Read the passage carefully and attempt the following questions.
The power of Premchand's work lies in its fidelity to life, its truthful presentation of India-an India that lives in the cities and the countryside, in the fields and pastures, the byways and highways, in narrow lanes and alleys, in small fields and tumbledown huts. Premchand desired to transform this life by the power of his pen and succeeded to a large extent in doing so. Readers of his work were greatly influenced in their thinking by his words.
Premchand was a revolutionary thinker who hit out against wrong and injustice in all its vicious myriad forms. He hit out boldly and courageously against the humiliation of foreign rule, even though he was an employ of the Government. He stood by the peasant and the worker, by the untouchable against the priest, by oppressed women against social tyrants. He hated tyranny in all its various forms. He was an enlightened rationalist who stood foursquare against orthodoxy, superstition, and blind faith. He was an iconoclast whom the orthodox slaves of convention disliked and hated. They repeatedly attacked him, but he struck back at them with vigour and venom.
He came under the influence of Gandhism, moving from the ideas of Gokhale towards a more radical approach. He was steadily feeling his way towards a socialist vision. He was against all forms of oppression in the field or the factory. In a letter to Nigam he declared that he had almost accepted Bolshevik ideas. He declared that he belonged to "the party of the future which will have as its aim the political education of the downtrodden people."
Premchand desired to transform this life by -
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → The power of pen
The passage says, "Premchand desired to transform this life by the power of his pen and succeeded to a large extent in doing so." His writings changed the thinking of his readers.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: His physical strength — Incorrect. Not mentioned: Premchand was a writer; the passage says nothing about physical strength.
Option 3: Religious power — Incorrect. Contradicted: he stood against orthodoxy, superstition and blind faith, so religion was not his means.
Option 4: Political power — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the passage gives him no political power; he was in fact an employee of the Government and worked through his writing.