Dhanpat Rai, better known by his pen name, Premchand, was one of India’s most prolific writers. His body of work consists of more than a dozen novels, around 300 short stories, several essays and translations.
While at Kanpur during the late 1900s, Premchand started taking an interest in political affairs and this is reflected in his early works, which have patriotic undertones.Several of his early works ridiculed Indians who cooperated with the British Government. He did not always specifically mention the British, because of strong censorship, but disguised his opposition in the settings of his writings.
In the 1920s, he was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's non-co-operation movement and the accompanying struggle for social reform. He used literature for the purpose of arousing public awareness about national and social issues and often wrote about topics related to corruption, child widowhood, prostitution, feudal system, poverty, colonialism and on the Indian freedom movement. In 1907, Premchand's first short story collection, titled Soz-e-Watan, got published. The collectioncontained four stories which sought to inspire the Indians in their struggle for political freedom.