Beginning of English Plays in India:
English, today, has become a global language. It is no longer the language of the English people. In Common Wealth countries it has become the language of a fairly large number of countries of Africa , Asia and America . In India it was introduced by the British after 1835 A.D. when the East India Company established the modern system of liberal scientific education. The progress of the system in 19th century was slow but steady. In 1831, a Bengali theatre was established which began staging of Shakespeare's plays. Krishan Mohan Benarji wrote first Indian English play depicting the conflict between the Hindu society and Western civilization in Calcutta. The play was written when Hindu College, Calcutta had created generation of English knowing persons. So modern theatre came into being in areas of our country occupied by the British, though Indian languages, folk - theatre or elite theatre has been as old as hills in our country. Under the British rule several regional languages, Persian, Sanskrit, Urdu and Hindi continue to flourish so the poetry and drama in native languages were quite popular. But modern theatre comes into being for English and native languages in the first half of 19th century. Michael Madhusudan Dutt wrote the first English verse play Ratnavali (1858), an English translation of Harsha's Sanskrit play.
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| Discuss Briefly the English Drama in India and Its Scope |
Expansion of Plays and Theatres:
The Bombay Amateur Theatre came into being in 1776 for performances of visiting European countries and Marathi theatre begins with Vishnudas Bhave's Sita Svayambra in 1843, and the Parsi Natak Mandli was established in 1852 followed by the Elphinstone Dramatic Club. C.S.Nazir produced the first English play in 1866 and the other Indian English play was D.M. Wadia's The Indian Heroine (1877). In Chennai (Madras), the Madras Dramatic Society was begun in 1875. The play - wrights wrote plays on social, historical and mythological themes -- P.V.R.Raju's Dasharatha or The Fatal Promise, Krishna Iyer’s, Lord Clive, T.B.Krishnaswamy's Nur Jahan , K.S.Ramaswami Sastri's Harishchandra and V.V.Srinivasa Aiyangar's plays Dramatic Divertissements in two volumes expose the behaviour of middle class in entertaining one act or two act plays .
Themes of the English Plays:
In pre - independence theatre, the Indian English translated dramas of Rabindranath Tagore The Post Office and The King of the Dark Chamber, Mukta Dhara left a deep impact on Indian theatre. The other dramatist was revolutionary philosopher Sri Aurobindo who wrote five verse plays—Perseus the Deliverer, Vasavadutta, Rodogune, The Vizir of Bassora and Eric, the King of Norway between 1893-1916 A.D. The themes of the play belong to Europe, Middle East and ancient India. The other major playwrights are Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, T.P. Kailasam and Bharati Sarabai. Harindranath Chattopadhaya's works include Abu Hasan and verse plays on Indian saints Pundalik, Saku Bai, Jayadeva, Chokha Mela, Eknath, Raidas and Tukarani. As a progressive writer he wrote five social plays on socialist themes - The Window, The Parrot, The Sentry's Lantern, The Coffin and The Evening Lamp. His dialogues are crisp and his plays impress the viewers.
Plays Based on Indian Epics:
T.P. Kailasam writes in Kannada as well as in Indian English. His dramas in both the languages are quite popular. He has written full - length plays in Indian English based on episodes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata -The Burden depicts Bharat's feeling on death of Dasratha from Ramayana. ‘Fulfilment’ and ‘The Purpose’ are based on the story of 'Ekalavaya’. ‘Karna' and ‘Keechaka’, ‘Don't Cry’ a monologue. Bharati Sarabai's two plays, The Well of the People ' and ' Two Women’, are influenced by Gandhism and depict guest for spiritual peace.
Influence of Western Civilization and the Clash of Social Values:
Advent of the British rule brought in Western civilization in India with a different culture and values: The contact of the Western scientific approach was bound to create deep rooted impact on our civilization. A new approach to Indian social and culture was evolved during the 19th century often described as a renaissance. In order to meet new challenge, Indian scholars and playwrights searched ancient Indian scriptures, epics - the Ramayana and the Mahabharata for heroes in their English works. So the Indian English drama after derived their plots from the epics and Puranas or the new clash of social values manifest in middle class. Rural India continued to live in its traditional life. The new educated rural elite or landlords shifted to towns and so a small middle class with new educated people came into existence. A few in this class took to English literature and drama. So the audience for the English theatre was extremely limited. The themes were based on spiritualism religion, nationalism and after the dawn of twentieth century on liberalism, communism and radicalism. Some Indian scholars like Tagore. Aurobindo, Nehru and Gandhi developed a new Indo - western value system which had great impact on evolving a radical approach to Indian social economic and cultural issues. An important issue was evolution of national language. After independence Hindi in Dev - nagri script was declared the national language, but the problem still remains unsolved. The constitution lists 18 different languages different regions or states still patronise regional languages. Of late public English medium school have become popular are in towns as well as villages. In this atmosphere the Indian English playwrighting and theatre is still confined to a few urban centres like Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta or Bangalore.
After independence the situation is more or less the same with one big difference - the government and T.V. or Radio at central and state level are encouraging Hindi or vernacular drama and literature. National School of Drama, New Delhi is based on Hindi drama. Indian English drama is still an elite theatre. Viewers also hail from middle class. But the values in the middle class are still confused or still range from traditional Indian values to progressive or modern western ideas . This cultural scenario permeates the playwrighting in India to - day. Amongst Indian English playwrights, a few famous writers are Asif Currimbhoy, G.V. Dasai, Partap Sharma, Nissim Ezekiel, Dina Mehta, Cyrus Mistry, Manjula Padamnabhan, Mahesh Dattani, Gurcharn Dass etc. Most of these writers focus their attention on urban middle class, probably for the fact that they can bring out the clash of traditional and western values in Indian society vividly.
Challenges Faced by the English Indian Dramatists:
Theatre, in general, is not popular in India. It is not professionally profitable. So it is difficult to have a theatre in towns or cities in the country. It is confined to an elite group. Even in University Youth Festivals the students and staff enjoy group dances (folk) more than the plays. The audience for theatre is thin. People in general enjoy folk - theatre based on epics or classical plays. Indian English theatre is no exception. It is limited to still smaller group who can understand spoken English.