34 SOCIAL SCIENTIST honest and critical view of life. From his very first creation—a short story written at the age of 13—emerges the vision of a man intensely affected by and painfully aware of the decadent social structure around him. This story speaks of the social ignominy involved in the caste-ridden society, at any interaction between the higher castes and Harijans. Influence of Arya Samaj and the Bolshevist Reprieve It is this "honest and critical view of life" tliat is apparent throughout his literary career spanning Prema and Godan. The first novel, Asrare Maabid (1903), again deals with the theme of social oppression. As suggested by the title, this early creation depicts the degraded, corrupt and licentious lives of the saints and guardians of 'sanctity' in places of worship. Saraswati, Ramkali, Ramdulari are all victims of these 'spiritual5 guardians and through them Premchand reveals, with a keen sense of realism, social evils like prostitution, caste oppression and the corruption prevalent in temples under the garb of religion. Prema, the second novel (the first to be published in Hindi), centres round an individual who starts off with a determination to serve his "land and people53 and ends with the marriage of the protagonist to the widow Prema. Sometimes the story appears to be a weak peg to hang the philosophy on, and the characters are mere mouthpieces for the author's moralizing. However, if seen as a weapon of social change, the novel seems to serve the purpose. Clearly at this stage Premchand was deeply influenced by the Arya Samajist ideology which represented a sort of revolt against the sacredotal dictatorship of the Brahmin orthodoxy, religious superstitions, polytheism and upheld legal and social equality as an ideal. This view is confirmed by Amrit Rai in his biography of Premchand: "The first influence on his views is that of the Arya Samaj, in which later gets mingled some influence of Gokhale's and Ranade's Social Reforms League.552 In 1907 was written Premchand's first short story to be published, Duniya Ka Sab Se Anmol Ratan. The story burns with patriotism. So^-e'Vatan, which appeared in 1908, was also a collection of five patriotic short stories which had as their background the Bengal partition of 1905. These stories were condemned as being "full of sedition55 and that they had "insulted the British Government.5'3 Seven ^hundred copies of the book then remaining were confiscated and burnt. In 1912 came Jalwa-i-lsar while Premchand was in Hamirpur and an active member of the Arya Samaj. Again the emotion of nationalism shines through it but it