Munshi Premchand was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindi-Urdu literature. He is one of the most celebrated writers from India. Born Dhanpat Rai, he began writing under the pen name "Nawab Rai", but subsequently switched to ‘Premchand’. His works include more than a dozen novels, around 250 short stories, several essays and translations of a number of foreign literary works into Hindi.