Kafan …

by munshi premchand
Depravity due to poverty is one the major threats to humanity even in
todays world, there are about a billion people in the world who struggle
and are unable to access even the basic necessities that are required to lead
a happy life like good education, clean environment, nutritious food etc .
Poverty can be compared to a viscous cycle that once a person falls into
it, it becomes hard to escape as his future generations get deprived of
education and other opportunities which leads to them becoming
unemployed or they are forced to work on low wages to make both ends
meet .
It is even a bigger threat in country like India where poverty can be seen
everywhere . This miserable poverty is making people very insensitive
towards others, helpless and corrupt . This exact problem has been
depicted by munshi premchand iin his story named KAFAN or the
SHROUD !
Through this story , KAFAN, he had attempted to show us the lack
of insensitivity among the two protagonist named Gheesu and
Madhav. The characters in the story are few: father (Ghisu, the
shoemaker) and son ( young Mādhav), a rich zamindaar of their
village who reluctantly lends them some money, a small crowd of
villagers, and a beggar. The whole story actually unfolds under the
influence of the wife, who, both when alive and dead, casts her
beneficent shadow over her father-in-law and husband. The plot of
the story revovles around them being selfish and imprudent towards
their responsibilities and moral values.
The plot is fairly straightforward: an idle father and his idle son are
cooking their meagre meal by the door of the hut, where the young
man’s wife is in labour. It was a cold and dark wintry night and the
woman was screaming and groaning in extreme pain.
Madhav’s father, Ghisu was worried for her as she was writhing in
pain , and ordered his son to atleast go and see her . To which ghisu
replied cold heartedly that he doesn’t want to as, if she has to die she
would die either way theres no point in it.
They couldn’t even afford to give her proper medicines. .
Madhav's young wife, budhiya, whomm he got married a year ago
was in labor. She was still screaming and moaning in pain. Instead of
doing something they ate stolen potatoes and long for a fine feast.
They fall asleep and in the morning found Budhiya and her baby dead.
.They belonged to the family of chamars were who were notorious in
the entire village for having bad reputation in terms of work . They
both were way too indolent that they only worked enough to be able
to afford a meal for day .The men usually filled their tummies by
stealing food and working only occasionally, nobody in the town really
called them to do a job done, they were so poor that people used to
lend money without even expecting them to return it . Their house
was empty and filled with rags and garbage , their bodies were
covered with filthy half torn cloths and they somehow became used
to it. they were carefree and being like this had became a part of their
nature.
After her death they both seated themselves near a fire and started
 roasting potatoes ,which they obviously stole from a neighbours field , after
roasting it and peeling Madhav and Ghisu started finishing them one after the
other without any feeling of fear of a loss of a beloved family memberas they
really never considered her a part of it, shamelessly as if she meant nothing to
them. That woman who was with them since a year was not even worth a thought
for them. The woman who used to grind grain, pluck grass all by her hands,even did
the house chores just to arrange for a couple of pounds of flour so that these two
shameless men was struggling for her life ! And they weren’t even intrested to do
something for her ,this shows how selfish and shameful they were.
They were always like that.they had no problem in living like a beggar but their
laziness became worse after madhav’s marriage After she came, they both grew
even more lazy and indolent; indeed, they even began to swagger a bit. Their major
problem was that they didn’t wanted improve their lifestyle by working. So if
anyone in the village ever called them them to do some work or even offered them a
job , instead of denying their proposal directly they would demand for double the
wage so that they themselves refuse it.
After a while ghisu asked madhav to go and check up on her if she’s alive or not and
jokingly says that she might also be possessed by a witch-ghost and if she s then its
going to be a big problem for them as even the exorcist charges a rupee these days
for which they don’t have money. They both were probably drunk, after saying this
they started quarelling about who would go inside to check as they were afraid .
This shows their unsympathetic behaviour towards her.
Then a very greedy thought covers up madhav’s mind that that as she’s pregnant ,
so if a child is born the entire village in sympathy would be offering them money
and food to eat because of that innocent kid. He told his son this is how he
managed money to spend his life as he had nine sons . Instead of doing good deeds
and hard work he was teaching his son ways to acquire money from people
through malicious tips and tricks , taught him how to steal and trick people. He
was pretty much a bad selfish person and ghisu being his son was blindly
following the steps of his father . He was clever but never used it for his own good
. he wasn't skilful in following the rules and customs of the tricksters. Thus while
other members of his group became chiefs and headmen of villages, at him the
whole village wagged its finger.
They again got back eating and enjoying their potatoes alongside the fire
impatiently as if somebody was going to steal it from them . They couldn’t even
wait for it to be cooled and burned their throat and tongue repeatedly thinking
there would be plenty of equipment inside the body for cooling it down.
Suddenly , ghisu remembers flashbacks about the huge wedding procession
around 2 decades ago in which he tasted different kinds of dishes and cuisine
which made it an unforgettable and amazing day.
He then proceeds to tell madhav about how big and amazing that night
was! He couldn’t stop himself from talking about that night . They
further aggravates about their hunger, as well as highlights their
present condition. Moreover, they talk about how the riches ain’t
willing to spend much on the poor like us and lack generosity in todays
world as compared to the ancient time

After a while when they went to see her by the time she was already
dead , laying on the bed , still and cold ,her eyes rolled up and body
covered with dust. When the neighbours heard them weeping they tried
to console them. The sensitive-hearted women of the village came
and looked at the body. They shed a few tears at its helplessness,
and went away. The writer also narrates some painful facts
concerning the attitude of the other village folk over Budhiya’s
death. Shedding a few tears over a dead body not only exposes
indifference on the part of the village women community but also
accentuates the social status of Budhiya. She is a Chamar and will
be taken as Chamar even after her death.
That is why the writer has consciously evaded idealizing the moaning of
village women over her corpse.
But now a bigger problem awaited them and the problem was that they didn’t had
enough money for her final rites. They couldn’t even think about having new cloths
for themselves let alone be it a shroud .neither they could give her a shroud to cover
their passed out member nor they Can buy woods to complete her final rites .

The Father and son went crying to the village landlord who was known for his
kindness eventually started hating them and the sight of them maddened him when
they were caught red handed for a crime or was possibly angry as for not coming to
work as they had promised. What is it, GHISUA , why do you weep? Says the rich
man in a mocking and irritated manner.. Ghisu explained every detail and finally
pleaded with teary eyes "Master, I'm in great trouble! Madhav's wife passed away
last night. All day she was writhing in pain, Master; we two sat by her bed till
midnight. Whatever medicines we could give her, we did’’ which was obviously a
plain lie to make him give them cash . the Landlord Sahib was a compassionate man
but even he couldn’t forget about their treachery but at the end he did exactly what
they wanted and gave them two rupees. Unwantedly he had to give it to them even
though this time he wanted to throw them out. Now ghisu knew how to get more
money he convinced the the other rich merchants who were flatterers of the
landlord to give
Him more money One gave two paisas, another gave four paisas. In an hour, Ghisu
had collected the sum of five rupees in ready cash. Someone gave grain, someone
else gave wood. And in the afternoon Ghisu and Madhav went to the market to get a
shroud. Meanwhile, people began to cut the bamboo poles , and so on all in the
name of landlord which they all wasted After having spent the money they feel
no moral scruples: Both then sat eating puris, with all the majesty of a tiger
in the jungle pursuing his prey. They had no fear of being called to
account, nor any concern about disgrace. They had passed through these
stages of weakness long ago.
The writer further tries to highlight the damage that economic exploitation does to
the moral values of a human being that he even tries to disregard the social and
religious rituals. He only seeks the mercy of god when he is in trouble and now
when both ghisu and madhav have got what they wished for they are not being
faithful to god.
Next, after wasting about half of the money, they reach the market . After buying
the appropriate amount of woods for her final rites and now they were searching
for a shroud for which they went to every nook and corner of the market but
couldn’t find one . then ghisu comments why is there a need of regular shroud why
cant they go for a cheaper option like a light coloured one. As her final rites will
take place at night who is going to look at the quality of it .
Through these lines the narrator ,munshi premchand want to tell us about how
blind and selfish a person can become . When he needs something he begs to god
and after getting the rewards he disregards all forms of religious customs and
rituals for greed
He then mentions that when a person is alive we do not care what type of clothes
he is wearing if a person is wearing torn cloths instead of helping them we try to
stay away from them and rather just judge him on that basis but when he dies
we want him to be covered in a brand new cloth or precisely a SHROUD . The
writer explains this issue with such beauty as in a way it is correct to say that but
that doesn’t mean that we are allowed to disrespect the deceased person as
according to the hindu culture it is mandatory to cremate a dead person so as to
provide him with peace in heaven .
Nevertheless after quarrelling about weather they should buy a it or not they came to
this conclusion that instead of wasting whole money on I, we should rather spend it on
ourselves . This money was of no use because she had already died . So they went to a
wine shop and ordered a bottle of wine and sweets .madhav then adds that all these are
the customs of rich people and brahmans.
after drinking a couple of cups of wine madhav questions’s ghisu that what if
somebody asked about why we didn’t bought a shroud for her ? To which Madhav
replied in a light manner we would tell them that the money slipped away from our
pockets so that next time they will give us more money
they ate a lot that day , just like a hungry tiger in the jungle . As the night got darker
everyone started to feel the pleasure of self-forgetfulness . They felt free and even gave a
leftover to a beggar and asked him to pray for his dead daughter in law , which was a
very strange but delightful experience for ghisu .
Ghisu then began to dictate about the goodness of budhiya that even she wwas alive
and even after her death, she always provided us with something . She would surely go
to heaven ! Listening the words of his father madhav again gets a realisation of
everything that she sacrificed for them . She even died a painful death . Out of despair
they started weeping and drank a lot of wine and finally became so drunk that they
collapsed on the floor. . Here , the narrator , munshi premchand tries to convey a very
foremost and salient message that even though they were selfish , they were still guilty
for whatever they did . We can see a glimmer of remorsefulness in them . This also
shows that no matter how bad a person is there is always some goodness left in him . As
there is a beautiful saying theres’ always bad in good and always good in the bad.
Money and other materialistic things are surely very important, even a necessity
but our morals should be on the top. The story, KAFAN , also highlights the
problems that a major section of our society suffers from that is Depravity AND
destitution. If ghisu and madhav thought about this problem they could’ve saved
her. But they didn’t. as there is famous saying that poverty is not an accident like
slavery or the aparthied , it’s a mindset which can only be removed through
actions

the end