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Modern Indian Theatre – UPSC Notes – Art and Culture

Table of Contents

Modern Indian theatre underwent significant transformations during the colonial era , marking the advent of post-medieval and modern expressions. This evolution was fueled by the availability of translations of ancient Sanskrit texts and Western classics . Adaptations of works by Shakespeare and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing played a pivotal role in shaping the theatrical landscape.

The burgeoning urban centers like Calcutta and Madras contributed to the demand for new forms of entertainment. Consequently, in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Western Proscenium style of theatre gained prominence. This period saw the emergence of various modern theatrical expressions, including plays and musical theatre .

Furthermore, the genres of ballet and opera became integral components of theatre, incorporating diverse traditions such as acting , costumes , and staging into their artistic fabric. Together, these developments reflected the dynamic evolution of Indian theatre during this transformative period.

Modern Indian Theatre – Overview

In the nineteenth century, numerous theatres emerged in Calcutta , including Belgachia Natyashala and Shobhabazar Natyashala .
Indians developed a distinctive theatrical style during the British era , incorporating elements from both Western and Indian traditions .
Unlike the ancient past when theatre was accessible to all, theatres became commercialized , with a cost imposed on audience members.
Social issues like dowry , caste , religious hypocrisy , and political matters were frequently explored in theatrical productions.
Responding to the growing political awareness, the British government implemented the Dramatic Performances Act in 1876 .

Modern Indian Theatre – Parsi Theatres

Between the 1850s and 1920s , Parsi Theatres thrived in Western India, showcasing plays in regional languages such as Gujarati and Marathi .
Vital components of these productions included captivating music and vibrant backdrops .
The thematic spectrum spanned from romance and comedy to compelling melodrama .
The advent of cinema in the 1930s prompted many Parsi producers to shift their focus to filmmaking.

IPTA – Indian People’s Theatre Association

Formed in 1943 as the artistic arm of the Communist Party, the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) left an enduring impact despite its dissolution in 1947 .
IPTA addressed pressing societal issues, exemplified by their plays on the Bengal Famine .
Eminent personalities such as Balraj Sahni , Prithviraj Kapoor , Bijon Bhattacharya , Ritwik Ghatak , and Utpal Dutt were integral to IPTA’s legacy.
IPTA continues to be active in regions like Chhattisgarh , Punjab , and West Bengal .

Other Modern Indian Theatres

Bengali, Maharashtra, and various regional theatres gained prominence.
Rabindranath Tagore , a celebrated dramatist, penned his first play, Valmiki Pratibha , at the age of 20.
Notable works by Tagore include Roktokoribi (Red Oleanders) , Chitrangada , Post-Office , exploring themes like nationalism, spirituality, and the contemporary sociopolitical environment.
Figures like Prasanna Kumar Thakur , Girishchandra Ghosh , and Dinabandhu Mitra (author of Nildarpan ) played significant roles in this theatrical landscape.
In 1944 , Prithviraj Kapoor established the Prithvi Theatre , a mobile theatre that hosted over 2000 productions with a troupe of 150 performers.
Mumbai saw the debut of its first permanent theatre in 1978 , which remains operational today.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi , founded in 1952 , aimed to promote performing arts, particularly theatre, fostering its growth in India.
Under the guidance of Ibrahim Alkazi , the National School of Drama contributed to the development of notable theatre figures.
In 1969 , Heisnam Kanhailal established Kalakshetra Manipur in Manipur to preserve ancient theatre traditions.
Ratan Thiyam founded the renowned Chorus Repertory Theatre in 1976 .

Famous Personalities of Modern Indian Theatre

Samsa (Sami Venkatadri Iyer) and Adya Rangachary are renowned Kannada playwrights and dramatists.
Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa , also known as Kuvempu , is a prominent Karnataka actor-playwright.
Subrahmanya Bharathiar from Tamil Nadu.
Veeresalingam Pantulu from Andhra Pradesh.
Sreekandan Nair , Bharatendu Harishchandra , and Jaishankar Prasad from Kerala.
BV Karanth is celebrated for his contributions to theatre in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh.
KV Subbanna founded the acclaimed NINASAM theatre group and is a Ramon Magsaysay award winner.
Indira Parthasarathy
Girish Karnad
Habib Tanvir
Vijay Tendulkar
Badal Sarkar
Vijaya Mehta
Dharmavir Bharati
Mohan Rakesh
Chandrashekhar Kambar

Modern Indian Theatre and Nationalism

A significant trend in modern Indian plays was the fusion of nationalism with contemporary social realities. An early exemplar of this genre was the acclaimed Bengali play “Neel Darpan” by Dinabandhu Mitra , highlighting the forced cultivation of indigo imposed on native planters by British imperialism. This play marked the emergence of a newfound consciousness of nationalism.

Assamese plays by Padmanath Gohai Barua ( Lochit Barfukan ), Lahshmikant Bejbarua ( Ckakradhwaj Singhj ), and Bimlanand Barua ( Sharai Ghat ) also stood as powerful expressions of nationalist sentiments. In Tamil, Pavler contributed nationalist plays like “Khadrin Verdri” and “Desheeya Koti” . The Malayalam nationalist tradition found expression through the works of V.T. Bhattiripad , K. Damodaran , Govindan , Ittasheri , S.L. Puran , and K.T. Muhammad .

In Hindi, Bhartendu Harishchandra wrote nationalist satires such as “Bharat Durdasha,” “Bharat Janani,” and “Andher Nagri.” This tradition found its culmination in the plays of Jai Shankar Prasad .

During the 19th century, Indian intellectuals recognized that India’s degeneration was not solely due to foreign rulers but also stemmed from social evils and superstitions within Indian society. Playwrights of this period used their craft to criticize those blindly imitating the West. Their works took aim at the caste system, child marriage, dowry, false notions of pride and prestige, prostitution, untouchability, and various other social ills, reflecting a profound understanding of the societal challenges of the time.

Post-Independence Plays

The post-independence era marked significant transformations in both the style and content of Indian plays .
The aftermath of the Second World War and the partition of the subcontinent had a profound impact on Indian society , shattering the widely shared optimism for a brighter future post-independence .

Societal Changes:

Society underwent rapid changes fueled by scientific and industrial advancements , impacting the prevailing value systems .
These societal shifts manifested in Indian plays , influenced notably by the increased accessibility to foreign plays in languages other than English.
Influences included Brecht from Germany, Gogol and Chekhov from Russia, and Sartre from France.
Notable practitioners of this trend were Badal Sarkar in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Girish Karnad in Kannada.
The new plays demonstrated a receptivity to experimental approaches , departing from the previous inclination for lengthy five-act plays with numerous scenes condensed into one act.

Historical Plays:

Historical plays of the pre-independence era sought to invoke national pride , but the new historical plays took a different approach.
Works by Uttam Barua (Varja Fuleshwari, Assamese), P. Lankesh (Sankranti, Kannada), Girish Karnad (Tughlaq, Hindi), Vijay Kumar Mishra (Tat Niranjan, Oriya), Mohan Rakesh (Ashadh Ka Ek Din, Hindi), Jagdish Chandra Mathur (Pahla Rqja, Hindi), and Sant Singh Sekhon (Mohu Sar Na Kai, Punjabi) reflected this shift.

Thematic Content:

In the post-independence era, mythological forms were employed to portray complex human emotions and dilemmas.
The focus on social plays persisted, now expanded to encompass new social problems and themes.
Thematic content delved into pressing issues such as economic disparity , frustrations , challenges faced by women , plight of the dalits and the depressed, Hindu-Muslim relations , struggles in rural life , dehumanization in urban settings, middle-class hypocrisy , and clashes between new and old values .

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FAQs on Modern Indian Theatre

1. How did the post-independence period influence the style and content of Indian plays in Modern Indian Theatre?

Answer: The post-independence period brought significant changes to Indian plays, witnessing a shift in both style and content. Societal impacts from the Second World War and partition led to a reevaluation of national optimism, shaping narratives that reflected the evolving consciousness of independence.

2. What were the major societal changes that impacted the development of Modern Indian Theatre after the Second World War and the partition of the subcontinent?

Answer: The aftermath of the Second World War and the partition of the subcontinent brought about rapid societal changes. These changes, fueled by scientific and industrial advancements, influenced the prevailing value systems. They, in turn, manifested in Indian plays with a notable shift in focus and themes.

3. How did the introduction of plays from foreign languages other than English, such as Brecht, Gogol, and Chekhov, influence the writing and staging of Indian plays during the post-independence era?

Answer: The post-independence era saw an increased accessibility to plays written in foreign languages. Influences from playwrights like Brecht, Gogol, and Chekhov began to shape the writing and staging of Indian plays. This trend was prominently visible in the works of renowned playwrights such as Badal Sarkar, Vijay Tendulkar, and Girish Karnad.

4. In what ways did the thematic content of Modern Indian Theatre evolve, and how did playwrights like Badal Sarkar, Vijay Tendulkar, and Girish Karnad contribute to this shift?

Answer: The thematic content of Modern Indian Theatre evolved to address contemporary social issues. Playwrights like Badal Sarkar, Vijay Tendulkar, and Girish Karnad played pivotal roles in this shift. They displayed a receptivity towards experimental approaches, departing from the earlier tendency for lengthy plays with multiple scenes condensed into one act.

5. Can you highlight the key themes explored in post-independence plays, including the use of mythological forms and the continued focus on social issues with an expanded canvas in Modern Indian Theatre?

Answer: Post-independence plays explored a range of themes, including the use of mythological forms to portray complex human emotions and dilemmas. The continued focus on social issues expanded to encompass new challenges such as economic disparity, the plight of women, Hindu-Muslim relations, rural struggles, and clashes between new and old values. This thematic diversity marked a significant aspect of Modern Indian Theatre.

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Introduction to Modern Indian Drama

Note: This exam date is subjected to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout, books and references.

Badal Sircar, Three Plays. Seagull Books: Kolkata, 2009.
Bhatia, Nandi (ed.), Modern Indian Theatre. Oxford University Press: New Delhi, 2009.
Dattani, Mahesh, Collected Plays. Penguin India: New Delhi, 2000.
Ghosh, Arjun, A History of the Jana Natya Manch: Plays for the People. Sage India: New Delhi, 2012.
Gupt, Somnath, The Parsi Theatre: Its Origins. Seagull Books: Kolkata, 2005.
Hansen, Kathryn, Stages of Life: early Indian autobiographies. Anthem Press: London, New York, 2011
Hansen, Kathryn, Grounds for Play: The Nautanki Theatre of North India. 1993.
Karnad, Girish, Collected Plays. Oxford University Press: New Delhi, 2017.
Lal, Ananda, The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre. Oxford University Press: New Delhi, 2004.
Mahesh Elkunchwar, Collected Plays. Oxford University Press: New Delhi, 2010.
Vijay Tendulkar, Five Plays. Oxford University Press: New Delhi, 1997.

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Prof. Kiran Keshavamurthy

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Home » Indian Heritage & Culture » Theatre » Modern Theatre

The modern Indian theatre draws itself from three different traditions i.e. the Sanskrit theatre tradition, folk theatre tradition and the tradition of western theatres. It is actually the third which can be said to form the basis of the modern Indian theatre.

Origin of modern Indian theatre

Modern Indian theatre started after the advent of the British in India . The British developed Calcutta in the east, Bombay and Surat in the west and Madras in the south as important centres of trade and administration. They also set up theatres in these cities for their entertainment.

Levdef , a gentleman of Russian origin, established a theatre by the name of Bengali Theatre . Abridged versions of plays like Disguise and Love is the Best Doctor were enacted on 21 November 1765, well over 200 years ago. Many rich drama lovers followed the example of Levdef and started conducting shows in their houses, lawns and gardens. This set in motion a process in which many theatres were established and plays enacted.

Once general interest developed in the plays, their commercial viewing became inevitable. This led to the formation of theatrical companies among which the Parsi theatrical companies became most popular. These companies toured various provinces and made money. But, more significantly, they contributed to the popularization of the plays by writing them in Indian languages.

Salient features associated with Modern Indian theatre are:

Predominant influence of western notions of drama
The Ancient Indian tradition rested on a happy ending of the plays whereas in the western tradition the tragic ending was generally in vogue
Modern Indian theatre was a product of certain Indian social developments . The processes of modernization and Renaissance in the Indian society, brought about Socio – cultural changes and these changes were reflected in the field of art and literature
The initial thematic content of the modern Indian plays rested on the historical and the mythological themes. Later the social and political themes were also given a place. Along with this, Indian theatre soon began incorporating elements from the classical Sanskrit theatres and folk theatres. This combination brought about many changes in the Indian theatre. For example, plays in the Parsi theatres gave tremendous importance to music, song and dances which was the influence of the traditional folk plays.

Fig: A picture of one of the Parsi theatrical company setup during this time

The post independence theatre also incorporated much of the folk and the Sanskrit traditions but, in essence, retained the realist western tradition. Playwrights like Badal Sarkar, Shambhu Mitra, Vijay Tendulkar, B.V.Karant, Ibrahim Alkazi, Girish Karnad and Utpal Dutt etc. made new experiments in the theatrical devices

Modern Indian drama and nationalism

Combining nationalism with contemporary social reality was another trend in modern plays. The first famous play of this kind was written by Dinabandhu Mitra (Neel Darpan) in Bengali. This play was based on the theme of forcible cultivation of indigo inflicted on the native planters by British imperialism. This play was also indicative of a newly emerging consciousness of nationalism

Figure: Dinabandhu Mitra, author of Neel Darpan

Assamese plays by Padmanath Gohai Barua (Lochit Barfukan), Lahshmikant Bejbarua (Ckakradhwaj Singhj and Bimlanand Barua (Sharai Ghat) were also powerful expressions of nationalist feelings. Pavler wrote nationalist plays (Khadrin Verdri and Desheeya Koti among others) in tamil . In m alayalam the nationalist tradition was carried by V.T. Bhattiripad, K. Damodaran, Govindan, Ittasheri, S.L. Puran, K.T. Muhammad, Bhartendu Harishchandra wrote nationalist satires in hindi (Bharat Durdasha, Bharat Janani and Andher Nagri) and his tradition was carried to its culmination by the plays of Jai Shankar Prasad.
The Indian intellectuals of the 19th century had grasped the reality that India’s degeneration was not only because of the alien rulers but also because of certain social evils and superstitions prevalent in the Indian society.
The plays of that period reflect this understanding very well. The playwrights focused their sarcasm on those Indians who were busy in blindly following the west. The playwrights of this period attacked the caste system, child marriage, dowry, false notions of pride and prestige, prostitution, untouchability and other social evils in their plays

Post-independence plays

The post independence period witnessed changes in both the style and content of the Indian plays. The Second World War and the partition of the sub-continent had a profound impact on Indian society. The widely shared optimism of a better tomorrow turned out to be an illusion after the attainment of independence

The rapid changes brought about by science and industrialization in the society, affected the value systems of the people. These changes were bound to show up in the world of Indian plays in a variety of ways.

An important change was the increased access, to India, of plays written in foreign languages other than English. Indians were now getting introduced to the plays of Brecht from Germany, Gogol and Chekhov from Russia and Sartre from France . This influenced both the writing and staging of the new plays. The new trend is most visible in the plays of Badal Sarkar in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi and Girish Karnad in Kannada. The new plays displayed receptivity towards new experiments being made in the field. The earlier trend was to write five act plays, with many scenes in one act. This was reduced to three and finally to one. Many scenes in an act used to disturb the continuity and interrupt viewer’s pleasure. Therefore, the practice of having many scenes in an act was almost discontinued

The historical plays of the pre-independence period used to focus on invoking national pride. But the new historical plays attempted to understand and analyse history from a new angle. The plays of Uttam Barua (Varja Fuleshwari, assamese), P.Lankesh (Sankranti, kannada), Girish Karnad (Tughlaq, hindi), Vijay Kumar Mishra (Tat Niranjan, oriya), Mohan Rakesh (Ashadh Ka Ek Din, hindi), Jagdish Chandra Mathur (Pahla Rqja, hindi) and Sant Singh Sekhon (Mohu Sar Na Kai, punjabi) are quite remarkable in this respect.

Staging of Girish Karnad’s drama- Tughlaq

In the post-independence plays the mythological form was also used to portray complex human emotions and dilemmas. The focus on social plays continued in the post independence period as well, with a much enlarged canvas to include new social problems and themes . Now, the increasing economic disparity with resultant frustrations, the plight of women in the society, the despondency of the dalits and the depressed, Hindu-Muslim relations, the miseries of the rural life, de-humanization of the city life, hypocrisy of the middle class and the clash between the new and the old values dominated the thematic content of the new social plays.

Practice questions

Discuss the origin of Modern Indian drama
Elaborate how Modern Indian dramas throw light on various aspects associated with Indian society
What has been the dominant perspective in the presentation of the historical and the mythological plays during the post independence period?

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Evolution of Drama in India, History, Types, Origin, Timeline

Origins of Indian drama can be traced to the Rigveda, with hymns containing dialogues and scenes. Check here Evolution of Drama in India, History, Types and its Origin in this article.

Table of Contents

The evolution of drama in India is a rich and diverse journey that spans centuries and reflects the country’s cultural, social, and historical changes. Indian drama has its roots in ancient theatrical traditions and has evolved over time, incorporating influences from various regions, languages, and cultural practices. Here is an overview of the evolution of drama in India.

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Origin of Drama in India

The roots of drama in India can be traced back to the Rigveda, which was written between 1200 and 1500 BCE. The Rigveda contains hymns in the form of dialogues and scenes, as well as hymns that use other literary forms.

Indian theatre dates back to the 2nd century BC. It began in ritualistic practices and took formal shape through Sanskrit drama. Notable playwrights who contributed to the development of Sanskrit drama include Bhasa and Kalidasa.

The golden period of Sanskrit drama began in the 2nd century BCE and ended in the 10th century CE. The decline of Sanskrit drama was caused by several foreign invasions and rulers that banned the art form.

Indian theater has a diverse history. Its forms differed from region to region, but they were all committed to the idea that theater can be a force for social change. The states with the largest theater movements were Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Bengal, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala.

Check here: Famous Modern Dramas and Dramatists

Ancient Indian Drama (2nd century BCE-10th century CE)

The origins of Indian drama can be traced back to the Natya Shastra, a comprehensive treatise on performing arts attributed to the ancient sage Bharata Muni. Composed between the 2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE, this foundational text outlined the principles of dramatic theory, encompassing aspects of acting, music, dance, and stagecraft. It provided a systematic guide for the creation and performance of drama.

Sanskrit drama flourished during this period, and its golden age is often associated with renowned playwrights such as Kalidasa, Bhasa, and Shudraka. Kalidasa’s plays, such as “Shakuntala” and “Malavikagnimitram,” are celebrated for their poetic beauty, intricate plots, and exploration of human emotions. Bhasa, though relatively less known due to the loss of many of his works, is recognized for his innovation and experimentation in dramatic form.

The performance of these early dramas was closely tied to religious and courtly contexts, with royal patronage supporting the arts. The Natya Shastra classified drama into ten major types, providing a framework for the diverse narratives that could be presented on stage, ranging from mythological epics to tales of everyday life.

Medieval Indian Drama (10th-18th Century)

The medieval period witnessed the diversification of theatrical traditions across different regions of India. Local forms of drama began to emerge, often influenced by regional folklore, traditions, and cultural practices. These performances were not confined to Sanskrit but were conducted in various regional languages.

In Maharashtra, the Tamasha tradition incorporated elements of dance, music, and humor. Gujarat saw the development of Bhavai, a folk theater form that combined social commentary with entertainment. Bengal witnessed the rise of Jatra, a popular folk theater form that traveled from village to village, narrating stories of mythology and contemporary issues.

Despite the regional variations, these forms of drama often retained a connection to religious themes, folk tales, and societal values. They served as a means of both entertainment and cultural expression for the local communities.

Colonial Era (18th-19th century)

The colonial era marked a significant shift in Indian drama due to the influence of British colonialism. English-language plays became prominent, reflecting Western theatrical traditions. The proscenium stage became popular, and European-style theaters were established in major cities.

Notable figures like Raja Ram Mohan Roy recognized the potential of theater as a tool for social reform and education. Playwrights such as Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Dinabandhu Mitra began to write plays in English and Bengali, addressing social issues, promoting education, and challenging traditional norms.

Modern Indian Drama (20th Century-Present)

The 20th century brought about a renaissance in Indian drama with the emergence of influential playwrights. Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel laureate in literature, contributed significantly to the fusion of traditional Indian drama with Western influences. His plays, like “The Post Office” and “Muktadhara,” explored humanism and spirituality.

Girish Karnad, a prominent playwright and filmmaker, delved into historical and mythological themes. Vijay Tendulkar, through works like “Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe” (Silence! The Court is in Session), addressed social and political issues, challenging societal norms and advocating for change.

The Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), formed in the 1940s, played a pivotal role in using theater as a medium for social and political commentary. Experimental and avant-garde theater gained momentum, with playwrights like Badal Sircar exploring new forms and styles.

Contemporary Indian Drama (21st century – present)

In the 21st century, Indian drama continues to evolve with the emergence of new voices and forms. The influence of globalization, technology, and social media has impacted the way stories are told and consumed. Playwrights and theater practitioners explore diverse themes, experiment with styles, and often draw inspiration from both traditional and modern sources.

Contemporary Indian drama is characterized by its diversity, reflecting the complex and dynamic nature of Indian society. Issues such as identity, gender, politics, and globalization are explored on stage, providing a platform for dialogue and reflection. The theater scene is not limited to metropolitan areas; smaller cities and towns also witness a growing interest in drama, fostering a more inclusive and widespread theatrical culture.

In conclusion, the evolution of drama in India is a fascinating journey that spans millennia, reflecting the country’s cultural richness and adaptability. From the ancient Sanskrit plays to the diverse regional forms, the impact of colonialism, and the dynamism of contemporary theater, Indian drama continues to be a powerful medium for storytelling and cultural expression.

Types of Drama in India

India has a rich tradition of various types of drama, encompassing a wide range of styles, themes, and regional variations. Here are some of the prominent types of drama in India:

Sanskrit Drama

Sanskrit drama, dating back to ancient times, is characterized by classical texts like those of Kalidasa and Bhasa. It follows the guidelines outlined in the Natya Shastra and often features intricate plots, poetic language, and a combination of music and dance.
Tamasha (Maharashtra): A lively folk form that combines dance, music, and drama. It often portrays social issues in a humorous way.
Bhavai (Gujarat): A vibrant form of folk theater known for its colorful costumes, energetic music, and social commentary.
Jatra (Bengal): A popular folk theater form that involves traveling troupes, narrating stories of mythology and contemporary issues.
Originating in Karnataka, Yakshagana is a traditional dance drama that combines elements of dance, music, dialogue, and elaborate costumes. It often depicts episodes from the epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana.

Koodiyattam

Originating in Kerala, Koodiyattam is one of the oldest existing forms of Sanskrit theater. It involves highly stylized and ritualistic performances, often based on ancient Hindu texts.
Popular in North India, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Nautanki is a form of musical drama characterized by lively music, dance, and exaggerated acting. It often tells stories of romance and social issues.

Puppet Theater

Puppetry has a strong tradition in India, with various forms such as:

Kathputli (Rajasthan): String puppetry with colorful wooden puppets, often used to narrate folk tales and myths.
Bommalattam (Tamil Nadu): Shadow puppetry using leather puppets to depict stories from epics.

Contemporary Theater

Modern Indian drama has evolved to address contemporary issues and diverse themes. Playwrights like Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad, and Badal Sircar have contributed to this form, often using theater as a medium for social and political commentary.

Street Theater (Nukkad Natak)

Street plays are a popular form of dramatic expression, addressing social issues and raising awareness. They are performed in public spaces to engage a wide audience.

English-Language Theater

With the influence of colonialism, English-language theater gained prominence in India. Contemporary playwrights continue to write in English, addressing global and local themes.

Experimental and Avant-Garde Theater

In the 20th century and beyond, there has been a surge in experimental theater, challenging traditional norms and exploring new forms of expression. The Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) played a significant role in promoting experimental theater.

Evolution of Drama in India UPSC

The origins of Indian drama can be traced to the Rigveda, with hymns containing dialogues and scenes. The formalization of Indian theater began in the 2nd century BCE with Sanskrit drama, featuring playwrights like Bhasa and Kalidasa. The golden age of Sanskrit drama, spanning the 2nd century BCE to the 10th century CE, faced decline due to foreign invasions.

Regional variations in drama flourished, driven by the belief in theater as a force for social change. The medieval period saw diverse forms like Maharashtra’s Tamasha and Bengal’s Jatra. The colonial era introduced English-language plays, and the 20th century witnessed a renaissance with playwrights like Tagore and Karnad. Contemporary Indian drama, marked by diversity and social exploration, continues to evolve in the 21st century.

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Evolution of Drama in India FAQs

What is the origin of drama in india.

The roots of Indian drama can be traced back to the Rigveda, composed between 1200 and 1500 BCE, featuring hymns in the form of dialogues and scenes.

When did Indian theater formalize, and what was its early focus?

Indian theater began to take formal shape in the 2nd century BCE through Sanskrit drama. Initially rooted in ritualistic practices, it later diversified its themes.

How has contemporary Indian drama evolved in the 21st century?

Contemporary Indian drama in the 21st century reflects diversity, exploring themes like identity, gender, politics, and globalization, utilizing both traditional and modern influences.

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Indian Drama in English | Ananda Lal

Home » Indian Drama in English | Ananda Lal

Published on 13 May 2022.

MLA: Lal, Ananda. “Indian Drama in English.” Indian Writing In English Online , 13 May 2022, INDIAN DRAMA IN ENGLISH Ananda Lal – Indian Writing In English (uohyd.ac.in) .

Chicago: Lal, Ananda. “Indian Drama in English.” Indian Writing In English Online. May 13, 2022. INDIAN DRAMA IN ENGLISH Ananda Lal – Indian Writing In English (uohyd.ac.in) .

Despite noteworthy contributions in recent decades, Indian literature in English remains a fledgling discipline with vast regions of terra incognita lying unmapped, as well as frustrating due to the unavailability of primary material – the books themselves. The absence of a culture of methodical library acquisition in India, compared to the repositories and networks in Europe and North America, the randomness of specific collections, and the haphazard manner in which most of them are stocked and catalogued (if at all), frequently result in the abandonment of projects simply because one cannot locate a rare title essential to one’s work, even after time-consuming and exhaustive searches. Ironically, these missing volumes do not date to a remote past, but to periods closer to us such as the nineteenth and even the early twentieth century.

The field suffers so much from these lacunae that it affects the writing of its authentic history. Many of its trailblazing books published in the early nineteenth century do not survive in our libraries. We may know their titles from secondary sources, but we cannot read them because we cannot trace them. Since many of the authors of these sources could not find them either, substantial misinformation about them circulates in print, recycled by later researchers who rely on those sources without investigating them. Dependable literary histories themselves become questionable: one can cite any number of instances where a scholar has claimed a particular book as a milestone, overlooking earlier ones that had certainly existed, though they may have vanished from our ken. The most celebrated and somewhat debated recent example is The Travels of Dean Mahomet (1794), rediscovered in the 1990s and thereby automatically pushing back the start of Indian writing in English.

Let us narrow our scope to the area covered in this essay: Indian drama in English. For a long time, following K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar’s authoritative tome, Indian Writing in English (1962, up to its fifth edition, 1985), readers accepted that the first play in English by an Indian was Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s Is This Called Civilization? (1871) [1] . As I have proved in a new anthology [2] , that was not the case, but many recent critical works continue to perpetuate this incorrect information, and sometimes even credit Dutt himself as the translator (he wrote the Bengali original, Ekei ki bale sabhyatā ). In fact, my quest for this English rendition—one of those books referred to above that seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth—revealed that it was translated by D. N. (Dwarkanath) Banerjee, certainly not by Dutt [3] . If anyone stumbles upon a copy of this translation anywhere, please let me know.

Meanwhile, Kumudini Mehta’s doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Bombay in 1960, which gained notice much later because it remained unpublished, appeared to suggest that one of the fathers of Parsi theatre in Bombay, Cooverji Sorabjee Nazir, had composed and published a verse drama titled “The First Parsi Baronet” in 1866 [4] . Unlike her customary meticulous annotation, she did not provide bibliographical details for this book. I believe she confused it with the biography of Sir Jamsetji Jeejeebhoy by the same name (except for the spelling Parsee instead of “Parsi”) which Nazir indeed authored and published that same year, based partly on a poem by “Munsookh” [5] . It seems improbable that one person would have written an identically titled play and biography, both published in 1866. It is more plausible that Nazir, who did compose drama in English, may even have staged such a biographical play by himself in verse, but did not eventually print it. Only a researcher in Mumbai who can access archival collections and newspaper libraries may confirm or reject this speculation.

Proceeding backwards to the 1840s, we come across two early plays that do survive. One, Kishun Koovur: a tragedy in five acts by Soobrow, Dewan to the Raja of Travancore (Trivandrum: Government Press, 1840), has been digitised online by Google Books, thus allowing scholars to read and write about it [6] . The other, The Spirits of the East: a lyrical drama by “A Bengal Civilian” (Calcutta: Ostell and Lepage, 1844), exemplifies works by British temporary residents exclusively about their life in India, which does not fall within our purview, strictly speaking. For similar reasons but at an even further remove, we cannot admit the eighteenth-century tragedies by Alexander Dow, who spent a long period here in the employ of the East India Company, such as Zingis (1769, on Genghis Khan) and Sethona (1774, on ancient Egypt).

Two books; the cover of one shows a nib that doubles as the curtains on a stage and chairs that make up the theatre audience; a second book, bearing the title of the essay shows a group of people in folk attire.

Indian Drama in English, illustrated by Guru G

The recent restoration of Krishna Mohana Banerjea’s The Persecuted, or Dramatic Scenes, Illustrative of the Present State of Hindoo Society, in Calcutta (1831) to its rightful chronological position marks the true commencement of Indian drama in English. Consequently, this genre too, alongside her sisters, poetry (with Henry Derozio) and fiction (with Kylash Chunder Dutt), debuted before Macaulay’s controversial and demonised Minute, which most detractors blame for the imposition of English on Indians after 1835. Evidently, many Indians chose English for their literary excursions prior to that date. Furthermore, it proves what may come as a matter of disbelief to many, that original Indian drama in English predates drama in any other modern Indian language. However, the lack of easy access to The Persecuted led to merely generalised comments on it in the history books [7] . Nobody could write a thoroughly-considered study of it. By reprinting it in my anthology, I hope to encourage critics to examine it closely, as well as the two other early original plays in English also made available to an English readership for the first time since their first publication. (As I observe there, a few books in Bengali have included the text by Banerjea and fragments of M. M. Dutt’s Rizia: Empress of Inde (written in 1849), but these collections would be unknown to non-Bengali audiences and, besides, they contain far too many typographical mistakes that misconstrue meanings.)

By pure happenstance, the dramatic representation in my anthology originated from British-ruled Calcutta. Of course, it could be argued that Dutt lived, wrote and printed fragments of Rizia in Madras (in 1849-50), but he returned to his hometown Calcutta afterwards and won renown as a Bengali author based there. The writer of the third play, Kaminee: The Virgin Widow (1874), preferred to remain anonymous and may not have been an Indian by birth, but it seems likely that he (she?) resided in Calcutta, since they deal with urban Bengali society, and published it from a respectable Calcutta press. Most significantly from our contemporary perspective, these three plays spanning forty years offer important themes — from religious orthodoxy and persecution of liberal youths ( The Persecuted ) to the historical tragedy of a Muslim queen victimised by sexism and racism ( Rizia ) to the social restrictions on teenage widows ( Kaminee ). I do not claim that they constitute excellent drama, but no literary tradition produced a masterpiece at its beginning, whereas these three do present core issues that concern us today. They were not written for entertainment.

A different point that should be made—and one that might explain a certain amateurishness in their composition—is that none of these plays made it to the stage, as far as we know. English-language theatre did exist in India at the time, but mainly by the British and for the British, while “native” students at the academies and colleges only recited and enacted scenes from Shakespeare supervised as part of their education. Thus, Banerjea and Dutt, both pupils at Hindoo College in Calcutta, not only knew their Shakespeare perfectly but also performed in Shakespearean roles for invited audiences in public spaces: Banerjea as Horatio in 1829 at Government House, Dutt as Gloucester ( Henry VI ) in 1834 at Town Hall [8] . We can therefore discern the influence of a somewhat dated English in the dialogues of their own contrivance, as they could not test their writing in the theatres.

On the other hand, I should draw readers’ attention to a relatively little-known fact: “as Samachar Darpan in its issue of 17 September 1831 reports, a Committee was formed for establishing a theatre on the model of the English theatre. The plays, it was said, would be presented in English” [9] . The committee consisted of prominent Bengali Hindus, one of whom, Prosunno Coomar (Prasanna Kumar) Tagore, acted on the resolution and established the Hindu Theatre at his garden estate in Narkeldanga, Calcutta. The stage historian Sushil Kumar Mukherjee describes it as “the first theatre founded by a Bengali, housed in the Bengali quarter of the city, for a Bengali audience.” It opened on 28 December 1831, just a month after Banerjea published The Persecuted , but not with an original play. The programme, performed by students of the Hindoo and Sanskrit Colleges as well as others, for a private invited audience of Europeans and Indians, started with Act I of Bhavabhuti’s Sanskrit classic Uttara-Rāma-charita , translated into English by an eminent member of the management of Hindoo College, H. H. Wilson, and ended with Act V of Julius Caesar . On 29 March 1832, Hindu Theatre staged a slight farce with an oriental theme, titled Nothing Superfluous .

Into the 1850s, before turning once and for all to the performance of new drama in their mother tongue, Bengalis cultivated publicly their theatrical aspirations in English. Two amateur initiatives in mainly Bengali-inhabited north Calcutta introduced ticketed shows (not exclusively for invitees) of Shakespeare in English: the Oriental Theatre presented Othello , The Merchant of Venice and Henry IV (1853–55) and the Jorasanko Theatre (not the later, more famous one of the same name set up by the Tagores) produced Julius Caesar in 1854. Lest we forget, Dutt was writing Rizia in Madras at this time. Thus, we should not presume that conditions were not conducive for theatre by Indians in English, though they naturally favoured Shakespeare, whereas dissenting scripts on controversial matters by young dramatists may indeed have not interested the ruling elite.

In fact, they did not even interest the Bengali aristocracy, as Dutt learnt unfortunately when he proposed to his Raja patrons that he could present them with Rizia in Bengali for their new theatre. I have recounted in my anthology the pure circumstantial luck behind my discovery of Dutt’s English manuscript—something that Indian researchers rarely encounter, unlike our counterparts in the developed world who can avail of comparatively easier access to authorial scripts and typescripts thanks to the advanced culture there of acquiring and preserving such literary material. Nevertheless, my serendipity emboldens me to suggest that fellow Indian researchers could be just as lucky as I was in locating nineteenth-century writings that we did not even know existed. Or, as in the case of Kaminee , which I traced to the British Library, finding in a foreign archive a copy of an Indian book that has vanished from India.

Proceeding to the first half of the twentieth century, we obviously come across many more plays by Indians in English, but these too have not received the kind of critical commentary routinely and fashionably lavished on our postcolonial drama. Shanta Gokhale named several of these neglected dramatists in her article on the genre in my Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre [10] , but we should mention some of them here to serve the purpose of a comprehensive overview [11] . We have expatriates like Niranjan Pal, who wrote The Goddess (1924) and other plays, and started a group in London, The Indian Players, to produce them. While Sri Aurobindo’s closet dramas have attracted attention owing to his venerable stature and poetic accomplishments, Harindranath Chattopadhyaya’s have not.

The Indian characteristic of writing bilingually also deserves separate treatment. The greater proportion of this output arises from self-translation by an author, usually into English, of his own originals composed in his mother tongue. Since the author translated them himself, taking liberties that only he could, they can qualify as original literature according to many theorists. The respectable lineage of this tradition begins with Dutt himself ( Sermista , 1859, from Sharmishtha ), goes on to the international phenomenon called Tagore, and continues to the works of Girish Karnad. However, we also have the intriguing pre-Independence split-creativity of T. P. Kailasam, who wrote one kind of drama in Kannada (colloquial and contemporary) and a completely different kind in English (mythical and epic).

Tagore’s self-translated plays require special notice. Whereas other translators are credited on the title pages for some of his plays (like The Post Office ), he did not acknowledge a few that remain under his own name and therefore these should be regarded technically as his originals even though we know who did the translating, while he himself actually translated several more. His celebrity status after the Nobel Prize led to a spate of theatrical productions worldwide that demand investigation and, if nothing else, disprove Girish Karnad’s pronouncements that Tagore was an inferior dramatist and that Karnad’s plays in English were the first modern Indian plays staged in the US or UK [12] . We must also research early Indian performances of Tagore’s English translations, which unquestionably inspired readers across our own country. I have discovered that the world premieres of two Tagore classics occurred in their English versions (and not in Bengali) in India: Lucknow University’s The Waterfall ( Muktadhārā ) in 1923, and the Bombay production of Red Oleanders at New High School for Girls in 1928 [13] . Primary documentation needs to be unearthed from these cities to reconstruct as much of these historic performances as possible.

We need to pay proper tribute and appreciation to the long-forgotten pioneers of Indian drama in English and their pre-1947 successors, rather than chase the done-and-dusted plays written after Independence that monopolise the critical discourse quite predictably and boringly, as if India has produced only half a dozen worthwhile playwrights in English over two hundred years. True, the number of plays increases exponentially after 1947 [14] , yet the relatively few scholars of the genre (including those conducting doctoral studies) have followed a safe and well-trodden path, confined mainly to the canonical works by Asif Currimbhoy, Girish Karnad, and Mahesh Dattani , regurgitated ad nauseam. Readers should not misunderstand: I consider them great playwrights, but I am disappointed by the shortage of originality and imagination among critics, despite the availability of other roads less travelled. Next to that trio, the few plays written by Nissim Ezekiel, Dina Mehta, Partap Sharma, Gieve Patel, Gurcharan Das and Manjula Padmanabhan have drawn some appraisal, but since drama has not been the main creative focus of these authors, their poetry or prose has garnered greater attention.

Because there is considerably more knowledge in circulation about the contemporary scenario, I do not think it necessary to explicate it in detail like I have for earlier times. Still, I wish to see definitive monographs on ignored playwrights with a substantial output like Joseph M. Lobo Prabhu, who wrote on social reform, and Leo Brooks Fredericks, who had a penchant for exotic settings. They may have produced quantity rather than quality; nevertheless, their individual trajectories and thematic preoccupations merit study for a deep evaluation of the entire movement. Among the seniors now, Poile Sengupta and Gowri Ramnarayan have proved themselves repeatedly on the stage, but have surprisingly not received analysis commensurate with their achievement. A whole new generation of younger dramatists work and have published in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata – some even facing political trouble like Abhishek Majumdar – without any critical assessment whatsoever. Scholars have also not tapped the genres of radio drama and television drama, many scripts of which were written in English.

A major lacuna in our academic criticism is theatre history and appreciation. The West gives respect to theatre as an art, and many developed countries teach it formally in university departments, adding to its cachet. But its neglect in India rubs off on the negligible secondary literature on it. The large majority of publications on Indian drama deal exclusively with its texts from a literary perspective, although the plays were intended for the stage, and some even had considerable success there. This huge unexplored territory is waiting to be researched, whether going back in time to the importation of the proscenium arch in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, or down to recent theatrical activities.

Every city has its own fascinating history of English-language theatre, which has not been recorded, except by Kumudini Mehta for early Bombay. This statement applies not just to the metropolises, but also to smaller places like Lucknow (as mentioned above) or Shimla, Shillong or far-off Aizawl with its Christmas plays. The nativisation of English on stage throws up many interesting facets, as for example the integration of British and local actors, dating back to the sensational “real unpainted nigger Othello” in 1848 in Calcutta. There are sociological, political, and even legal aspects to be examined, like the ban in Bombay on Currimbhoy’s The Doldrummers (1961) and Sharma’s A Touch of Brightness (1965). Directors who specialised in English theatre by Indians—Ebrahim Alkazi, Alyque Padamsee, Lillete Dubey—and groups like The Madras Players in Chennai, Yatrik in Delhi, and The Red Curtain in Calcutta demand documentation. In the 21st century, mainstream as well as radical productions of originally-written drama continue in the hands of such active groups as Prime Time Theatre (Delhi), Rage and QTP (Mumbai), Padatik (Kolkata), JustUs Repertory (Chennai), and Centre for Film and Drama (Bengaluru).

And in terms of language, the fact that English has now been appropriated by Hindi theatre into a miscegenated “Hinglish”, that seems to have a certain commercial potential for a nationally-growing English-knowing audience willing to pay for an evening’s entertainment, raises linguistic and economic implications worth discussion. Do we possibly have here the seeds of a Parsi theatre-like reincarnation in the live performance industry, more democratic in reach compared to the elite spectators of English previously? Even better, since Indians are naturally bilingual if not multilingual in their day-to-day communication, can we hope that hybridised Englishes may form a medium of our thought-provoking urban theatre in future? For that is the reality of an increasingly globalised world, that would indeed be verisimilitude, and I see experiments in that direction already happening in Kolkata and Mumbai.

[1] K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, Indian Writing in English , 5th ed. (New Delhi: Sterling, 1985), p. 226. Repeated in such standard books as S. Krishna Bhatta, Indian English Drama (New Delhi: Sterling, 1987), p. 6, and reference works as Amaresh Datta, ed., Encyclopedia of Indian Literature , volume II (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1988), p. 1069.

[2] Ananda Lal, ed., Indian Drama in English: The Beginnings (Kolkata: Jadavpur University Press, 2019).

[3] “Bengal Library Catalogue of Books”, Appendix (No. II) to The Calcutta Gazette , 20 September 1871, pp. 18-19. The slim play had 42 pages and was published by Light Press, Calcutta.

[4] Kumudini A. Mehta, “English Drama on the Bombay Stage in the Late Eighteenth Century and in the Nineteenth Century”, p. 180.

[5] Preface to Cooverji Sorabjee Nazir, The First Parsee Baronet (Bombay: Union Press, 1866), vi. Munsookh, or Mansukh, was the pen name of Muncherji Cawasji Shapurji, a prolific Parsi Gujarati author.

[6] https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Soobrow_Kishun_Koovur?id=HV5gAAAAcAAJ

[7] For example in Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, ed., An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003), pp. 6 and 337.

[8] Ananda Lal and Sukanta Chaudhuri, ed., Shakespeare on the Calcutta Stage: A Checklist (Calcutta: Papyrus, 2001), pp. 25-26.

[9] Sushil Kumar Mukherjee, The Story of the Calcutta Theatres: 1753–1980 (Calcutta: K P Bagchi, 1982), p. 13. The next quotation also comes from this page.

[10] SG, “English theatre”, in Ananda Lal, ed., The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004), updated in Ananda Lal, ed. Theatres of India: A Concise Companion (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009).

[11] For a very helpful bibliography of this early period, see the University of Washington South Asian Studies checklist under Drama in https://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=341864&p=2301845#9577519

[12] A full account of the reception of Tagore’s drama abroad in English, through book reviews and theatre criticism, can be found in the introduction to Ananda Lal, trans. and ed., Rabindranath Tagore: Three Plays (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001).

[13] I have described briefly the revolutionary political circumstances of the Bombay production in Ananda Lal, “Rabindranath Tagore: Drama and Performance”, in Sukanta Chaudhuri, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Rabindranath Tagore (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020), p. 119.

[14] See an exhaustive list and individual appraisals in Abhijit Sengupta, In Order of Appearance: A Compendium of Indian Playwrights in English 1947-2010 (Amazon e-book: Kindle edition, 2018).

Works Cited

Anonymous. Kaminee: The Virgin Widow. In Lal, Ananda, ed. Indian Drama in English: The Beginnings . Kolkata: Jadavpur University Press, 2019.

Aurobindo, Sri. Collected Poems and Plays . Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1942.

Banerjea, Krishna Mohana. The Persecuted, or Dramatic Scenes, Illustrative of the Present State of Hindoo Society, in Calcutta. In Lal, Ananda, ed. Indian Drama in English: The Beginnings . Kolkata: Jadavpur University Press, 2019.

A Bengal Civilian. The Spirits of the East: a lyrical drama . Calcutta: Ostell and Lepage, 1844.

“Bengal Library Catalogue of Books”, Appendix (No. II) to The Calcutta Gazette , 20 September 1871.

Chattopadhyaya, Harindranath. Five Plays . London: Fowler Wright, 1929.

Currimbhoy, Asif. The Doldrummers . Bombay: Soraya, 1962.

Das, Gurcharan. Three English Plays . Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Datta, Amaresh, ed. Encyclopedia of Indian Literature , volume II. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1988.

“Drama”. University of Washington South Asian Studies Bibliographies. https://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=341864&p=2301845#9577519

Dutt, Michael Madhusudan. Rizia: Empress of Inde. In Lal, Ananda, ed. Indian Drama in English: The Beginnings . Kolkata: Jadavpur University Press, 2019.

——-. Sermista . Calcutta: Stanhope Press, 1859.

Ezekiel, Nissim. Three Plays . Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1969.

Fredericks, Leo. Individual plays published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta.

Kailasam, T. P. Individual plays published by Madhava and Sons, Bangalore.

Krishna Bhatta, S. Indian English Drama . New Delhi: Sterling, 1987.

Lal, Ananda, ed. Indian Drama in English: The Beginnings . Kolkata: Jadavpur University Press, 2019.

Lal, Ananda. “Rabindranath Tagore: Drama and Performance”. In Chaudhuri, Sukanta, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Rabindranath Tagore . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Lal, Ananda, and Sukanta Chaudhuri, eds. Shakespeare on the Calcutta Stage: A Checklist . Calcutta: Papyrus, 2001.

Lobo-Prabhu, Joseph. Collected Plays . Madras: Royal, 1954.

Majumdar, Abhishek. The Djinns of Eidgah . London: Oberon, Bloomsbury, 2013.

Mehta, Dina. Brides Are Not for Burning . New Delhi: Rupa, 1993.

Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna, ed. An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English . Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003.

Mehta, Kumudini A. “English Drama on the Bombay Stage in the Late Eighteenth Century and in the Nineteenth Century”. Ph. D. dissertation. University of Bombay, 1960.

Mukherjee, Sushil Kumar. The Story of the Calcutta Theatres: 1753–1980 . Calcutta: K P Bagchi, 1982.

Nazir, Cooverji Sorabjee. The First Parsee Baronet . Bombay: Union Press, 1866.

Padmanabhan, Manjula. Blood and Laughter . Gurgaon: Hachette India, 2020.

Pal, Niranjan. The Goddess. London: Indian Players, 1924.

Patel, Gieve. “Mister Behram” and Other Plays . Kolkata: Seagull, 2008.

Ramnarayan, Gowri. “Dark Horse” and Other Plays . Chennai: Wordcraft, 2017.

Sengupta, Abhijit. In Order of Appearance: A Compendium of Indian Playwrights in English 1947-2010 . Amazon e-book: Kindle edition, 2018.

Sengupta, Poile. Women Centre Stage . New Delhi: Routledge, 2010.

SG [Shanta Gokhale]. “English theatre”. In Lal, Ananda, ed. The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre . New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004. Updated in Lal, Ananda, ed. Theatres of India: A Concise Companion . New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Sharma, Partap. A Touch of Brightness. New York: Grove Press, 1968.

Soobrow. Kishun Koovur: a tragedy in five acts . Trivandrum: Government Press, 1840. See https://books.google.co.in/books?id=HV5gAAAAcAAJ

Srinivasa Iyengar, K. R. Indian Writing in English , 5th ed. New Delhi: Sterling, 1985.

Tagore, Rabindranath. The English Writings , volume II. Ed. by Sisir Kumar Das. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1996.

Tagore, Rabindranath. Three Plays . Trans. and ed. by Ananda Lal. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Sections of this essay appeared in Lal, Ananda. “Introduction.” Indian Drama in English: The Beginnings, Jadavpur University Press, 2019.

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Harvest | Manjula Padmanabhan

Indian English Drama: An Essay

Table of Contents

Introduction

Drama is a composite art form. It is mimetic like all other performing arts in literature. It imitates life, particularly reflecting the three unities of time, place and action.

“It is designed for representation on the stage by actors who act the parts of the characters of its story, and among whom the narrative and the dialogue are distributed.”

India has a long and fertile history in Drama, starting from Sanskrit plays of Vedic Age. Dramatists of Indian Writing in English have scaled the length and breadth of the experimentation in dramaturgy of India during and after independence. To fathom the depths of Indian Drama in English certain characteristic features are to be kept in mind. Basically, the Indian Writings in English during Modern Age articulate the budding and the already present writers as well as the influence of Existentialism, Globalisation, Surrealism, Dadaism, Magic Realism and the Post Colonial issues. India had been under the colonial shackles for a time period of three hundred years and as a matter of fact the colonial language and culture had cast its direct shadow on the Indian literary venues.

Classical Indian Drama: It’s Origin

Drama in India has had a rich glorious tradition. It begins its journey with the Sanskrit plays. Indian tradition preserved in the Natyasastra . The oldest of the texts of the theory of the drama, claims for the drama divine origin and a close connection with the sacred Vedas themselves. Origin of English drama can be traced to the ancient rules and seasonal festivities of the Vedic Aryans. The most renowned and talented dramatists of the ancient era are Ashwaghosh, Bhasa, Shudraka, Kalidas, Harsha, Bhavabhuti, Visha-khadatta, Bhattanarayana, Murari and Rajeshkhora, who enriched Indian theatre with their words like Madhya Mavyaayoda , Urubhangam , Karnabharan , Mrichkatikam , Abhigyana Shakuntalam , Malankagnimitram , Uttar Ramacharitam , Mudrarakshasa , Bhagavadajjukam , Mattavilasa etc.

Pre-Independence Indian English Drama

The Indian English Drama began in the 18th century when British Empire came and strengthened its political power in India. It is started with the publication of Krishna Mohan Banerjee’s The Persecuted in 1813. It is a social play in which the author tries to present the conflict between the East and the West. The real journey of Indian English Drama begins with Michael MadhuSudan Dutt’s Is This Called Civilization which appeared on the literary horizon in 1871. Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, the two great sage – poets of India, are the first Indian dramatists in English worth considering. R.N. Tagore wrote primarily in Bengali but almost all his Bengali plays are available to us in English renderings. His prominent plays are Chitra , The Post Office , Sacrifice , Red Oleanders , Chandalika , Muktadhara , Natir Puja and The Mother’ Prayer etc.. These plays are firmly rooted in the Indian ethos and ethics in their themes, characters and treatment. Sri Aurobindo’s complete plays are Perseus the Deliverer , Vasavadutta , Radoguna , The Viziers of Bassora and Eric and each of these plays is written in five acts.

Notes on Origin of Drama in English Literature

Harindranath Chattopadhyaya added a new dimensions to Indian English drama . He sympathizes with the underdogs same like Mulk Raj Anand. His collection of social plays include The Windows , The Parrots , The Santry Lantern , The Coffin and The Evening Lamps .

Post Independence or Post Modern Indian English Drama

D. M. Borgaonkar’s Image-Breakers (1938) is a problem play that aims to break the conventions of caste system, horoscope, dowry, etc. S. Fyzee’s Rahamin’s D aughter of Ind (1940) portrays the conflict between love and social barriers, featuring a low-caste girl loving an Englishman. Balwant Gargi’s The Vulture , Mung-Wa, The Fugitive and The Matriarch “ dealt with themes which are engaging the attention of people everywhere.”

Another dramatic voice on the Indian literary scene that demands attention is that of T.P. Kailasam. He wrote both in English and Kannada. Though Kailasam is regarded as the father of modern Kannada drama, his genius finds its full expression in his English plays such as The Burden (1933), Fulfilment (1933), The Purpose (1944), Karna (1964) and Keechaka (1949).

Bharati Sarabhai is the modern woman playwright during the colonial era of Indian English drama. She has written two plays The Well of the People (1943) and Two Women with some considerable measure of success.

J.M. Lobo Prabhu is the last great name in pre-Independence Indian English drama. He has written over a dozen plays but only Mother of New India : A Play of India Village in three Acts (1944) and Death Abdicates (1945) appear before Independence.

The use of blank verse is flawless and the last play compels us to remind of T.S.Eliot’ s Murder In The Cathedral . Other verse plays of the period include P.A.Krishnaswami’s The Flute of Krishna (1950) M.Krishnamurti’s The Cloth Of Gold (1951). S.D.Rawoot’s Immortal Song . Karm and The Killers (1959) Satya Dev Jaggi’s The Point Of Light (1967) Pritish Nandy’s Rites for a Plebian Salute (1969). P.S. Vasudev’s The Sunflower (1972) etc.

Nissim Ezekiel’s Three Plays (1969) including Nalini : A Comedy , Marriage Poem : A Tragi Comedy and The Sleep Walkers : An Indo-American farce are considered to be a welcome addition to the dramaturgy of Indian English drama.

Girish Karnad in the capacity of writer, director and actor substantially contributed to enrich the tradition of Indian English theatre. His well known plays are Yayati (1961), Tughlaq (1962), Hayvadana (1970), Nagmandala (1972). He borrowed his plots from history, mythology and old legends.

Vijay Tendulkar symbolizes the new awareness and attempts of Indian dramatists of the century to depict the agonies, suffocations and cries of man, focusing on the middle class society. In the plays Silence! The Court Is In Session (1968) and Ghasiram Kotwal (1972), the theme of oppression dominates. Sakharam Binder (1972) is a study in human violence amounted to powerful dramatic statement.

Gurucharan Das (1943- ) is known for his popular play, Larins Sahib ( 1970). Set in Punjab, it is about the political career of a British Resident in Punjab. Vera Sharma wrote a number of one act plays, including Life is Like That (1997) and Reminiscence (1997) which deal with the plight of women.

Badal Sircar too is a prestigious name in the realm of contemporary theatre. He represents New Theatrical Movement in India. His earlier plays are Evan Inderjit (1962) That Other History (1964) and There Is No End (1971). All these plays are based on political, social, psychological and existential problems.

Post Independence era witnessed the birth of several one act plays. R. Raja Rao’s The Wisest Fool on Earth and Other Plays (1996) is on the theme of homosexuality. T.S. Gill’s Asoka (1983), V.D. Trivedi’s Gandhi: A Play (1983) and Prema Sastri’s Gandhi, Man of the Millions (1987), Gieve Patel’s Princess , Savaksha and Mr. Behram , Dina Mehta,s The Myth Maker (1959) and Brides Are Not for Burning , Uma Parameswaram (1938- )’s Sons Must Die and Other Plays (1998) are some to quote.

The Post Modern era ushered in new changes in the Indian English drama. Mahesh Dattani (1958- ) a playwright of World stature, has added a new feather to the Indian English drama. His plays deal with serious and sensitive issues like communalism, homosexuality, female infanticide, domestic abuse, child sexual abuse, condition of eunuchs in Indian society. His plays include Where There’s a Will , Tara , Bravely Fought the Queen , Final Solutions , Dance like A Man and Thirty Days in September .

Post-Independent Indian Drama in English falls short of the level reached by poetry and fiction in India. There are four reasons for this:

i) drama is essentially a composite art involving the playwright, the actors and the audience in a shared experience on the stage-has its own problem of which the other literary forms are free.

ii) As Srinivas Iyenger attributes “the failure to the fact that English is not a natural medium of conversation in India.”

iii) Lack of living theatre in our country.

iv) The Indian English playwrights do not give much importance to the rich and varied Indian dramatic traditions involving the native myth and Indian historical heritage.

In short, Indo-Anglican literature continues to grow and flourish and this despite all the misguided and prejudiced and politically motivated campaign against English as a foreign language , a language which comes in the way of its growth. More Indians are writing in English than ever before, and the Indo-Anglican writer is enjoying a much wider market. Indo-Anglican drama has, indeed, a bright future.

Plot Construction in Tughlaq by Girish Karnad
Essay on Indian English Woman Novelist
A Passage to England by Nirad C. Chaudhuri Summary and Analysis
Silence! The Court is in Session as a Feminist Play
Silence! The Court is in Session as a Social Satire

3 thoughts on “Journey of Indian English Drama”

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The “Indian” Character of Modern Hindi Drama: Neo-Sanskritic, Pro-Western Naturalistic, or Nativistic Dramas?

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This essay deals with the notion of “Indian” character of naturalistic Hindi drama, as revealed in the plays of Mohan Rakeś (1925–1972), Bhuvaneśvar (1912–1957), and Upendranath Aśk (1910–1996) who wrote in the wake of Western theater and who were opposed to the influential theatrical school of Prasad (1889–1937). It reflects on the Indian character of Hindi drama by raising the question: what is Indian tradition? Does it comprise only Western (British), or Brahmanic (Sanskritic), or indigenous (folk) elements and influences, or is it informed by all of them simultaneously? Does the fact that naturalistic Hindi drama is meant for the proscenium theater, which came from abroad, mean that its character is “non-Indian”? How is the issue of ideology related to the concept of “Indian” character of modern Hindi drama and to the making of its canon?

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Dimitrova, D. (2006). The “Indian” Character of Modern Hindi Drama: Neo-Sanskritic, Pro-Western Naturalistic, or Nativistic Dramas?. In: Gaye, W.O., Joseph, C.A.B. (eds) Theology and Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403982995_11

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Guest Essay

I’m an Indian Muslim, and I’m Scared to Say So

An illustration of a screen panel with a crescent moon at the top, torn apart by flames.

By Mohammad Ali

Mr. Ali, a journalist and writer who focuses on right-wing efforts to transform India into a Hindu nation, wrote from Delhi.

I used to answer the phone with “Salam.” Not anymore. I don’t want people to know I’m a Muslim.

There is little that would identify me as Muslim to begin with, aside from my name. I don’t wear a skullcap, and in public I avoid wearing the loosefitting Pathani kurta and peppering my speech with Urdu words, all of which are identity markers for Indian Muslims. But in the India of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, you can’t take any chances.

For 10 years, Mr. Modi’s Hindu-chauvinist government has vilified the nation’s 200 million Muslims as dangerous undesirables. Recently, he took that rhetoric to a new low during the six weeks of voting in India’s national elections — which are widely expected to win him a third consecutive five-year term — directly referring to Muslims as “infiltrators” in a country that he and his followers seek to turn into a pure Hindu state.

As offensive as that was, it is sadly familiar to Indian Muslims like me who — after a decade of denigration, violence and murder — live in daily fear of being identified and attacked, forcing us into self-denial to protect ourselves.

India is home to one of the world’s largest Muslim populations. Islam came here around 1,300 years ago, and Indian Muslims descend from natives of this land who converted to Islam centuries ago. Many Indian Muslims fought against British colonization, and millions rejected the 1947 partition of the country into a predominantly Hindu India and a mostly Muslim Pakistan. India is our home, and people like me are proud patriots.

But Mr. Modi’s Hindu nationalism has made us the targets in what might be the largest radicalization of people on the planet. Its seeds were planted with the founding in 1925 of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu organization that sought the establishment of a fully Hindu state in India and was inspired by the European fascism of that era. When Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party — a political offshoot of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — won elections in 2014 and he became prime minister, he and his followers saw it as the civilizational moment that Hindus had been waiting for. Mr. Modi was the god-king who would free Hindu civilization from centuries of domination, first by a series of Muslim rulers culminating with the Mughal empire that ruled India for around three centuries and then by the British colonizers who followed.

Islamophobia isn’t new to India, and Muslims also faced prejudice and recurring violence during the generations in which the liberal upper-caste Hindu elite dominated the nation’s secular democratic politics. But under Mr. Modi’s right-wing leadership, hatred of Muslims has effectively become state policy. India is now a country where police have been accused of standing by as Hindus attack Muslims , where the killers of religious minorities go unpunished and where Hindu extremists openly call for the genocide of Muslims.

Protest, and you run the risk of having a Hindu mob unleashed on you. That’s what happened after Mr. Modi’s government in 2019 pushed through a citizenship law that discriminates against Muslims and his party promised to expel “infiltrators” from the country. When Indian Muslims protested, one of Mr. Modi’s supporters responded with a provocative speech that is blamed for sparking deadly clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Delhi in February 2020. Police were accused of looking the other way as Muslims had their shops destroyed, were assaulted and were even killed.

Bulldozers have become a symbol of this state terrorism — rolled out at right-wing rallies, tattooed on the arms of Modi supporters and featured in Hindu nationalist songs — because of their use in areas governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party to illegally knock down the homes and businesses of Muslims who dare to speak up. Some states have essentially made Muslim-Hindu relationships illegal, based on an absurd Hindu conspiracy theory that Muslim men are seducing Hindu women as part of a long-term plan to turn India into a Muslim nation.

The liberal Hindu elite, instead of acknowledging its role in enabling the sentiments on which Mr. Modi has capitalized, has done little to help, other than to ineffectually express nostalgia for a lost Hindu tolerance. And there is little that Indian Muslims can do within the political system: Although the Muslim share of India’s population has slowly grown to 14 percent, the percentage of Parliament members who are Muslim has declined to less than 5 percent today, compared with 9 percent in the early 1980s.

The Indian Muslim response to our subjugation has largely been a deafening silence. Many of us are simply unwilling to speak out against the Modi government’s bitter bargain: that for us to exist as Indian citizens, we must meekly accept historical revisionism, dehumanization and demonization.

This debasement, and the knowledge that you are essentially outside the protection of the law, kills something inside you. You take precautions to protect yourself. My mother no longer packs mutton for me to take back to Delhi after I visit her, as she used to. She’s afraid it will be mistaken for beef: Dozens of Muslims have reportedly been killed or assaulted by Hindu mobs on suspicion of killing cows — which are sacred to Hindus — or for eating or possessing beef. Muslim parents now routinely repeat a litany of don’ts to their children: Don’t appear Muslim in public, don’t reveal your name, don’t enter Hindu areas or travel alone and don’t get pulled into any potential confrontation.

While we caution one another to blend in, it’s difficult to reconcile with the whole thing. Each of us has something embedded in our sense of self and expression that is particularly painful to erase. And the sort of physical markers we are trying to hide are not even wholly specific to Muslims in India. My cousin likes to wear his Pathani kurta, but so do many Hindus. My youngest sister prefers to keep her head covered, but so do many Hindu women, although not with a hijab. I’m attached to using certain Urdu words that have long been a feature of India’s syncretic culture and have been used widely by Hindus, too.

Self-denial leads to deep frustration. Now during gatherings with friends and family, we avoid politics; discussing the elephant in the room only reminds us of our helplessness. The cumulative weight of all this has created a mental health crisis of fear and depression among Muslims. Yet because of a desperate shortage of mental health professionals in India and a limited understanding of our new reality by many non-Muslim therapists, many Muslims are left to cope on their own.

I was hesitant to write this essay. I am not supposed to protest, to speak up. When I sometimes do, posting online about it, the typical response is, “Go to Pakistan.” But why would I leave? I am an Indian. I was born here, as were my ancestors who opposed the religious basis of the partition with Pakistan and believed in the Indian ideals of secular democracy.

But many Muslims have fled over the years, emigrating to Australia, Canada, Britain, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia or elsewhere because of the worsening political climate. Many who can’t afford to emigrate are moving out of the predominantly Hindu or mixed neighborhoods where they lived for decades, to poorer Muslim areas for safety. Two of my Muslim friends and I used to own apartments in a suburban area near New Delhi where many upper-caste Hindus lived. But in 2020, after the discriminatory citizenship law was passed, a Hindu mob charged through the neighborhood baying for Muslim blood. My two friends soon moved out. I kept my apartment, but in the elevator one evening in 2022, I overheard two men discussing how many katua (a derogatory term for Muslims that refers to circumcision) lived in the area. I moved out the next day. Sadly, Hindu friends and colleagues of mine also have become colder and more distant and are dropping out of contact.

On June 1, India’s voting period comes to a close. It looms as a day of dread for Muslims like me. According to most projections, it will be another victory for Mr. Modi — and further validation of mob rule and the debasement of 200 million Muslims by a hubristic Hindu majority.

Mohammad Ali (@hindureporter) is an independent journalist and writer who divides his time between New York and India. He is writing a book on growing up in India as Narendra Modi and his party have sought to transform India into a Hindu nation.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Performance, Meaning, and the Materials of Modern Indian Theatre
Her essays and articles have appeared or are forthcoming in PMLA, Modern Drama, and The Sourcebook of Post-Colonial English Literatures and Cultural Theory (Greenwood, 1995). She has also published collaborative translations of modern Hindi poetry in major anthologies, including The Oxford Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry (1994), ...
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Modern Indian theater, shaped by the convergence of Sanskrit, folk, and Western traditions, finds its foundational roots in the latter. Emerging in the 19th century, it grappled with pressing issues of nationalism, self-identity, and modernity. The Western influence, particularly through realism and naturalism, brought new dramatic techniques.
Modern Indian Theatre
Modern Indian theatre underwent significant transformations during the colonial era, marking the advent of post-medieval and modern expressions.This evolution was fueled by the availability of translations of ancient Sanskrit texts and Western classics.Adaptations of works by Shakespeare and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing played a pivotal role in shaping the theatrical landscape.
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Hence, when one talks of 'Indian theatre', one enters a vast and intricate arena, both idiomatically heterogeneous and polyglot in character. Although numerous strands show us the links, it is after all, an arbitrary term, randomly used to designate one or the other of the diverse performance arts practiced in the country, belonging to ...
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Modern Indian playwrights often tackle pressing issues such as urbanization, globalization, gender dynamics, caste, and class disparities. They provide a lens through which audiences can view and understand the complexities of a rapidly changing world. Indeed, the role of drama in reflecting society is crucial, and modern Indian playwrights have
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Salient features associated with Modern Indian theatre are: Predominant influence of western notions of drama; The Ancient Indian tradition rested on a happy ending of the plays whereas in the western tradition the tragic ending was generally in vogue; Modern Indian theatre was a product of certain Indian social developments.The processes of modernization and Renaissance in the Indian society ...
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Global exchange maps are also morphing as old orders diminish and new balances of power emerge, with China and India exerting greater influence (Chen 2002, 2010). As a result, cutting-edge contemporary innovations in modern drama, not surprisingly, stem from World Theatre (Wetmore, Liu, and Mee 2014).
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Origin of Drama in India. The roots of drama in India can be traced back to the Rigveda, which was written between 1200 and 1500 BCE. The Rigveda contains hymns in the form of dialogues and scenes, as well as hymns that use other literary forms. Indian theatre dates back to the 2nd century BC.
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The Persecuted, or Dramatic Scenes, Illustrative of the Present State of Hindoo Society, in Calcutta. In Lal, Ananda, ed. Indian Drama in English: The Beginnings. Kolkata: Jadavpur University Press, 2019. A Bengal Civilian. The Spirits of the East: a lyrical drama. Calcutta: Ostell and Lepage, 1844.
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Another dramatic voice on the Indian literary scene that demands attention is that of T.P. Kailasam. He wrote both in English and Kannada. Though Kailasam is regarded as the father of modern Kannada drama, his genius finds its full expression in his English plays such as The Burden (1933), Fulfilment (1933), The Purpose (1944), Karna (1964) and Keechaka (1949).
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This essay deals with the notion of "Indian" character of naturalistic Hindi drama, as revealed in the plays of Mohan R ake«(1925-1972), Bhuvane «var ... predominantly social message of modern Hindi drama was in perfect conformity with the ideology of progressivism, with the ideas of Gandhi
PDF © 2020 JETIR December 2020, Volume 7, Issue 12 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349
Modern Indian English drama can be divided into two halves, Pre- Independence and Post-Independence Drama. Pre Independence Indian drama is located in the colonial era. The coming of the East India Company and the colonization of India by the British Empire led to the evolvement of a new and radical literary genre, widely known as Indian ...
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This essay deals with the notion of "Indian" character of naturalistic Hindi drama, as revealed in the plays of Mohan Rakeś (1925-1972), Bhuvaneśvar (1912-1957), and Upendranath Aśk (1910-1996) who wrote in the wake of Western theater and who were opposed to the influential theatrical school of Prasad (1889-1937).
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Indian English drama, an umbrella term, indicates both the Indian plays written in English and the bhasha-plays translated intoEnglish. Contemporary Indian English drama turning away from the classical and European formulae is inventive and fact-finding in terms of thematic and technical qualities.In the sphereof contemporary Indian English Drama Girish Karnad is a living icon and one of the ...
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Modern Theatre

Evolution of Drama in India, History, Types, Origin, Timeline

Origin of Drama in India

Ancient Indian Drama (2nd century BCE-10th century CE)

Medieval Indian Drama (10th-18th Century)

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Types of Drama in India

Sanskrit Drama

Koodiyattam

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Indian Drama in English | Ananda Lal

Published on 13 May 2022.

Sections of this essay appeared in Lal, Ananda. “Introduction.” Indian Drama in English: The Beginnings, Jadavpur University Press, 2019.

Indian English Drama: An Essay

Introduction

Classical Indian Drama: It’s Origin

Pre-Independence Indian English Drama

Post Independence or Post Modern Indian English Drama

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The “Indian” Character of Modern Hindi Drama: Neo-Sanskritic, Pro-Western Naturalistic, or Nativistic Dramas?

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