Last Tuesday, when Union minister of culture S. Jaipal Reddy announced a list of programmes to celebrate eminent Hindi and Urdu litterateur Munshi Premchand?s 125th birth anniversary, the gasp of relief among the writer?s abundant admirers was almost palpable. For the declaration had come bang in the middle of a distasteful controversy over the issue between the Union government and the Left intelligentsia.

Premchand has often been in the news for the wrong reasons in the last few years. A master chronicler of rural north Indian life in his short stories and novels, the 1880-born writer?s work was at the receiving end of a motivated socio-cultural offensive in the recent past.

During the BJP-led NDA government regime, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) dropped his novel, Nirmala, from the Class XII course and replaced it with Mridula Sinha?s Jyon Mehandi Kau Rang. Sinha isn?t rated highly for her literature but is well-known as a former president of the BJP?s women?s wing. And last year, even during the Congress-led Ashok Gehlot?s rule, his famous stories, Idgah and Rashmi, were dropped from the Class VI and Class IX syllabi in Rajasthan.

In this touchy backdrop, when Sahmat, a Left cultural organisation, submitted a detailed project to the ministries of culture and human resources in October asking for financial aid to celebrate the anniversary during the year 2004-05, the Delhi-based body was hoping for a positive response under the new ideological dispensation.

To its dismay, both ministries were rather dismissive of the project. The HRD ministry asked them to modify the proposal after sitting on it for two months. The culture ministry simply asked for another proposal. Miffed, Sahmat wrote a scathing letter to Reddy wondering if he was still ?working under a hangover of the previous regime?.

Then veteran CPM leader Hannan Mollah joined the party, firing another salvo off to Reddy. In a letter last week, the Left leader said that it would have been better if the ministry of culture had taken the initiative to organise such celebrations, instead of sitting tight on proposals. The letter said, ?I am for at least cleaning the garbage dumped on our cultural heritage during the NDA rule. It is minimum to expect from the government claimed to be a secular one to consider such matters with priority.?

Viewed in this backdrop, the government?s announcement, which at least partially seems to have happened under Left pressure, has come as a pleasant surprise to many. For though Reddy had told Parliament in an earlier session that the government will celebrate Premchand?s 125 birth anniversary, nothing seemed to be happening on this front until the recent exchange of letters.

In the newly-formed committee, Reddy is the chairperson whereas Shiv Kumar Mishra, a Gujarat-based authority on the writer, is the vice-chairperson. Urdu writer Zubair Rizvi and CPM MP Sarla Maheshwari are co-convenors.

After the Tuesday meeting, the committee came up with a long list of proposals. These include restoration of Munshi Premchand?s house in his native village, Lamahi, near Varanasi. ?The house is in a state of disrepair,? says Premchand?s grandson Alok Rai, who teaches literature in Delhi University. A group from the celebration committee will shortly visit the village. ?The idea is to turn it into a national museum,? says Rajya Sabha member Maheshwari, who had been asking questions in Parliament on Premchand every year on July 31, the writer?s birth date.

That apart, plans are underway to organise seminars in Varanasi, Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Hyderabad on the life of the author whose novels and short stories have been translated into Russian, Chinese and many other foreign languages. Film shows based on his work are also on the anvil. Those who have missed out watching Satyajit Ray?s Shatranj Ke Khiladi and Sadgati, both based on the great writer?s stories, can look forward to them.

Quite a few other Premchand?s works, such as Godaan, Gaban and Nirmala, have also been captured on celluloid. Arguably his finest novel, Godaan was first filmed in 1963 with sitarist Ravi Shankar providing the music. Twenty years later, the National Film Development Corporation came out with another version; this time starring notable theatre personalities Satyadev Dubey and K.K. Raina. ?Now,? says Maheshwari, ?there is a proposal to make a feature film on Premchand?s life.? The culture ministry also plans to issue DAVP ads in newspapers, persuade local authorities to name a street after the writer and instal his statue, preferably in the Capital.

The sarkari year-long celebration will begin from July 31, 2005. Strangely, by that time, Doordarshan would have already completed telecasting the Gulzar-directed series, Tehreer, based on Premchand?s works. ?The serial was commissioned keeping the 125th anniversary celebrations in mind,? admits Navin Kumar, director general, Doordarshan. In other words, whereas one government department began the celebration in 2004, another will do the same a year later.

The non-sarkari celebrations have already begun though. For Sahmat, 19 artists have engaged with Premchand?s text and come up with a painting or design each. A set of digital prints and a 2005 calendar displaying these paintings and designs from top artists such as Arpana Caur, Gopi Gajwani and Gulam Mohammed Sheikh is ready. The organisation has also roped in actor Farooq Sheikh and theatre personality Ram Gopal Bajaj to read from the writer?s works in Delhi next week. An exhibition will also be mounted in January.

There is also a Premchand archive in the offing. The Jamia Milia University has submitted a proposal worth Rs 1.5 crore to this end. ?The ministry has been very responsive,? says Jamia vice-chancellor Mushirul Hasan. Hopefully, something concrete will happen before the celebration year runs out.