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Theatre Chronicles: Framing

Theatre Narratives in Pakistan’s
Sociopolitical Context
Asma Mundrawala

Introduction

While theatrical activity in Pakistan may be described as intermittent

since the country’s inception in 1947, it nevertheless resonates with the
cultural landscape today. In the 66 years since the country came into
being, theatre groups have emerged and disbanded under the varied
spectrum of political and social conditions, leaving a mark that has
become part of a collective history of inherited traditions.
The development of theatre in Pakistan may be reviewed in the light
of Pakistan’s complex beginnings, the country’s social and political his-
tory, and the present circumstances that may have further impact on its
growth. Throughout its complex history it is difficult to perceive theatre
in Pakistan without considering the country’s sociopolitical background
and the circumstances that influenced the development of its practi-
tioners’ agendas. Additionally, the dramaturgical forms that emerged in
the work of several theatre groups were influenced directly or indirectly
by a range of theatre practices before and after partition. The landscape
of 66 years presents a wide-ranging, though sporadic, growth of literary,
commercial, political and developmental theatre servicing an array of
objectives and motivations.
This essay1 studies theatre activities in Pakistan from the post-
partition period to date, with an accent on those since the 1980s, in the
light of the country’s political and social developments that encour-
aged, perpetuated, but also perhaps impeded the development of this
performance genre. Contemporary theatre in Pakistan is dominated by
two seminal theatre groups that initiated their practice after General
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haque declared Martial Law in 1977. The groups
Tehrik-e-Niswan (The Women’s Movement) in Karachi and Ajoka (Of

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© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2014
104 Mapping South Asia through Contemporary Theatre

Today) in Lahore emerged in a climate of protest and in reaction against

Zia-ul-Haque’s laws against women. However, it is generally misunder-
stood that these theatre groups were the first representatives of politi-
cal theatre in Pakistan. This chapter will begin by examining theatre
activity in the years 1947–79 that preceded the emergence of these
two theatre groups, as a means to understand the antecedents of their
practice. This period may be seen as a continuation of the work of the
practitioners who migrated to Pakistan from India, as well as the occur-
rence of new work under the influence of these theatre artists.
No discussion of theatre in Pakistan is complete without acknowl-
edging the profound role Tehrik-e-Niswan and Ajoka have played in
establishing their practice as an integral part of the country’s cultural
landscape. Emerging from an environment of protest, both groups had
from the beginning shown their own political inclination by way of
their support to workers’ movements and the women’s movement that
emerged as a reaction against Zia-ul-Haque’s anti-women laws. Rather
than claiming to present a survey of the entire spectrum of theatre prac-
tices that existed before the inception of these two groups, I attempt to
understand in the following section the direct or indirect impact those
practices had on the two groups as they proceeded to grow as well as
add new dimensions to theatre in Pakistan.
The political theatre activities of Tehrik-e-Niswan and Ajoka domi-
nated the 1980s, and these groups struggled in the face of strict
measures and censorship laws laid out by the military regime. After Zia-
ul-Haque’s death in 1988 and the election of Benazir Bhutto, political
theatre saw a decrease in opposition by the state. The theatre groups
that were previously persecuted by the government were now being
invited to perform at government-supported events such as the annual
theatre festival in Lahore. During the various democratic governments
of the 1990s the state and society gradually accepted political theatre
groups. Subsequently, what interestingly emerged was that the previ-
ously marginalized political theatre shifted its emphasis from politics
to social commentary and increasingly became incorporated into the
dominant culture.2 The political activism of the two seminal theatre
groups in the 1980s was also seen in sharp contrast to the emergence
of a climate in the 1990s perpetuated by globalization and neoliber-
alism that not only depoliticized theatre and saw the emergence of
Theatre for Development, but also changed the nature of activism to
paid activism.
The current climate for theatre sees a range of amateur and profes-
sional theatre groups practicing a range of genres, offering English