Kafan Summary: Premchand’s Story, Characters and Themes

About this novel

Kafan (Urdu: کفن, “The Shroud”) is a short story by Munshi Premchand (1880–1936), the father of the modern Urdu and Hindi short story. It was first printed in Urdu in December 1935, shortly before his death, and is often called his finest story. It is widely taught in schools and universities in Pakistan and India.

This guide gives a clear summary of Kafan, its characters, its main themes and why its ending still shocks readers.

Summary of Kafan

A night outside the hut

The story opens on a cold winter night in a poor village. A father and son, Ghisu and Madhav, sit by a dying fire outside their hut, roasting potatoes they have taken from someone’s field. Inside, Madhav’s young wife Budhiya is in labour and screaming in pain. Neither man goes in to help her. Each is afraid that if he leaves the fire, the other will eat more of the hot potatoes. They are among the poorest and laziest men in the village, and they work only when hunger forces them to.

As they eat, Ghisu remembers a wedding feast at a landowner’s house twenty years earlier: the puris, the sweets, the food he could eat until he was full. That memory is the happiest thing in his life. Then the two men fall asleep beside the fire.

Morning: Budhiya is dead

In the morning Madhav finds that Budhiya has died, with her unborn child. Father and son begin to weep loudly, and the neighbours come to comfort them. Now they need money for a kafan (shroud) and the funeral. Ghisu goes to the landowner, who dislikes them both but gives a little money anyway, and the other villagers contribute too. By midday the two men have collected about five rupees, plus some grain and wood.

The market and the wine-house

Ghisu and Madhav set off to the market to buy a shroud. They wander from shop to shop, telling each other that a light cloth will do, and that it is strange how a dead woman must have new clothes when she had only rags while alive. By evening they have reached a wine-house. There they spend the shroud money on liquor, puris, chutney and fried liver, eating and drinking the way Ghisu once ate at the wedding feast.

Drunk and happy, they tell themselves that Budhiya would not mind; she will surely go to heaven. They give their leftover food to a beggar, feel proud of their generosity, and finally get up and dance and sing in front of the other drinkers until they collapse.

Characters

• Ghisu: the old father, lazy, clever with words and shameless.
• Madhav: his son, even lazier, who learns everything from his father.
• Budhiya: Madhav’s hardworking wife, the only person who brought some order into their home. She never speaks in the story.

Themes

• Poverty that destroys humanity: Premchand shows how extreme hunger and exploitation can kill feeling itself. The two men are horrifying, yet the system around them made them that way.
• The hypocrisy of society: the same villagers who never helped Budhiya while she was alive give money for her shroud once she is dead.
• Dark irony: the shroud money buys the only feast the men can remember, and the “religious” duty becomes an excuse for celebration.
• Realism: unlike Premchand’s earlier idealistic stories, Kafan offers no hero and no lesson; it simply shows reality and leaves the reader uncomfortable.

About Munshi Premchand

Premchand was born Dhanpat Rai Srivastava near Varanasi in 1880. He wrote first in Urdu and later in Hindi, and published hundreds of short stories and several novels, including Godaan and Nirmala. His stories focus on village life, poverty, caste and the struggles of ordinary people. In 1936 he gave the opening address at the first meeting of the Progressive Writers’ Association in Lucknow.

Frequently asked questions

Who wrote Kafan? Munshi Premchand. It was first printed in Urdu in December 1935.

What happens to the shroud money? Ghisu and Madhav spend it on drink and food at a wine-house.

Why is Kafan important? It is one of the strongest pictures of poverty in South Asian literature, and many critics consider it the best Urdu short story.

Read more complete Urdu stories in our Urdu afsana collection.