Ebong Indrajit
Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 26
Palash Biswas
http://troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/
High alert in Malkangiri district, borders sealed
Press Trust Of India
Malkangiri, July 17, 2008
A day after Maoists killed 17 police personnel in a landmine blast in Orissa, a high alert was sounded in Malkangiri district, the site of the explosion, and borders with Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were sealed.
State police along with Special Operations Group (SOG) is doing combing operation in the state. They are being assisted by CRPF, anti-naxal Greyhound Force of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh police, police said.
Amidst speculation about possible use of RDX in Wednesday's blast, experts are trying to ascertain the nature of explosives used by the ultras.
"Our scientific team is working on the spot to verify whether RDX has been used in the explosion," DGP Gopal Chandra Nanda told reporters after visiting the blast site.
Maoists yesterday triggered a landmine blast at MV-126, about 50 km from Malkangiri, when jawans of Orissa's SOG and police were travelling in a van to MPV-41.
The attack came 18 days after the Maoists carried out an attack, which left 35 dead and dozens injured, on a launch carrying Greyhound personnel in a reservoir in Malkangiri district.
Somnath undergoes routine eye check-up
Hyderabad (PTI): Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today underwent a routine eye check at L V Prasad Eye Institute here.
Chatterjee underwent a cataract surgery two weeks ago and he is absolutely normal, an institute official said.
Later, he underwent some checks at the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology.
When newsmen tried to contact Chatterjee for his stand on nuclear deal and his continuation in office, his aids kept the media away from him telling the Speaker is not interested in meeting them.
He is likely to return to Delhi on Thursday night.
No question of compromise on nuke programme: Sonia
Nellore (AP) (PTI): In a strong rebuttal of the Left parties criticism on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said there was no question of compromising on the country's security interest, nuclear programme and foreign policy.
Against the backdrop of allegations by the former allies against the government and the Congress leadership, she said they did not not need certificate of patriotism from anyone.
Strongly backing the prime minister, she said the country needs access to latest nuclear technology and fuel from other countries and asked how they could be faulted for trying to provide this to people.
".....Yet we are being accused of going against the interest of our country. Let me state before you, before the whole country categorically. There is no no question of compromising on our security interest, on our nuclear programme and our independent foreign policy," Gandhi said addressing a public meeting here.
In the Congress Working Committee (CWC) last week, she regretted the break up in ties with the Left parties but today she appeared more direct in replying to their criticism on the deal.
The UPA chairperson said through India there was need for access to the latest nuclear technology and fuel from other countries.
"And this is what we want to do for our people. And how can we be faulted for striving to provide all this for our people. Yet, we are being accused of going against the interest of our country," she said.
Referring to the accusation that the government was going against the country's interest, Gandhi said without naming any party that "We do not not need any certificate from any party or anybody about our patriotism".
Gandhi said there was no question of compromising on the issue and "the future generation would recognise the value of this agreement, value of what Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) is doing today."
"What the country needs most is to go ahead with pride the politics that unites and not the kind of politics other parties do, spreading hatred. We don't need the politics of division."
She said the nuclear deal was extremely important "as it would enable more nuclear power plants so that we can generate more power."
"Our demand for electricity is growing day by day. To eliminate power cuts we need access to nuclear technology and this is what we want to do for the people. We need more and more power for farms, farmers, schools, hospitals and for every single village and house in the country."
Touching upon the issue of inflation, she said government had to face huge challenges due to unprecedented oil price rise.
Hitting out at the NDA for raking up inflation issue, Gandhi said during its regime the price of oil was USD 35 per barrel which has jumped to USD 147 per barrel now now.
Pointing out that India has to import 75 per cent of its oil requirements, she said "This imposes a very heavy burden on us. But we have been extremely cautious that the consumer of the petro products do not suffer."
She added, "We need more and more power for farms, farmers, schools, hospitals and for every single village and house in the country."
Touching upon the issue of inflation, she said government has to face huge challenges due to unprecedented oil price rise.
India changes strategy for IAEA talks
17 Jul, 2008, 0236 hrs IST, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: In a last-minute change of plan, India has decided to reduce the number of countries it will brief on the IAEA-India specific safeguards agreement and keep the IAEA secretariat out of the picture for the July 18 meeting.
Instead of going through the IAEA secretariat as planned, the government decided on Tuesday that it would directly invite countries on the IAEA board of governors and a few members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group for the briefing.
Subsequently, the secretariat was informed on Tuesday night that India had decided to cancel the Friday meeting, which was to be hosted by the IAEA secretariat. This led to some amount of confusion on Wednesday with the secretariat putting out statements saying that the briefing called by India had been cancelled. India to clear the misunderstanding then informed the secretariat that it was hosting its own meeting outside the IAEA headquarters.
What has caught the IAEA secretariat by surprise is that it was India which had asked the secretariat to host the Friday meeting, which had been fixed for 10. 30 am at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna. Now India will host the meeting later at 4.30 pm, local time in Vienna. "We just learnt that there is a briefing scheduled on Friday afternoon at a location outside the IAEA premises. The invitation was distributed directly by India to the board members," said IAEA spokesperson Melissa Fleming .
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/India_changes_strategy_for_IAEA_talks/articleshow/3242661.cms
Indian parliamentary system and its soul, the constitution of India bleed in agony as the living Legend amongst Indian theatre personalities, Badal Sarkar is indisposed nowadays.The running Nuke Soap Opera has stolen every relevant issues challenging the Nation. At the same time the Indigenous culture is also marginalised in such a way that none of the Media, neither electronic nor print has any time to focus otherwise unsponsered. Hence mainstream Bengali media woes the newly found BANGA TANOYA, Nihita Biswas, the Latest icon of Brahminical Hegemony to reveal her affair with the Lady Killer Charles Shobhraj.
For me, as being an outsider, remembering Badal Sarkar seems to be the most relevant item during these Tsunami times of Indian Nation. I had not the opportunity to witness the great IPT movement in Bengal but I feel the thrill while I witness Mahashweta Debi singing the songs of NABANNYA, directed by her one time hubby, Bijon Bhattacharya. I have gone through Asok Mitra`s details of Kallol days in sixties. I have also felt the heat and dust of Jagannath in eighties while being engaged in Jharkhand movement with AK Roy.
I was fortunate to witness the sensational exposure of Brahmincal hegemony of Pune Zionist Brahmins by Vijay Tendulkar in his masterpiece Ghasiram kotwal. I have seen magnificent productions of sOJAN BADIYAR GHAT, TEESTA PARER BRITANTO, Antigone, Kath Kaa gadee, Mricchkatic, Tempest, Chalk Circle and so on. But it was not the same as I experienced with Badal Sarkar plays like Paagla Ghoda, Ebong Indrajit or Micchil (Julus) in Nainital. We used the plays as the most relevant tools of resistance during Chipoko movement in 1978-79.
Bengali theatre is identified with Resistance and Mass mobilisation. Way back in 1870s Dino Bandhu Mitra wrote a play with the theme of Neel Darpan. It was enacted and legend like Nati Binodini was the part of the venture. The play was displayed in Lahore, New Delhi, Lucknow and Brindaban at the time besides kolkata. in Lucknow, the white men were agitated when they found an Englishman was being thrashed by Indigenous untouchable peasants! The play was banned at last. Kolkata Theatre personalities continued the Grand legacy. Thus, we see Shaonli Mitra, the daughter of Shambhu Mitra and Tripti Mitre presents ANIMAL FARM with a Human Scape of Singur and Nandigram! The theatre personalities led by Shaonli and Kaushik sen lead the Intelligentsia Kolakta to mobilise mass movement favouring post modern Peasants` movement in Left ruled West Bengal. Once upon a time, Utapal Dutta led his time with KALLOL, TITAS EKTI NADEER NAAM and TINER TALWAR. Though Utpal dutta also played CHAKRANT justifying Refugee Genocide in Marichjhanpi in 1979.
Badal Sarkar, contrary to the legacy of Bengali Theatre, had never been associated with any Resistance Moviment. He was enough Apolitical , but had never been Political. Badal Sarkar was never been a party in Power politics.Thus,no one dares to remember the man. At the same time, badal sarkar never represented the Ruling West Bengal Brahminical hegemony as Shambhu Mitra, Ajitesh Bandopadhyaya, Utapal dutta, Tripti Mitra, Bijon Bhattacharya, Rudra Prasad Sengupta do. Theatre personality like Brtya Basu, most complex one and hard to communicate has become latest Icons. We have Gautam Haldar, Sumon Mukhopaddhyaya, Chandan Sen, Usha Ganguli, Kaushik sen, Shaonli Mitra, Meghnath Bhattacharya , Manoj Mitra and scores of modern theatre personalities well highlighted everywhere. But Badal Sarkar, most recognised Theatre personality out of Bengal has to see this day as sometimes Ram Kinkar Baiz and recently Somnath Hore as Artists with no political patronage have faced.
We have seen Sharat to Ritwik Ghatak being persecuted in Bengal.Even Rabindra nath Tagore was not spared. He climbed the Waves with the Nobel prize at last. Nazrul and Jasimuddin may be quoted as other significant contributors in indian Cultural Identity neglected by Bengal.Rather, the Bengalies are quite habitual to worship someone like Satyajeet Ray!
Thanks god! I don`t belong to the Procession.
In Nainital, NSD organised a Theatre Workshop sometime in 1978-79. BM shah directed, Julus, the Procession. BB Karanth presented Evam Indrajeet. The Chorus of Amal, Bimal, Kamal Ebong Indrajit haunts me even today! Aloknath, Neena Gupta and lalit tiwari enacted the plays. Later, our own jugmanch presented Julus, directed by Zahoor Allam. DK, Sharad, Zahoor, Harish pant, Dheeraj and suneet were the actors! We repeated the Julus experience with Girish Tiwari Girda`s play NAGAADE KHamosh Hain using the Mal Road,NAINITAL for the Procession!
Badal Sarkar
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Bardal Sarkar
FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT="
Born 1925
Years active 1945 - present
[show]Awards won
Other Awards
1966 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
1972 Padma Shri
1997 Ratna Sadsya
Badal Sarkar (or Badal Sircar) (1925 - ) is a famous Indian dramatist. He has written more than fifty plays of which Ebong Indrajit and Basi Khabar are well known literary pieces. He is actively involved with Bengali theatre.
He rose to prominence in the 1970's and was one of the leading figures in the revival of street theater in Bengal. He revolutionized Bengali theatre with his angst-ridden, anti-establishment plays during the Naxalite movement. [1] He has been awarded the Padma Shri in 1972, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1968 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, Ratna Sadsya [2], in 1997.
Contents
[hide]
1 List of plays
2 References
3 See also
4 External links
[edit] List of plays
Ebong Indrajit
Shesh Naai
Basi Khabar
Baaki Itihaash
Pagla Ghoda
Spartacus
Prastava
Juloos
Bhoma
Solution X
Baropishima
His plays reflected the atrocities that prevailed in the society, the decayed hierarchical system and were socially enlightening.
‘Ebong Indrajit’ by Badal Sarkar
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I grew up listening to the stories of this play from dad. Although I could never fully understand what is it about no matter how many times dad told me. Finally I get a chance to see the play. A theater group called ‘Mukhosh’ is performing the play here in Bangalore. I have already got the tickets thought would spread the word a bit given the fact that me and Constant Motion bought the first two tickets from KC Das on St Marks Road. The guy there didn’t even know he has the tickets up for sale. We had tell him we saw in the net that he has the tickets. Any Bangalorean Bong interested in accompanying pls leave a comment i’ll take it from there.
A tip coming straight from Dad… You have to reach the theater before time and ensure you catch the play from the first word, otherwise you’d miss the significance of the name “Ebong Indrajit”
The details:
Date: Saturday, 30th June and Sunday, 1st July
Venue: Seva Sadan, Malleshwaram (14th Cross)
Time: 6:30 pm
Tickets: Rs.80/-
For advance booking, contact:
Anindita (9886307249)
Ayan (988680729
Apart from cinema, Bengal being a creative center for artistic and intellectual endeavor, has always taken keen interest in the theatrical elements that were found in many localized entertainments in the various districts of West Bengal. Bengali folk-dramas have their roots in the folk drama forms like Kabigan (a dramatic mode of recitation), Kirtan and Baul songs (devotional music), Chhau (a tribal dance-drama), Gajan and Gambhira (ritualistic dances), Jhumur (performing duets), Yatra and Paalaagaan, which were mostly performed in the open grounds of Bengal. These different performing art styles paved the way for professional theatres.
Professional Theatres started growing since 1795 and were taken into adulthood by distinguished conductors like D.L.Roy, Girish Ghosh, Sisir Bhaduri, Ardhendu Mushtafi and others. The noble laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore himself acted in the role of Alikbabu, in a theatre of that time.
Bengali theatre
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Bengali theatre refers to theaters in which the dialogues are in the Bengali language. However, there are some Hindi theatres as well which are widely accepted by the Bengali people (e.g. the productions of Rangakarmee, a group whose productions are directed mainly by Usha Ganguly; the productions by Padatik, another group). Some persons may be willing to incorporate these theatres in the category of Bengali theatres. Bengali Theatres are produced mainly in West Bengal of India and in Bangladesh. Bengali people are spread world wide. Sometimes, they invite the Bengali theatres at their ceremonies; sometimes, they themselves produce amateur Bengali Theatres.
Bengali theatre by and large has its origins in British rule. It began as private entertainment in the early 19th century.[1] However, in the pre-independence period (before 1947; especially in the late 19th century), Bengali theatres played a pivotal role in manifestation of dislike of the British Raj in India.
After the independence of India in 1947, leftist movements in West Bengal used theatre massively as a way of propaganda; this added some special characteristics in Bengali theatre, the hangover of which is still looming large, especially in the way of organization of the theatre groups, they are called Group theatres; most of these groups say that they carry an ideological inspiration behind their ensemble, this is how they differentiate themselves from commercial Bengali theatre, which is dead at present
Theatre is practised in West Bengal in a very wide scale. Almost every locality has a theatre group, although none of them is confined within the local characteristics. However, theatres in West Bengal can be divided in two streams - (a) Kolkata-based theatres and (b) Rural theatres. The Kolkata-based groups perform almost regularly in the popular stages in Kolkata and stay in focus. Comparatively, the rural theatre groups are less known although most of them work seriously throughout the year. What rest of the world understands as Bengali Theatre is actually the theatres presented by the Kolkata-based groups. In form and content, the two types of theatres have no major difference. But, in terms of both finance and expertise, the Kolkata-based theatres are more enriched. This is mainly due to the influx of expertise from rural areas to Kolkata in search of appreciation from a larger set of audience.
Apart from the above two categories, there are some Bengali folk theatres. The language Bengali has many versions within West Bengal and Bangladesh. The standard Bengali language is said to be the language that is spoken in Kolkata. Thus, the Bengali folk theatres vary in language as well.
Some theatre groups work especially in the category of theatre for development, in promotion of consciousness and awareness about literacy, usage of latrines, usage of gas burners, AIDS etc.
Bengali theatre, at present, is not run commercially by any group or company. A famous Bengali commercial theatre after independence has been "Nahabat". However, there is a particular category of Bengali theatre that is called "Jatra". This kind of Bengali theatre is run commercially mainly in the rural areas of West Bengal and Bangladesh. The most prominent characteristic of Jatra is over-acting with extreme use of traditional musical instruments. At present, Jatra has also been modernized to feature modern crisis through modern stories. But, the form has not changed significantly. Jatra is a very prospective scope of employment for those who can do it. Many popular Bengali film-artists participate in Jatra.
Contents
[hide]
1 Music in Bengali theatre
2 Bengali theatre in Bangladesh
3 Famous persons: In West Bengal (India)
4 In Bangladesh
5 Modern theatre companies
6 Theater Groups in Bangladesh
7 References
8 External links
[edit] Music in Bengali theatre
Insofar as it was a unique style of theatre around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Bengali theatre had its own unique form of Bengali music.[1] This form was pioneered by Girish Chandra Ghosh, who was largely responsible for its period of maturity; the era of Bengali theatre before him was mostly formative, and after his death Bengali theatre music became more experimental.[1] During the era of Girish Chandra, all stageplays included some form of traditional Bengali music, and dancer-singers who would perform before and between the acts. Mythological plays would have Kiratn?nga songs, epics would include indigenous styles such as khy?mt?, and comedies and farcical plays often included tapp? songs by Nidhu Babu.[1]
[edit] Bengali theatre in Bangladesh
Bengali theatre also means theatres produced in the official language of the nation-state Bangladesh (became independent from Pakistan in 1971) along with the theatres produced in Bengali in West Bengal, India (West Bengal is at the west of Bangladesh border) - thus, it is supposed to carry the identity and culture of a particular area.
Theatre The evolution of theatre in Bangladesh, which follows more or less the South Asian tradition with a European mix later, may be narrated in terms of three distinct streams: (i) Sanskrit theatre and derivatives, (ii) the indigenous theatre and (iii) the European theatre. In the South Asian tradition dramatic conflict is not an indispensable structural element.
Sanskrit theatre and derivatives
Ancient period With the Gupta annexation of the greater portion of Bengal by the 4th century AD, the Aryan culture of the upper Gangetic plain penetrated into the region. The flourishing trade of Bengal led to the rise of urban centres patronising art and culture. It is quite logical to believe that in such urban centres, performances of classical Sanskrit theatre would be a part of cultural life, at least among the urbane classes of the society. A few literary evidences strongly support this assumption. The most important of these is a Sanskrit play titled Lokananda by chandragomi (6th c), a reputed Buddhist grammarian from Bengal. Lokananda is structured in four acts with a prologue. The play must have been popular, for I-Tsing states, 'people all sing and dance to it throughout the five countries of India'.
The intimate political connection of Bengal (or parts of it) with the Aryan culture continued till the mid-8th century, during which period Harsavardhan of Northern India, Bhaskaravarman of Kamarupa, Yashovarman of Kanyakubja and Lalitaditya of Kashmir exerted great influence. Sanskrit theatre got a great patron in Harsavardhan who was himself a renowned Sanskrit playwright (with plays such as Nagananda to his credit). Bhavabhuti, the author of Malatimadhava, was the court-poet of Yasovarman. However, the most interesting account of a performance is recorded by the Kashmiri poet Kalhan in his Rajatarangini. According to him, Jayapida, the grandson of Lalitaditya, witnessed a performance given by a highly skilled dancer named Kamala in the temple of Kartikeya in the city of pundravardhana. The performance was given in accordance with Bharat's Natyashastra (a Sanskrit treatise on theatre ascribed to Bharat).
Nothing much is known about Sanskrit theatre during the Pala Rule in Bengal (mid-8th to mid-12th c). The sole evidence is the Tibetan historian Taranath's comments about 'a grand dramatic performance that formed part of seasonal festival' in the city of vikramapura, which clearly indicates the existence of a flourishing tradition of theatre.
The Senas, with their strong Brahmanical bias and distinct south Indian background, extended widespread patronage to performances derived from Sanskrit tradition. King vijayasena (c 1096-1159) and Bhavadev Bhatta (minister of King Hari Varman and a noted scholar) both claim to have provided for a great number of deva-dasis in the temples established by them. Highly skilled in song, dance and music in the classical tradition as formulated in the Natyashastra, the deva-dasis gave public performances in the temples and also private performances at royal courts. There also exist a substantial number of references from various religious tracts of the period in which nata (actor) has been cited as a separate class. Halayudh Mishra's sekhshubhodaya, a historical kavya or poem, written in Sanskrit, confirms the existence of nata (actors) and nartaki (danseuse) in the Sena court. vidyapati's Purus Pariksa also refers to a performance by an actor, named Gandharva, in the court of King laksmanasena. Prevalence of classical Sanskrit theatre in the Sena court can also be inferred from govardhan acharya's poetic work titled aryasaptashati. Shlokas 174 and 538 of Aryasaptashati clearly refer to acting, curtain, and actress, which obviously imply the existence of Sanskrit theatre in the court of the Sena rulers.
Ragatarangini, a critical work on music composed in 1160 by Lochan Pandit, refers to an earlier text titled Tambaru-nataka. It is possible that Tambaru-nataka was a critical work on dramaturgy. However, the most important material for study of theatre during this period is a Sanskrit performance-text titled Gitagovindam (c 1200 AD) by jaydev, the court-poet of Laksmanasena. In the Gitagovindam Jaydev blended the existing popular tale of radha and krishna with one of the uparupakas (minor type of plays) of the classical Sanskrit tradition and set a new trend, which was to be echoed in the centuries that followed. If oral traditions have any historical validity, then Jaydev performed the Gitagovindam as a singer with his wife Padmavati as a dancer.
The Gitagovindam is composed in twelve parts and features three characters: Krishna, Radha, and Sakhi. The characters may be performed by three dancers (as in the case of Manipuri Rasa Nrtya still performed in Bangladesh) or by a single dancer (as it was possibly the case with Jaydev and Padmavati). The dancers are required to sing their lines simultaneously as they dance with mimetic gestures (angika abhinaya). In between the songs, the sutradhar (narrator) is required to render narration in verse, in which he describes part of the action, comments on the same and sometimes also introduces the characters and describes their mental states. The structure of performance follows the general pattern of Sanskrit theatre. Clearly, the text bears remarkable similarity with sangit-natakas (verse-plays) of the Nepalese court. The Gitagovindam and the Aryasaptashati bear evidence that in the court of Laksmanasena, the love theme of Radha and Krishna, performed by courtesans, was indeed a regular feature. Jaydev's text stood out as the model, to be emulated by the later poets in vernacular during the course of the following centuries.
Medieval period Sanskrit theatre received a serious setback towards the beginning of the13th century when the Turkish invasion wrested north-western Bengal from the Senas. However, Sagaranandi composed a critical work on Sanskrit dramaturgy, titled Natakalaksanaratnakosa in the same century. The work cites quite a few play-texts, which were also composed. Nothing more can be deduced with certainty, but the very existence of a critical work on drama presupposes the continuance of the tradition of Sanskrit theatre in Bengal, possibly under the patronage of Hindu feudal lords and in Hindu kingdoms.
From the 16th century onwards, literary evidence appears in greater number. Towards the end of the same century, King laksmana manikya of bhulua composed two plays, Vikhyata-vijaya and Kuvalayashva-charita, his son, Amara Manikya composed one (Vaikuntha-vijaya) and a court poet, kavitarkik, composed another, Kautuka-ratnakara. This evidence proves unequivocally the existence of Sanskrit court theatre in Bengal. It continued in the 18th century because of krishnachandra roy, tributary king of Nabadwip (southern part of west bengal). Chandi (1760), the unfinished play of his court poet bharatachandra, which is based on the mythological tale of Mahisasura Vadha (the slaying of the buffalo shaped asura), displays remarkable influence of Sanskrit dramaturgy, although the play is not composed entirely in Sanskrit. Although the play was never performed, the court of Krishnanagara is known to have produced another play of similar characteristics named Chitra-yajna by Vidyanath Vachaspati, in 1777/78.
Away from the court, rupa goswami, one of chaitanya's close associates based at Vrindavan, composed three Sanskrit plays, Bidagdha Madhava (1524), Lalita Madhava (1529), Dankeli-kaumudi (1549), as well as a critical work on Sanskrit dramaturgy, Nataka Chandrika. At least three more plays were written outside Vrindavan: Jagannathavallabha by Ramananda Ray, chaitanyachandrodaya by kavikarnapur and Sangit Madhava by Govinda Das. The plays by Rupa Goswami and Ramananda Ray's are all based on mythological tales of Krishna. Kavi Karnapur's play is based on the life of Chaitanya. Of these plays, only Jagannathavallabha is known to have been performed. All save Govinda Das's play were translated into Bangla in the 17th century. It is not known if any of these translations were performed.
Modern period Translations of Sanskrit play-texts continued in the 19th century. A few of these are Krishna Mishra's Prabodhachandrodaya, kalidasa's Abhijnana-shakuntala (1848) and Ratnavali (1849). Scholars in Bengal composed quite a few Sanskrit texts in the modern period as well. A few examples of these are Amara-mangala by panchanan tarkaratna (published c 1913), Nala-damayantiya and Syamantakoddhar by Kalipada Tarkacharya, etc. The tradition of Sanskrit theatre significantly influenced the initial phase of Bangla plays. Jogendranath Gupta's Kirtibilas, credited as the first original Bangla play and the first tragedy, makes use of the Nandi, the Sutradhara and Nati. The first Bangla play to be performed on stage, ramnarayan tarkaratna's Kulinkulasarvasva (composed in 1854, performed in 1857), also borrows from the Sanskrit tradition in its use of the Nandi, the Sutradhara and the Nati.
With rising social consciousness and effects of western education, the conventions of Sanskrit theatre were seen to be ineffective in portraying the social ethos of the period. michael madhusudan dutt (1824-1873), the literary giant of this period, successfully bridged the transition to an urban theatre independent of Sanskrit influence by introducing techniques of European dramaturgy. From the mid-19th century onwards, Sanskrit theatre and its derivatives ceased to be an effective force in the theatre of Bengal.
Indigenous theatre The term 'indigenous theatre' (generally known as 'folk' theatre) encompasses all forms of theatre which originated in the region of Bengal. Unlike the Sanskrit theatre, the indigenous theatre was always in direct contact with the people and was often created and supported by them. However, it was not closed to the refined techniques of the Sanskrit theatre. In the indigenous theatre, the performers include actors, dancers, singers, musicians, and puppeteers (both male and female). Their performance is not restricted to dialogue in prose but is comprehensive and wide-ranging. It includes any one or more of the following elements: (i) dance, (ii) instrumental music and (iii) speech rendered in prose, verse or lyric, either in the form of narration or that of dialogue. The indigenous theatre of Bangladesh has developed in distinct forms, which can be loosely categorised into (i) the Narrative, (ii) the Song-and-Dance, (iii) the Processional, and (iv) the Supra-personae.
Narrative forms In the narrative forms of theatre, the lead-narrator (gayen) describes an event, portrays various characters related to the event and enacts the action, all in the third person. While engaged as described above, s/he partly speaks his/her lines in prose, partly recites in verse, and partly sings his/her story. S/he is assisted by the choral singers-cum-musicians (dohars), who employ musical instruments (Mridanga and Mandira) and sing choral passages. The gayen carries a chamar (whisk) in religious performances and occasionally dances while singing. Usually, the performer makes effective use of vocal inflections and physical gestures in his/her portrayal of the characters. Sometimes s/he also readjusts his/her basic costume, and uses a few props to make the portrayal more effective.
The earliest evidence of narrative theatre in Bengal can be traced to the charyapada or charyagiti, a form of songs popular in Bengal from the 9th to the 12th century AD. These songs were composed by Tantric Buddhist mendicants to expound their religious doctrine. They were presented to the lay populace with the help of dance, in a manner similar to the charya dance still seen in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.
Ethnological studies indicate a long tradition of narrative theatre in the Natha cult. These performances were based on oral compositions of two distinct groups: (i) those dealing with the origin of the Natha siddhas and the subsequent rescue of Minanatha by his disciple Goraksanatha from the enticement of worldly pleasure and (ii) those dealing with the exploits of Queen Maynamati and her son King Govindachandra (or Gopichandra), the disciple of Hadipa. Narrative performances based on the Maynamati-Gopichandra legend were possibly created sometime immediately after the 11th century and gained wide currency all over northern India. On the other hand, the performances based on the Goraksanatha-Minanatha legend are more difficult to date. On the assumption that the Natha cult evolved sometime in the 9th century, it is possible to place the earliest performances of the Goraksanatha-Minanatha legend in the 10th century.
None of the extant literary and liturgical texts of the Dharma cult can be dated beyond the 17th century. However, it is very much possible that in the 12th century, when the cult was definitely in existence, there did exist a body of oral narratives on which the later texts were built. Extant texts and current practice among the followers of the cult indicate that celebrations of the ancient period included narrative performances of oral compositions.
A large number of orally composed folk tales still prevailing at the popular level, such as Madhumalar Kechchha, Sakhisona, Malanchakanyar Kechchha, Shit-Basanta, Kanchanamala and Malatikusumamala, indicate that their original nuclei were created in the 12th century or even earlier. All the tales are secular in content, and some of them are still performed in Bangladesh. It has been only since the first half of the 20th century that they have been scribed and published in editions such as Thakurmar Jhuli. It is reasonable to believe that, for a predominantly non-literate audience, stories would be told rather than read, and the most expedient way to commit a story to memory is to have it composed in verse. Furthermore, terra-cotta plaques depicting secular (Sanskrit Panchatantra) stories have also been discovered in the temple of Somapura Monastery. Therefore, it can be reasonably argued that the secular tales of the ancient period were orally composed in rhymed metrical verse and rendered as narrative performance.
Various political and social factors, including state-patronised Brahmanical hegemony in the 12th century and the advent of the Muslims in the early13th century, caused a qualitative change in the culture of Bengal. Consequently, there was a gradual acculturation, decay and transformation in Buddhist, Dharma and Natha cult performances. On the other hand, an entirely new set of narrative performances appeared in the indigenous theatre of Bengal. Distinguishing between their subject matter, these can be divided into three categories: (1) performances glorifying the Aryan pantheon and legendary heroes as recounted in the ramayana and the mahabharata, (2) performances glorifying the indigenous pantheon as recounted in the mangalkavya and (3) performances glorifying Muslim legendary heroes. Besides, the tradition of secular narratives continued as before, invigorated by interaction with the above. In this context, it is important to remember that early bangla literature was dependent on lyric. Therefore, literary compositions of the period under study should be held as performance-texts, not merely pages of reading material valid only for literary analysis.
Largely based on the Bhagavata, srikrishnavijay was composed in 1473-80. Therefore, it is very much possible that narrative performance based on oral compositions of Krishna legends existed from earlier times, probably from the beginning of the 13th century. The translation of Valmiki's Ramayana in the first half of 15th century also presupposes the existence in the 13th and 14th centuries of narrative performances drawing from oral texts based on the exploits of Ramachandra.
Initiated in the early 16th century by Chaitanya (1486-1533), Gaudiya vaisnavism made a significant and popular contribution to the theatre of Bengal by giving rise to the narrative form known as Lila Kirtan, which had its formal inception at the famous festival of Kheur in 1576 or slightly after. Narottama Das, who is credited with having given structure to Lila Kirtan, arrived at its structure by stringing together brief Vaisnavite devotional songs known as padavalis, to produce a coherent narrative based on a particular lila of Radha and Krishna. He synthesised the indigenous musical tradition of Bengal with the north Indian classical tradition and arrived at its unique blend.
Vijay Gupta's Padmapurana (1494) and Bipradas Pipilai's Manasavijaya (end of 15th c) are clear indications that narrative performances on the serpent goddess manasa were very much in existence in the 15th century. However, narrative performances based on oral compositions were possibly prevalent in Bengal in the 13th and 14th centuries, before the composition of written texts. From the 16th century onwards, there appear a sizeable number of mangalakavyas on Manasa, the most important of which was Narayan Dev's Padmapurana (first half of 16th c) and Ketakadas Ksemananda's Manasamangala (mid-17th c). Besides existing written texts, quite a few popular versions based on oral compositions also came up during this period. Vijay Gupta's Padmapurana is still performed in south-western Bangladesh as Rayani Gan, while an adaptation of Narayan Dev's text is performed in north Bengal as Padmapurana Gan.
The 16th century is also well known as the era of mangalakavyas on chandi, for it was in this period that these gained widest currency. The most renowned mangalakavya on the goddess is the one composed by Kavikankana mukundaran chakravarti (c 1555-56). The signature-piece (bhanita) indicates that the poet himself performed Chandimangala and parts of it were rendered in lyric. On a few occasions his signature-pieces suggest that the poet was in the company of skilled musicians (kalanta, lit. well versed in classical music) and actors (natuya). Another section indicates that the performance was composed of git (song), badya (music), natya (acting) and dance, executed by actors and skilled musicians. This textual evidence proves that Chandimangala was given in the narrative form in the 16th century.
References in chaitanya bhagavata (Part I, Chapters 2 & 13; 1535-36) indicate the existence of Mangal Chandir Git (narrative performance based on eulogies of Mangal Chandi), in the first half of the 16th century. The same text also testifies that narrative performances of Shiver Git, based on oral compositions in praise of shiva, existed in the first half of the 16th century and possibly earlier. A lone performer, who danced and played the damaru (drum) as he sang, would perform in a courtyard.
The appearance of yusuf-zulekha (c 1390-1410) marks the entry of an entirely new element, the Perso-Arabic influence, in the history of performance in Bengal. rasulbijay (1474), which recounts the life of the Prophet, emphasised the keen interest of the Muslims in exerting their distinct identity by attempting to create a tradition parallel to the Hindu puranas. Both the texts were composed under court patronage of the Muslim rulers and point to the beginning of narrative performances based on Islamic root-paradigms. By the 16th century, a large number of texts dealing with Islamic cosmology and legends began to appear. Some of these (such as Maktul Hosain, Kashemer Ladai, Karbala and janganama), focus particularly on the pathetic deaths of Imam Hasan and Imam Hosain and the revenge of their legendary half-brother, Hanifa. Others (nabi bangsha, Rasulbijay and amir hamza) illustrate a vast area, often beginning with the creation of the world, running right through legends related to various prophets, and ending with the life and accomplishments of the Prophet. The textual composition suggests that most of these were given as narrative performance.
Besides the two groups of texts mentioned above, there also evolved a third, the stories of which were indigenous in origin. Based on various legends associated with a number of Muslim saints (pirs), these can be best termed as 'miracles of saints'. Most of these texts, composed in rhymed metrical verse, profess the efficacy of the cult of their respective pirs ie, Khwaja Khizir, Pir Madar, Gazi Pir, Satya Pir and Manik Pir. They seek to generate devotion in the cult followers and warn the non-believers of dire consequences.
Khwaja Khizir is the earliest Muslim saint whose miracles gained wide currency in the form of narrative (Khwaja Khizirer Jari) and processional performance (Beda Bhasan). Historical records on the celebration of Beda Bhasan by the ruling elite in 1626-27 make it possible to believe that the celebration was very much in existence by the mid-16th century. The hey-day of the cult and its performances were the 17th and the 18th centuries. On the other hand, granting of a special privilege to the followers of Pir Madar by a Mughal viceroy of Bengal in 1659 (which included taking out processions in honour of the pir) indicate that narrative and processional performances related to the cult must have evolved by 1600 AD. Celebrations in honour of Pir Madar on the day of the full moon in Magh (mid-January to mid-February), accompanied by processions with bamboo poles and music played on dhak, dhol and kasi, are possibly of earlier origin, dating back to the first half of the 15th century when the cult was first introduced in Bengal. Performances of the cult, which still exist in Bangladesh, are Madariya Michhil, Madar Bansher Gan and Madar Pirer Gan. These performances clearly show that the cult had incorporated elements from Tantric practices. Historical accounts (Risalat al-Shuhada, second half of 15th c), textual evidence (sheikh faizullah's Gazibijay, second half of 16th c), ethnological studies and traditions reveal that the legend related to Pir Gazi arose shortly after 1600 AD. The earliest performance of the cult of Gazi, a narrative form known as gazir gan still seen in Bangladesh today, arose by the mid-17th century. The earliest literary reference to satya pir is to be found in kavi kanka's Vidya-Sundar (1502) while the earliest written text on the miracles of the pir was composed by Dvija Giridhara in 1663. It is believed that a form of narrative performance (Satya Pirer Gan), based on oral compositions, evolved in the second half of the 16th century. It was in the 18th and 19th centuries that the performance gained wide currency. Literary references to Manik Pir begin to appear in the first half of the 18th century and extant written texts in his honour were composed in the same century. It is possible that narrative performances based on oral compositions (Manik Pirer Jari) began to develop in the second half of the 17th century.
Secular narrative performances based on folk and fairy tales continued in the medieval period. Chaitanya Bhagavata testifies to the existence of performances known as Yogi Paler Git, Bhogi Paler Git and Mahi Paler Git. However, the most significant development occurred in the independent kingdom of arakan far in the south-east, where Bahram Khan (16th c) composed laily-majnu, a free translation of a Persian poetic text of the same title. Bahram Khan's text is important for it is one of those rare specimens of Bangla literature which end in separation and pathos, marking a sharp departure from the norm of union and fulfilment of desire of the central characters. The text marks the beginning of an entirely new trend of pathetic lore. The same Arakanese court was a fertile ground for a host of Muslim poets, the most famous of whom was alaol (c 1607-1680), whose compositions include masterpieces such as padmavati (1651) and Saiful Muluk-Badiujjamal (1659-69). All these texts are secular and romantic in character. They are also remarkable for drawing their material from Hindi and Persian sources, thus enriching the theatre of Bengal with new vitality. All these texts were performed in narrative form and gradually gained currency among the Muslim population all over Bengal. By the late 18th century, there appeared the pala gan, the form that features the oral version of maimansingha-gitika.
Song-and-dance forms A song-and-dance performance (nata-gita) is characterised by dances rendered by performers enacting characters while singing their lines or dancing silently to songs sung by a group of choral singers and musicians.
The charyagiti clearly reveal that song-and-dance performances were very well known among the Tantric Buddhists of the Pala society. Examples can be seen in the song composed by kahnapa (text no 10), which contains the words 'dancing' and 'the profession of acting' as well as in the concluding two lines of another song composed by Vinapa (text no 17) which contains the words 'dancing', 'singing' and 'Buddhist drama'. Sketches of siddhacharyas in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries have shown Vinapa and Sarahapa with musical instruments, while Minapa, Dombipa and Jalandharipa are shown in dancing postures. These and other references to performances made in Tantric esoteric texts (such as Guhyasamajatantra) suggest that highly esoteric song-and-dance type of performances, aiming at spiritual liberation, were held in secluded spots at night or in temples. These song-and-dance performances were usually given by a male ascetic with his female partner and were accompanied by song (dohas and charyas sung by fellow ascetics) and dance.
The Tantric Buddhist tradition of song-and-dance performances continued among the followers of the Natha cult in performances such as Yogir Gan and Yugi Parva, still seen in Bangladesh today. A glimpse of ancient song-and-dance performances of the cult can be seen in Goraksanath's performance in the presence of Minanatha as recounted in three narrative texts composed in the 16th century: goraksavijay by Sheikh Faizullah, Gorkha-vijay by Bhimsen Ray and Minachetan by Shyamadas Sen, and a play-text, Goraksa-vijay, by Vidyapati c 1403. Gopichandra Nataka (17th c), another play-text from the Nepalese royal court, further substantiates the contention made above.
Krttivas, in his preface to the Ramayana (1415-1433), records the popularity of song-and-dance performance in the royal court of the Muslim rulers of gauda. The so-called account of ma huan recorded in Ying Yai Sheng Lan (1408-1411) also confirms song-and-dance performance in the Muslim royal court. According to the Chinese text, song-and-dance type of performance were given by 'good singers and dancers' in gorgeous costume 'to enliven drinking and feasting'.
The composition of srikrishnakirtan by c 1400 indicates that, by the 13th century, there existed among the people a type of song-and-dance performance based on oral compositions featuring three characters: Radha, Krishna, and Badai. During performance, the characters danced as they sang their lines. Like the Gitagovindam, these performances could be given by a single performer who would enact all the three characters or by three performers who would enact the characters separately. These were performed in rural festivals or during ritualised worship of deities in temples.
The existence of song-and-dance performances in the early 16th century is substantiated by Chaitanya Bhagavata (II, 18) which elaborately describes Chaitanya and his disciples enacting such a performance. Characters portrayed were Rukmini, Radha, her companion Suprabha, Badai, Kotala, Narada and his follower. One part of the performance featured Rukmini while the other, Radha. The spectators, all Chaitanya's followers, sat on all four sides of the performance space; the green room was situated at a little distance. At least one source of lighting was a torch held by a stagehand who moved with the performers. There exist only two more references to early song-and-dance performances within the fold of Vaisnavism. One is from Sylhet, in the first half of the 16th century, which may have given rise to ghatu gan of mymensingh. The other, from the second half of the same century, to a form referred to as Shekhari Jatra featuring Radha, soon became extinct. By the late 17th century, these early attempts matured into what is known as Pala Kirtana in Bangladesh today.
Supra-personae forms The masked dance of the Gambhira festival was originally an ancient shamanist or spirit cult performance of the Koch community. By the 9th century, the Tantric Buddhists in Bengal assimilated the performance to evolve their own forms of masked dance, which were similar to Astamatrika Dance, Mahakali Pyayakhan, Devi Pyayakhan (Kathmandu, Nepal) and Tibetan Buddhist masked dances. These dances were performed in the Buddhist monasteries during religious festivals, very much as in Tibetan and Nepalese practice. These performances were given at the year-ending celebration of chaitra sangkranti and were given after processional performances.
By the end of the 12th century, when Tantric Saivism in Bengal had assimilated decaying Tantric Buddhism, Buddhist masked dances were also adapted to give rise to Mahakali Pyayakhan, Devi Pyayakhan and similar dances. Tantric Saivite masked dances in Bengal, unlike those of Kathmandu Valley (Nepal), decayed because of Muslim conquest. What remains today can be seen in Mukho Nacha, Kali Kach, Gambhira festival and Sang Jatra.
Performance with scroll painting The existence of patuya sangit (performances with scroll paintings) in ancient Bengal is confirmed by two sources: Yama-pattika as referred to in Harsa-charita (7th c AD) and scroll painting of the santals. Banabhatta (the court-poet of Harsavardhan) in his Harsa-charita briefly describes a popular performance of Yama-pattaka witnessed by Harsavardhan on his way back to the capital after he learnt of the death of his brother. It was given by a performer with the help of a scroll-painting showing Yama, the King of the Underworld. On the other hand, recent ethnographic studies have shown that the Santal people have among them a type of scroll painting representing the origin of life (Ko Reyak Katha) and the passage of the dead from the mortal world to the life beyond (Chaksudan Pat). These too point to the ancient origin of Patuya Gan performances in Bengal. In the medieval period, scroll painting performances eulogising Ramachandra, Krishna, Manasa, Chandi were extremely popular. By the 18th century, scroll-painting performances gained popularity even among the Muslims, as evinced by Gazir Pat (scroll-painting performances eulogising Pir Gazi), which can still be seen in Bangladesh today.
Puppet theatre It is not known when puppet theatre was introduced in Bengal. The earliest extant literary evidence of the existence of the form in Bengal is a couplet in Yusuf-Zulekha (1391-1410). As signified there, these performances were given with the help of string puppets. It is possible that orally composed tales of gods and goddesses, such as those of Krishna, Rama, Manasa etc, were produced in these performances. Mukunda Chakravarti's Chandimangala (1555-56) and krishnadas kaviraj's chaitanya charitamrita (c 1560-80) definitely point to the existence of puppet theatre during this period. Judging by the popularity of cults and the existing tradition among current performers, it could be safely assumed that these were related to Krishna, Rama, Manasa, Chandi and Chaitanya. Interestingly, no Islamic narrative ever seems to have been performed by puppets in Bengal. String puppets still exist in Bangladesh today.
Processional Forms Processional performances are characterised by the use of tableaux, music, song and dance, all of which form a part of large processions (jatra) attended by adherents of a particular religious faith. In many ways, these performances hold the key to the history of indigenous theatre because they brought together all the three types discussed above, to give birth to jatra, the most popular form of the indigenous theatre which can claim to be indeed the national theatre idiom.
From the description provided by fa-hien during his visit to India (399 to 414 AD), it is known that on the 8th day of the second month (roughly the last week of May), a highly popular Buddhist religious festival used to be held in Pataliputra. In it, a number of well-decorated chariots (ratha) with the image of the Buddha and other deities installed within, were drawn through the streets and were accompanied by 'singers and skilful musicians'. Hiuen Tsiang witnessed similar festivals at Kanauj and Allahabad. Harsavardhan himself accompanied the procession dressed as Indra, and his friend, Bhaskaravarman, the king of kamarupa (assam), appeared disguised as brahma. Each day of the festival opened with lavish performances of dance and music, vocal and instrumental. I-Tsing also reports about similar processions in samatata (eastern Bangladesh) in the second half of the 7th century. These evidences clearly point to the existence of Buddhist processional performances in the 7th century Bengal, which featured chariots with images of deities, song, music, dance and character impersonation (such as Indra and Brahma). At the end of these processions, masked dance and narrative performances were given in the monasteries. The existence of Matsendranatha Jatra in Nepal makes it possible to believe that the followers of the Natha cult in Bengal may also have developed their own procession in 10th or 11th century.
By the early 12th century, processional performances had spread among the followers of the Dharma cult. Extant literary and liturgical texts and current practice among the followers of the cult indicate that in the 12th century, its followers participated in religious celebrations, which included processional performance. The processions would be led by 'the sandal of Dharma (placed) on a golden palanquin', followed by music (played on various instruments), song and dance of the devotee. The processions also included a sang, ie, a clown with a painted face (or wearing a mask) and dressed as a mythical character. The clown may also be seen today in Dharmer Gajan processions. The clown of ancient Dharmer Gajan processions possibly performed brief mimetic dance pieces which depicted legends related to the cult. In all probability, these performances would begin from the temples of dharma thakur, circumambulate neighbouring habitations and end at the temple again. There, narrative performances and masked dances were held in honour of deities of the cult.
By the end of the 12th century, Tantric Saivism had assimilated the Tantric Buddhist and the Dharma cult processions. Tantric Saivite processions, given as a year-ending celebration of Chaitra Samkranti, included impersonation of various deities, mythical heroes, animals and supernatural beings singing and dancing to music played on drums and cymbals. The processions began from Saivite temples, circumambulated neighbouring habitations and ended at the point of origin. Ritualistic and masked dances would be given at temple precincts in the evening and would continue through the night. Remnants of these ancient performances, known as Shiver Gajan, Niler Gajan, and processions of Sang Jatra and Astak Jatra, can still be seen in Bangladesh.
Possibly around the 14th century, the Shakta cult was beginning to incorporate processional performances into its fold. Kalika-purana specifies that the celebration in honour of Kali (in her manifestation as Durga, the slayer of Mahisasura) is to culminate on the 10th day with a procession for immersion of the idol (visarjana). The procession is to be made up of virgins and courtesans well-versed in music, performers (nata) and musicians who are to play sangkha, turi, mrdanga and dhak. Others are to carry colourful flags, scatter fluffed rice (khai), flower, dust and mud. It is also prescribed that erotic conduct is to prevail in absolute carnivalesque abandon in order to please the goddess. It is possible, as recent ethnological studies reveal, that some form of performance would also be given in temple precincts after the procession. By the late medieval period, the Sakta cult had developed a large number of processional performances. Bamakesvar-tantra (a Tantric text) specifies sixteen processions to be taken out annually in honour of the goddess Bhagavati.
By the 16th century, processional performances were immensely popular among the Vaisnavites as well. Raghunandan, a famous smrti scholar from 15th-16th century, ruled twelve processions in honour of vishnu. The Vaisnavite processional performances gradually incorporated tableaux of Vaisnavite mythologies placed on chariots drawn by devotees and characters representing major mythological characters accompanying the procession on foot. During his lifetime, Chaitanya brought out processions accompanied by singing and dancing of his followers, for mobilising mass support. Vaisnavite processional performances still exist in Bangladesh today in the form of Janmastami Michhil in dhaka (initiated in 1555) and Nauka-vilas Michhil in tangail (possibly acculturated from ancient Buddhist/Dharma cult practice).
The Vaisnavites (particularly the Gaudiya Vaisnavites) are to be credited with further development of the processional performance. During his residence at Puri, Chaitanya and his followers enacted a curious form of performance, best described as 'environmental', which has been recounted in Chaitanya Charitamrta (Part II, Chapter 15). In one of these, they appeared in a procession at a festival site, dressed as Hanumana and his army of monkeys. There they enacted an excerpt from the Ramayana (the attack on and the destruction of the castle of Lanka), on a locale that was created in advance at the festival site. References to similar performances have also been given in the Chaitanya Bhagavata, where it is described that in their childhood, Nityananda and his friends play-acted various tales of Rama and Krishna. In these, the locale of each scene was created in advance in natural environs in a manner similar to Rama Lila of north India. At some time during the lifetime of Chaitanya, the processional performances got linked with the environmental so that the performers and the spectators moved bodily in procession from one locale to another. Narayan Bhatta, a disciple of the 16th century goswamins or ascetics, Rupa and Sanatana, is credited with having established Bana jatra in the countryside of Braja (north India). In Bana jatra, devotees moved in procession to spots where Krishna lilas are believed to have occurred; in each spot, young boys enacted a particular lila associated with the spot. After Chaitanya's death, processional-environmental performances based on various legends associated with Krishna (such as the slaying of the Kaliya serpent) appear to have continued and can still be seen today in nauka-vilas michhil of Tangail. Some scholars believe that similar performances existed in the Shakta fold as well, in the form of Chandi Jatra, the content of which was based on Chandimangala.
The basic characteristics of these processional-environmental performances were (i) the enactment of each scene in separate out-door environs specially created or adapted from natural sites and (ii) processions of spectators who accompanied the performers from one environment to another. Generally, these performances were given during religious festivities and celebrations as a part of processions in honour of the cult deity. By the end of the medieval period, the Buddhist-Dharma-Natha processional performances of the ancient period (which entailed narrative performances and masked dances at the end of the procession in temples/monasteries) had evolved into Vaisnavite processional-environmental performances (which incorporated performances in specific natural environs). During the evolution, the two performances were linked by the processional performances of the Tantric Saiva-Sakta cult.
By the second half of the 18th century, professional performance troupes began to produce various lilas of Krishna not in actual environs but in nat-mandapas or courtyards of rural homesteads and public grounds, that is, any 'non-environmental' space. More importantly, these began to be given not only on religious festivals but also on other days as desired by sponsors. Generally known as kaliya-daman jatra, these performances may have had some interaction with the court-sponsored Sanskrit theatre of Nabadwip. The kaliya-daman texts were based on Krishna legends, drawn from the puranas and popular sources. Kaliya-daman jatra was predominantly lyrical. The adhikari (regisseur or proprietor of the troupe) played the role of Vrinda (a companion of Radha) or Muni Gonsai (Narada) and guided the entire action like a sutradhara by narrating parts of the action in improvised prose and pre-composed verse and lyric. The other parts were rendered as dialogue between him/her and various characters. Shishuram Adhikari (c mid-18th century) was possibly the earliest exponent of the form. Concurrently with kaliya-daman jatra, a few more forms were also popular in Bengal, all of which were similar in form but varied in content. These were Chaitanya jatra (based on the life of Chaitanya), Chandi jatra (with content drawn from Chandimangala) and Rama jatra (with content drawn from the Ramayana). By the early 19th century there evolved the Bhasan jatra, the content of which was drawn from Manasamangala. However, vestiges of medieval processional-environmental performances continued with rasa jatra in which the rasa dance of Krishna and the milkmaids was enacted.
Kaliya-daman jatra lost its popularity after 1840s, to be replaced by Krishna jatra, which can still be seen in Bangladesh. Although both the forms were based on Krishna lila, the texts of Krishna jatra were entirely dialogic, with a greater portion being in prose. Its popularity faded after the early 20th century. Similar structural changes affected Chandi jatra and Bhasan jatra as well. The latter still exists in Bangladesh.
The first half of the 19th century ushered in a qualitative transformation in the social life of the Bengalis belonging to the Hindu community, especially in urban areas such as calcutta. The essence of the change can be summed up as laying greater emphasis on the material as opposed to the spiritual and Eurocentricism as opposed to tradition-bound conservatism. A section of the indigenous theatre based in Kolkata responded to the social changes. Thus from Krishna jatra arose natun jatra (lit. 'new jatra') in the 1820s. Natun jatra aimed entirely at secular entertainment by enacting pseudo-mythological tales with emphasis on the human aspects (such as vidyasundar) but its structure was similar to Krishna jatra. Natun jatra performances were given by professional troupes, the most famous of which was that of Gopal Ude (1819-1859). In the 1860s, the sizzling sensation of natun jatra began to wear out and gitabhinay appeared, which projected a curious blend of bhakti from Krishna jatra, merriment from natun jatra and pathos from European-influenced Bangla theatre. Gradually, gitabhinay reduced emphasis on lyric and dance, and, in its place, prose dialogue began to play a more dominant role. In terms of plot construction, it gradually began to assimilate techniques of building action based on conflict, from the European theatre. However, its content was drawn from Hindu mythology. The rise of Neo-Hinduism in the 1870s brought about a temporary reversal by reinstating the spiritual and religious tradition. Consequently, there grew a demand for performances which would promote religious devotion. Madanmohan Chattapadhyay responded to the demand and reformed natun jatra by drawing elements from gitabhinay. Known as Pauranic jatra (lit 'mythological jatra'), the new form drew its content from the Ramayana, the Bhagavata, the Brahma-vaivarta Purana, the Harivangsha, etc.
The partition of bengal (1905) raised the question of nationalism to the forefront. Consequently, social life in Bengal witnessed a surge of interest on the theme of national identity. This trend is reflected in the indigenous theatre with the evolution of aitihasik jatra (lit. 'historic jatra'), and swadeshi jatra (lit. 'nationalist jatra'). Whereas aitihasik jatra drew its content from semi-historical stories, swadeshi jatra incorporated contemporary issues such as colonial exploitation, patriotism, anti-colonial struggle, oppression of feudal lords etc. The latter, under the guidance of actor-playwright Mukunda Das, earned unprecedented popularity in Bengal. The colonial government banned three of his plays and he himself faced imprisonment.
From the 1920s, jatra failed to respond to the rising heat in the political arena and chose to dwell safely on mythologies and histories. From the mid-20th century, jatra turned to social themes and reflected crises in family life in confrontation with society. Popularly known as samajik jatra, it did raise questions of Hindu-Muslim relationships, but the approach was sentimental rather than analytical. The jatra is a spent force today, and its principal device to arouse public interest is erotic song-and-dance numbers.
No major innovation can be noticed among the 'Islamic' forms in the 19th and the 20th centuries. The number of followers of Pir Madar declined sharply after their rebellion failed. Performances related to Khwaja Khizir also declined after the rise of the Islamic reform movement of the Faraizis (1818-1860s), which called for pristine purity of Islam. Performances related to the three other pirs managed to survive in pockets where the faraizi movement was relatively weak: Gazi (around Sundarban Forest), Satya (in Dinajpur-Rangpur-Rajshahi belt) and Manik (in Khulna-Jessore belt). The followers of the last three pirs were drawn into the rising popularity of jatra performances and, by the mid-19th century, evolved Gazir jatra, Satya Pirer jatra and Manik Pirer jatra. These forms can still be seen in Bangladesh.
European theatre Political and economic measures undertaken by the English colonisers from 1757 onwards led to the bengal renaissance in the early 19th century, which affected all aspects of intellectual pursuits in Bengal. Its immediate effect was a bifurcation of society into the rural and urban cultures. The elitist urban culture and the European theatre of the economically powerful minority fashioned itself around European models. It demonstrated tremendous vitality, opened new directions, but, as in most cases, also lost touch with the majority and their rural culture. The indigenous theatre, which in most cases remained a part of the rural culture, has failed to meet the demands of the 21st century life in Bangladesh and a process of fossilisation has already set in. On the other hand, the European theatre has been dynamic because the elite urban intelligentsia, who have been responding to the needs of urban spectators, have sustained it.
Until 1947, the theatre of the urban elite in Bengal was centred in Calcutta, the economic and political seat of power of 19th century India. With the creation of Pakistan, Dhaka gained importance as the urban cultural centre of eastern Bengal and continued its dominance in independent Bangladesh. In the following section, the history of theatre of undivided Bengal will be traced until 1947, following which it will focus on eastern Bengal, later Bangladesh.
Introduction of European theatre The earliest known English theatre in Bengal, a proscenium playhouse known as 'The Theatre', was built in Calcutta in 1753 and was closed following Nawab sirajuddaula's attack on the city in 1756. In 1775 'The New Playhouse', also called 'The Calcutta Theatre', came up. Until 1808, when it went out of business, the theatre performed Shakespeare, Massinger, Congreve, Sheridan etc. Initially, male actors performed female roles but the practice soon gave way to female performers. A host of other proscenium playhouses soon followed, of which the Chowrangee Theatre (1813-39) and the Sans Souci Theatre (1839-1849) gained wide fame and renown. dwarkanath tagore was the only Bengali associated with the Chowrangee and he later purchased the theatre. However, until the day the Chowrangee was burnt down, the English managed it, produced English plays (Sheridan, Goldsmith, Shakespeare and other popular plays from the London stage) and the performers were all English. However, by the time of the Sans Souci, Bengali participation was on the rise. A number of Bengalis were associated with it and a Bengali performed the title role in Othello (1848), although all the other performers were English. However, the Sans Souci too performed only English plays. The English theatre continued in the second half of the 19th century, but lost its significance due to the rise of native Bangla theatre.
Imitation, assimilation and formation The first performance of a play in Bangla, on a proscenium stage, by an all-native cast (both male and female), was produced by a Russian named gerasim stepanovitch lebedeff (1749-1817), on 27 November, 1795. The play, a translation of Richard Jodrell's comedy, The Disguise, was performed at the Bengally Theatre at 25 Doomtullah (presently Ezra) Street, Calcutta. Lebedeff himself translated the play. Although the cost of admission was high, the interest of Bengali spectators can be gauged from the full house the performance enjoyed.
In the first half of the 19th century, colonial educational institutions such as Hindu college and Oriental Seminary played the most influential role in disseminating interest in European theatre. As a part of the newly introduced educational curricula in the schools and colleges, Shakespeare soon assumed the position of an ideal model. After a few stray attempts in the first half of the 19th century, the proscenium theatre was considered fashionable enough to be sponsored by affluent zamindars as private theatre in and around the mid-19th century. The most important of these was the Belgachia Theatre (1858-1861), credited as being the first permanent proscenium theatre of Bengal, which was built by the Rajas of Paikpara at their Belgachia Villa. The theatre took pride in its quality orchestra, fine perspective backdrops, gas-lanterns, and limelight.
From the mid-19th century, Bengalis began attempts at assimilating European dramaturgy. Michael Madhusudan Dutt paved the way for future playwrights by successfully demonstrating the techniques of European dramaturgy with plays such as Sharmistha (premiered at the Belgachia where he made his debut in 1859), Padmavati (published 1860, premiered 1865) and a historical tragedy titled Krishna Kumari (published 1861, premiered 1867). Madhusudan shines most brilliantly with his farces, where the language is easy, the attack is sharp and relevant, and the characters are drawn distinctly. In Ekei Ki Bale Sabhyata (published 1860, premiered 1865), he ridicules the ultra-progressive Young Turks who blindly copied European culture and in Buda Shaliker Ghade Ron (published 1860, premiered 1867), he aims at unmasking the hypocrisy of the affluent. Ironically, the Sanskrit theatre, whose fetters he tried to break, tightened its grip on his last play, Mayakanan (1874).
dinabandhu mitra (1830-1873), a contemporary of Madhusudan Dutt, wrote Nildarpan (1860), which effectively deals with the ruthless exploitation of Bengal peasants by the powerful English indigo planters in rural Bengal. Considered a realistic play of popular protest by many, the play is in effect melodramatic in its treatment of blood and torture but its content reflected contemporary social reality in a manner meaningful to urban middle-class Bengali society. Although he composed a number of other plays, Mitra is also celebrated as 'a veritable magician of laughter' for his farces: Biye Pagla Buda (1866), Sadhabar Ekadashi (1866) and Jamai Barik (1871).
Early years of the public theatre (1870s-1920s) On 7 December 1872, history was made with the opening of the first public playhouse in Bengal, the National Theatre, with Mitra's Niladarpana. The playhouse with its proscenium stage was a temporary construction in the courtyard of a private residence in Calcutta and was formed by a group of theatre-crazy youths belonging to Baghbazar Amateur Theatre (1869-1872), some of whom were to become stars of professional theatre in the next few years. The public playhouse opened European theatre to the urban middle class. No longer the handmaid of the affluent, the theatre was free to serve a wider public and thereby gain strength and maturity. The Bengal Theatre, which opened in 1873, was the first permanent playhouse with a proscenium stage in Bengal. The maiden performance of Bengal Theatre, Madhusudan's Sarmistha, also created history because for the first time in professional European theatre, female performers (Jagattarini, Golap, Elokeshi and Shyama) enacted female roles. Gaslight was used to light these playhouses until 1887 when dynamo-produced electric lighting was introduced for the first time at the Emerald Theatre. Stage locales were usually established with the help of painted wings and backdrops. In playwriting, the five-act romantic tragedy, especially that of Shakespeare, was the model. The acting was mostly declamatory and melodramatic. At the risk of oversimplification, one may describe the productions as escapist entertainment in which songs and dances of dancing girls (sakhis) and other sensational contrivances were indispensable elements.
Soon after its inception, public theatre faced the wrath of the British Raj when the Great National Theatre staged a farce named Gajananda O Yubaraj (19 February 1876). The play was immediately banned. Soon after, the British government passed the Dramatic Performance Control Act of 1876, which empowered it to 'prohibit certain dramatic performances, which are scandalous, defamatory, seditious, obscene or otherwise'. The Act was repealed in 2001. As for the public theatre of Calcutta, it found political criticism too hot to handle and the wrath of the state too strong to defend with its tinsel arms. Hence, after the first skirmish, for the most part it chose to play shy, even when faced with the swadeshi movement beginning in 1905. The major exceptions were some of the historical plays of girish chandra ghosh (1844-1912) and dwijendralal roy (1863-1913).
The second half of the 19th century saw a gradual rise of religious revivalism and traditionalism within the urban middle-class Bengali Hindu society in Calcutta. In theatre, the trend was reflected in plays by girish chandra ghosh, an exceptionally versatile actor and director of high merit. He wrote about seventy plays, many of which were based on mythological tales, lives of saints and religious heroes and projected intense devotional fervour. An example of these is Chaitanya Lila, based on the life of Chaitanya. Whereas Michael Madhusudan and Mitra strove to emulate European dramaturgy both in form and spirit, Girish Chandra Ghosh chose only the form (for him, Shakespeare); his ideological frame and mental makeup was structured on Krttivas's Ramayana and Kashiram Das's Mahabharata. It is only in his social and historical plays (Prafulla and Sirajuddaula, respectively) that Ghosh manages to extricate himself from a revivalist fervour. He is also credited for introducing psychological dimension in character interpretation, acting, and training of performers.
From about 1900 until the Great War, historical plays, often based on patriotic themes began to dominate the scene. Although Girish Chandra Ghosh continued to exert his influence, Dwijendralal Roy was an equal if not a greater factor to be considered. A good example of an intellectual of the colonial period who successfully assimilated the culture of the ruling race, Roy was not directly attached to any theatre. Infused with patriotism that was at once secular and humanist, he redirected the attention of his spectators to the spiritual realm of humanity. Some of Roy's better known plays are Rana Pratap Singha (1905), Nurjahan (1908) and Shajahan (1909).
Beside the mythological and historical plays mentioned above, the period also produced social dramas, domestic comedies, and gitabhinay musicals. Two other playwrights of this period were jyotirindranath tagore (1849-1925), and amrita lal basu (1852-1929). Jyotirindranath contributed a number of quality translations (Julius Caesar, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme etc) and historical plays. Amrita Lal Basu, also a well-known actor, earned his fame for his farces, which ridiculed the influence of European culture on Bengali society.
Blending of the indigenous and the European: Rabindranath Tagore Parallel to Girish Chandra Ghosh, Dwijendra Lal Roy and others in the public theatre but distinctly independent, rabindranath tagore (1861-1941) wrote and directed plays that were unique for their blend of the indigenous and the European - a blend so subtle that it almost appears organic. The form of theatre which Tagore evolved in his so-called symbolic-allegoric plays is a fusion of the song-and-dance (in the abundant use of song and in the absence of cause-and-effect formula for building action) and the European dramaturgy (in the use of conflict and a few techniques in building character). The conflict of spirit and matter that drives Raktakarabi (1926) and Muktadhara (1922), also Achalayatan (1922) to a large extent, disappears after the battle in Raja (1911) and is hardly present in Dakghar (1912). The influence of the song-and-dance tradition continues in Basanta (1923), Nabin (1931) and Shrabanagantha (1934). The absence of dramatic conflict is so apparent that a few scholars have refused to acknowledge them as plays.
Finally, in Chitrangada (1936), Chandalika (1938) and Shyama (1939), when he successfully blends the song-and-dance tradition, plays low on dramatic conflict and instead focuses on rasa, the influence of the indigenous is more than apparent. Vocal against the painted backdrop and the proscenium frame, Tagore preferred an intimate performance space like that of the jatra. His work, other than a few farces, mostly proved failures in the public theatre on the rare occasions when they were performed until the 1950s when Bahurupi, a theatre group in Calcutta, performed them. Nevertheless, his work has proved to be immensely influential on theatre practitioners and in literary circles.
ocial concerns and nationalism (1920s-1940s) The First World War and the death of the two stalwarts, Girish Chandra Ghosh and Dwijendralal Roy, saw a decline in the public theatre. When it began to revive again in the 20s, a qualitative change was noticeable. Socially, theatre began to be accepted by the cultured elite as an artistic medium, and an increasing number of persons with institutional education began to take up theatre as a serious artistic career. Plays on social themes began to attract greater attention than those on historical and mythological themes. The five-act model began to give way to the techniques of Ibsen and Shaw. The mythological plays that survived shifted focus from the supernatural to the human, while the historical plays attempted to project historical accuracy instead of melodramatic heroism.
The shift of emphasis was noticeable in production style as well. The acting style, pioneered by shishir kumar bhaduri (1889-1959), became less declamatory and more natural. Ensemble acting, meaningful composition, and non-melodramatic speech began to acquire importance. Picture-frame illusion of contemporary social life began to acquire increasing dominance. In 1931, Satu Sen returned from America to revolutionise lighting and set design in the Calcutta-based Bengali theatre. Foot-lights gave way to overhead directional lighting. The painted backdrop began to be replaced with the 'Box set'. Historical accuracy in costume and set design gradually replaced anachronism. Background music played by a live orchestra began to take on a more subdued note. The quality of songs and dances improved, and the indispensable troupe of dancing girls (sakhis) of the previous era gradually disappeared. The period also marked the emergence of the director as a co-ordinator who sought meaningful unity of all elements of a production.
Important playwrights of this period were manmatha roy (1899-1988), sachindra nath sengupta (1892-1961) and Bidhayak Bhattacharya (1907-1986). Manmatha Roy shot into prominence in 1923 with his one-act play, Muktir Dak, and set the trend of one-acters. Roy's plays bore contemporary relevance and reflected current issues, although he made use of mythological and historical materials. In Karagar (1930), banned by the British Government, he uses a familiar mythological tale from the Bhagavata Purana to project Krishna as the liberator from Kangsha's oppressive regime. Shachindranath Sengupta is remembered for his historical play Gairik Pataka, which passionately proclaimed patriotism when the Civil Disobedience Movement was at its height. However, Sengupta's primary contribution to Bengali theatre was the change he initiated both in content and form in plays on social themes. Here he abandoned the five-act structure and attempted to depict the psychology of his characters. In Jhader Rat (1931), an avant-garde play of his time, Sengupta probed into feminine psychology and championed the emancipation of women. Bidhayak bhattacharya, who made his public appearance with the social play Meghamukti (1938), is also well known for his depiction of the urban middle class in a changing society and the resulting clash of values in family life experienced during the 30s and the 40s. Some of his well-known plays are Matir Ghar (1939), Bish Bachhar Age (1939), Rakter Dak (1941) and a few others.
However, even with the best of Manmatha Roy, Shachindranath Sengupta and Bidhayak Bhattacharya, the public playhouses of Calcutta failed to project critical consciousness regarding contemporary social and political reality. Leading artists with socio-political concerns attempted to join hands successively through the Progressive Writers' Association (1936) and the Anti-Fascist Writers' and Artistes' Union (1942), without significant success. Finally, the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA; 1943) organised the city-based artists in an honest attempt to join the rank and file. Soon after its creation, Bengal was faced with a man-made spectre: the famine of 1943, which left 5 million dead. Faced with the reality of hunger and death, the Bengal branch of IPTA produced bijan bhattacharya's Nabanna (1944), which had a far-reaching influence on Bengali theatre. It initiated a new era of play- writing (by projecting immediate reality in familiar language) and acting (that was closer to daily life). Primarily it challenged the role and function of theatre practitioners in society and infused political direction in theatre. The post-Nabanna theatre of Calcutta created the trend of Group Theatre, ie, ideologically motivated groups of theatre activists who strove to attain artistic excellence as well as socio-political relevance in their work. Since such a concept of theatre was not economically viable, they chose not to accept payment for their work and therefore, for their daily sustenance, sought alternative employment.
East Pakistan: from crisis in identity to explosion (1947-1971) Inception of the European theatre in East Bengal took place in 1855 with a performance of Svarna Shrnkhal by durgadas kar at Barisal. However, until 1947, Calcutta was the centre of theatre and was emulated by the rest of Bengal. Theatre was dominated by middle-class Bengali Hindus. Their exodus to India after the creation of Pakistan in 1947 created fresh avenues for the urban Muslims, who till then had been placed in the political, economic and social backwaters. The theatre of the new country was slowly but decisively moving towards polarisation of two opposing camps: (i) the religion-based nationalists and (ii) the language-based nationalists. The religion-based trend was dominant in the urban areas outside Dhaka. It sought to glorify Islamic history through historical plays on Muslim rulers of the Middle East, India and Bengal, and the independence struggle of Pakistan. Important playwrights of this trend were Akbaruddin (1895-1978), ibrahim khan (1894-1978) and Ibrahim Khalil (1916- ). The second trend was dominant mainly in Dhaka city and playwrights belonging to this trend were also linked with Dhaka University-based play productions. Important among them were shawkat osman (1917-1998), nurul momen (1906-1989), Askar Ibne Shaikh (1925), jasimuddin (1903-1976) and munier chowdhury (1925-1971). In play production, Dhaka University students, with their progressive outlook, led the rest of the country. Almost all the plays produced at the University were written by, or adapted from the novels of, Rabindranath Tagore, sharat chandra chattopahdyay, tarashankar bandyopadhyay, Nurul momen, Askar Ibne Shaikh and Munier Chowdhury and had a social content. Except for a few scattered attempts, amateur groups produced all performances.
The language movement of 1952 worked as a catalyst for further intensifying the political polarisation of the language-based and the religious-based camps. In the theatre scene, there was a marked rise in social awareness and political commitment in the language-based nationalist camp. They continued their dominance in Dhaka city, with the university as their bastion. Munier Chowdhury wrote his epoch-making Kabar as a political prisoner in the Dhaka Central Jail, and it was performed by other political prisoners on 21 February 1953. Although the play reveals a strong influence of Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead, it has remained one of the most important theatre pieces for its simplicity and social relevance. The play was performed at night by the prison inmates who improvised their set on a shoestring budget and were forced to use hurricane lanterns, lamps, and matchsticks as their lighting source. The essential appeal of the play lies in its central political issue (the inalienable right of a people to its cultural heritage) and poignant human suffering (police brutality and massacre).
In 1956 the Drama Circle was created. This was an amateur group of passionately committed young theatre activists, who played an important role in introducing contemporary Euro-American design concepts and performance techniques through their productions of European classics, contemporary American and local plays. akm bazlul karim (d 1977), associated with the group since its inception, is still remembered for his dedication and directorial excellence.
Martial Law was clamped down in 1958, effectively silencing the growing demand for social justice and political rights voiced by the language-based nationalists. Consequently, theatre in general lay impoverished in terms of socio-political awareness, concentrating more on plays toeing the central government's policy of religion-based nationalism or experimental work which were overtly 'subtle' or 'neutral'. In Dhaka city as well as district towns, the number of productions grew considerably. These were mostly run-of-the-mill social plays, along with some historical and mythological plays. There was also a short-lived attempt at professional theatre housed at the Minerva Theatre (1957-1964). Major experimental playwrights were syed waliullah (1922-1971) and Saeed Ahmed (b 1931). Waliullah brought to his work (Bahipir, Taranga Bhanga and Ujane Mrtyu) a European artistic sensibility and insight that had been hitherto unknown in Bangla theatre. Often termed a symbolist, Waliullah's symbolism is far removed from that of Maeterlinck or Tagore because of a strong materialist bias and the absence of spiritualism. Saeed Ahmed's Kalbela (The Thing, 1966) is a milestone in the theatre of South Asia for it introduced the theatre of the absurd for the first time. Later, he came up with two more plays that were avant-garde: Milepost and Trsnay. Zia Hyder's (b 1936) Shuvra Sundar Kalyani Ananda is another important avant-garde addition to contemporary theatre, where he seeks to explore the myth of peace in human society.
A popular uprising in 1969 cracked the central government's authoritative and suppressive rule. Politically conscious theatre activists responded to the growing language-based nationalist movement with street-plays and open-air performances that projected militant nationalist sentiment. Surprisingly, there were no organised attempts in putting up plays during the war of liberation either in the liberated areas or in the refugee camps in India.
Bangladesh: the flowering that was not (1971-1999) Theatre was possibly the most forceful and exuberant expression of post-liberation Bangladesh. Numerous non-professional theatre groups were formed all over the country, modelled after the group theatre movement in post-Nabanna Calcutta. The most important among these in Dhaka city were Theatre (established February 1972), Nagarik Natya Sampraday (established 1968, first performance August 1972), Natyachakra (established August 1972), Aranyak Natyadal (established 1972), Dhaka Theatre (established July 1973) and, in Chittagong, Theatre '73 (established 1973), and Arindam (established September 1974).
All these groups are committed to a language-based nationalism and, in varying degrees, believe in raising social consciousness through theatre. Most of the members are students, while a few belong to independent vocations. There are no professional theatre practitioners because the profession is not economically viable. During the early years of theatre in Bangladesh, none of the practitioners had formal training in theatre. However, they made up this deficiency with their zeal and exuberance. They raised the money for their productions through individual contributions, advertisements inserted in programme folders and box-office sales. Undaunted by the absence of a proscenium stage equipped with modern technical facilities, the theatre groups staged their productions in the small and poorly equipped Mahila Samity Auditorium that had originally been built for seminars. The range of texts performed by the groups varied widely: from Euro-American plays to contemporary originals written by group members themselves. A completely new set of playwrights appeared, important among whom were Abdullah al-Mamun, Mamunur Rashid, Syed Shamsul Huq, Salim al-Deen, Mumtazuddin Ahmed and SM Solaiman.
The post-liberation exuberance in theatre met complete saturation by the early 80s when the middle-class practitioners found it difficult to make ends meet with the little money performance generated. However, there were also developments in various directions. Possibly, the most significant of these was the induction of a number of theatre practitioners trained abroad, who added technique and skill to acting, design, and direction. By the end of the decade, three universities had theatre as a course of study: Chittagong University (introduced in 1970), jahangirnagar university (introduced in 1986) and the University of Dhaka (introduced in 1989). Two more institutes were also functioning by then: Natya Shikshangan (1976) and Theatre School (1990). Faced with autocratic rule in the political arena, many groups also took up theatre as a viable medium for popular protest. Significant among these were Jago Laksa Nur Hosain by Karak Natya Sampraday, Royal Bengal Tiger by Lokanatya Dal and Maharajer Gunakirtan by Desh Natak. Another important area of proliferation was the Mukta Natak movement initiated by Aranyak, in which members of the group (animateurs) sought to conscientise rural landless peasants and create performances with them. In mainstream theatre, the most interesting development was the attempt taken up by Dhaka Theatre and a number of other groups to incorporate indigenous performance elements in modern theatre practice in productions such as Keramat Mangal and Hat Hadai by Salim al-Deen (produced by Dhaka Theatre), Mahuyar Pala by Nazmul Ahsan (produced by Khulna Theatre) and Inggit and Ei Deshe Ei Beshe by S M Solaiman (produced by Dhaka Padatik).
During the 90s, three important attempts were made towards creating professional theatre: Bangla Theatre (1991), Theatre Art (1992) and the Centre for Asian Theatre (1994). All these, save the last, have failed. Although Aranyak's Mukta Natak movement has lost all its energy, theatre is being used by non-government organisations for addressing issues related to development. There have been some interesting productions, which include Chaka by Salim al-Deen (produced by Dhaka Theatre), adaptation of bisad-sindhu by mir mosharraf hossain (produced by Dhaka Padatik), Shes Sanglap by the Egyptian playwright Tawfiq al-Hakim (produced by Ganayana), Meraj Fakirer Ma by Abdullah al-Mamun (produced by Theatre), Irsa by Syed Shamsul Huq (produced by Nagarik), Kamalaranir Sagar Dighi (produced by the Department of Theatre and Music, University of Dhaka), an adaptation of Arthur Miller's Crucible (produced by Natyakendra) and Nitya Purana by Masum Reza (produced by Desh Natak).
n 2001, urban theatre in Bangladesh has lost much of its ideological commitment and is gradually being marginalised. The middle-class practitioners who bore the burden of performing for passion appear to have run out of steam. In an increasingly free-market economy and globalised cultural sway, theatre may soon find itself redundant. One option for it to survive is to turn professional, but it does not seem economically viable in the near future. The other option is to trust popular instinct. It has managed to survive against many odds for over fifteen centuries; surely it will survive as a cultural expression of the people*.
BANGLADESH THEATRE in 2003-2004
MOFIDUL HOQUE
Bengali New Year is celebrated in Bangladesh in mid-April and the Bengali calendar unfolds six seasons in a year. The subtle change of season is not well defined but one can have the feel of it. Likewise in Bangladesh there is nothing called the theatre season, it is not well-defined, but one can have the feel of it. The show goes on throughout the year, there is no recess or official beginning of the new season; but in practice, although not recognized distinctly, the theatre season begins in Sept-Oct with the advent of autumn and the easing of long monsoon rains. The six seasons of Bengal were tied to agricultural cycle together with rites and rituals of religion. Previously the traditional folk-theatre Jatra had very elaborate rituals at the beginning of its season, which commenced with the harvesting and Durga Puja, the major religious festival of the Hindus. It also had its end quite well marked. Jatra season was connected with nature's cycle and performances being held in villages during winter when the harvesting is over and people have free time. With growing urbanization and change in economic pattern that old practice has diminished and it has not been replaced by anything of modern structured economy. Consequently theatre season as such does not exist in Bangladesh, the show just goes on and on.
Infrastructure But the show cannot go on smoothly without proper infrastructure and institutional support and that has become the biggest problem for theatre in Bangladesh. Dhaka, the capital city with over 90 million population so far had only two small theatre halls and one of which is closed for over one year in order to renovate. The good news is the construction of the National Theatre, but that is still far from completion even after 10 years since the construction started. In December 2003 the experimental theatre hall in the National Theatre complex was opened formally and ITI Bangladesh Centre used the space as one of the venues of their theatre festival. But the 300 seat experimental theatre hall with all its modern facilities has not yet found regular use because of the absence of any user-friendly policy and subsidized rental fee for theatre groups.
Cooperative ventures but an overall need for Government support The lack of governmental support for theatre has led the theatre-people to mobilize whatever resource they can from the community and stand on their own feet. This is a difficult task but the respect and relevance theatre enjoys in society has helped it to make some dent. Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation has entered into long-term collaboration contract with Bengal Foundation, a philanthropist organization promoting arts. This support has enabled the Federation to organize workshops in different parts of the country, bring peripheral theatre groups to Dhaka to present their work and lot of other activities including support to selected experimental productions. Tirjak, a theatre group of Chittagong has renovated a small old hall and made it available for the local groups to perform. With support from the Chittagong City Corporation Tirjak is now building their own theatre which is expected to be opened at the end of the year. Shabadabali of Barisal could also build their own studio theatre. But these are small-scale efforts in consideration to what Government can do and should do. In the absence of appropriate policy and guideline the National Fine and Performing Arts Academy (Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy) has very little role to play. Government is yet to perform a supportive role to theatre, on the contrary it still clings to its controlling attitude towards theatre hall. Only a few years back the Dramatic Performance Control Act was abolished after a long struggle by theatre activists, but there isin practice an act called Public Place Performance Act which local administration implements to control performance of Jatra and also theatre in some cases. To invite foreign or regional groups to take part in local festivals is a hazardous process and the host organisation has to get clearance from three different ministries namely Ministry of Culture, Foreign Affairs and Home including national security agencies. Apart from such control cultural performances face other kind of attack upon them. The Bengali New Year musical celebration, the largest of which held open air in the park at early morning, three years ago witnessed brutal bomb attack killing innocent spectators. The fundamentalist group also raise hue and cry from time to time accusing some play or performance as blasphemous. In Faridpur, a district township, one play Katha Krishnakali (Story of Black Bud) became target of such attack. The play was one of theatre for development genre, aimed at raising public awareness about cross-border trafficking of women. The fundamentalist extremist group stopped the play by violently attacking the show and the director and playwright, young people in their twenties, were accused of blasphemy. Warrant of arrest was issued against them by local authority. Such incident shows the intolerant atmosphere created by certain quarter with ulterior motive. Similar attack was launched on the premier night against the play Bahe Prantojon (Saga of Marginalised People) in Rajshahi, written and directed by Moloy Bhowmik. But theatre people, with a long history of struggle behind them, are not intimidated by such violent attack and they are carrying on their shows.
Theatre productions in 2003 and 2004 In the year 2003 and early part of 2004 we have witnessed lot of activities on stage but very few major new productions. One of the reason was that most of the leading groups continued with the performance of their existing productions. Due to extreme lack of theatre space the groups cannot perform frequently and even for popular and significant production the group had to sit idle for long with on and off performance once or twice a month. Such limited opportunity to perform is taking its toll on the artists as well as on the group and this explains partially the lack of major new productions. One of the oldest and leading group ‘Theatre’ presented a new play Madhavi based on a story of Indian epic Mahabharata. The original Hindi play written by Bhisham Sahani, a major literary figure of India, has been translated into Bengali by Ashis Goswami and the play was ably directed by Ramendu Majumdar. The play centering around the fate of Princess Madhavi has found contemporary significance as it probes deeper into man-woman relationship and raises many questions which have relevance in modern society. The young actress Tropa Majumdar gave a memorable performance in the lead role. Dhaka Theatre, Nagorik, Aranyok continued with their previous productions which are usually drawing full houses. The productions were Nagorik’s Raktokarobi, and Kaalshondhya, Dhaka Theatre’s Prachya and Banapangshul and Aranyok’s Sangkranti. So they have not ventured into any new production during the period under review. Among the new productions we can identify a significant presence of women playwrights and directors. Samina Lutfa Nitra has writtern the play Tirthanker based on the epic Shahnama. It was staged by Subachan Natya Samsad and directed by Faiz Zahir. It can be treated as a reenactment of Persian influence on Bengali culture and Nitra could turn it into a play with strong anti-war message. The young playwright has earned praise for her maiden venture and is now working on a play about Khana, a medieval lady of wisdom. Versatile actress of Dhaka stage Rokeya Rafique Baby has directed the play Golapjan based on contemporary reality. She also excelled in the lead role. The play has been produced by Theatre Art Unit. Munira Yousuf Memy, another talented actress showed her skill in directing Bhubaner Ghat written by Syed Manzoorul Islam and produced by Natyajon.
New plays show a preference for myth or recreation of myth Among the new plays a preference for myth or recreation of myth proved to be a popular genre with different groups approaching the myth from different angle. Lokanatyadal presented Siddhidata, a plot mixing mythological characters and worldly creatures to achieve hilarious impact, directed by Liaquat Ali Lucky. Nagorik Natyangan Ensemble produced the Sanskrit classic Mrichakatik, directed by Jamaluddin Hossain, Natyadhara presented Atish Dipanker Saparza, written and directed by Alok Basu about a Buddhist monk of 10th century Bengal. Very recently the students of Theatre art and Music Department of Dhaka University impeccably produced a play by classical Sanskrit playwright of early age, Bhasa's Madhyam biyog (Missing the Middle Brother) adapted into Bangla. It was beautifully choreographed and acted. Two major male characters, Bhim and Ghatotchkoch were competently portrayed by two young actresses of the department.
Translations and adaptions another popular trend Translated and/or adapted plays are another popular trend in Bangladesh theatre. In the period under review Prachyanat, vibrant young group, presented Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros, (directed by Towfiqul Islam Imon), Natyachakra staged August Strindberg’s Janak (The Father) directed by Debprasad Delmath, Theatre Art Unit presented Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard (directed by Kamaluddin Nilu), Ganayan of Chittagong presented Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (directed by Kuntal Barua). Centre for Asian Thatre (CAT) presented a very well-knit production of Heiner Muller’s The Mission adapted by Saidus Saklaen and directed by Kamaluddin Neelu.
Reinterpretation of folk traditions - a major trend A major trend in Bangladesh theatre is re-interpretation of the folk tradition. Among such notable recent productions we can mention Sojan Badiar Ghat produced by Padatik Natya Samsad, Bahe Prantojan by Anushilon of Rajshahi, Sampan Naia by Uttaradhikar of Chittagong. Nrityanchal, a dance group, presented the traditional folk musical Mahua as a dance-drama.
Children's » theatre In recent years we have seen positive development in children’s theatre. Various groups all over the country are working with children. Although we do not have any permanent place for children theatre, that could not dampen the enthusiasm to work with children in theatre. The Peoples' Theatre Association annually organises festival of children theatre groups. Recently artist and dramaturg Mostafa Monwar established his own puppet theatre and fascinated the young audience with his imagination and innovation. Tona Tuni, a children theatre group performed Torai Bandha Gorar Dim, based on limericks by Edward Lear and Satyajit Ray. This production with dazzling costume, lighting, scenography, music and dance enthralled the audience both young and old. Palakar Kids, a children's drama school, has taken initiative to present weekly performance at their studio theatre. Sishu Theatre has produced two short skits under single bill titled Bhuth Shikar (Hunting the Demon), written and directed by Rezanur Rahman.
Contemporary problems on stage
Due to various reasons, intolerance of the people in power being one of them, contemporary reality and problems did not find direct reflection on stage although it was a very popular genre even a decade ago. Theatre in their new play Balod (The Fool) based on a story of renowned author Mohmmad Zafar Iqbal and directed by K. M. Haroon has exposed the evil face of religious fundamentalists in the backdrop of liberation war of Bangladesh. The play relate the past with present. Another play with contemporary significance was a docu-drama Tamas (Deep Darkness), presented by a theatre group from Chittagong. It was based on newspaper writings and reports about the brutal attack on religious minority at different places of the country. Sangkranti, the popular play of Aranyak, albeit symbolically depicted the problem involved in exposing the evil side of people in power where a group of rural performers put their life and existence in danger by mimicking the power groups in the annual village funfare through their song and dance. Amid such real life backdrop many theatre groups found it safe to make revival of their past successful plays which still have contemporary significance. Among such revivals are Ingeet (The Hint) by Dhaka Padatik, (exposing the barbarity of religious fundamentalists), Muntasir Fantasy by Dhaka Theatre (caricaturing the nouveau-riche class), The Captain of Kopenick, translation of Carl Zuckmayer's classic play presented by Nagorik (undermining the autocratic practices) etc.
Festivals Festivals have become an integral part of theatre in Bangladesh, which is an effort to compensate for the lack of theatre space and also attract new audiences. Street theatres are performed in the open centering major cultural events. Bangladesh Street Theatre Federation organises annual festival in February at the Martyrs Memorial with participation of groups from all over the country. This year it attracted a large number of audience and proved the appeal of street theatre. Similar National Street Theatre Festival is also organised by Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation is association with Bengal Foundation. There were many different theatre festivals organised by various groups, including a Festival of Theatre of Myth and Festival of Moliere's Plays. The biggest of the festivals was organised by ITI Bangladesh Centre in December, 2003. 'Celebrating Diversity' was the theme of the festival and 16 plays were staged in two different halls during the weeklong festival. There was also open-air performance of music, dance, street theatre children, theatre and folk plays. ITI Executive Council held its session in Bangladesh for the first time. Four of the permanent committees of ITI also held their Board Meeting during the festival. The committees included Cultural Identity and Development Committee, Dramatic Theatre Committee, Theatre Education Committee and Communication Committee. A two day international seminar on the theme ‘Celebrating Diversity’ also took place in Dhaka during this period.
Workshops for young theatre artists Recently ITI Bangladesh Centre organised two regional theatre workshops in succession which generated lot of interest among regional theatre artists. The first of the workshop was held under participatory programme of UNESCO and 26 young theatre artists from India, Nepal and Bangladesh participated in it. The theme of the 10-day workshop was ‘Space in theatre : choreography and innovation’ and the anchor person was Prabir Guha, eminent theatre director of India. The other workshop was initiated by CIDC of ITI Worldwide of which Nasiruddin Yousuff, noted theatre director of Bangladesh, is the President. The workshop was conducted by Alexander Stillmark of Germany and participated by theatre artists from India, Pakistan and Nepal. The workshop titled ‘My Unknown Enemy’ aspired to hold meeting between people of theatre from different countries and regions, which face each other in political, cultural and religious conflict situation. Similar workshops took place in 2002 in Bonn and in 2003 in Cairo. This unique workshop in Dhaka was done on the text excerpts of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot keeping in mind the socio-political realities of India, Pakistan and Nepal.
Theatre for Bangladesh is a celebration of life, but like life in Bangladesh it faces many odds. Nevertheless people tap their great source of energy to move forward and life goes on. Likewise the show goes on and theatre tries to fathom the deeper meaning of existence in order to gain spirit to overcome all the barriers. Theatre is facing many difficulties in Bangladesh but it is as exciting as ever.
Mofidul Hoque is a theatre critic and cultural activist. He is also a Board Member of ITI Communication Committee.
Dinabandhu Mitra
Michael Madhusudan Dutta
Rabindranath Tagore
Sisir Bhaduri
Girish Ghosh
Utpal Dutt
Ajitesh Bandyopadyay
Badal Sarkar
Arun Mukhopadhyay
Bibhas Chakrabarty
Rudraprasad Sengupta
Sohag Sen
Jochhan Dastidar
Bratya Basu
Suman Mukherjee
Goutam Halder
Swatilekha Sengupta
Abanti Chakraborty
Chandra Dastidar
Usha Ganguly
Joyraj Bhattacharya
Azad Abul Kalam
Manoj Mitra
THEATRE The Mirror of Class: Essays on Bengali Theatre by Himani Bannerji; Papyrus, Calcutta; Rs.200.
IT is a pity that this remarkable text on 20th century Bengali theatre - its ideology and practice - has remained confined within the shores of India. This book is not merely an evaluation of Bengali theatre through the linked prisms of class formation and class awareness but also a penetrating sociological study that explores the emergence and advance of the urban Bengali middle class whose contradictions, aspirations and compromises have been adequately reflected on the stage. In this sense, the very last chapter "The Mirror of Class - Class Subjectivity and Politics in 19th Century Bengal" forms an integral part of the book. This class in question, ironically, preceded the "bhadralok" Communist of later years and, as a result, the high-pitched dramaturgy of Girish Chandra Ghosh also anticipated the sensational epic theatre of Utpal Dutt. The author has examined these links between the past and present at the levels of attitude and creativity with incisive clarity. In fact, the last sentence of the book "Both ruled and ruling, a kind of Janus at birth, the colonial middle classes through their reorganisation of cultural and intellectual life captured moments of class experiences and desires", prompts us to recall the dramatisation of the "captured moments" that followed in our contemporary world. No wonder, Utpal Dutt decided to focus on this fragmented colonial psyche by writing a play on Michael Madhusudan Dutt who was ambivalent enough to sway between "colonial" admiration and "anti-colonial" revolt.
Courtesy: The Utpal Dutt Foundation for International Theatre Studies, Kolkata.
Utpal Dutt in one of his dramatic productions, "Othello". Dutt staged one production after another in Bengali theatre and tried to evolve a comprehensive theory of Epic Theatre.
All the seven chapters of this book are excellent examples of Marxian dissection of the Bengali theatre and mind. But if I were asked which two chapters score over the others, I will mention, unhesitatingly, "Representation and Class Politics in the Theatre of Utpal Dutt" and "Nation and Class in the Communist Aesthetics and the Theatre of Utpal Dutt". The author deliberately chose Utpal Dutt because he strode like a Colossus over the realm of Bengali theatre staging one production after another and, at the same time, trying to evolve a comprehensive theory of Epic Theatre which, the indefatigable Thespian hoped, should serve as a model for others.
Utpal Dutt, of course, borrowed the expression "Epic Theatre" from Bertolt Brecht, though his own praxis of "Epic Theatre" was poles apart from, indeed explicitly opposed to, Brecht's concept of the same. It is high time that we underlined this intrinsic difference because critics in India, often too glibly, draw a straight line from Brecht's "Mother Courage and her Children" to Utpal Dutt's "Barricade". Himani Bannerji is simply superb when she pinpoints the differences between the two dramatists and producers. In her words, "Utpal Dutt's Epic Theatre, unlike Brecht's Epic Theatre for class struggle, is first and foremost a nationalist theatre with an added on rather than intrinsic socialist agenda" (Page 13). When one elaborates this basic difference one concludes that whereas Utpal Dutt, closer to his own theatrical tradition and Stanislavsky (the Russian theatre director and actor), aspired to raise his Epic Theatre based on the reinvigorating power of myths, the wily Brecht formulated his vision by subjecting this very myth to question. One was anchored in his rich and vibrant epic-mythic mode, and the other delighted in sabotaging the myths from inside. Utpal Dutt needed colourful heroes, Brecht longed for a society which did not need heroes. Brecht's "Schweyk", "Mother Courage" and "Galileo" have nothing heroic about them in the Aristotelian or Elizabethan sense. Quite correctly, the analyst has traced the genesis of Utpal Dutt's epic-aesthetic to his admiration for (Josef) Stalin. In a trenchant sentence which closes the last chapter on Utpal Dutt, Himani Bannerji proposes in combative spirit, "His scheme of mythic realism is an aesthetic manifestation of his nationalist bourgeois socialism, whose code name could be Stalinism" (Page 118).
The succinct comparison leads to the unavoidable question: Why have Brecht's examples of Epic Theatre ("Mother Courage" and "Galileo") turned into classics and why are plays of Utpal Dutt - even those texts such as "Tiner Talwar" and "Dushapner Nagari" which mesmerised the audience - no longer read? Utpal Dutt could have claimed that his theatre sought to expedite revolution and did not seek immortality. But one could pose the counter-statement, namely, Brecht was no less a political being than Utpal Dutt and his plays were also devoted to the cause of Communism, unflinchingly? No doubt, the critic's sympathy lies with Bertolt Brecht. But her fairness also ensures that Utpal Dutt's ceaseless commitment receives the accolade that is due to it. In all his productions, some of them were breathtaking, Utpal Dutt achieved what he wanted to - "reaffirm the violent history of India, reaffirm the material tradition of its people, recount again and again the heroic tales of grand rebels and martyrs" (Page 70, Utpal Dutt's own words).
The basic question that the author has raised and also answered without mincing words is: To what extent has the politicised and progressive theatre of West Bengal dominated by the middle class since "Nabanna" (1944), the path-breaking production of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) in the 1940s, till our times been able to fulfil its essentially political function of drawing in the exploited to the auditorium and expediting the cause of a socialist revolution? In other words, has this theatre been the "child of changing, restless, crisis-ridden and violent times"? (Page 19). Unfortunately, the playwrights, directors and other theatre-workers, in spite of being fired by the dream of liberation, have remained rooted to their middle class anchor. And because of this class-conscripted attitude which shackles the Being as well as Consciousness, even the historic "Nabanna" ("The New Harvest") "gives us little or no indication of the social forces that structure and surround the lives" of the famine-stricken peasants. Indeed, what the critic highlights as the failure in "Nabanna" has turned out to be the paradigmatic curse of the Left Theatre of Bengal. The words she has employed to define the severe class-limitation of "Nabanna" could easily be applied again and again in the context of many other plays we see regularly at Academy of Fine Arts, Sisir Mancha and other auditoriums: "It was the middle class playwrights, with sympathetic observations of the miseries of the people, who wrote the plays, and it was middle class actors and actresses who put on tattered clothes, carried begging bowls or sticks and spears and spoke in dialects, carefully erasing the traces of the "proper" and "high" Bengali they had spoken all their lives" (Page 48).
This intrinsic, class-dictated deficiency created a tough barrier when the middle class theatre-workers attempted to cross the border and stage the Bengali adaptation of Maxim Gorky's Mother in a lower middle class, proletarian settlement. The theatre group "Chetana", helped by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), staged "Mother" in a field where red flags fluttered, but the mothers and daughters who constituted the audience hardly received any political education from the performance. They simply could not identify themselves with the "Mother" on the stage as was evident in the comment, "that mother is not like you and me. It's white people's mother" (Page 44). Above all, the Bengali version of the play, instead of tracing the emergence of the mother as a steel-hard proletarian figure who has realised the essence of class struggle and declassed solidarity, offered a typical Bengali mother, sentimental and moral in the bourgeois sense of the term. The play was highly normative, not in the least dialectical. And the author, who saw it all with her own eyes, had to conclude, "It seemed like a garish, over-coloured political poster... The image of the working class came from book to life, not the other way" (Page 42).
Even when this same group under the able direction of Arun Mukherjee staged a remarkable play like "Jagannath" where "class became palpable as a social relation in each episode" (Page 36), the audience remained strictly middle class. In what is possibly the most revealing section of the book, the author describes how the tea vendor's boy, classless by birth, prefers to sell tea to the theatre-going babus in place of seeing the play himself, ostensibly meant for him. His simple words expose the terrible gap that has grown between the classes: "These things are for you people, for the gentle folk. Don't understand what's going on, what's being said"(Page 33). What follows from these words is no less terrible - we, the middle class, view these artistic productions of the middle class to experience a catharsis of sorts. The more the sensation on stage, the more the intensity of our purgation. Hence we return after seeing "Tiner Talwar" as "relieved" human beings enwrapped in our own web of bourgeois moralism. Our alienation is complete. Hence, neither the performance nor our participation should be equated with the sensuous and liberating activity about which Marx spoke in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.
But we need elevating, creative labour even more urgently at this point of time when fascist-fundamentalist forces are hellbent to vulgarise and appropriate that very national history which inspired Utpal Dutt. Moreover, this labour should uphold the cause of social justice by forging a link between the oppressions and class, gender, caste and the new element of "race". Himani Bannerji, in "One Woman, Two Women, Without Women", shows how the class question is intrinsically linked with the feminist perspective. Her excellent interaction with Sobha Sen, one of India's great actresses, emphasises how in a semi-feudal, patriarchal set-up "class is engendered and gender classified" (Page 156).
It is doubtful if any other text on Bengali theatre has linked the history of dramatic performance with the history of the Bengali middle class with such scholarly verve, analytical brilliance and in so lucid a style. Using class as the defining prism, Himani Bannerji has focussed on the inherent limits of a class-defined creative enterprise whose Utopian resolve has not been nourished by the energy of classless activism. While reading her text, one is reminded of Louis Aragon's fervent query directed at Pablo Picasso: "Pablo, my friend what of our dreams / what of our dreams".
The advent of Bengali theatre may be dated back to 1831, when Prasanna Kumar Thakur established the 'Hindu Rangamanch' at Calcutta and staged Wilson's English translation of Bhavabhuti's Sanskrit drama 'Uttar Ramacharitam'.
In the initial days, Bengali theatre was influenced to some extent by ‘Yatra’ (folk plays acted on open stage).
During the early years, themes related to the society, religion, traditions and customs formed the major part of the contents of the plays.
After that, patriotism, horror of Bengal famine, aftermath of both World War and trauma of partition and riots in the post-Independence era found emotive expressions in Bengali theatre.
Bengali theatre continued its journey through 'Kirtivilas' of Yogendra Chandra Gupta,'Bhadrarjuna' of Taracharan,'Kulin Kula Sarvaswa' of Ramanarayana Tarkaratna and'Neel Darpan' of Deenbandhu Mitra.
Social dramas of Girish Chandra Ghosh, historical dramas of D.L.Roy and artistic dramas of Rabindranath Tagore continued to reach up to the stage of realistic dramas and marked the beginning of the parallel theatre.
But it was Shombhu Mitra and Utpal Dutt who can be credited with having given Modern Bengali theatre a thrust and injecting new life into the existing traditions. They were the true inheritors of the great theatre tradition began by Sisir Kumar Bhaduri and Bijon Bhattacharya.
The famous actor and playwright Girishchandra Ghosh, one of the pioneers of Bengali theatre, in his plays "Siraj-ud-daula" and "Mirkashim" presented Muslim characters as patriotic nationalist leaders equally respected by Hindus and Muslims.
Another famous playwright and poet Dijendralal Roy, in his play "Mebar Patan" (The Fall of Mewar), set a bright example of Hindu-Muslim amity through the relation between Amar Singh, a Hindu prince and Mahabat Khan, a converted Muslim.
Ritwik Ghatak, the famous playwright and actor and film director wrote "Dalil" (The Deed) in 1951 wherein the people living in East and West Bengal feel sad and agitated because their motherland has been partitioned.
The famous playwright and actor Utpal Dutt wrote "Itihasher Kathgoray" (On the Derk of History) in 1965 wherein Dutt shows that communal disbelief and hatred generated by the outbreak of War between India and Pakistan gradually weaken and fade away
The legend, Shambhu Mitra and his immensely talented wife Tripti Mitra went on to notch many successful productions for Bohurupee, a group formed by them, including Dashchakra, Raktakarabi, Galilieo and Chand Baniker Pala. Today their equally talented daughter Saonli Mitra is carrying on the production for this group.
Bengal also had the likes of Ajitesh Bandopadhyay who founded Bohurupee and the great Badal Sircar, whose plays like Evam Indrajit, continue to fascinate the Indian psyche. But that was Bengali theatre.
Even Hindi theatre flourished in Bengal under the likes of Shyamanad Jalan, Pratibha Agarwal and Usha Ganguli, Anamika, Padatik and Rangkarmee (of Rudra Prasad Sen Gupta) continue even today to provide thought provoking fare to the theatre-going public of Bengal.
They may not be titans but their contribution to the keeping alive the vibrant tradition of theatre in Bengal is worth accolades.
In dilemma, CPM eyes stick
Somnath adamant, party mulls action
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080717/jsp/frontpage/story_9561655.jsp
JAYANTH JACOB AND BISWAJIT ROY
July 16: Fuming but befuddled, the CPM leadership is thinking of denouncing Somnath Chatterjee at the central committee meeting this weekend if he does not step down as Speaker by then, sources said today.
Chatterjee, however, betrayed little sign of giving up his post before the trust vote on July 22. “It’s a million-dollar question what I will do on July 22,” he told Times Now television on board a flight to Hyderabad.
The CPM central committee is scheduled to meet in Delhi on July 19 and 20. The sources said that if the defiance continued, the party would be left with “little option” but to “denounce” Chatterjee.
The careful choice of words — “denunciation” — lays bare the dilemma of the party in deploying the usual disciplinary measures on the veteran who has become an unlikely tormentor of Prakash Karat. The party usually showcauses a member accused of flouting discipline, suspends the person if no satisfactory reply is furnished and sometimes pulls the expulsion trigger.
But in the case of Chatterjee, such measures are certain to ignite an outcry in the party with the potential to provide an outlet to the discontent about voting along with the BJP on the trust motion.
Besides, the CPM will find it difficult to formally charge Chatterjee with indiscipline as the party had been claiming in public the Speaker was free to take his own decision, though privately it has been piling pressure on him to quit.
If the CPM decides on denunciation, it could accuse Chatterjee of not taking into account “the political situation” — a euphemism for the need to topple the government, even if it means voting along with the BJP.
Somnath Chatterjee
But the sources said the CPM leadership was still hopeful of a solution. The party’s best option — Chatterjee recanting — looks unlikely.
Two other options are unpalatable to the party: if Chatterjee presides over the trust motion and then resigns — a possible option — it is of no use to the CPM. If he resigns as Speaker before the vote, he is likely to quit as MP also, which will be a bigger embarrassment to the party.
CPM central committee leader Mohammad Salim said it “would have been better if the party had discussed” with Chatterjee before including his name in the list.
CPM sources claimed that the party had given Chatterjee a long rope, including a statement today by politburo member Sitaram Yechury.
The statement, apparently issued to clarify reports attributed to Yechury, virtually admitted an oversight on a technical ground. “What I had said is that the Speaker’s name should be included in the CPI(M) list as he was elected as a CPI(M) candidate but with an asterisk denoting that he is the Lok Sabha Speaker, as is the normal parliamentary practice,” Yechury’s statement said.
The statement prompted sections of the party to split hairs to establish whether it represented a climbdown or a hardening of stand.
“It’s virtually a public apology on behalf of the leadership. Now we hope that Somnathda, being a large-hearted person, will no more stick to his position as he has already succeeded in making a point,” a party leader said.
But others said Yechury’s statement subtly asserted the party’s right to enlist Chatterjee as a voter in the House.
Subhas in touch with Speaker
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Basu
Calcutta, July 16: Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Bengal transport minister Subhas Chakraborty, both opposed to voting along with the BJP, are believed to have spoken to each other today.
Sources said Chatterjee gave Chakraborty the impression that he would not resign before the trust vote.
Despite a censure threat, Chakraborty refused to budge from his stand that the CPM should not vote with the BJP. Asked whether he would withdraw his statement, he said: “Why should I?”
Jyoti Basu, Chakraborty’s mentor, apparently told him today he should not have spoken out through the media.
But party sources said Basu was unlikely to have been unhappy at the statement.
Basu unwell
Basu, who turned 95 a few days ago, hurt himself when he fell off his bed. He has chest pain but doctors did not detect any fracture, his aide Joykrishna Ghosh said. Ignoring Basu’s reservations, the party has arranged a night attendant.
Risk & Rajiv on Rahul lips
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. (PTI)
Lucknow, July 16: In one of the most forceful arguments for the nuclear deal, Rahul Gandhi today said it was a “risk” worth taking for the benefit of the country and drew a parallel with his father’s dream of a computerised India which had then received similar condemnation from the Left.
Rahul, on a tour of his constituency Amethi, reiterated his praise for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and lauded him for demonstrating “extraordinary vision, tenacity and leadership” in his efforts to make the deal a reality at the risk of his own government.
Stating that he was extending “100 per cent” support to Singh, the Nehru-Gandhi scion said: “For ideological or political reasons the deal is being opposed. But the Congress has taken a decision which is correct. If something is in the interest of the people, numbers do not matter….
“Sometimes in life, risks have to be taken. The Prime Minister thinks it is in the interest of the country. If the government falls in the process, so be it.”
“So be it” is the phrase the Prime Minister used to dare the Left last August. It was also not lost on Delhi’s political number crunchers — busy tabulating the votes each side is believed to be commanding — that for the second time in less than a week, Rahul has spoken of the risk of the government falling.
Today, Rahul took a swipe at the Left, which has been virulently critical of the deal, and saw in the protests a strain similar to its opposition to his father Rajiv Gandhi’s vision of a computerised India.
Rahul recalled how the Left parties in the mid-eighties had stonewalled the introduction of computers in government offices on the ground that it would lead to massive retrenchment.
Rahul said the criticism faced by his father was “unjust and mischievous”, as he, like the Prime Minister now, had wanted to do some good for India. “Even then, everybody thought the move to introduce computers was ridiculous,” he said.
Ironically, the Left, which had spearheaded the campaign against computerisation, is now a firm believer in the benefits of technology. The CPM’s offices in New Delhi and elsewhere are fully computerised and most of its frontline leaders cannot be parted from their laptops.
Rahul also made an appeal to Young India, saying he hoped the deal would have the backing of young MPs irrespective of party affiliation. “I am sure all young Lok Sabha members, even those from the Opposition, are convinced that the nuclear deal is in the country’s interest,” he said.
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