FEATURJES OF PREMGHAND'S IDEOLOGY 33 The Author and His Times In the preface to his first collection of short stories, Prem-chand noted that the tales revolve primarily round the theme of social change and commented that "such books are badly needed by the country in order to impress the stamp of patriotism on the coming generations". Premchand's didactic intentions may intrude at times on contemporary literary sensibilities, but as a kind of historical and social document the occasional digressions, the moralizing and romanticizing can be appreciated as a source of insight into the writer and his times. Premchand's age was one in which social reform had become a burning concern with intellectuals. Several socio-religious reform movements had sprung up which increasingly tended to have a national scope and programme. In a general sense, all these movements were directed against the perversions and distortions of Indian society and the Hindu religion. In the social sphere, there were movements for caste abolition, equal rights for women, for widow remarriage, abolition of child marriage and a sort of crusade against the inhuman social system promoting untouchability and other social and legal inequalities. In the religious sphere, a protest was raised against superstition and idolatry, polytheism and hereditary priesthood among other examples of decadence. The reform movements in a sense represented the striving of the conscious and progressive sections of the Indian people to democratize social institutions and remodel old religious outlooks to suit the new social needs. Some of these movements were the Brahmo Samaj, the Arya Samaj, the Prar-thana Samaj, the Ramakrishna Mission and the Theosophical Society. Even though these contemporary movements had an impact on Premchand's literary vision, in his characteristic style he said in a lecture in Madras in 1934, "Idealism has to be there, even though it should not militate against realism and naturalness. Similarly, it would be good for the realist not to forget idealism. We have to portray noble, idealistic aspirations. Otherwise what would be the use of literature?551 To Premchand, the alternative to this 'useful' literature seemed to be a literature intended only to entertain and to satisfy our lust for the amazing, the stories of magic, of ghosts and fairies, of princes pursuing their beloveds, which were found in most of the early Hindi novels. Premchand's view of "usefulness5 was, however, tempered by a desire to depict characters according to the existing reality. The writer could be expected to awaken, to broaden views and spheres, but was to do so only by presenting an