Godaan...relevant even today

Godaan, as you may be knowing is a classic novel in hindi by Munshi Premchand. It gives an insight into the life of a poor Indian farmer uner the zamindari system under British India. Indian farmer gets born into debt, lives in debt and dies in debt. Munshiji makes no attempt to idealise his central character, Hori. He presents him as he should be, with his simplicity, selfishness, greed, wishes and his troubles. He shows him fearing all big men, beating his wife, telling lies and with his hearty wish of having a cow at his doorside. In fact, I am not going to tell you the whole story here, for that I suggest you to buy a copy. I will elucidate how this story is relevant even today after so many years, after the abolition of zamindari, not only in villages but also in towns. It is the story of every man who needs to fight for feeding the bellies of his family. Even today, there are people who fight all their life, quarrel with their brothers, get separated and get suppressed by the big and powerful of society like Datadeen of this story. Then, they come home and fight with their wives for petty things; beat them just like Hori beats Dhania. They think about their children just as hori thinks of Gobar and in the end, these children talk to their father about their money. Does it not happen today, did not we see Baghbaan...it happens in all sections of society with rai bahadur as well as hori. Everyone has his wishes, for a poor farmer, he dies with them. The best part of the novel is the irony of the society which he presents at the end, for a man like Hori who could not get a cow throughout his life, society suggests his wife to make a "Godaan" (donation of a cow is called Godaan) at his demise for his poor soul..this is Indian society which strangles the individuals not only during their life, but tries to suck their blood even after they are dead.