Social issues have been an important concern in modern Indian literature in general and Hindi literature in particular since its beginnings in the 19th century. In recent decades, Dalit and Adivasi literaturewritten by author coming from a low caste and tribal backgroundhave emerged as important Hindi genres. Dalit and Adivasis form the economically most marginalised groups in India. Their short stories, poems and essays, as well as autobiographical texts, are regularly published in important Hindi literary journals. Some samples have begun to appear in the syllabuses of educational institutions, indicating an ongoing process of mainstreaming a new voice in Hindi. Hindi literature and language are becoming more inclusive and original, and feature challenging new voices. These developments are related to wider processes of social representation, discovery of identity and educational success. The notorious social discrimination and economic marginalisation of Adivasis and Dalits continues, but literature has become an important tool of expression for them, indicating a strengthened social identity.

This essay is divided in two parts. The first part gives an overview on fairy-related traditions in the high mountains of South Asia. It concentrates on Nuristan and Dardistan2 as well as on Garhwal (there especially on Bangan3) and highlights similarities and differences between these two areas. Moreover, it looks at more distant parallels and at relationships between fairy cults and Hindu Tantrism. The second part presents a recently recorded hymn to the fairy ‘Daughter of the hills’ and discusses its functions and background. Keywords: Himalayan folk religions and oral traditions, fairy lore

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Common names of authors and places are spelled in conventional Anglicized transcription. Otherwise I quote from Hindi according to IPA transliteration standard.-Thanks to Claus Peter Zoller, Madhu Singh, Linda Lane and Eleanor Coghill for their highly appreciated comments on earlier drafts of this paper and for the language check. Any remaining shortcoming is of course my own fault. 2 Translated by Indira Junghare 1991.

Premchand (1880-1936) started his career as one of the most prominent Indian authors of the 20th century in Urdu. His change towards Hindi was gradual, and he continued to write in Urdu until his death. His choice of language was pragmatic, and driven by economic needs. Hindi offered him a larger readership. Much more important than the choice of language in his artistic development was the development of his literary style, for which in the crucial years around 1915, he wanted to develop his own narrativity much on the model of Russian literature and Lew Tolstoy in particular. The decade starting about 1908 was a formative phase not only for Premchand, but also for Hindi as well as Urdu prose literature. Keywords: Premchand, Hindi, Hindi literature, Urdu, Devanagari. Saut (“The co-wife”)1, Premchand’s2 cherished first short story published in Hindi and in Urdu afterwards, was published in 1 PR 11: 371-379. For a summary of the story compare Goyankā 1981: 2, 435 (Saut 3). Not to be mixed up with another short story written by Premchand and published