INDIAN ENGLISH DRAMA: AN OVERVIEW
Abstract: Drama in India has a grand old history. Tagore, the first major playwright,
invested Indian English drama with lyrical excellence, symbolism and allegorical
significance. Dramatists like Manjeri
Isvaran, Nissim Ezekiel,
Lakhan Dev, Gurcharan Das, G.V. Dasani, Pratap Sharma, Asif Currimbhoy, Gieve
Patel and Pritish Nandy made significant contribution in uplifting the Indian
English drama. Contemporary Indian drama is experimental and innovative
in terms of thematic and technical qualities. A cumulative theatrical tradition
evolved by Mohan Rakesh, Badal Sircar, Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Karnad,
prepared the background of contemporary Indian English theatre.
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Drama in India
has a grand old history. Its origin can be traced back to the Vedic
Period. Bharata's Natyasastra
is the first and most significant work on Indian poetics and drama. Here
Bharata considers drama as the fifth Veda.
There are references to drama in Patanjali's Mahabhashya, Vatsyayana's Kamasutra,
Kautilya's Arthashastra and Panini's Ashtadhyayi. Bharat’s theory of dramatic art was
followed by Ashwaghosh, Bhasa, Shudraka, Kalidas, Harsha,
Bhavabhuti, Vishakhadatta, Bhatta Narayana and Murari. The supreme achievement
of Indian Drama undoubtedly lies in Kalidasa, the Shakespeare of India. In
India Sanskrit drama
flourished in its glory till the fifteenth century but thereafter Indian drama
activity almost came to an end due to certain invasions on India .
The rise of the modern drama dates
back to the 18th century when the British Empire strengthened its power in India . With the
impact of Western civilization on Indian life, a new renaissance dawned on
Indian arts including drama. For the first time in the history of modern Indian theatre two comedies,
Disguise and Love is the Best Doctor
were translated from English into Bengali by Lebedoff and Goloknath Das and
they were produced in Calcutta .
But the real journey of Indian English Drama begins with Michael Madhusudan
Dutt's Is This Called Civilization which
was written in
1871.Thereby any sustainable creative efforts were not taken place in drama for
two decades after Dutt’s play.
In fact there were many difficulties in the way
of the development of the Indian English Drama. ‘The difficulty, however, has
been overcome to a considerable degree by some talented Indian English
dramatists by carefully choosing the situations and language that transcend
time and place and the characters that are plausible and convincing.’1
By the end of the 19th century, the literary giants like Rabindranath Tagore,
Sri Aurobindo, Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, T.P. Kailasam, Lobo Prabhu, Bharati
Sarabhai and so on tried to overcome these difficulties and opened up new
vistas in the genre. This pre independence crop of dramatists did not give
enough weight -age to the acceptability and stage -worthiness of their plays. During
the colonial era, drama in English in Indian soil could not flourish as a major
current of creative expression. Although the pre–Independence Indian English
drama is notable for its poetic excellence, thematic variety, technical
virtuosity, symbolic significance and its commitment to human and moral values,
it was by and large not geared for actual stage production.
The post- Independence Indian English
drama was benefited by the increasing interest of the foreign countries in
Indian English literature in general and Indian English drama in particular. A
good number of plays by Indian playwrights were successfully staged in Europe and United States of America . Despite the growth of poetic drama in
early post independence, Indian English drama made genuine progress. Dramatists
like Manjeri Isvaran,
Nissim Ezekiel, Lakhan Dev, Gurcharan Das, G.V. Dasani, Pratap Sharma, Asif Currimbhoy, Gieve
Patel and Pritish Nandy made significant contribution in uplifting the Indian
English drama. M.K. Naik rightly says that ‘Tagore-Aurobindo-Kailasam tradition
of poetic drama continued, but with a difference in the hands of Manjeri
Isvaran, G.V. Dasani, Lakhan Dev and Pritish Nandy.’2 In the realm
of Indian Drama , Nissim Ezekiel is acknowledged for his exceptional poetic
creed and rare dramatic sensibility.
In spite of strong sense of dramatic
concept, Ezekiel could not transform his poetic talent into appropriate
dramatic talent. His plays can be appreciated for symmetrical construction with
abundance of irony. They unveil his sharp observation of the oddities of human
life and behaviour. It is attributed ‘In his satire of current fashion, in his
exposure of prose and presence, Ezekiel comes very close to the spirit of some
English social satirist in theatre’.3
Asif Currimbhoy is one of the most prolific
playwrights of the Post-Independence period. He is India 's first authentic voice in
the theatre. He is one modern Indian playwright who has shown great interest in
producing drama. His love for Shakespearean drama has influenced his body of
work. His first play Goa deals with
racial discrimination as a paradigm of post
colonialism. In spite of comprehensiveness, Currimbhoy`s dramatic art has
been a subject of criticism. ‘His symbols are often crude, conventional and
mechanic but the greatest limitation of his technique is revealed especially in
his later plays in which Currimbhoy appears to confuse dramatic technique with
theatrical trickery and stage gimmicks with dramatic experience’.4
Mohan Rakesh, Dharamvir Bharati, Badal Sircar, Vijay
Tendulkar, Girish Karnad and Mahashweta Devi are the most representative of the
Contemporary Indian drama not only in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, and Kannada but
also on the pan Indian level. They are widely considered to be among the finest
dramatists writing in Indian languages. They have made use of remarkable
innovations and experiments in technique and theme. They contributed to the
modernization of the face of the Indian theatre. While drama in English
struggled to sustain itself, drama in other Indian languages kept on
experimenting, growing and absorbing folk forms.
Mohan Rakesh, a Hindi playwright,
projected Marxism in his plays which presented a relentless fight against the
traditional stranglehold of Hindi drama. As a playwright, his main concern
was to portray the crisis of contemporary man caught in the web of uncongenial
surroundings and the persistent threat to human relationship. His plays dramatize the suffering of
men and women who fall victims to socio-economic hierarchy and cultural
hegemony. He made extensive experiments in theatre. He uses historical characters to
present the breakdown of communication in modern life. He used words
and languages not as dialogues or direct statements but as the tools of
suggestion to convey the meaning beyond the verbal connotation. In Indian
English drama the influence of Mohan Rakesh can not be ignored.
The modernization of Indian theatre was done with the
literary excellence of playwrights like Badal Sircar, Vijay Tendulkar and
Girish Karnad. These dramatists have approached with their innovative ideas to
present in front of the larger audience. They made fruitful experiments with
the thematic concerns and technical virtuosities. They used legends, folklores,
myths and history with splendid results. They broke the barrier of regional
works and produced many good works at national level. They dramatized universal
aspects of human life in India .
Badal sircar, a prestigious
name in the realm of contemporary theatre, represents New Theatrical Movement
in India .
He created a genuine
people’s theatre known as Third Theatre, a theatre supported and created by
people. This theatre was
once described by Rustom Bharucha ‘as the most rigorously non commercial
political theatre in India ’.5 Sircar’s notable
plays project
existential philosophy of breakdown of communication and depict the existential
attitude of modern man in the postcolonial India . Through his plays Sircar
suggests constructive action aimed at social change. The concept of modern man
representing a new generation was challenging enough for dramatists like Badal
Sircar to take up as the subject matter of his drama.
A Marathi playwright, Vijay
Tendulkar, significantly changed the form and pattern of Indian drama. He
bridged the gap between traditional and modern theatre. In all his
plays, Tendulkar harps upon the theme of isolation and suffering of the
individual and his confrontation with the hostile surroundings. He explores the socio-political
matrix of contemporary Indian subjectivity in his plays. He strongly believes
that ideas are firmly entrenched in our psyche at an early age and ‘our
attitude has a lot to do with what we internalize in our early formative years’.6 He relates the
problem of anguish to the theme of violence in most of his plays.
Girish Karnad is an important
contributor to Indo-Anglian theatre. His contribution goes beyond theatre. He
has directed feature films, documentaries, and television serials. He
represented India
in foreign lands as an emissary of art and culture. Karnad has the widest range
in terms of theme and technique. He has experimented with the fusion of the
traditional and modern dramatic forms and content. The purpose of using
traditional forms is to achieve a rare insight into the contemporary reality
because Karnad believes that complexities of post colonialism are inherited
from the colonial and pre-colonial times. Pre-colonial, colonial and post
colonial experiences in literature can not be compartmentalized in true sense.
They are not divorced from each other. Girish Karnad uses the devices of myth,
folklore and history not just to visit the past but to look at the present and
also to foreshadow the future. He uses myth and history to create a new
consciousness of the absurdity of human life with all its passions and
conflicts. He borrowed his plots from history, mythology and old
legends but with intricate symbolism, he tried to establish their relevance in
contemporary socio-political conditions. Karnad’s dramatic art lacks stability
still his success lies in technical experiment with an indigenous dramatic
form.
Apart
from the above mentioned playwrights some women dramatists also tried to enrich
the soil of Indian drama by projecting the inner world of feminine psyche in
the theatre. Among them Mahasweta Devi is a noteworthy playwright. She satirizes the prevailing social
system in her plays. Her plays represent a profound concern for human
predicament and sincere hope for the better future of mankind. She emerged as a
dramatist having a quest to explore something challenging and new. ‘Like Brecht, Mahashweta Devi never
tries to disguise the stage apparatus so as to make the audience aware that it
is sitting in a theatre’.7
Contemporary Indian drama is
experimental and innovative in terms of thematic and technical qualities. It is
not an off spring of any specific tradition and it has laid the foundation of a
distinctive tradition in the history of world drama by reinvestigating history,
legend, myth, religion and folk love with context to contemporary
socio-political issues. A cumulative theatrical tradition evolved by Mohan
Rakesh, Badal Sircar, Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Karnad, prepared the
background of contemporary Indian English theatre. Recently Indian English drama has
produced two brilliant playwrights like Manjula Padmanabhan and Mahesh Dattani
who elevate Indian English drama at its summit of success. Both of them raise
English drama not only in Indian theatre but also in the world theatre in rich
quality and thematic presentation. Manjula Padmanabhan is the first Indian to
earn international fame with her play Harvest,
a futuristic play.
It deals with an impoverished family living in a single
room in a chawl of Bombay ,
fading up by extreme hunger and unemployment, protagonist decided to sell his
organs of body. Here she projects a dehumanized, terrifying world in which
mothers sell their sons for the price of rice.
The plays of Padmanabhan are intellectual but not suited for stage.
Mahesh Dattani is one of the best
playwrights the country has ever produced. The plays of Mahesh Dattani emerged as ‘fresh arrival’ in
the domain of Indian English drama in the last decade of twentieth
century. He is taken to be a true successor of Girish Karnad and
responsible for the revolutionary progression of English drama. He emerges as a
compelling playwright who projects the postcolonial dichotomy at various
levels. He keeps women at the centre of his dramatic world and may be called a
great feminist.
He was greatly influenced by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller
and others. He says ‘Change does not happen overnight, we grow liberal after
not because we want to, but have to’.8 Mahesh Dattani used the
contemporary sensational issues as a theme for his plays such as – Gender
discrimination in Tara, Gay community
in On Muggy Night in Mumbai, Status
of eunuch in Seven Steps around the Fire,
and Communalism in Final Solution. He
has an array of themes to offer us. His plays and issues he chooses to project
are the most topical but also the most controversial. ‘The most significant
contribution of Dattani is perhaps his use of language. Dattani uses in his
plays the kind of English spoken by people in India’.9
A survey of contemporary Indian drama shows that the works of Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani represent a powerful and resurgent Indian drama. These playwrights have given new directions to Indian drama. One of the things which profoundly unite them is their mutually complementary treatment of the problematic of contemporary Indian subjectivity on the various axis of gender, sexuality, history, politics, tradition, class and socio-cultural change. Indian English drama is on the right path of progress at present and in future it has a bright prospect.
A survey of contemporary Indian drama shows that the works of Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani represent a powerful and resurgent Indian drama. These playwrights have given new directions to Indian drama. One of the things which profoundly unite them is their mutually complementary treatment of the problematic of contemporary Indian subjectivity on the various axis of gender, sexuality, history, politics, tradition, class and socio-cultural change. Indian English drama is on the right path of progress at present and in future it has a bright prospect.
References:
1.
R.K.
Dhawan and V.K Reddy, Flowering of Indian
English Drama (New Delhi :
Prestige, 2004), p. 2.
2.
G.S.Amur, “Kailasam`s Quest for
Greatness”, Critical Essays on Indian
Writing In English (Madras: Macmillan, 1977) p. 186.
3.
Chetan Karnani, Nissim Ezekiel (New Delhi: Arnold Heinemann, 1974), p. 126.
4.
M.K.Naik, A History of Indian English Literature (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi,
1995), p. 257.
5.
Rustam
Bharuch, Rehearsals of Revolution: The Political Theatre of Bengal (Honolulu: U of Hawaii Press, 1993),
p. 127.
6.
Shoma
Chaudhury and Gita Rajan, ed., Vijay
Tendulkar (New Delhi :
Katha, 2001), p. 65.
7.
E.
Satyanarayana, The plays of Mahasweta Devi (New Delhi :
Prestige, 2005), p. 128.
8.
Vandana
Dutt, “The Dramatic Art of Mahesh
Dattani”, Journal of Commonwealth
Review, Vol. XIII, No.2, p. 157.
9.
R.K.
Dhawan, The Plays of Mahesh Dattani (New Delhi : Prestige,
2005), p. 20.
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