With the coming of the British, the focus of literature changed. This change occurred phenomenally in Hindi prose writing where there was a zest to go back to the classics and be inspired by Sanskrit. This zest was combined with the nationalistic fervour. Bharatendu Harishchandra wrote his most famous drama Andher Nagari (City of Darkness) in 1850s and this became a major play, which has been reproduced several times. Another very famous nationalist work is Bharat Durdasha.
Another major writer from this period is Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi after whom an entire phase of Hindi writing has been named. In the modern period of Hindi called Adhunik kaal, there are four subsections called:
Bhartendu Yug 1868-1893
Dwivedi Yug 1893-1918
Chhayavad Yug 1918-1937
Contemporary period 1937-today
The movement to make Hindi the national language, which would link all regions, was spearheaded by Swami Dayanand. Although he wrote quite a lot in Gujarati, his most famous work in Hindi is Satyartha Prakash. Several Hindi authors like Munshi Prem Chand, Surya Kant Tripathi ‘Nirala’, Maithili Sharan Gupt questioned the orthodoxies in the society. Prem Chand wrote many anthologies in Hindi and Urdu and his famous works include Godan, Bade Bhhaiya, etc.
Other notable writers in Hindi include Sumitranandan Pant, Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ and Harivansha Rai Bachchan who wrote Madhushala. One of the most famous female writers of Hindi in the twentieth century was Mahadevi Verma. She was the recipient of Padma Vibhushan in Hindi because of her writing and how it highlighted the condition of women in society.