We are glad to place before you this inaugural issue of “People’s Literature”.

In a class society the exploiting ruling classes always try to subjugate and suppress the people’s culture. Under the guise of culture they pump the opium of ignorance into the minds of the people. They arrest the thought process of people with unscientific social traditions, customs and regulations. They try to suppress people’s culture. Under such circumstances people shall have to fight to safeguard their own culture and develop it and fight to eradicate the dangerous culture of exploiters and oppressors.

The first article in this issue is a document reviewing and presenting the contemporary literary and cultural scene in India. It also presents the orientation and tasks of people’s literary and cultural movement.

We are reproducing two useful writings-The presidential address of Premchand in the first Progressive Writers Conference held in Lucknow in 1936 and Maxim Gorky’s article ‘On Whose side?, ‘Masters of Culture’? The substance of both the writings hold good even today.
In Hindi section, you find the translation of the document published in English on People’s Literary and Cultural Movement. We intend to bring out this as a biannual and bilingual magazine.

- Editor