Page 285 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

260 Shashi Bhushan Upadhyay

settlement, whose residents are generally poor and deprived. The other
revolves around three—two aristocratic and one industrialist—families
based in the city of Banaras. Thematically, the story of the Pandeypur
centres on the resistance of its inhabitants, particularly Surdas, against
the establishment of a cigarette factory in its vicinity. The other story,
mostly symbolically, takes up the theme of the nationalist struggle
against colonialism. It is also concerned with Sophia’s anguish against
her family’s religious faith and her preference for Hinduism. There is a
debate among Hindi critics whether the central concern of the novel is
economic or political, whether its main focus is on the struggle against
industrialism or against colonialism. In fact, there seems to be no
contradiction between these two and both are related and are essentially
political. As we will see, in Premchand’s view, the struggle against
colonialism and capitalist civilization is closely related to the nationalist
resistance to political subordination; both are part of the same struggle
of national resistance. But, as will be clear in the subsequent discussion,
another fundamental thrust of this resistance is cultural in nature.
It is another matter that Premchand tends to subsume this cultural
opposition also in the broader political strategy.
John Sevak, an Indian Christian, wants to establish a cigarette
factory in the vicinity of village Pandeypur on the land inherited
by Surdas, a blind beggar of a Dalit caste. The latter refuses to part
with his hereditary land and has other plans for it. Surdas is not only
against the factory, which, according to him, would corrupt the people
of the village and pose a moral and physical danger to them; he also
wants to build a dharmshala (literally, ‘house of faith’, but actually a
building used for temporary sojourn for pilgrims) and a well on it for
the benefit of pilgrims. For this purpose he has saved a substantial
amount of Rs 500 from the alms he has collected over the years. John
Sevak is determined to construct the factory there, while Surdas is
equally adamant not to give away his land. The battle, therefore, is
joined right from the first scene in the novel. On the one hand, there
is a middle-class capitalist having links with the aristocrats and with
access to the colonial administration. On the other hand, there is a
poor, blind beggar who is practically alone in the battle as the villagers
are vacillating and divided. Although some of the villagers think that
Surdas’ land benefits the community by serving as a grazing ground
for the cattle and camping place for pilgrims and the plague victims,
others feel that the establishment of the factory would profit them