Gaban is a Hindi novel by Premchand, published in 1931. It is the story of a young husband who wants to look richer than he is, and of the lie that grows out of that wish. Of all Premchand's novels it has the most plot, and it is the one most readers find easiest to finish.
What the novel is about
Jalpa has wanted a chandrahaar, a kind of gold necklace, since she was a little girl. When she marries Ramanath, a pleasant, idle young man from a family of modest means, the necklace is not among the wedding jewellery, and her disappointment hurts him. Rama has let her believe his family is better off than it is. To keep up the show he borrows, buys on credit and finally, after getting a job in the municipal office, takes money that is not his.
When the shortfall is about to come out, he runs away to Calcutta rather than confess. There he is taken in by kind strangers, falls into the hands of the police and is pushed into giving false evidence in a political trial. Jalpa, meanwhile, turns out to be far stronger than the girl who wanted a necklace. The second half of the book belongs to her as much as to him.
We will stop there, because the turns of the last third are worth meeting fresh.
Themes
Gaban is about vanity and the middle-class fear of looking poor, and about how a small dishonesty becomes a large one when it is easier to keep lying than to own up. It is also a book about women and jewellery, and Premchand is sharp about the pressure on brides and families to display wealth, a subject he came back to often.
The Calcutta chapters bring in the freedom movement and the colonial police, and Premchand uses Rama's choice in court to ask what a weak man owes to the truth when someone else will pay for his lie. Like much of his later work, the novel is moral without being preachy: Rama is foolish, never a villain, and the reader understands every step he takes.
How to read it
Gaban is a good second Premchand novel, after Nirmala and before Godaan, as our Premchand guide suggests. The Hindi is plain and the dialogue is lively, with a sprinkling of Urdu and Persian words, beginning with the title. Readers coming to Hindi from another language will find the story pulls them along: there is always a reason to read the next chapter.
Where to find it
Premchand died in 1936, so his Hindi text is in the public domain in India. Look for it on Hindi Wikisource and Hindi Samay, or in older scanned editions on the Internet Archive. English translations are later work with their own copyright. Our guide to free sources explains how to search each site, and public domain in India explains the rules in more detail.
Sahitya Chintan does not host or sell copies of this book. This note describes the work and points to the kinds of places where it can be read legally.
Questions readers ask
What does Gaban mean?
Gaban is a Persian-derived word for embezzlement, the misuse of money that has been entrusted to you. It names the act at the centre of the novel.
Should I read Gaban or Godaan first?
Gaban. It is shorter, faster and more plot-driven, and it shows Premchand's skill with character without the length of Godaan. Read it after a few of his short stories and before Godaan.
Was Gaban made into a film?
Yes. Hrishikesh Mukherjee directed a Hindi film of Gaban in 1966, with Sunil Dutt and Sadhana as Ramanath and Jalpa.