Preached (1880-1936) is regarded as among the finest of writers in Hindi and Urdu. His first collection of stories, So-e-Witan (1908), was banned for being incendiary and seditious. Undaunted, he kept writing stories that expressed the pain and suffering of the toiling masses.

Some of his best writings portray the influence of Gandhi and the Russian revolution in his choice of subjects: widow remarriage, dowry, untouchability, the rich-poor divide, the problems of landless labor, and the inequalities of the caste system.