48 SOCIAL SCIENTIST and incidents of his time and takes part in them actively."4 Prcm-chand himself remarked: "A writer is influenced by his environment. Whenever there is an upsurge in the country, it is impossible for a litterateur to be unmoved/55 Prcmchand was brought into the national movement by the Swadeshi movement of 1905-1906. In 1905 he wrote an article in the ^amana suggesting ways to spread the use of indigenous products. He was of the opinion that without indigenous materials such as cotton, sugar and cloth, national liberation could not be achieved.6 But, by and by, Premchand began to think that the Swadeshi movement benefited mainly the national bourgeoisie. Gradually the basic character of the bourgeois leadership began to be unveiled. Premchand realized the real nature of the Swadeshi movement in the process of a historical development. He saw that capitalism was no answer to Indian ills. He therefore made the condition of the poor the basic issue. In an article written in October 1932 he said that in such a critical period of unemployment, when every man was dying for a paisa, the rates of daily wages were deteriorating. The cost of raw cotton declined, but the cost of cloth remained the same. He said bitterly that Indians were purchasing swadeshi (indigenous) goods even at the cost of their livelihood. On the contrary, the mill owners were rolling in wealth. They wanted a ban on imports merely to sell their commodities at a price desired by them. But neither would such trickery last long nor the public kept in confusion.7 This period of 27 years of the development of capitalism thus essentially altered Premchand's views so that to him even the Swadeshi movement appeared something launched solely for the benefit of the bourgoisie. Premchand thus found himself in a camp opposite to that of Gandhi. Gandhi was against the abolition of private property even if it aimed at removing poverty and unemployment. He wanted the capitalists to act as trustees of their property and they should spend it for the welfare of the people.8 Not only that, Gandhi proclaimed that if the properties of ^amin" dars and taluqdars were taken over unjustly, he would fight for them.9 His advice to the peasants was that "they should not hate the ^amindars. Peasants will have to win the hard hearts of their enemies over by their magnanimity and love. To refuse payment of tax to their ^amindars and not to work for them would be unethical."10 Contrary to this, Premchand was convinced that socialism' was the only way for the emancipation of the oppressed and downtrodden peasants and workers. In an article entitled "Naya Zamana