The Holy Panchayat – A Critique The focal theme of the story is ‘upholding justice ’. The entire story shows the life of folks, their sufferings, their disputes, their faith in God, and their loyalty and justice.
Jumman Sheik and Algu Chowdhari are childhood friends. Even though they are not close relatives, or belong to the same religion they are inseparable friends. It is evident that relatives are our destiny, but friends are our choice. Algu is an obedient student of the teacher who is Jumman’s father. Algu is softer than Jumman. He is very calm. That is why he is highly respected among the folks.
Jumman is greedy. He has a destitute aunt. She owns some land which is to be transferred to her nephew on signing an agreement. The main resolution of the agreement is that he has to look after her by providing food and clothes. The old lady was looked after carefully until the registration of the land was over. As a robber who is waiting for acquiring somebody’s property Language in India
unlawfully, he grabbed her land. The helpless widow was not given proper food and clothes as per the agreement. Moreover she was scolded by the heartless husband and wife. In our country the old age homes are functioning enormously because of the ill treatment of sons, daughters and other family members. It is a pitiable condition in our nation not only in the period of Premchand but even today. The old lady thinks that the Panchayat may settle her problem. So she approaches everyone in the village to call for the Panchayat. She receives only advice from them but no one comes forward to help her. With the continuous pressure from the lady they agree to proceed with the case.
Jumman has a plan to betray his aunty from day one after the agreement was signed. He believes that his influence among villagers can save him from punishment. Algu, the dearest friend of Jumman, was nominated as Chief of the session. The village court has a good system for selecting the Chief. The nominated Chief has to be accepted by both the parties. Premchand might have thought that a permanent judge could indulge in corruption to kill the truth. ‘The truth is a triumph’ is being practiced by them effectively. These judges have no friends and enemies, poor and rich, literate and illiterate, human being and non-human being but it is their main duty to protect the justice.
Some Episodes of Instant Justice :
itankan to preserve justice. The king was believed to have killed his own son to provide justice to a Cow, following Manu’s law. Legend has it that the king hung a giant bell in front of his courtroom for anyone needing justice to come and ring the bell. One day, he came out on hearing the ringing of the bell by a Cow. On enquiry he found that the Calf of that Cow was killed under the wheels of his son’s chariot. In order to provide justice to the cow, he killed his own son under the chariot as punishment, in order to make himself suffer as much as the cow. His name has since then been used as a metaphor for fairness and justice in Tamil literature.
The king of the Pandiya Kingdom, Neduchezian committed suicide for giving wrong judgment to Kovalan, the husband of Kannaki in a Tamil epic Silapathikaram. Kovalan goes with an ornament an anklet (called “silambu”, a golden anklet with a tube that contained rubies inside to make musical sound while walking) to sell it for money to live. A greedy goldsmith sees the silambu and informs the King that he has got the thief, who stole the silambu of the Queen. Nedunchezhian, in a hurry to go to the Queen’s palace and appease her, orders the death of Kovalan and to bring back the ornament. Kannaki becomes furious on hearing the news and rushes to the Royal Court of the King. She proves that Kovalan was innocent by breaking her remaining silambu to show that it contained rubies and not pearls, as in the Queen’s silambu. Pandiyan Nedunchezhian regrets his unjust act, and dies on the throne, followed by the Queen. The great epic writer Ilango says, “Righteousness will penalize the ruler”
