Museum to come up at Lamahi, showcase Premchand’s characters, era
The museum will give contrasting glimpses of socio-economic conditions at the time of Premchand and those that prevail now.
A state-of-the-art museum will come up at Lamahi, the native place of iconic Hindi litterateur Munshi Premchand, and showcase the famous characters of his works.
Lamahi is a village in Varanasi district.
The museum will also give contrasting glimpses of socio-economic conditions at the time of Premchand and those that prevail now.
The union ministry of tourism and culture has given its in-principle approval to the proposal for the construction of the museum and a library at Lamahi.
The step was taken after the authorities received a number of letters with requests to develop Lamahi as a cultural village.
The ministry has asked the Uttar Pradesh tourism department to submit a detailed project report in this regard.
Union tourism and culture minister Dr Mahesh Sharma said, “A state-of- the-art museum and a library will be constructed at Lamahi. The matter has been discussed in detail at a meeting with UP tourism minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi. She has been asked to submit a DPR.”
The museum will accommodate statues of popular characters such as Gobar, Dhania, Hori, Dattadin, Rai Sahab, Bhola, Miss Malati, Govindi, Anandi, Matadin, Bhola, Jhuri and his two bullocks Heera and Moti with a brief description about each one. The novel or the story in which the characters feature will also be mentioned. The statues will illustrate scenes from the period in which Premchand wrote the classics.
A gallery with pictures of socio-economic conditions of those times is also on the cards. The ministry aims at developing Lamahi as a cultural and heritage village. Later, it will focus on the native places of other noted litterateurs in the country. There is a plan to conserve all works by Premchand in the library.
Satish Chandra Srivastava, who lives near the house of Premchand, said, “I have heard that the centre is planning to construct a museum and a library here. This is a good move. It will tell the young generation about the culture that existed in the country more than nine decades ago.”