Chapter One

Bengali Theatre: An Edifice on the Ashes of the Peoples Culture

We do not hunt deaths home, where the crops are springing;

we are out singing
songs of love and thirst, like the village clowns;
whom the crop whom paddys fruit at their heart owns,
these have snubbed empires, neglected all the Earths thrones
these our village clowns
today with crown princes and kings their bones mix bones
in dark beneath the earth deep underground;
they have not groaned
their time away on a tide of sighs and tears;
they are not prone, as priests are, to Earths fears;
their hearts are not torn, as are lovers hearts
in rhymes made up to the names of the towns sweethearts;
with a farmers brow sweat-hot
they have not tired out their day they have not;
with an emperors brow
their brows are part and parcel deep below
on this dark night now;
by warriors victors conquerors right by such five-foot
places of rest,
triumphant in gaping laughter their skulls last.

Many nights since they came and went to dark their day has
Gone,
these rustic poets, village clowns, each one
1
will they return in the dark night again?

The history of Bengali theatre is also a history of the proscenium stage, the

absence of the Body and the presence of the intangible Mind. Bengali theatre has tottered

time and again not only for want of quality texts2 and favourable social conditions but for

1
Jibanananda Das, Song of Leisure, Naked Lonely Hand, trans. Joe Winter (Kolkata: Meteor Books,
2004), p. 39. (Original title: Abasarer Gan in Dhusar Pandulipi)
2
The renowned scholar Sunitikumar Chattopadhyay reasoned that in the history of Bengali drama we
have seen very few books of high quality; I think Bengali literature did not benefit as much from the plays
its addiction to a fixed ideawith occasional exceptionsof public performances which

revolved around the proscenium stage, and a vague mind unable to establish a direct

communication between the people (the audience or reality) and the re-produced, made-

up, make-believe, fake reality of the stage.3 Having seen the customs of the colonizers

and considering them progressive in character, the colonized mind immediately took to

the ritual of staging and the succeeding procedures. To the average educated urban

Bengali the proscenium stage became a fixed object of obsession around which their

thoughts of performance evolved. That was why dramatic performance and proscenium

staging became almost habitual and synonymous, at first, in the amateur or private

theatres and, subsequently, the public theatres of nineteenth-century Bengal. It was one of

the many practices that the Bengali inherited from the British and painfully struggled to

improve on.

Leaving aside productions by the English, only the rich and the influential

Bengalis could organize and enjoy such costly theatrical events during the early colonial

period. Most of them were either zamindars, rajas or servants of high rank in the British

employ. The ordinary people had no access to these private affairs. When the commercial

public theatre was first established in Kolkata in 1872 all people were allowed to enter by

as it did from poetry and novels. (Introduction to Ajit Kumar Ghosh, Bangla Nataker Itihas; Kolkata:
General Printers and Publishers, 1999; translation mine.) However, it can be argued that he represents the
old generation of pundits who expected high literary sophistication from drama, treating it as literature
foremost, rather than theatre.
In literary historian Asutosh Bhattacharyas opinion, Bengali sentimentalism and romanticism are
two key obstructive factors in the plays. Besides, different aspects of economic crises were also missing.
(Bangla Natyasahityer Itihas 1852-1952, Kolkata: A. Mukherji and Co. Ltd., 1955, pp. 11, 15.) That is why
many critics have pointed out reasonably that the need for plays was met with typical mythological and
historical ones. For the absence of economic issues in their plays the playwrights only cannot be blamed;
the social and political situations of Bengal were also not favourable during the colonial period.
3
In his books Badal Sircar writes at length that in stage performances a direct communication can never be
established because of the theatrical illusions and the distance between the spectator and the spectacle on
stage.

2
buying tickets. Even though the ticketing system was as old as the first proscenium

production in Bengali (1795), it was the commercial public theatre which opened its door

to the previously debarred sections. Nevertheless, those who could not afford it still

remained outside its gamut because the socio-economic conditions of Bengal as a whole

could never support such a bourgeois medium of popular culture.4 This is one of the

important reasons why a small minority of contemporary theatre exponents in Kolkata

still shies away from experimenting with proscenium theatre.

Instead, a very strong tradition of folk culture was at hand, though, unfortunately,

this de-myth5ic culture could not draw the attention of the educated, sophisticated city

dweller. Ironically, it is now appropriated to suit our tastes whenever necessary,6 but

historically, the folk traditions have always been of little importance to urban Bengali

theatre practices, which privileged the preferences of the upper and middle classes.

Irrespective of such circumstances, it is noteworthy that the influence of Western theatre

4
In this essay peoples/popular/folk culture have been used to connote the cultural practice of the common,
uneducated class. Regarding popular, Kathryn Hansen wrote: The designation popular theatre,
however, introduces a new set of ambiguities. Its possible meanings include well liked and of the
people, as opposed to an established power or government. In the second sense, popular theatre is
applied to cultural/educational activities in which the popular classes present and critique their own
understanding of the world in relation to a broader aim of structural transformation. People's theatre or
popular theatre in this sense is usually aligned with progressive political parties or third-world development
programs. In the former usage, popular may refer to any commercially successful endeavor, often in an
urban industrialized context, and has a more pejorative connotation. In addition, popular theatre may be
construed as a practice within popular culture, meaning the culture of everyday life unbounded by class or
social group. Grounds for Play: The Nautanki Theatre of North India (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1992), pp. 42-43.
5
From Roland Barthes Myth Today in A Roland Barthes Reader, ed. Susan Sontag (London: Vintage,
2000), pp. 93-149.
6
We should begin by studying peasant culture and its relevance to us: to deny it is to perpetuate Croces
attitude, which relegates it to folklore. Its also a mistake to deny it because capitalism has taken
advantage of it and made it commercial: what goes unnoticed is that the bourgeoisie has picked up only
its surface aspects. Without plumbing the depths of this culture, or even when it does, it talks about an
archaic peasant pre-culture, a mythical culture of the peoples religious spirit, seen as an object of
archaeological research. Dario Fo, From Retrieving the Past, Exposing the Present, Twentieth Century
Theatre: A Sourcebook, ed. Richard Drain (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), p. 204.

3
forced the early native entrepreneurs of theatre to explore the classical Sanskrit literary

texts,7 symbolizing the monarchical and brahmanical hierarchy, for their source material.

But contrary to the popular belief, neither the principles of Sanskrit plays nor the popular

cultural practices had much influence on the formation and development of modern

Bengali theatre. It was rather a direct result of the British educational system and the new

elements of the proscenium stage, which later even penetrated the inner structure of

native genres like Jatra and destroyed their individuality.8 As a matter of fact, the socio-

cultural languages of the poor and common people had no place in the coterie of an

opportunist class born out of colonial governance. In other words, the history of urban

Bengali theatre is a history of exclusion (of a large section of the people) and disdain (for

the indigenous popular culture) by the aristocracy and the impressionable bourgeois

citizenry. We need to examine the history of this urban-rural divide in terms of theatrical

forms because it underpins Badal Sircars theories of Third Theatre.

In August 1826 an editorial essay came out in the The Asiatic Journal which in

the following words upheld the necessity for a Bengali theatre in British style:

In this extensive city public institutions of various

kinds and novel descriptions have lately sprung up for the

improvement and gratification of its inhabitants; but their

amusement has not yet been consulted, and they have not,

like the English community, any place of public

entertainment. In former times, actors and actresses were

7
Asutosh Bhattacharya, Bangla Natyasahityer Itihas, p. 3.
8
Ibid., p. 39.

4
 attached to the courts of the princes of India, who

represented plays, and charmed the audience with graceful

poetry and music, and impassioned action. ... It is therefore

very desirable, that men of wealth and rank should

associate and establish a theatre on the principle of shares,

as the English gentlemen have done, and retaining qualified

persons on fixed salaries, exhibit a new performance of

song and poetry once a month, comfortably to the written

nataks or plays, and under the authority of a manager; such

a plan will promote the pleasure of all classes of society.9

After a gap of forty-one years Nabaprabandha, a periodical, wrote under the title of

Natakabhinay:

We request the managers that they build one theatre

together, keep salaried actors and actresses and sell tickets

which can be used to meet the expenses of acting and the

surplus amount can help improve the quality of acting.

Moreover, in anticipation of money, the performers will

also be able to entertain the audience by diligently acquired

acting-skill.10

These two editorial pieces were unequivocally concerned for all classes of society on

conditions of shares, fixed salaries, and a particular place of public entertainment,

9
Brajendra Nath Banerjee, Bengali Stage 1795-1873, (Calcutta: Ranjan Publishing House, 1943), p. 7.
This paragraph was translated from the original Bengali text in Samachar Chandrika and published in The
Asiatic Journal in August 1826.
10
Natakabhinay, Nabaprabandha, August 1867, p. 100 (translation mine).

5
but of course on the basis of a competitive marketall of which were considered noble

whereas Jatrawallas (the people associated with Jatra) were considered as ignoble

tradesmen and filthy elements of society, even by someone of the stature of Bankim

Chandra Chattopadhyay.11

Taracharan Sikdar, one of the earliest Bengali playwrights, wrote in the

introductory chapter of his Bhadrarjun (1852):

This book is written in a new style. Therefore, some

details should be discussed here briefly. This play, with

regard to the development of action and placement of

scenes, is similar to the European plays. I did not follow the

courseprescribed in the Sanskrit dramaturgyof some

playwrights, such as, nandi, introduction of sutradhar and

nati, prologue by them and vidushaka, etc. Apart from

these features, Sanskrit plays are almost similar to the

European plays. Sanskrit plays are divided into anka which

is called act in English, but in Sanskrit plays the ankas are

not divided into scenes. Having framed it in the order of

European plays I present this play.12

In keeping with the trend of society, Taracharan merely took a story from the Bengali

version of the Mahabharata by Kasiram Das as the source material but his principal

concern was to get closer to European dramatics.

11
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bangalar Nabya Lekhakdiger Prati Nibedan, Bankim Rachanabali,
ed. Jogesh Chandra Bagal, vol. 2 (Kolkata: Sahitya Samsad, 1954), p. 237.
12
Asutosh Bhattacharya, Bangla Natyasahityer Itihas, p. 49 (translation and emphasis mine).

6
 The trajectory of the art of acting in Bengal before the English influence had

developed chiefly around the popular religious beliefs and had little connection with the

courts of the princes. Rather, the mobility of itinerant players kept every kind of

performance alive, be it the presentation of songs, lectures, stories or Jatras. The reasons

may be defined thus: a fixed place brings exclusivity into the economics of performance,

which can be avoided by travelling from place to place; moreover it was the best possible

means to divulge ones ideas to the farthest corners at a time when there was no media.

The proscenium theatre made performance an exclusive and enclosed affair. But the

adulation and hunger for the European (English) style and contempt for the prevalent

native popular culture had gone so far that the anonymous writer of Sambandha-Samadhi

Natak (1867) dared to express his distaste for Vedic (Brahmanical) rituals.13 Admittedly,

the Bengali plays of this period also bore some feeble elements and styles of Vaishnava

Padavali (poems on Lord Krishna and Radha), Gauriya Vaishnavism (the cult of Krishna

worship in Bengal), Mangal Kavya (long poems on local gods), Panchali (a class of

poems, usually sung in devotion, celebrating the glory of a deity), the Ramayana (by

Krittibas Ojha), the Mahabharata (by Kasiram Das), Kavigan or Kabigan (poetic recitals)

and Jatra. The reasons for using such elements were never to glorify the cultural heritage

nor to be independent by the right of what was handed down for centuries; many of these

elements became unavoidable because of their widespread popularity in the lower strata

of society. For example, Sukumar Sen thinks that the usage of songs (though not their

13
Sukumar Sen, Bangla Sahityer Itihas, vol. 3 (Kolkata: Ananda Publishers Private Limited, 1979), p.
105. Sen thinks that the writer must have been a Vedic Brahman; that was why he did not reveal his name
for fear of society.

7
essence) in Bengali drama was a direct result of the same in the old Jatra.14 Girish

Chandra Ghosh, according to critics like Himani Bannerji and Utpal Dutt, was the

torchbearer of this style of popular performance in proscenium theatre. Himani Bannerji

argues, Girish Ghosh created an admixture of dramatic textualization with elements

from Shakespeare (whose work he translated and directed in Bengali), 19th century

melodramas and the indigenous jatra form.15 Utpal Dutt is fascinated by the idea that

Girishs thoughts developed around his own

vulgar/low-bred audience, prostitute actresses, and his

social marginalized co-actors. He is not only a theatre-

wallah, but in the small yard of the complacent middle

class he stood as a drunkard jatra-wallah.16

But such compulsions (usage of songs) and exceptions (Girish Ghosh) do not

necessarily justify the influence of local characteristics on an alien idea of popular

culture. Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay (Banerjee), an eminent historian of the Bengali

stage, states, Old Jatra has no connection with the Bengali drama.17 As a matter of

fact, the Bengali drama did not grow out of the Bengali yatra, nor did the demand for a

new kind of theatre come from the class which, as a rule, patronized yatras.18 These

comments precisely indicate that The origin of the Bengali stage is to be sought in the

desire for newer and less archaic amusements felt by a generation, which had received a

14
Ibid., p. 142.
15
Himani Bannerji, The Mirror of Class: Essays on Bengali Theatre (Calcutta: Papyrus, 1998), p. 190.
16
Quoted by Bannerji, ibid., p. 193.
17
Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, Bangiya Natyasalar Itihas: 1795-1876 (Kolkata: Bangiya Sahitya-
Parishat, 1998), p. 19 (translation mine).
18
Brajendra Nath Banerjee, Bengali Stage, pp. 6-7. [yatra= Jatra]

8
good English education. The more well-to-do among them went to the English play-

houses of Calcutta.19

Karl Marx, on the other hand, offered incisive observations on the formation of

the educated class of Calcutta. To his understanding, in 1853, the British rule was

composed of binary historical aspects: one destructive, the other regenerating.20 The

Occident was imported while the mission of annihilating the old Asiatic society was

achieved gradually and simultaneously by England.21 In doing so, the political unity of

the country was strengthened and perpetuated by the introduction of electric telegraph;

defence mechanisms bolstered by the native army; a relatively free press introduced for

the first time into Asiatic society, and managed principally by the common offspring of

Hindus and Europeans, is a new and powerful agent of reconstruction22; the inception of

private property in land; limited access to Western education system; the railways and

steam transport.23 These were some of the necessary preconditions for the creation of an

Indian bourgeoisie coming out of an education system that principally served the

purposes of the colonizers. Marx rightly pointed out, From the Indian natives,

reluctantly and sparingly educated at Calcutta, under English superintendence, a fresh

class is springing up, endowed with the requirements for government and imbued with

19
Ibid., p. 7.
20
Karl Marx, The Future Results of the British Rule in India, On Colonialism (Moscow: Foreign
Languages Publishing House), p. 84, http://www.scribd.com/doc/31107370/On-Colonialism-CARL-
MARX (accessed 9 November 2011).
21
Ibid.
22
Ibid.
23
Ibid., pp. 84-85.

9
European science.24 This was not typical of Calcutta only. In a slightly different context,

Marx and Frederick Engels discussed in Manifesto of the Communist Party how the

concept of world literature is connected with the bourgeois mode of production in

general. If the precondition for the creation of an educated class in Calcutta is collated

with the conditions for penetration of the bourgeoisie in any land, their observation nicely

fits in this analysis and we can have a better understanding of why a generation born of

an educated class of patrons and playwrights of private and public theatres in Calcutta

cleverly adopted singing and dancing habits of the inferior performances in order to

gain popularity and not to lose audiences,25 but at heart fell prostrate in worship of the

English plays. One prominent reason for such servitude was hidden in an idea of one of

the most servile tools of English despotism26 that European, especially English, plays

(and those written in imitation) would improve the social standards and help to get rid of

backward forms like Jatra,27 Kabigan, Panchali, Tarja and Half-Akhrai. The other

reasons are laid in their historical formation:

The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the

world market given a cosmopolitan character to production

and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of

Reactionists, it has drawn from under the feet of industry

the national ground on which it stood. All old-established

24
Ibid., p. 84.
25
Darshan Chaudhuri, Bangla Theatre-er Itihas (Kolkata: Pustak Bipani, 1995), p. 4.
26
Karl Marx, The East India Question, On Colonialism, pp. 74-75. Marx used the phrase for the Indian
princes, for whom he did not harbour any particular sympathy. Here it has been used to designate the
educated bhadralok class of nineteenth-century Bengal.
27
Bhudeb Chaudhuri, Bangla Sahityer Itikatha, vol. 2 (Kolkata: Deys Publishing, 1984), pp.165-166.

10
national industries have been destroyed or are daily being

destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose

introduction becomes a life and death question for all

civilised nations, In place of the old wants, satisfied by

the productions of the country, we find new wants,

requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands

and climes. In place of the old local and national seclusion

and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction,

universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in material,

so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations

of individual nations become common property. National

one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and

more impossible, and from the numerous national and local

literatures there arises a world literature.

The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all

instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated

means of communication, draws all, even the most

barbarian, nations into civilisation. The cheap prices of its

commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters

down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians

intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It

compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the

bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to

11
 introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to

become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a

world after its own image.28

In view of this observation, when we read Brajendranaths statement,

The old traditions were very influential in the early

nineteenth century. The Bengalis were content with Jatra,

Panchali, Kabi, Half-Akhrai and had not started realizing the

absence of new European styles of amusement. By the

advent of the English education system they felt the

shortcomings. Those who were familiar with English

poetry and drama despised typical forms of recreation like

Jatra29

we do not feel embarrassed, nor are we uncomfortable with our predecessors

exclusionary politics. The only interesting thing that demands attention is that they, being

subjected to the British eliminatory contrivance, also exercised the same trickery on their

fellow citizens politically, socially and culturally. A classic example in this connection is

an essay in a periodical titled Bibidhartha-Sangraha, in which the editor Rajendralal

Mitra wrote,

It is hard to describe within ones civility how

abominable Kheur and Kabi were; doubtless, the mind of a

28
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (Kolkata: National Book Agency,
1993), pp. 37-38. The publishers note says that this English edition was a reproduction of the translation
made by Samuel Moore in 1888 from the original German text of 1848 and edited by Frederick Engels.
29
Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, Bangiya Natyasalar Itihas, p. 17-18 (translation mine).

12
 sympathetic person is filled with sorrow considering their

state of minds who are amused by these.

It can be easily perceived that indecent amusements

like Kabi and Kheur would not be appreciated in a civil

[bhadra] society for long. In many places of Kolkata

true plays are being enacted for the past four years. May

such entertainments spread in this countryattraction

[towards them] be felt in the villages, Jatra, Kabi, Kheur

etc. be cast away by their introduction, eradication of

immorality and immaculate behaviour be established [by

them] these are desirous to us and for that we earnestly

place our requests to the well-wishers of the country.30

As a result of such theatrical selectiveness and relentless publicity not only were

the indigenous qualities flushed out, but in some cases they were transformed by the

influence of new theatre/drama.31 One such example of transformation was Gitabhinay,32

a genre similar to opera. Though Sukumar Sen and many other critics33 emphasized this

form as nutan (new) Jatra, the following passages would help us understand that this new

type of public performance was received in a different light altogether, and as anything

but Jatra. Gitabhinay, a middle-of-the-road form of popular culture, was immediately

30
Quoted by Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, pp. 17-18 (translation mine).
31
Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, p. 19 (translation mine).
32
Gitabhinay was composed of songs derived from Krishna Jatra, dance from natun (new) Jatra, dialogues
and dramatic conflict/tension from contemporary proscenium plays. See Darshan Chaudhuri, p. 20.
33
Hitherto, the Gitabhinays which have been put on like opera are nothing but Jatra. Maddhyastha, 5th
& 6 issue, 4th part, Bhadra & Ashwin 1282 (1875), p. 117.
th

13
accepted after its inception as a sign of relief from the degenerate Jatra. On 22 May

1865 the Hindoo Patriot wrote:

We acknowledge in our last issue the receipt of

SAKONTOLLAH by Baboo Unodapersad Banerjee. This is

the first Opera in Bangalee. It has been written in a simple

and elegant style, and the interest is well sustained

throughout. The songs are appropriate and exquisite. We

had the pleasure of witnessing the performance more than

once, and we must say that it did credit to those who were

engaged in it. We hope the Opera will supersede the

degenerate JATRA.34

The Sambad Prabhakar of 16 November 1865 wrote:

The present Jatra performances are detestable to the

true music lovers. Considering stage performances very

expensive a few educated young boys have started

presenting Geetabhinay in the same system [as Jatra]. This

is very commendable indeed.35

Thus, in the guise of literary criticism, cultural politicization and validation of an

alien practice permeated all levels of society. To ensure the stability and permanence of a

colonial culture, it was always the best policy to attack and criticize the other system

with a tone of sympathy in order to (i) project the very act of criticism as a caring and

humane undertaking to educate the illiterate and uncivilized subjects, (ii) benefit not

34
Quoted by Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, p. 81.
35
Ibid., p. 80 (translation mine).

14
just the writer/critic, but the whole communityhere the writer/critic assumes the role of

the saviour and his criticism, a pious dutyand (iii) suppress the vested interests of the

class to which the writer belongs. Therefore, on account of alleged poor standards of

performance, Jatra, Kabigan36 and Panchali had been subjected to severe criticism by the

Bengali intellectuals and newspapers. If they had problems with the standards of

performance and the content of Jatra, the critics might have advised the organizers to

look back at past productions or even contemporary ones which were not as corrupt.37

Instead, contemporary Jatras were compared with Western plays.

More than anything else the critics of contemporary Jatra were concerned with an

imported idea of purity of their society. The over-emphasized body and its freedom in

indigenous culture became objectionable to these moral police. The texts giving

importance to carnal pleasure were rejected. The quality of events was judged by the

social standards of the performers. In most of the cases they were performed by

36
Sushil Kumar De comments, The Kabi-poetry, however, has been subjected to an amount of harsh and
even contemptuous criticism which it hardly ever deserved. The Reforming Young Bengal of the forties
considered all forms of popular amusementsKabi, Yatra or Pamchalito be contemptible. We shall see
that had gradually come into Kabi-songs elements which were really contemptible; but what strikes one in
the study of these popular forms of literature is that throughout the 19th century, with the exception of Isvar
Gupta and a few isolated appreciators of things ancient, the so-called educated men of that century hardly
ever cared to make a sympathetic study, much less to realise their literary or historical importance. Even to-
day they do not seem to have received their due amount of attention or appreciation. But in spite of the
apparent uncertainty of critical determination, the historical importance of these songs, apart from all
question of artistic valuation, cannot surely be denied. The old Kabi-literature does not require an apologist
to-day but it stands upon its own inherent claim to be treated in an historical survey of Bengali literature of
this century. Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century: 1757-1857 (Calcutta: Firma K.L.
Mukhopadhyay, 1962), p. 274.
37
Hemendra Nath Das Gupta writes, When Calcutta and its adjacent places were full of erotic songs and
sentiments of Vidya Sundara, East Bengal was then resounding with the sweet notes of Krishna Lila. ... In
Dacca there was no dearth of Jatra or Kavi. The Indian Theatre (Delhi: Gian Publishing House, 1988), p.
139. Maddhyastha (op. cit., p. 117) wrote, Our Kaliyadaman, i.e. Krishnajatra is not an ordinary musical
dramawhat Paramananda, Govinda and Badan had done... the way they had amused and made the
audience weep, had set them adrift and caused to sink in different Rasaswill not happen again; the
flawless musical drama of these songs can never achieve that... (translation mine).

15
prostitutes or actors from the lower classes, which were considered to be abusive to

Bengali pride. Nabaprabandha (August 1868) wrote:

It is unfortunate that some people and a few boys who are

inexperienced in acting have turned it [acting on stage and

Gitabhinay] into an even more pathetic event than the professional

Jatra. Like the abominable puppeteers they are bringing corruption

into the pure pleasure of theatre by setting stages in the residences

of different people and gulping down luchi, manda [sweets] and

wine.38

Social discriminations and professional hatred publicized in this statement correspond to

the editorial policies of other dailies of the time. In a letter to Maddhyastha (7 December

1872), an anonymous correspondent wrote on a performance in a tone of lamentation and

sarcasm, We were not deprived of dance, fun and jest of the Bhistis, lest we forget the

old Bhisti, Kalua-Bhulua of old Jatra, or their names become obsolete.39

Meanwhile, non-Bengali writers also contributed to this attitude. Horatio Smith,

an Anglo-Indian journalist, had written in this connection as early as 1851:

India, in her high and palmy state, had also a

dramatic literature of her own, and scenic representations to

gratify the people. we shall proceed to make a remark

or two on the state of the drama as it now exists among the

Bengalis.

38
Natakabhinay, Nabaprabandha, August 1868, p. 100 (translation mine).
39
Quoted by Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, p. 83 (translation mine).

16
 Of the execrable representations, called Jtrs, we

dare not give here a detailed description; They are wretched

from the commencement to the fifth act. The plots are very

often the amours of Krishna, or the love of Bidya and

Sundar. In the representations of Krishn-jtr, boys,

arrayed in the habit of Sakhis and Gopinis (milk-maids), cut

the principal figures on the stage. It would require the

pencil of a master-painter to pourtray [sic] the killing

beauty of these fairies of the Bengali stage. Their sooty

complexion, their coal-black cheeks, their haggard eyes,

their long-extended arms, their gaping mouths and their

puerile attire excite disgust. Their external deformity is

rivalled by their discordant voices. For the screechings of

the night-owls, the howlings of the jackals, and the

barkings of the dogs that bay the moon, are harmony itself

compared with their horrid yells. Their dances are in strict

accordance with the other accessories. In the evolutions of

the hands and feet, dignified with the name of dancing, they

imitate all posture and gestures calculated to soil the mind

and pollute the fancy.

The principal actors during the interludes are a

mather, who enters the stage with a broomstick in his hand,

and cracks a few stupid jest which set the audience in a roar

17
 of laughter; and his brother Bhulu who, completely

fuddled, amuses the spectators with the false steps of his

feet.40

With regard to the vehemently expressed obscenity of language, such comments only

added to the share the newspapers had in propagating the idea of social filth. As of now,

let us return to the public theatre which is believed to have democratized the proscenium

theatre. It brought other elements that also characterize a democratic process: disbelief,

greed, controversies over financial transactionsNobody hesitated to sacrifice artistry

at the prospect of the good fortune called the audience.41 To cut a long story short, after

the money came the disputes and then there were disruptions all over.42 A number of

eminent theatre personalities of that period have stated that owing to financial disputes

the National Theatre fell apart43 and subsequently two groups were formed: National

Theatre and Hindu National Theatre, which merged again in 1874.44 Before the end of the

year, due to financial reasons, serious internal disagreement surfaced once more, never to

40
Horatio Smith, Festivals, Games, and Amusements; Ancient and Modern, Calcutta Review, vol. 15,
1851, pp. 348-349.
41
Darshan Chaudhuri, p. 3 (translation mine).
42
On 26 January 1873 a letter was published in the Indian Mirror: Sir, Owing to a long existing ill-
feeling among the members of the National Theatrical Society a disagreement has arisen amongst them.
The cause of this faction, as the Secretary of the Society announces, is the failure on the part of the
Treasurer to render the accounts. The other party ascribes the cause of this faction to some shortcoming on
the part of the SecretaryBelieve me, yours truly BROJENDRA NATH BANERJEE. (Brajendranath
Bandyopadhyay, Bangiya Natyasalar Itihas, p. 122.) On 21 February 1873 another letter came out in the
same newspaper stating Sir, Now the rupture among the members of the National Theatrical Society
has, happily, come to a close. Selfishness, distrust, dictatorial tone and unwillingness to cringe are some of
the causes which gave rise to it. The three directors of the Theatre now are the Editor of the AMRITA
BAZAR POTRICA, Babu G. C. Ghose, & another Native gentleman. A FRIEND TO THE NATIONAL
THEATRE. (Ibid., p. 124)
43
Ibid., pp. 130-132.
44
Ibid., p. 162.

18
be healed.45 One of the vices for which Jatra had been sneered at oozed into the

proscenium practice and destroyed its integrity too.

When the National Theatre was going through such dramatic ups and downs

Bengali Theatre took a bold step by introducing actresses, who happened to be

prostitutes, in public theatre. Prior to that, female roles were played by male actors,

though Lebedeff had cast women in 1795. The reason for introducing prostitutes was the

unavailability of actresses of respectable birth. But this novelty was not appreciated at all,

for social outcasts could not be given entry into bhadralok society. On 18 August 1873

the Hindu Patriot commented:

Mr Michael Madhusudan Duttas classic drama

of Sarmista was selected for the first performance. The

actors performed their parts very creditably, the two

actresses, who were professional women, we are informed,

were most successful. We wish this dramatic crops [sic]

had done without the actresses. It is true that professional

women join the jattras (Jatra) and natches, but we had

hoped that the managers of Bengali theatres would not

bring themselves down to the level of jattrawallas.46

In its review of the same play the Bharat Sanskarak wrote on 22 August:

There were two prostitutes among the artistes. Until

now we saw them only in Jatra, Nach, Kirtan, Jhumur but

this is the first time that we experienced their acting in the

45
Ibid., pp. 179-180.
46
Ibid., p. 149.

19
 open with the distinguished dignitaries of noble birth. It is

always desirable that you, civilized sons, should stand on

your dignity.47

The Amrita Bazar Patrika (20 February 1873) wrote:

The family-women of this country will never enter

into acting; perhaps the female characters have to be

collected from the group of social outcasts and it is yet to

be decided whether that will benefit or cause harm to the

country.48

Again, Amrita Bazar Patrika (15 January 1874) wrote:

Bengal Theatre is a new thing among the Bengali

aristocracy. Acting becomes perfect when female

characters are portrayed by women. But whether sin and

misfortune are increased in the society owing to the

enactment of the female characters by the women who are

cast out of the society and have gone astray from the

religious course is still subject to experimentation. The

Bengal Theatre has undertaken this tough course. With a

view to having a good taste of acting many people of

Calcutta are drawn to their theatre. For the sake of

improving theatre performances if we are to sacrifice a

47
Samvadavali: Kalikata o Bangadesh, Bharat Sanskarak, Part 1, Issue 19, 22 August 1873, p. 225.
48
Amrita Bazar Patrika, 20 February 1873, p. 14.

20
 single person [those who frequent theatre halls] the loss can

never ever be compensated.49

The Maddhyastha also voiced a prolonged sarcastic accusation that all hell might break

loose by the association of those wicked women.50 The women of the town were

subjected to undeserving, merciless, acerbic criticism without even taking their behaviour

during rehearsals into account. Amritalal Basus description of the prostitutes work ethic

surely throws the Bengali aristocratic and editorial agenda which gave birth to the

proscenium stage, into question:

We had to take on some actresses for the

Gitabhinay, which we thought were indispensable in view

of the few number of plays. I had a terrible misconception

that being disrespectable dancers and singers, these women

selected from a particular class would not be able to play

the high-born female characters. The mistake was dispelled

within two weeks after they started coming for rehearsals.

The salary was very low then, yet five actresses came to us.

Their sincerity, quest for learning, care, decency at the

workplace and candour compelled many of us to reconsider

our own character.51

The clash of interest of two classes was heightened when the sophisticated, elite Bengali

theatres also encouraged the free mixing of men and women in their performances, which

49
Kalikatar Rangabhumi, Amrita Bazar Patrika, 15 January 1874, p. 391.
50
Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, Bangiya Natyasalar Itihas, p. 150.
51
Quoted by Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, p. 243 (translation mine).

21
had already entered Jatra performances.52 Such wantonness was even compared with

the production of Gajadananda o Jubaraj, for which eventually the Dramatic

Performances Act was imposed by the English in 1876. Although an exception, Bharat

Sanskarak actually hailed the legislation and considered it to be beneficial to the

country.53

Jatra was repudiated time and again on account of obscenity and poor quality of

texts and performances. What was this so-called obscenity or poor quality? Their origin,

in this politics of deprivation and suppression, will lead to chiefly one text that was

singled out for malicious criticism by almost all the critics: Vidya-Sundar, through which

surfaced the nineteenth-century Hindu-Muslim dichotomy, though there were other

similar texts which were also adapted for Jatra.

With the rise of Calcutta as a business centre of the British East India Company

people came from far off and began to mix with the local inhabitants; soon they

developed the habit of, among other things, frequenting the quarters of Baijis54 (women

who sang and danced in front of men; they were free to choose sexual partners from

among them). Rabindranath Tagore took the view that in the evenings the merchants,

weary of daylong work, wanted the excitement of temporary amusement, not the essence

of literature.55 Naturally, Khola and Nupurs gave place to Tobla and ghunghur. The old

Vaishnaba lyric and songs (Mahajani Padas) were replaced by newly composed songs.

52
Ibid., Natyasala Smashanbidhi, Bharat Sanskarak, 3 March 1876, p. 425.
53
Ibid. p. 425 & Samvadavali, p. 431.
54
Das Gupta, p. 122.
55
Rabindranath Tagore, Kabi-Sangeet, Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 6 (Kolkata: Visvabharati, 1940), p.
632.

22
They were set to new songs and the upcountry tune of the tappas was gone.56 So, in

course of time the divine love stories of Radha and Krishna were replaced by the

mundane, carnal amour of ordinary men and women like Vidya and Sundar and the

activities of Malini, their go-between. The sensual story of Vidya and Sundar relied

heavily on mushy Bengali sentiment; their sexuality, and the overt presence of the body

in performance became highly objectionable, whereupon Jatra came to be detested by the

aristocracy and the newspapers, which vilified it in very strong language, ironically

popularizing it even further:

Abuses and vituperation were so much liked by the

people that editors of news-papers often indulged in filthy

abuses. Those papers that could excel in abusing used to

command a large number of subscribers. Those who were

adept in the use of vituperative language were most

honoured!57

Moreover, in historicizing the sensuality of Vidya-Sundar some critics maintained

that the sexuality was rooted in the Islamic rule over India, which led to the ruin of

traditional Hindu culture, especially in Bengal[the] dramatic institution is one of

them. The Mohomedans were without any national theatre and it received no tangible

support from them.58 From the following accounts it can be deduced that apart from the

56
Das Gupta, p. 123. Khola= khol, an instrument of percussion; Nupur= an anklet set with small bells used
by dancers; Tobla= tabla; Ghunghur= a string of larger bells worn at the ankle or the waist; Tappa=
traditional semiclassical vocal style in Bengal.
57
Girish Chandra Ghosh; quoted by Das Gupta, p. 137.
58
Das Gupta, p. 87.

23
sexual connotations and poor literary standards of Jatra, the connection of its main

content, the Vidya-Sundar story, to the Islamic literary vision became a principal reason

for the colonial academia to lash out at its vulgarity. In one of his lectures, in 1909 at

the University of Calcutta, the Bengali professor Dinesh Chandra Sen said:

Raja Krishna Chandra was the great patron of Bengali

literature of the 18th century.

Poetry under such patronage became the creation of

schoolmen and courtiers. It no longer aimed at offering its

tribute to God but tried to please the fancy of a Raja; the

poets found the gates of the palace open to receive them

and cared not if the doors of heaven were shut. ... The

Persian poems which were favoured in this age, also

contain long drawn-out similies verging on the ridiculous,

and the nobleman and scholars, who prided themselves on a

vain-glorious pedantry, encouraged our poets to introduce

similar artificial compositions into Bengali. Not only in

the style of writing but in its subject-matter also, it showed

the control of those evil stars that held sway over the

literary horizon of Bengal at this time. The romantic

conceptions of Persian tales are often singularly unpleasing

to the Bengali mind; especially does this remark apply to

those kutnis or serving women, who acted as agents in

matters of illicit passion. Yet these women figure

24
 prominently in the literature of this period. ... Indeed the

Hindu poets had hitherto taken particular care to keep

scenes of illicit love out of their poems. But the kutni now

became a very common thing in our literature, especially in

the poems of Vidya-Sundara. A very striking instance of

such women as figuring in the poetry of the age is found in

the character of Hira malini in Bharata Chandras Annada

Mangalathe most popular Bengali poem of the day.

Thus in the style of poetry as well as in its spirit, the

court literature of Bengal presents a striking difference to

the earlier Bengali works. The style and the spirit both

became depravedthe former by a vain-glorious pedantry

which made descriptions grotesque by their over-drawn

niceties, the serious often passing into the burlesqueand

the latter by scurrilous obscenities grosser than anything in

Sterne, Smollett or Wycherley and by the introduction of

characters like those of Hira malini and Vidu Brahmini

accessories to illicit love of the most revolting type.59

It is this revolting love inherited from the Islamic past which caused the abhorrence of a

squad of theatre, media and academic personalities. That this illicit love affair could

throw the social order into complete disarray, a purely Western interpretation of

sexuality, might have guided the social gurus to teach against the illicitness whereas,

59
Dinesh Chandra Sen, History of Bengali Language and Literature (Delhi: Gian Publishing House,
1986), pp. 617-621.

25
strangely enough, by virtue of spirituality alone, divine illicitness and the activities of the

kutnis or dutis60 depicted in the Hindu texts met the moral standard of that age. As a

matter of fact, the Hindu-Muslim dichotomy and the resulting spiritual-profane duality

led to what we have seen until now, the common hatred against quotidian popular

cultural practices like Jatra. With regard to the drawbacks61 of Jatra one can reveal how

the objections contributed towards a common practice of interfering criticism, a typical

characteristic of this age.62

On the other hand, the communal harmony, which was also reflected in Kabigan,

developed a rift within due to the spatial dispersal of the lower orders.63 Being forced

to relocate to distant or other parts of the city the Muslims, for example, started getting

isolated.64 Kabi-singers dominated the cultural sphere of Calcutta till the 1830s and by

the middle of the same century they almost disappeared from the scene, and were

replaced by the Jatra performers and Panchali singers.65 The flourishing Battala

literaturethe amours of Vidya-Sundar, Radha-Krishna, Shiva-Parvati being its

important subjectsalso added woe to the misery of Kabigan.66 The innovations of

Jatra, Panchali, and other performances came out of the strong presence of this type of

literaturethe challenges they faced from the printing press.67 Nevertheless, from the

60
Ibid., p. 620.
61
De, p. 406.
62
Sumanta Banerjee, The Parlour and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century
Calcutta (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1989), p. 138. In his opinion it was an organized campaign.
63
Ibid.
64
Ibid.
65
Ibid., p. 138.
66
Ibid. pp. 139-140.
67
Ibid., p. 140.

26
history of the evolution of popular cultural practices in nineteenth-century Bengal it

seems that power, both political and financial, decided the quality and type of literary and

performing productions. The standard and subject of such productions were decided by

the section of society which acquired power and money not by industry proper but

unhealthy competition, monopoly of market and infringement on liberty and human

rights. Their choice and preferences upped the index of literary or other output. The

previous standards were made redundant by the ruling class. But humour, satire,

obscenity, irony, sarcasm, caricature, parody continued throughout the century in one

form after another not just as ornamentation or disturbing element, but also as the

means to protest against the humiliation68 and discrimination. The ribaldry and sexual

jokes in the jatras were often an expression of the common mans desire to thumb his

nose at the self-restraints and sanctimonious platitudes of the religious elders of

society.69 Their expressions might have been bawdy, satirical, iconoclastic,

irreverent, outrageous, but that was not necessarily suggestive of a voyeuristic

pornographic desire;70 it may also be construed as the celebration of the world of the

senses, a playful expression of primitive sensuality71 and gaiety, which, perhaps, was the

driving force to overcome the feeling of deprivation and dejection.72 Like many other

expressions of humour, the secret source of the comicality of Calcutta folk culture was

not joy, but sorrow and helplessness in an oppressive environment.73 The educated

68
Ibid.
69
Ibid.
70
Ibid., p. 141.
71
Ibid., p. 142.
72
Ibid., p. 144.
73
Ibid., p. 146.

27
gentry were hardly bothered with such human emotional complexities; they were

celebrating Englishness.

Contrary to the native approach, an editorial in The Times of London in 1873,

referring to the marginalization of the indigenous folk culture of India under the impact

of a foreign culture, and its replacement by a new elite literature, commented:

The love songs and idolatrous legends which we

have in great measure displaced are the material out of

which a native popular literature might, in due time, have

been evolved. If, therefore, the products of Indian literature

have an appearance in some degree forced and artificial, we

must remember that India has not been suffered to follow

her own course, and that the growth of her literature has

been set aside as completely as her political development

by the overwhelming influence of a new power. We find

ample signs of life, of ferment, of activity, but of quite

another kind from those which would have followed in the

natural order of growth and change...74

Probably that was why the markets, libraries and archives in England at that point of

time were being stacked with Indian folklore collections. The entertainment provided by

performers and their arts were part of the colonial booty. The British collectors called

74
Quoted by Sumanta Banerjee, p. 5.

28
India the goldmine of folklore, and there was talk of who shall go to the digging.75

These incidents prove that there were people who expressed their opinion on the other

side of developing practices; who observed the development of cultural consciousness

more critically. Sumanta Banerjee cited two comments in this regard, one by a Bengali

bhadralok, the other by an English observer. While the former strived to distinguish

between the ideal of love in the past and his own time (The ideal of love in those days

was based on physical attraction), the latter was of the view that European standards of

obscenity would fail if applied to the study of indigenous cultural practices (European

analogy and distinction somehow fail. It is sometimes difficult here to draw the

distinction between obscenity and warmth.).76

The one-sided discourse of the construction of culture practices from the top

continued until the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) of the 1930s decided to pay

due attention to the peoples culture. Later, the Indian Peoples Theatre Association

(IPTA) bore the same ideology in its constitution. For now, it would suffice to say that

the causes for the mounting tension within these organizations were not only hidden in

their ideological incompetence but also in the intrusive proscenium stage which, still

thought to be a potent medium of art, eventually came to disunite the peoples theatre

movement altogether. I have already mentioned that there was something in the

proscenium stage which was apparently not suitable for this part of the world, because it

is a site where the power of performance always comes to the centre. It is not the

collective effort of the actors nor even the texts but the power of individual performance

75
Sadhana Naithani, How About Some Artistic Recognition? Folk Performers in Post-Independence
India, Performers and Their Arts: Folk, Popular and Classical Genres in a Changing India, ed. Simon
Charsley and Laxmi Narayan Kadekar (London: Routledge, 2006), p. 112.
76
Sumanta Banerjee, p. 141.

29
and direction that takes control of the event. Actually, the acceptance of the proscenium

stage and the rejection of traditional culture were the same: the former is a Barthesian

mythic body (of theatre) and the latter is not. We need to understand the complex nature

of a new cultural politics and its relationship to an exclusionary stage, which prepared the

ground for Badal Sircars entry into theatre in the early 1950s. This is the second phase of

the history of the Bengali stage and the cultural consciousness of the ruling class.

II

Although the modern Bengali theatre emerged during the colonial period, most of

the plays are devoid of the anguish of political repression, containing, instead, allegorical

representations of historical incidents or mythological stories for igniting the spirit of

patriotism, and full of imitations of Western dramaturgy. In fact, once done with the

process of structural validation (of the proscenium stage), such quest for derivative

artistry is not unnatural at the young stage of any art form, especially at a time when the

colonized mind was being purged constantly by Western standards of justice and ethics.

Of course, it would be wrong to suggest that all the plays of this period (for example,

Nildarpan, Sadhabar Ekadashi, Buro Shalikher Ghare Ron, Ekei Ki Bale Sabhyata,

Balidan) were completely indifferent to the suffering of the common people. But with the

advent of commercialism and, more importantly, the Dramatic Performances Act 1876,

Bengali theatre became a mouthpiece for Hindu revivalism and a platform for spectacular

extravaganza. The dramatists capitalized on public sentiments and drew large numbers of

spectators into the theatre. The early theatre thinking of Bengal was not exceptional in

30
this regard. Through the selection of Sanskrit plays, stories from Hindu mythology,

incidents depicting new moral standards for Hindus (especially the women), the

consciousness of a mono-religious culture77 was imbued in society. The plays of

Jyotirindranath Tagore are good examples. In his autobiography Jyotirindranath said,

After the Hindu Mela, it frequently occurred to me how the peoples affection [for the

country] and patriotism could be awakened. Finally, I thought, perhaps the purpose

would be served by using past heroic stories and the glorious narratives of India in the

plays.78 India was unquestioningly identified with Hindu.

Despite some apparent changes in Bengali theatre by the impact of the middle-

class-led Swadeshi Movement of 1905 and the movement against the Partition of Bengal,

despite such rousing classics as Shah Jahan or Siraj-ud-daula, no substantial

transformation was discerned: it was mostly confined to a Hinduist discourse due to its

inspiration from the political unrest conspicuously dyed in Hinduism.79 Eventually, when

the need to spread the struggle for Independence among the poor masses was felt, routine

theatre practice, considered to have already reached its modernity,80 was at a loss; the

lameness of this commercial theatre became evident with the growing force of struggle.81

According to Sushil Kumar Mukherjee, a sharp decline in the standard of public theatre

77
Susobhan Sarkar thinks, Our glorious past appeared, however, to be predominantly Hindu, springing
from a social cohesion largely unshaken by the new storm and stress. Oriental traditionalism had thus a
second elementthe consciousness of Hindu superiority. India's civilization was almost equated with
Hindu culture and India itself seemed to be essentially Hindu in its character. The fact that the 'awakened'
educated community was almost exclusively Hindu by origin lent strength to such assumptions. Susobhan
Sarkar, On the Bengal Renaissance (Kolkata: Papyrus, 1979), p. 73.
78
Quoted by Asutosh Bhattacharya, pp. 267-268 (translation mine).
79
Manoranjan Bhattacharya, Janagan o Theatre in Gananatya, ed. Shakti Bandyopadhyay, October
1989, p. 18.
80
According to Asutosh Bhattacharya, the modern age of Bengali theatre was born of the Swadeshi
Movement of 1905. He says that patriotism fathered modernism in Bengali theatre (pp. 724-725).
81
Manoranjan Bhattacharya, Janagan o Theatre, p. 19.

31
could be observed during the first two decades of the twentieth century. He says that a

close observation of the list of plays staged between 1912 and 1922 will reveal the state

of decline. All the prominent actors were also gone. As a result, between 1912 and 1922

neither were good original plays staged nor was there any powerful player in the public

theatre. Some plays were repeated time and again till they lost their public appeal. The

quality of performance deteriorated.82

The first decade of the twentieth century was also not very productive even for

Rabindranath Tagore. Nothing in the shape of drama emerged during this time.83 The

dramatic inspiration returned in 1908 that ushered in new directions in his career.84

Between 1910 and 1912 there appeared Raja, Achalayatan and Dakghar, three of the

finest plays in Bengali. Prior to that, he expressed his ideas on theatre in an essay titled

Rangamancha (The Stage) which indicated that a complete volte-face had occurred in

his thoughts about the theatre.85 Tagores subsequent plays were conceived on the lines

he conceptualized in this essay.86 Ananda Lal observed, however:

After his return from the England-America trip in

1913, Tagore continued producing new plays at

Santiniketan. However, the distance from Calcutta

delimited the possibilities of gaining a wider audience.

Except for a few cognoscenti among his friends who

82
Sushil Kumar Mukherjee, The Story of the Calcutta Theatres 1753-1980 (Calcutta: K P Bagchi &
Company, 1982), pp. 127-128.
83
Ananda Lal, Introduction to Rabindranath Tagore: Three Plays (Calcutta: The M P Birla Foundation,
1987), p. 20.
84
Ibid., p. 21.
85
Ibid., p. 29. We will discuss this essay later, in the context of Badal Sircars theory and practice.
86
Ibid., p. 30.

32
 travelled between Calcutta and Santiniketan, people outside

the small school community remained blissfully ignorant of

Tagores theatrical advances.87

The advent of a new style and atmosphere through Sisir Kumar Bhaduri during

the twenties showed rays of hope for the bourgeoisie.88 His selection of plays including

Tagores, change from artificial to natural acting style, arrangement and presentation of

the stageeverywhere a significant attitudinal change could be observed. But the most

significant transformation took place in the production of plays in the technical sense.

Hitherto the term producer or production was unknown in the theatre. There was stage

manager, the trainer or the motion-master, but no producer.89 Sisir Kumar Bhaduris

joining the public theatre gave a great impetus to the performers. Under the influence of

new people Bengali theatre was rejuvenated once again. With the arrival of these new

artistes with their new style of acting, a new consciousness about the art of production of

plays, the application of new technique, Bengali theatre reached its peak in the

twenties of the present century.90 On the other side, his personal attempts were based on

the systems of old proprietorship and worn-out subject matter, aimed at a traditional

audience, hence he could not inspire others to follow his reformations within the old

decrepit system of the commercial stage91: the failure subsequently became the cause of

87
Ibid., p. 33.
88
Darshan Chaudhuri, Gananatya Andolon (Kolkata: Anustup Prakashoni, 1994), pp. 4-5.
89
Mukherjee, p. 154.
90
Ibid., p. 158.
91
Darshan Chaudhuri, Gananatya Andolan, pp. 4-5.

33
his agony.92 Like other directors/producers of the time he failed to realize the significance

of political conflicts, the arising demands of society93 and the changes taking place in the

cultural sphere.94 His field of experimentation, the professional stage, was still not

acknowledged as a powerful and indispensable instrument of the freedom movement,95

though the possibility of any alternative was not visible.

It was with the outbreak of the Second World War whose shadow fell on

Calcutta in 1942 that the evil days began and for the next ten years the very existence of

the public theatre was at stake.96 The crowded city assumed a different look. People who

were scared for their lives did not have money to lavish on entertainments. Naturally

there were few theatregoers at such a time. The economic conditions of the people had

declined. The Indian political situation was also not conducive to artistic quests. To make

the situation even worse there came the shocking manmade famine of Bengal in 1943.

The streets of Calcutta filled with thousands of starving faces and lifeless bodies. The air

was heavy with the cries for food and lamentations for dearest ones. In the background

there was the haunting communal tension born of the two-nation theory and at the same

time the clarion call of Subhas Chandra Bose to march towards Delhi. Despite such

political restlessness Calcutta theatres continued to present plays, though with occasional

closures. After the War and amidst the negotiations between the British and the Indian

leaders on transferring power there came, borrowing the phrase from The Statesman, the

92
Ibid, p. 55.
93
Ibid, pp. 7-8.
94
Ibid, p. 55.
95
Sudhi Pradhan, Gana-Naba-Sat-Goshthi Natyakatha (Kolkata: Krantik Prakashani, 1992), p. 30.
96
Mukherjee, p. 158.

34
Great Calcutta Killing of 16 August 1946the devastating communal riot between the

Muslims and the Hinduswhich took a toll of thousands of lives. Indian independence

came by dint of several diplomatic compromises and at the cost of the partition of the

Punjab and Bengal provinces, leading to massacres. Further devastation followed when

millions of people crossed over the newly drawn boundaries in search of peace. Instead,

they encountered irreversible refugee problems which threw the normal course of life out

of gear. Naturally, these times were not at all suitable for theatre performances.

In spite of such adverse moments the most significant development of twentieth-

century Bengali theatre took place during this dark period, reminding us of the

burgeoning theatre practice in Calcutta in 1857. Brajendranath Banerjee wrote in 1943,

significantly enough

At the opening of the second half of the nineteenth

century the Bengali stage was already more than fifty years

old, but its achievements were still negligible. All the

shortlived private theatres which had come into being one

after another during these years had not succeeded in

creating a continuous dramatic tradition in the country, and

what was more there was no repertory of Bengali plays in

existence. The close of the sixth decade of the nineteenth

century, however, brought a change. The year 1857

witnessed a sudden outburst of theatrical activity in

Calcutta, which not only resulted in the opening of some

extremely successful private theatres but also helped in a

35
 large measure in the creation of a genuine dramatic

literature in Bengali, which had been foreshadowed by a

few minor pieces only before that time.97

Although the Bengali repertoire had established itself, it will not be wrong to say

that the late 1850s and the 1940s are comparable in terms of political/cultural awareness

of the citizens of Calcutta and the newness of theatrical productions, which immediately

ensued. The years prior to Indian independence provided the impetus to young authors

and artistes to join the cultural movement against worldwide political and social fascism.

With the establishment of the PWA in 1935, Indian writers entered a new age of

collective identity, which was pushed forth by the IPTA movement in the 1940s, though

both were beset by self-destructive problems. Sushil Mukherjee writes in this regard,

The Indian Peoples Theatre Association gave a new turn to Bengali drama and Bengali

theatre, the fruits of which were later delivered with artistic embellishments by different

theatre groups of the city. The production of Bijon Bhattacharyas Jabanbandi and

Nabanna in 1944 marks the beginning of this new theatre albeit outside the commercial

one, but the effect of which, however remote, it could not escape.98 Himani Bannerji

wants to see in IPTAs activities a non-commercial national political mobilization that

was galvanized by the new protagonist, the people.99 Rightly she says:

This new communist politics totally radicalized the

theatre scene in undivided Bengal. The focus of theatre

shifted from the commercial stage to the amateur political

97
Brajendra Nath Banerjee, p. 17.
98
Mukherjee, p. 258.
99
Bannerji, p. 46.

36
 stage and for the first time since the inception of Bengali

theatre in the 1860s peasants and workers walked the

boards of the stage in non-menial roles, as the organizers of

their own struggles. Stages no longer reverberated with the

heroic rantings and tragic declamations of the last kings

and princes of India.100

In conveying the popular reality this new theatre

sought to bridge the gap between the rural and the urban

worlds as well as that between the middle and working

classes. It sought to convey to the middle class in particular

some knowledge about how the subaltern classes lived and

the severity of their day-to-day existence.101

In the year 1935, the PWA was founded in London by a handful of Indian

intellectuals to (a) establish organisation of writers to correspond to the various

linguistic zones of India; to coordinate these organisations by holding conferences and by

publishing literature; to establish a close connection between the central and local

organisations and to cooperate with those literary organisations whose aims do not

conflict with the basic aims of the Association; (b) To form branches of the Association

in all the important towns of India; (c) To produce and to translate literatures of a

progressive nature, to fight cultural reaction, and in this way to further the cause of

Indias freedom and social regeneration; (d) To protect the interests of progressive

100
Ibid., p. 47.
101
Ibid., p. 48.

37
authors; and (e) To fight for the right of free expression of thought and opinion.102 The

eventual failure of PWA was inherent in the texture of this manifesto. It lacked the vigour

and zeal necessary to ignite the fire in the heart of the writers against imperialism and

fascism. Without analysing the conditions and nature of development of Indian literature,

the young Marxist writers and planners of the PWA applied their experiences of

European literature mechanically103 and tried to create a literary consciousness which,

they thought, would be progressive in nature. The aims and objectives of the Association

were laid down in its Constitution with no definite idea of either revolution or the

humanities; in other words, superficiality instead of progressiveness prevailed. Later,

Sudhi Pradhan also commented,

Those who have studied this manifesto may,

however, have noticed that while it carries towards the end

very specific directions regarding the immediate task of the

cultural front, its initial analysis of the Indian situation is

couched in vagueness. It fails totally to work out the nature

of the cultural formations of ancient and medieval India,

the impact on them of colonial rule and the socio-political

factors hampering and crippling the development of a new

indigenous culture. Thus the understanding of the pros and

102
Resolution and Manifesto of the 1st and 2nd All India Conference of P.W.A, Marxist Cultural
Movement in India: Chronicles and Documents, vol.1, compiled and edited by Sudhi Pradhan (Calcutta:
Santi Pradhan, 1985), pp. 75-76.
103
Pradhan, Gana-Naba-Sat-Goshthi Natyakatha, p. 56. Pradhan exemplified his point of argument on pp.
55-58.

38
 cons of cultural movement at the particular historical

juncture remains incomplete in the manifesto.

This theoretical weakness of the Marxists and

the leftists on the cultural front was the reflection of a

general lacuna in the political line which was a principal

factor in the subsequent breaking up of the broad anti-

fascist anti-imperialist front in India. The leaders of the

Indian National Congress took advantage of this when after

the out-break of the Second World War, in the name of not

embarrassing the British while they were fighting German

fascism, they took away the edge of the united anti-

imperialist struggle in which the left nationalist and

Marxists were strengthening themselves.104

This was rightly understood by M. G. Hallet who was the Home Secretary to the

Government of India. In his circular (Warning Conveyed to Local Governments

Regarding the Indian Progressive Writers Association, 1936), we find these

observations: The proclaimed aims of the Association are comparatively innocuous and

suggest that it concerns itself solely with the organisation of journalists and writers and

the promotion of interest in literature of a progressive nature.105 Soon after, the

Association was dragged into a series of bitter discussions about theoretical purity and its

revolutionary ideologies were relegated to the back seat. Pradhan writes,

104
Sudhi Pradhan, Marxist Cultural Movement in India: Chronicles and Documents, vol. 2 (Calcutta:
Navanna, 1982), pp. 6-7.
105
Hallet Circular, in Pradhan, Marxist Cultural Movement in India, vol. 1, p. 107.

39
 After the Second Annual Conference of the P.W.A.

held in Calcutta in 1938 a section of the Bengali press led

by Sajanikanta Das tried to join issue with The Statesman

stating that there was nothing progressive in this move, that

literature could only be dynamic and not progressive, at

best it would be literature to incite coolies and mazdoors

with a coat of raw sex. On the other hand younger writers

with Marxist leanings thought that articles read in the

Conference by Buddhadev Bose and Samar Sen were really

retrogressive.106

As a result of these and more serious rightist tactics the rift in the Marxist cultural

movement was evident in 1939-1941.107

The Bengal unit of IPTA was formed in 1943 as a branch of the Anti-Fascist

Writers and Artists Association of Bengal and the cultural unit of the Communist Party

106
Foreword, ibid, p. xiii.
107
Pradhan says, The split in the Anti-Imperialist United Front, started inside the Congress Socialist
Party of India in which both Communists and independent Socialists worked together with the P.W.A.
journal and the Socialist Book Club they were working together to propagate the cause of scientific
socialism or in other words Marxism. The split widened after Subhas Boses re-election as the Congress
President in 1939. Although entire left forces in India voted for him the C.S.P. remained neutral when the
Rightists launched their offensive in the Tripuri session of the Indian National Congress to remove Subhas
Bose. By March 1940 Communists had been expelled from the C.S.P. Sajjad Zaheer the first general
secretary of the P.W.A. was also a joint secretary of the C.S.P. He and K. T. Chandi of the Bombay Branch
of the C.S.P. were among the expelled members together with E. M. S. Namboodiripad, P. Ram Murthy
and P. Sundarayya. So in the first phase of the Second World War i.e. in 1939-41, the Marxist Cultural
movement had a set-back due to disruptive activities of a section of the Left, with the active connivance of
the Right, with Jawaharlal sitting on the fence with uneasy conscience. (Ibid., p. xiv) A political
confusion regarding war, fascism and the way to achieve Indian freedom, created a rift in the leftist
movement. Repression let loose by the British Government, also immobilised the active workers who were
either imprisoned or had to go underground. (Ibid., p. xv)

40
of India (CPI)108, with a view to fight against fascism. The mass tragedy during the

Second World War, the great famine of Bengal in 1943, death by plague, flood, storm,

black marketing, profiteeringall these induced IPTA to reach out to the people.109 The

Association started its cultural work among the masses by disseminating news of the

misfortune of the common people, collecting funds from different sources to contribute to

the Peoples Relief Committee. In the prospect of a free and classless society it ran from

one corner of the country to the other with its repertoire of songs, dances, shadow theatre,

short tableaux and plays which essentially portrayed the agony and protest of the toiling

class.110 As a brief interlude, the name of the Youth Cultural Institute, established in the

1940s, is also noteworthy for pursuing all these activities.

Although the movement started by the IPTA (Bengal unit) was an urban

enterprise by a group of people mostly educated in the colonial education system, in

keeping with its Marxist ideology the association was able to spread its activities to the

remote villages and small towns with great success.111 In this sense the IPTA can be

described as the first urban cultural organization to bring out cultural practices from the

possession of the privileged class and disseminate them among the common people. But

Himani Bannerji expressed deep concern about this process of dissemination. In her

observations the rural-urban, educated-uneducated, Indian-Western dichotomies have

been explained aptly:

108
Darshan Chaudhuri, Gananatya Andolan, pp. 23-24.
109
Ibid., p. 23.
110
Ibid.
111
Good readings for this are Indian Peoples Theatre AssociationBulletin No. 1 (Pradhan, vol. 1, pp.
145-189) and The IPTA Constitution (ibid., pp. 253-263). But Pradhan writes in p. xx (ibid.) of the same
book that The organisation of the cultural movement was never very elaborately or thoughtfully planned.

41
 Popular language became a matter of deep concern

for the IPTA, particularly as its mainstay were members of

the urban intelligentsia who engaged in a representational

and educative politics. After all, the peoples theatre

which starred the people did so with the help of those

who were formally educated and Westernized, equally

removed from the countryside and city slums. What were

presented as peoples stories were in most cases neither

created by the people nor narrated in their own voices. It

was the middle-class playwrights, with sympathetic

observations of the miseries of the people, who wrote the

plays, and it was middle-class actors and actresses who put

on tattered clothes, carried begging bowls or sticks and

spears, and spoke in dialects, carefully erasing the traces of

the proper or high Bengali they had spoken all their

lives. And yet given the time and the embryonic state of

communist organization, the situation was unavoidable.

Consequently the problem of the medium of

communication assumed large proportions since the project

of this new political theatre was to be easily understood by

the people, to represent popular reality both to them and the

middle class, and to legitimize popular-folk forms as

culture. This project groped for a new aesthetic and voiced

42
 a demand for a realist theatre. Outside and unaware of the

European marxist debate over realism, the term was used

to indicate the creation of an authentic picture of popular

life and contemporary reality. Language was an

indisputable element in this effort at authenticity.112

Sadhana Naithani is critical of the nationalist and communist approach to folk

performances of India during the freedom struggle from a different perspective that may

have a bearing on the polarity suggested by Bannerji. In Naithanis views the freedom

movement made use of folk performers and their repertoire as ours, unadulterated by

the colonisers culture and education, and thus attracted the attention, interest and passion

of educated, nationalist and communist Indians but again, no one was thinking of the

performers, their changing lives and forms.113 The attitude did not change even after

Independence.114

Along the lines of the PWA and Anti-Fascist Writers and Artists Association,

another organization was founded in 1942 which deserves to be mentioned here as the

forerunner of such unions as the Actors Association, Radio Artists Association and

Association of the Cine-Technicians within and outside Bengalthe Artists Association,

Bengal. According to Sudhi Pradhan it was the first Trade Union, an assembly against

exploitation, by the intellectuals of India.115 From his elaborate account it is now clear

112
Bannerji, p. 48.
113
Naithani, p. 113.
114
Ibid., p. 118. On one hand folk literature was advertised as the national heritage, used for the
construction of the nations image, on the other hand its bearers/possessors were forced to trudge a
wretched life. According to Naithani, the problem lies in the economic determinism being applied to folk
performers. Their identity as performers and artists has been constantly undermined. (p. 115)
115
Pradhan, Gana-Naba-Sat-Goshthi Natyakatha, p. 94.

43
that the role this association assumed fetched great success in the artists struggle against

oppression and inequality.116 Amidst such dramatic progress, the IPTA was on the march

with a new enthusiasm and zeal to spread its ideologies of socialism and communism

among the destitute of the country. The success of peoples theatre was heightened, so

much so that both the British administration and the professional theatre owners were

alarmed to the extent that not only were the IPTAs activities kept under strict

surveillance, but theatre halls (even of Sisir Kumar Bhaduri and Ahindra Chaudhuri) too

were not rented out to them, thanks to the vested interests of the ruling class.117 But the

drawbacks of metamorphosis kept growing in the midst of communist idealism within the

organization. In Crisis in Bengal I.P.T.A., the Cell Secretary of IPTA, Charuprakash

Ghosh, cited in detail the reasons for the catastrophe in the organization.118 First of all,

he counted the lack of understanding of the changes taking place in national and

international politics, which resulted in the conspiratorial entente between the allied

victors in Europe and Asia and the released Congress leaders so that they might share

power and rule by dividing India into several pieces;119 secondly, instead of spreading its

ideologies among the people and strengthening the movement, some members of IPTA

had developed bourgeois tastes for popular culture. Pradhan writes in this context,

At this crucial juncture (1947), the thesis of class

unity advanced in the period of the anti-fascist and

patriotic peoples war (It was Stalin who spoke again and

116
Ibid., pp. 94-112.
117
Darshan Chaudhuri, Gananatya Andolan, pp. 23-24, 30.
118
In Pradhan, Marxist Cultural Movement in India, vol. 1, pp. 324-332.
119
Pradhan, Foreword, ibid., pp. xix-xx.

44
again of patriotic war), continued to be maintained. In the

famous ballets of the time like The Spirit of India and

India Immortal, and in plays relating to the life of the

peasantry, the conflict of the people with the rural

exploiters was obfuscated by emphasizing exclusively the

aspect of struggle against a colonial bureaucracy. On the

other hand, by postponing the necessity for building up a

mass cultural movement, the central ballet troupe formed in

Bombay and the drama troupe formed in Calcutta

respectively under the supervision of the Central

Committee and the State Committee of the Party, paved the

way for the formation of commercial art-groups with a

small number of initiates. The subsequent confinement of

the theatre movement to urban audiences, with petty

bourgeois revolutionism as its general theme, reflected on

the cultural front the results of capitulation to the renewed

strength of the native big bourgeoisie. The possibility of the

development of a peoples democratic art and of a cultural

army of class-conscious artistes out of the IPTA was

nipped in the bud. The communists failed totally to take

advantage of the explosive situation of 1946-47

45
 characterised by popular upsurges in different parts of

India.120

The selection process of the members for the cultural movement and the division

of labour among the important members of the organization were arbitrary.121 Moreover,

the reformist interests of the General Secretary of the CPI, P. C. Joshi, made its cultural

organization trail behind the ideology. He was rather inclined to hold cultural events in

Bombay, which ultimately encouraged urbanism and competition with the bourgeois

institutions.122 This trend ushered in a new tendency of inviting the established artistes

instead of the ordinary ones in order to make the events successful123 by the presence of a

crowd of educated, middle-class and upper-class audiences who were interested only in

fashionable socialism.124 In pursuance of a voracious desire for art, fame and ambition,

the mass movement and hope for a revolution were sacrificed.125 In Calcutta the

sweeping success of the first production of Nabanna on a revolving stage made one of its

directors, Sombhu Mitra, more rigid, so much so that he refused to produce Nabanna on a

simple stage elsewhere (for instance, in the villages)nor were other members of the

association ready to go out, whereas they were supposed to do so, at least that was why

they had assembled initially.126

120
Pradhan, Preface, Marxist Cultural Movement in India, vol. 2, pp. 8-9. He had raised the issue in
volume 1 (p. xxi) as well.
121
Ibid., vol. 1, p. xxi.
122
Darshan Chaudhuri, Gananatya Andolan, p. 58.
123
Ibid.
124
Pradhan, Gana-Naba-Sat-Goshthi Natyakatha, p. 23.
125
Darshan Chaudhuri, Gananatya Andolan, p. 58.
126
Ibid., pp. 56-57.

46
 For these reasons, at the last stage of P. C. Joshis career, those apolitical or

professional artistes left the peoples theatre and tried to build their own groups. By this

time the Congress leaders had been freed, the office of the IPTA and its workers were

attackedand two of them were gunned down at the residence of Charuprakash Ghosh

Congress-Communist fights took place during the last election under the British

dominion: these incidents induced those with feeble or no idealism of peoples theatre to

leave,127 though the blame for being flushed out was laid on the Communist Party, its

policies and instructions.128 Then, there came the Ranadive era of strict rule, only to

expedite the exodus from the association and eventually give birth to the so-called

Nabanatya Andolan (new theatre movement), and later the Sat (honest) and Goshthi

Natya Andolan (group theatre movements).

This is the brief history of the development of the most promising theatre

movement in Bengal, which wanted to work among the proletariat but ended up in sheer

confusion, if not retrogression. Is the evolution of the peoples theatre movement not a

reflection of the nature of cultural progression in nineteenth-century Bengal? It seems as

if the emblematic qualities of intellectualism and elitisminherited from the colonial

teachers and possibly well applied against the bourgeoning local thinkersof the

previous century were reincarnated in a completely different ideological behaviour. The

striking similarities between the period when Bengali theatre had just started taking

shape, the strategies of getting it validated, the sophistries, the tactics of eliminating all

that belonged to the rural poor, and the quest for the betterment of theatre in the 1940s, its

127
Pradhan, Gana-Naba-Sat-Goshthi Natyakatha, p. 23.
128
Report of Charuprakash Ghosh, ibid., pp. 70-71.

47
unwillingness to cast more than a token glance at the villagers, the pressure to return to a

particular type of exclusivist stage, the disloyalty of many IPTA memberssuggest that

modern Bengali theatre never belonged to the masses, the poor; it always remained an

instrument of the middle and upper classes for controlling the cultural discourse which

later sustained the free and unrestrained growth of market economy. In his assessment of

the situation, Sudhi Pradhan cites a statement by Manoj Mitra, now one of Bengals most

prominent theatre personalities:

The peoples theatre prepared the ground for us and

we are making profits by sheer hoodwinking. ... Our

shrewdness is visible in the form and content. Now we

know what can be sold and how to win admiration. We are

going far from the idealism of Gananatya [peoples theatre]

by deceiving ourselves.129

Probably, that is why the subsequent history of group theatres is dull with groupism and

the egotism of the omnipotent administrative heads, leading in turn to their disintegration

and the birth of new groups.

On the other hand, cultural organizations like the Congress Sahitya Sangha

(Bengal) or Indian National Theatre (Bombay) led by the National Congress could not

follow the path of the PWA and IPTA to unite the progressive artistes of the country.130

As the year 1946 drew to a close, in addition to British oppression, the hostility of

129
Pradhan, Gana-Naba-Sat-Goshthi Natyakatha, pp. 129-130 (translation mine).
130
Darshan Chaudhuri, Gananatya Andolan, p. 57.

48
Congress workers just freed from confinement lashed out at the Communists.131 The

Communist Party of India (CPI) was banned and, immediately after Independence, the

Congress government invoked the notorious Dramatic Performances Act of 1876 more

strictly; on 26 March 1948 the CPI was proscribed again. Fifty-nine plays, all produced

by IPTA (Bengal), were scanned by the Commissioner of Police and nearly all of them

were declared forbidden.132

In the 1950s, a new order emerged. In December 1955 E. M. S. Namboodiripad

wrote in the New Age:

However, the situation in the field of culture today

is different from the one which existed some time ago. At

the time when the Communist Party originally started its

cultural activities, the country was under an alien

government which was indifferent, if not positively hostile,

to the development of national culture. That was a

government which had no other interest in the

dissemination of knowledge and the fostering of culture

than to show the so-called superiority of British culture

and to run down all that is national in our cultural life as

uncivilised and barbarous. Today, however, there is a

government which takes an interest in, and resorts to

certain measures for the development of the various aspects

of our cultural life. Either directly or through organisations

131
Ibid., p. 60.
132
Ibid., p. 61.

49
formed under its auspices, the government gives patronage

to writers, musicians, actors and other workers in the field

of culture. Distribution of prizes, awards and titles;

formation of such institutions as Sahitya Akadami [sic],

Sangeet Natak Akadami [sic], Book Trusts, etc.; exchange

of cultural delegations between our country and other

countries including the countries of the socialist camp

these are some of the steps taken by the government to help

the development of national culture.

The Communist Party, therefore, should do its

utmost to see that the humble beginnings made by the

government along the path of developing national culture,

in our multi-lingual and therefore multi-cultural country,

are further developed along the path of developing a real

peoples culture.

The party, however, cannot close its eyes to the fact

that the governments efforts at developing national culture

have very serious limitations and shortcomings. For,

though it is not an alien government, it is nevertheless a

class government; therefore, though it takes an interest in

the development of national culture, it is interested in

developing it not as really national, i.e. peoples culture.

50
 It puts innumerable impediments in the way of the

common people and their cultural activities. While on the

one hand, it organises and runs the various Akadamis

through which it gives patronage to cultural workers, it

organises them in such a way that most of the patronage

goes to such cultural workers as are reliable to the ruling

class; at the same time, the government still continues and

enforces such repressive legislations as Dramatic

Performances Act in order to prevent the production and

staging of progressive works of culture.

It is a scandalous state of affairs when a petty police

officer is given the right to veto the songs and plays

produced by the most outstanding masters of culture.

Blanket bans on the activities of cultural squads,

prohibition of the singing and staging of even songs and

plays by such national figures as Rabindranath Tagore

these have been not uncommon even in these days when

the government takes upon itself the role of the guardian

and patron of national culture. The various Akadamis, the

All-India Radio, the proposed Book Trusts, the institution

of prizes and rewardsall these are so worked as not to

give any scope for the thousands of worker-peasant artistes

and writers who look upon culture as the weapon of

51
 struggle for genuine peoples democracy and lasting

peace.133

These paragraphs help us understand that the period after Indian independence

was really very gloomy for the Marxist cultural movement. Moreover, there were the

signs of deep crisis within the Party134 as well. The predicament was obvious in areas

other than the cultural front. The peasant front was suffering from critical illnesses like

casteism, communalism, the neglect by the movement of problems of peasant women,

the ruling partys effort to disrupt organised peasant movements135; the additional

difficulties in the trade union movement after the formation of the INTUC by the Indian

National Congress and the establishment of the arbitration boards by the State

Governments to settle disputes between the employers and the employees136 left its scars

on the cultural sphere too. Pradhan writes, The signs of this crisis were not always

evident on the surface, because the process of decline was slow and largely subterranean

in the beginning, but there is no doubt that the maladies had been there in the movement

before the party split.137 During this period of confusion, dereliction and suppression of

the Marxist ideologies and emergence of rightist politics in India, Badal Sircar left the

Communist Party of India like many others. Once out of the organizational politics

everything appeared empty to him. In order to fill up that emptiness he joined theatre

133
E. M. S Namboodiripad, Communist Party and the Struggle for Cultural Advance in Marxist
Cultural Movement in India: Chronicles and Documents (1943-1964), compiled and edited by Sudhi
Pradhan, vol. 3 (Kolkata: Santi Pradhan, 1985), pp. 485-486.
134
Pradhan, Preface, vol. 3, p. ii.
135
Ibid.
136
Ibid., pp. ii-iii.
137
Ibid. p. iii.

52
the proscenium theatrewhich can be well described as typical of the Bengali theatre

retrogressing towards the imported culture (stage) of the colonialists.

53