REVIEW OF 'NIRMALA' BY PREMCHAND

 

                                                   translated by David Rubin

 Nirmala, written by Munshi Premchand, revolves around a female character and the problems faced by her. Story portrays the life of Nirmala from her early childhood to old age. The story starts with fixing of her marriage, followed by the demise of her father and then cancelling of the marriage due to dowry reasons.

Due to shortage of money in the house her mother marries her off to a widower, who was around 20 years older than her and had three children from his first wife. Nirmala's husband tries all tactics to woo her but she had only respect and a sense of duty for him and not the love which he expects to develop in her.

Nirmala develops a friendly relationship with the eldest son, who was of the same age as Nirmala, starts spending time with him, making her husband suspicious of Nirmala having illicit relationship with his elder son. He puts baseless allegations on him and sends him to live in a hostel, where he dies prematurely as he was unable to deal with the strange turn around.

With this starts the downfall of his family, with one of the son leaving the house while other also dies. They lose their all wealth and property and some other deaths also occur.  In the end Nirmala dies suffering with diseases both physical and mental leaving the old man to cry on his stupidity.

Writer has not exaggerated the fighting power of Nirmala she was portrayed as a normal character of the society, simple with a soft heart. She is shown as a typical Indian women burning her as a candle and giving light to her family. It takes a lot of patience and perseverance on her part to accept her destiny as  a step mother of grown up children. But, at last, her maternal instincts take over and she begins to treat them as her own. She even tries to adjust herself in accepting her balding, old husband and foul-mouthed harsh spoken sister-in-law but everything goes in vain when her husband questions her loyalty.

In a simple story, Premchand makes it clear that it is pretty easy to misunderstand others. Be it money, status, spouse, or property human beings treat them as just a mere possession without taking care of emotions of other beings. It’s a story of love, jealousy and guilt with its sheer ordinariness, told in the inimitable affable style of Premchand and his comparisons, similes and idioms usage makes this a brilliant story.