Hypocrites: Meva ra Roonkh (Sahitya Akademi Award-Winning Rajasthani Novel)

Hypocrites, originally published under the title Meva ra Roonkh in Rajasthani, is a ruthless exposure of the rich, corrupt politicians, their duplicity and double talk as also of the villagers' exploitation, their superstition, ignorance, destitution and hunger. It is a convincing portrayal of their blind beliefs and the treatment that is meted out to them in their dire distress. The novel reflects the author's wide and varied experience of the villagers' plight, tinged with acute observation and esemplastic imagination.

Anna Ram 'Sudama' (b. 1923), novelist, short story writer, playwright and poet is one of the major writers in Indian literature writing in Rajasthani and Hindi. He has authored about a dozen books. In 1978 he was twice awarded prizes for poetry and fiction by Rajasthani Academy, Bikaner. The same year he was honoured by Sahitya Akademi for his novel Meva ra Roonkh which is now before you under the title Hypocrites. Some of his novels are prescribed as text books for Post-Graduate and Secondary School levels.

Nagarmal Sohal retired as University professor and Head 'of the Department of English in 1976. He has translated more than two dozen books including books on philosophy, religion and aesthetics. His poems, articles and reviews have been published in literary journals of Hindi and English. His Sixty Years of Rea lis tic Irish Drama received wide acclaim in India and abroad.