FEATURES OF PREMCHAND'S IDEOLOGY 41 his world outlook becomes socialist over the years"35. Mahajani Sahhyata, published in September 1936, one month before Prem-chand died, is a tirade against the culture of capitalism and forcefully depicts the violence it has done to human life and the distortions in human values it has engendered. He speaks of the "new civilization that is dawning in the distant west'5 and his vision of* the society of the future is clear when he says, "It is thanks to that equality that excessive wealth and private property are coming to an end, and sooner or later the world will surely follow that path. This system (socialism) is not dependent on the social structure and religion of any particular country, nor is it peculiar to any specific state of affairs, as many people claim. That state structure and social condition^which are favourable to the masses in one country must also be advantageous for those in others. Indeed, capitalist society and its touts will oppose it with all their might; they will try and spread falsehoods and confusion about it, and will fool the common people. They may throw dust in their eyes but ultimately truth will be victorious."16 In Mangalsutra, the protagonist Dev Kumar, after consistently supporting truth and non-violence for 40 years, suddenly finds himself in the throes of a fundamental moral questioning, an exercise that slowly takes him away from values he has lived by and finally reaches a standpoint which may well be looked upon as Premchand's testimony to his age. "Yes, there have always been saints and always will be. They still see the world as obeying some divine moral law. But why should we call them saints? Call them selfish cowards. A saint is one who fights for justice and gives his life for it. If their ignorance is wilful and deliberate, then they are dishonest and unworthy of respect, and if they do not find the present situation unbearable, then they are blind and also stupid, and certainly not saints. And there is no need for being saintly either. It is these saints who have propagated myths about fate and god and religion and helped preserve this injustice for so long. Mankind would have either ended this injustice by now, or destroyed society itself, and even that would have been preferable to living in this way. No, one will have to become a man among men. To fight beasts of prey one must resort to arms. To become a prey to their talons is not saintli-ness but cowardice."17 In conslusion, it must be said that in order to depict contemporary life, it should be possible for the writer to conceptualize new processes and phenomena never before portrayed in art. Art