, sive leter takes in Siliya, another abandoned woman, this time of the Chamar leatherwarking) caste; who has been cast off by Matad:n, a Brahman hoy. The Chamars have riser against this caste oppression ‘yy having collectively esfiled Matadin bby forcing meat into his mous, and ke is so enraged that he now refuses co look at Siliys. Dhaniya has no pity for hiss,“ ‘Men are all alike. No one wais upset when Matadin defle:! het, Now the saute thing’ happened co him, so what's wrong with that? Doesn't Silya’s vircne count as virtue? He takes a chaaar woman and then makes tout that he's $0 pions! Haskbu did just the right thing Thar’ ex- actly the punishment hoodlums ike him deserve. You come home with ris, Siliya.’” (10) The cuestion is how far this kind of self willed bebavior will be allowed to go. xii