Summary
Evening falls and Ghisu and Madhav arrive at a wine-house. At first they hesitate to order. Then Ghisu goes to the counter and asks for a bottle of liquor and some sesame sweets. Eventually, they order snacks and fried fish. They sit down on the verandah and drink peacefully.
As Ghisu and Madhav drink they become elevated and their discussion returns to the shroud. Ghisu asks what the point of a shroud is, since it will only burn in the end anyway. Madhav wonders whether the gifts given to the dead really accompany them to the next world. Ghisu takes this point a step further, pointing out that the wealthy can waste their money on the dead but poor people like them don’t have any money to waste.
Madhav worries what they will tell people who ask where their donations went. But Ghisu reassures him that they’ll come up with an excuse. Even if people don’t believe them they will donate again anyway.
Madhav and Ghisu order more food and become drunker, spending nearly all of the donated money. They say that Budhiya will surely go to heaven since she was so good in life. She was even good in death, since she gifted them the dream of their lives: a fine and abundant feast. In another moment of doubt, Madhav wonders if he and Ghisu will go to heaven. If they make it there, he wonders what he will say to Budhiya when she asks why they didn’t give her a shroud. Ghisu again reassures Madhav, saying that Budhiya will somehow have a fine shroud at her funeral.
Night settles in and the wine-house becomes more chaotic. The patrons all look at Ghisu and Madhav, who are fortunate enough to be sharing a whole bottle of liquor between the two of them. When Madhav is done eating he proudly gives his leftover food to a beggar. Ghisu tells the beggar to eat his fill and to bless Budhiya.
Madhav says that Budhiya will become the Queen of Heaven. Then his mood changes quickly, and he begins to weep on account of how much Budhiya suffered in her life. Ghisu tells his son not to weep, since Budhiya is lucky because she has escaped “the bonds of worldly illusion so quickly.”
Ghisu and Madhav begin to sing and dance. The whole wine-house is "absorbed in the spectacle." Highly intoxicated, father and son jump around and fall over, until "finally, overcome by drunkenness, they collapsed."
Analysis
In the final section of "The Shroud," Premchand continues to develop the narrator's dual representation of the story’s anti-heroes, Ghisu and Madhav. When the father and son decide to spend Budhiya’s funeral money, the narrator describes their actions with a humorous distance, and even passively. They arrive at the wine-house "by chance or deliberately." They go inside "as if according to some prearranged decision," made by an external force. At first, according to the narrator’s description, Ghisu and Madhav do not order food but rather it simply arrives at their table.
This passive description of the father and son’s feast reaches its climax when the narrator remarks that "the disaster of life seized them and dragged them there." On the one hand, the narrator’s tone is sarcastic. With humorous distance, it mocks the way in which the main characters justify their own reprehensible actions to themselves. Ghisu and Madhav act as if they didn’t choose to spend the funeral money on liquor but rather that fate forced them to do so.
On the other hand, the passive description of Ghisu and Madhav’s actions extends the story's commentary on class inequality. As the narrator remarked earlier, Ghisu and Madhav’s way of life is a natural consequence of the highly unequal class system they live in. From this perspective, it is literally the disastrous and unjust circumstances of society that led the father and son to spend Budhiya’s funeral money at the wine-house.
Destiny has treated them badly: they were born poor and of a lower caste, and they will die the same way. Given their social position, an enjoyable, fully satisfying meal is unattainable. In fact, Ghisu has only felt truly full once in his life. No one would have given them the money for such a feast under normal circumstances. They were only able to obtain the donations due to Budhiya’s death. Thus, for Ghisu and Madhav spending Budhiya’s funeral money at the wine-house becomes a way of “defeating destiny.”
As Ghisu and Madhav decide to enjoy a feast rather than buy a shroud, Premchand explores the themes of religion and religious hypocrisy. As he becomes drunk, Madhav comments on how the Brahmins—the privileged priestly class within India’s caste system—receive large sums of money through donations. Ghisu replies that rich people like the Brahmins have enough money to waste on a shroud that will ultimately burn to ashes. But poor people like them have nothing to waste.
Later, Madhav and Ghisu suggest that the good-natured Budhiya will surely go to Heaven. Ghisu remarks: “If she doesn't go to Heaven, then will those fat rich people go—who loot the poor with both hands, and go to the Ganges to wash away their sin, and offer holy water in temples?”
Through Ghisu and Madhav's commentaries, the story offers a critique of religious hypocrisy that is associated with an unfair class system. Broadly, the highest-ranking caste, the Brahmins, is associated with priesthood and purity. It is also the wealthiest class. Ghisu and Madhav indicate that those with money can talk about purity, piety, and heavenly matters because their earthly needs are met. Yet those who are poor must worry about meeting their basic, earthly needs.
Moreover, the story points out the hypocrisy of the religious system. The wealthy class only came to have money by stealing from the poor. They commit the sin of stealing from the poor and then wash away their sins through religious rituals. Ghisu and Madhav poke fun at and subvert this system by justifying their terrible treatment of Budhiya in religious terms. For example, they say that Budhiya will surely receive religious merit in heaven, since their souls are pleased as they enjoy their feast at the wine-house. The narrator of "The Shroud" also uses religious terms in a sarcastic way that extends the story's commentary on religious hypocrisy. For example, the narrator describes Ghisu and Madhav’s actions and mannerisms as "pious" and says that they would make great ascetics, which are people who pursue religious goals by rejecting worldly pleasures and possessions.
At the end of the story, Madhav has a sudden change of heart. He sobs as he considers how much Budhiya suffered in her life. Yet Ghisu again uses language of transcendence and enlightenment often associated with religion to justify their actions. “Be happy that she's been liberated from this net of illusion,” he says. “[S]he was very fortunate that she was able to break the bonds of worldly illusion so quickly."
