HISTORY OF INDIAN ENGLISH DRAMA
The HISTORY OF INDIAN ENGLISH DRAMA started from the earliest
Indian English play was written in 1831, when Krishna Mohan Banerji write The
Persecuted of the present state in Calcutta. English plays could only be
written after the English established themselves in India. - Further, there
should be enough people proficient in English to constitute an audience. So,
like the first poetry, this play comes after the establishment of Hindu College
in Calcutta, after nearly a generation had been educated in English and been
sufficiently influenced by western ideas.
The tide of reformation had begun and
this play illustrates this movement - it is about the conflict in the mind of a
young man, a Bengali, between orthodox Hindu practices and Modern ideas
inculcated by English education.
Pre-Independence
Modern theatre came to India with the British and the first theatrical companies were established in those areas which first came under their influence. The first Modern production in Bengali was in November 1795, when two plays Disguise and Love is the Best Doctor were performed in Bengali translation. These translations were done in alliance by a Russian, Lebedoff, Goloknath Das. By 1831, a Bengali theatre (the Hindoo Theatre) had been established which began by - staging portions of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. What this theatrical activity led to was the birth of Modern theatre in various Indian languages and not in Indian English. The felt need for English drama was obviously fulfilled by
original British plays. Poetry and drama have always been close companions.
This is by a famous poet, one who is famous in his own
Indian language as a pioneer and an innovator, one who is famous for abjuring
English to write in his own language. Michael Madhusudan Dutt of course. A
version of Harsha's Sanskrit play, is a translation of his Bengali original.
In Mumbai (then Bombay) the first theatre, The Bombay
Amateur Theatre, was built in 1776 but was exclusively for performances by
visiting European companies. Marathi theatre made an early start because of
this. Vishnudas Bhave's Sitasvayamvara was produced in 1843 though Annasaheb
Kirloskar's production of Shakuntal in 1880 is seen by many to be of crucial
importance. The Parsi Natak Mandali was established in 1852 and The Elphinstone
Dramatic Club and Victoria Natak Mandali followed. The first recorded play in
English from Mumbai is a verse play. This is The First Parsi Baronet by
C.S. Nazir produced in 1866. The only other plays that have survived from this
early period are D.M. Wadia's The Indian Heroine (1877), which was based
on the events of the first war of independence (1857), and P.P.
Meherjee's Dolly Parsen (1918).
In Chennai (then
Madras), the Madras Dramatic Society was founded in 1875. It mainly encouraged
amateur European theatrical productions. The Oriental Drama Club was recognized
in 1882, and The Sarasa Vinodidini Sabha, an unprofessional dramatic
society, was founded by Krishnamachary in 1895.
For Indian English Drama, The Madras theatrical scene seems
to have been quite active and a number of playwrights came to the limelight.
These playwrights wrote on social as well as historical and mythological
themes. Some of the plays. Two volumes of his plays entitled Dramatic Divertissements
appeared in 1921. These plays expose the behavioral patterns of the middle
class. They seem to have been written as light entertainment or farces. The
collection includes the following plays: Blessed in a Wife, Vichu's Wife, The
Surgeon-General's Prescription, The Point of View, and Wait for the Stroke.
Aiyangar writes highly entertaining one-act and two-act plays but doesn't let
his talent loose over a full length play.
Indian English Drama: Sri Aurobindo
Pre-independence theatre, there are two colossal figures who
left their mark III manly varied fields have to be taken into account. They are
Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore's real impact is in Bengali and
the plays that are well known in English translation like The Post Office and
The King of the Dark Chamber were not even translated by him. He was a great
literary and cultural figure and his impact on his contemporaries was enormous
but I don't think we should look at him in such a short survey of Indian English
drama.
Indian English Literature
Sri Aurobindo has been written five complete and six incomplete
verse-plays between 1891 and 1916, the five complete plays are Perseus the
Deliverer, Vasavadutta, The Viziers of Bassora, Rodogune, and
Eric the King of Norway. The titles themselves Aurobindo's plays are not
confined to India at all -- past or present. Eric is set in ancient
Norway and Vasavadutta in ancient India, while the other three are set in the
Middle East. Aurobindo is better known as a poet and philosopher, his plays
trying to emulate Shakespeare and unable to pull it off. But obviously with a
writer of his distinction, these plays do reward readers with flashes of
brilliance or playwrights from before independence are Harindrafiatii
Chattopadhyaya, and Bharati Ssrabai, T.P. Knilasam, Harindranath
Chatropadliyaya may be known as Sarojini Naidu's brother but they were an
accomplished poet in his own right. They have many plays to his credit, a light
fantasy. They have seven verse-plays to credit
He presents episodes to highlight the individual’s search
and fulfilment as opposed to societal curbs and hierarchies. They make good
reading. Member of the Progressive Writers Movement, Chattopadhyaya's
socialist sympathies come to the fore in his five social plays. These are The
Parrot, The Sentry's Lantern, The
Window, The Coffin, and The Evening Lamp. The Window is dedicated to "The
Brave Textile Workers of Parel, Bombay" and is about the exploitation of
poor laborers by industrialists.
The Parrot examines morality, his bondage of customs,
'The Sentry's Lantern is about the evils of imperialism and is dedicated
"To all -the victims of Imperialist Gallows". The three characters in
the play, a merchant, a bourgeois poet, and a worker, give it’s their thoughts
before they are hanged. It-is the worker who faces death boldly. The Coffin
which is "Dedicated to the progressive writers of India" satirizes a
bourgeois artist and shows us the responsibilities of writers.
The Evening Lamp is an ironic sketch of a young romantic.
His deep social commitment is evident throughout, as he exposes social evil and
celebrates the achievements of the lowly and the downtrodden. He is good at
writing crisp dialogues and his plays do manage to impress the modern reader.
Indian English Drama: T.P. Kailasam
T.P. Kailasam, a role to play in two histories of
literature one is Indian English and the other Kannada. He will always be
better known for his contribution to Kannada drama than Indian English. He
chose Kannada for his contemporary social plays and English for a rendering of
tragic heroes from the epics.
Modern British Poetry
Further the ease with wildish he writes his Kannada is
missing in his English. He wrote in the spoken language of the middle class in
Kannada, so much so that it seemed like a mix of Kannada and English (he called
it 'Kannadanglo'). In English however he tried to heighten the language with
Sanskrit tenns. Obviously he reserved his wit and humor for his Kannada plays.
Kailasam has chosen most of his main characters and dramatic episodes from
Indian epics. The Burden is based on the Ramayana, and depicts Bharata's
feelings on hearing about his father's death. Fulfilment and The Purpose are
based on the Ekalavya story from the Mahabharata, which supplies the story for
Karna and Keechaka as well. Though Kailasam went to the epics for these plays,
he champions the underdog, and gives us refreshingly different views of these
characters. Bharati Sarabai's two plays, The Well of the People (1943), and Two
Women (1952), show the impact of Gandhi. The first play was inspired by a story
in the Harijan, and depicts an old woman who unable to go to Kashi and Haridwar
decides to build a well for the so called 'untouchables' instead. The second
play depicts two women, Anuradha, the wife of the anglicised Kanakaraya, and Urvashi,
a widowed girl who has become a devotional singer. The play seems to advocate
that spiritual peace can be found here and now, and complete fulfilment isn't
to be found in giving up the world and material ties. Both the plays, the first
written in verse and the second in prose, show Sarabai's spiritual and
religious beliefs. Both the plays show a society in transition while the first
seems to do it far more effectively. Verse-drama has had a cheered history but
if it has to be successful Sarabai's natural speech patterns would be worth
emulating.
HISTORY OF INDIAN ENGLISH DRAMA
History of pre-independence Indian English drama, Indian
English dramatists like their counterparts in other genres were involved in
constructing an ideal India. For this they mined the epics and puranas, the
lives of saints, and history. They explored and reinterpreted their chosen
texts in order to create the India and the Indian who could stand shoulder to
shoulder with the English. The Indian they constructed was necessarily Hindu
because of the past that they were uncovering in its glory. They were actively
engaged in constructing a new society, one that went beyond their specific
locations in terms of caste and region. Their territory was India and their
audience Indian. This would explain why T.P. Kailasam wrote his engaging rooted
social plays in Kannada but his epic character sketches in English. Their India
had a Sanskritic past and an English present, their regions had other histories
and other needs. This is perhaps why Indian English drama never took off while
theatres in other Indian languages flourished during this time.
Indian English dramatists couldn't serve or create any needs
among audiences. The audience that wanted theatre in English could see European
productions or even Indian productions of English European plays. The audience
that wanted Indian theatre could watch theatre in Indian languages. The only
way Indian English theatre could have succeeded was to become theatrically
provocative and interesting, address local realities in local English’s. This
was hardly ever done. Not only do they make no theatrical innovations, and
write mainly short plays, they do not even look to Indian dramatic techniques
even while they look to ancient Indian epics for characters and episodes. Their
dramaturgy doesn't even seem to extend beyond the Elizabethan. There are of
course many other playwrights and plays. More than three hundred. Indian
English plays were written before independence. There were dramatists like A.S.
Panchapakesa Aiyar who were popular in their own times.
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Nice and informative article
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ReplyDeleteGood, informative and beneficial article.
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