The Child by Premchand Summary – A detailed explanation of Premchand’s emotional short story highlighting themes of love, faith, and human values. Ideal for CBSE and literature exams.
THE CHILD BY PREMCHAND
Summary of The Child By Premchand
Premchand’s “The Child” is a short story based on the symbol of love. The novel’s narrative revolves around the main character, Gangu, a Brahmin boy. The story begins with the narrator, who is Gangu’s employer. Gangu works as a servant in the narrator’s house.
The narrator is a quiet man with several servants. He does his menial tasks on his own without any help. Although the narrator has several servants in his house, Gangu is different from all of them. Gangu is a lazy and careless person. He calls himself a Brahmin, but in reality, he does not follow Brahmin culture.
One day, Gangu goes to the narrator’s room to talk to him, but the narrator hesitates. When the narrator sees Gangu’s hesitation, he thinks he’s come to ask for money. Or perhaps he’s come to complain about another servant. But he’s come to tell the narrator something else. He tells the narrator that he will no longer work at his house and will leave his house forever.
Gangu is leaving the narrator’s house because he is about to marry a girl named Gomti Devi. Upon hearing Gomti’s name, the narrator asks Gangu, “Is this the same girl who has been married three times?” Gangu replies, “Yes, she is the same girl who has been married three times.”
Gomti Devi was married three times, ran away from all three of her husbands, and now she has come to live in her village. However, Gomti’s neighbors do not respect her; they consider her a woman of low character, but Gangu does not care about these things.
Gangu has always had respect for Gomti. The narrator tells Gangu to stay away from Gomti. He explained to Gangu that he should not marry Gomti. Gangu doesn’t listen to the narrator, quits his job as a maid and eventually marries Gomti. The narrator believes that Gangu and Gomti will soon separate.
But Gangu and Gomti live happily ever after after their marriage. After leaving his job as a maid, Gangu opened a shop in the market, and everything was going well. One day, Gomti left Gangu, and that same day, the narrator meets Gangu in the market. Gangu tells him about Gomti running away from him.
Gangu is deeply saddened by this, but still has complete faith in him. After this, the narrator goes to Nainital for work and returns after a month. When he returns, Gangu goes to his house to meet him.
When Gangu visits the narrator, she has a small child in her lap. He tells the narrator that he has his wife back. Gangu explains the reason for Gomati’s escape. Gangu tells the narrator that Gomati ran away from home because she was pregnant, and that he is not the father of her child. The child Gomati gave birth to is her ex-husband’s. The narrator asks Gangu, “How can you trust him? How did you accept him with the child?”
Gangu tells the narrator that this child is a gift from God to him, and that is why he accepted it. And he has believed in Gomati from the beginning. The narrator is overjoyed to hear Gangu’s words and begins to praise him. He blesses the child.