Gaban

Synopsis

Gaban (Hindi: ग़बन, Urdu: غبن, lit. 'embezzlement') is a Hindi novel by Munshi Premchand, published by Saraswati Press in 1931. Through this novel, he tries to show "the falling moral values among lower middle class Indian youth in the era of British India", and to what depths a person can descend to, to become a pseudo-elite, and maintain a false image as a rich person. Gaban is a cult classic satire of Premchand. It tells the story of Ramanath, who is handsome, pleasure-seeking, boastful, and morally weak. He tries to make his wife Jalpa happy by gifting her jewelry which he can't really afford to buy with his meager salary, becomes indebted, which ultimately forces him to commit embezzlement. It is considered Premchand's best work, after Godaan. It was adapted into a 1966 Hindi film with the same name by Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

Text license: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

Details

Type

Book

Release date

January 1, 1931

Created by

Premchand