Hindi literature is opulent in varieties and nuanced in tradition. Literature places itself on the face of a linguistic journey. If you haven’t undertaken that journey yet, this is the time you should totally emerge yourself in learning Hindi through literature.
Hindi literature has all kinds of stories containing a very rich literary heritage. Read through the list of the most popular literary works in Hindi, which you must read.
1. Gunaho Ka Devta by Dharamvir Bharati
Gunaho Ka Devta is a romantic story that centres around a student, Chander, who falls in love with Sudha, the daughter of his college professor Dr. Shukla. This story mostly focuses on caste discrimination in the society. The in-depth description of love, anguish and indecision makes the booa literary piece. There is a television adaptation of the book titled Ek Tha Chander Ek Thi Sudha which was featured on Life OK.
2. Kitne Pakistan by Kamleshwar
Kitne Pakistan is a compulsory read if your interest lies highly on partitions around the world. The novel brings allegory into realism. In the book, different historical characters like Aurangzeb, Babur, Saddam Hussein, and Adolf Hitler are put together in a fictional court and implored to narrate their understanding of history. Kitne Pakistan was awarded the 2003 Sahitya Akademi Award for Hindi literature.
3. Kashi Ka Assi by Kashinath Singh
Kashi Ka Assi comprises five stories on the backdrop of the Assi ghat in Varanasi. These stories refer to the social and political system of the 1990s, but they are also relevant from today’s perspective. The flow and proficient language of this book supplements the hardness of the stories. A bollywood film Mohalla Assi was based on this novel.
4. Maila Aanchal by Phanishwar Nath ‘Renu’
Maila Aanchal is one of the most imperative novels ever written in Hindi literature. It also serves as an example of Anchalik Upanyas (regional novel) in Hindi. The story is of a young doctor who chooses a remote village as his work field after he completed his education. Here he experiences the outdatedness of village life, ignorance, sorrow and superstition. The story concludes with the buoyant conviction that the village-consciousness had awakened.
5. Aapka Bunti by Mannu Bhandari
Aapka Bunti is the story of a nine-year-old Bunty, who is coping with the divorce of his parents. The book gives a mourning narrative of how a small child struggles against things that are incomprehensive from his limited mindset.
6. Rag Darbari by Shrilal Shukla
If you are an admirer of a satire, choose Rag Darbari. It is a novel that bites hard on the lawlessness of contemporary Indian life, through the narrative of a remote village and how a man uses the village panchayat, local school and the local government offices for his political propaganda. Shrilal Shukla won the the highest Indian literary award, Sahitya Academy, in 1969 for Rag Darbari.
7. Nirmala by Munshi Premchand
Author Premchand asks for no introduction, his work is considered worthy of the highest praise in Hindi literature. Nirmala is a story of a young girl who got married to a middle-aged man. The heart-rending story of an erratic marriage and the ever-existent dowry system, Nirmala has a marked place in the history of feminist literature.
8. Volga Se Ganga by Rahul Sankrityayan
Rahul is called the Father of Indian Travelogues. Volga Se Ganga is a collection of 20 historical fiction short stories. The timeline of this book begins in 6000 BC and ends in 1942, which means these stories are scattered over a span of 8000 years and a distance of about 10,000 km.
9. Pinjar by Amrita Pritam
Pinjar tells the story of a girl, Puro, abducted by a man, Rashid. When she runs away from Rashid’s house to her parents, they decline accepting her back into their lives, because she was profane for them now. Lurking against the background of Partition of India, a film adaptation of the same name was handed over the National Film Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration.
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