CHAPTER I

POSITIONING MARATHI THEATRE1

The oft-quoted fondness of Marathi people for Marathi theatre, that is the modern proscenium
theatre in Marathi language, is considered to be an important and integral part of their collective
cultural identity. But can the theatre be assumed to represent the entire Marathi speaking society?
Such common understanding regarding the theatre can be doubted because the theatre appears to
operate in a specific and limited cultural context instead of being inclusive in relation to the variety of
historical social, linguistic, regional, and political other identities of Marathi people. This is so
because with regard to the theatre, the term ‘people’ is usually found to refer to upper caste middle
class, urban men and women. Moreover, the term theatre specifically refers to modern proscenium
theatre activities that are located in cities of Pune and Mumbai (Bombay) for close to two centuries
now. Similarly, the culturally celebrated public love for theatre may be found to mean uncritical and
nostalgic liking for and consequent glorification of various aspects of the Marathi theatrical tradition
like stage-music, melodrama, standardised diction, stardom, or the habitual common desire to draw
morals from plays. Therefore exploration of what is commonly assumed to be representative in case
of the theatre considered as cultural identity of Marathi people invites exploration of the nature,
evolution and reception of Marathi theatre on the axes of class, caste and gender.

The nineteenth century colonial genesis and evolution of the theatre co-exists a spectrum of
socio-cultural, economic and political changes caused by the British rule. Rise of the Brahman middle
class was a prominent social change among them. For ages, Brahmans enjoyed a privileged social
status that was primarily empowered by their supreme position in caste hierarchy. It was further
strengthened in the colonial period by features of class, acquired through beneficial contact with
colonial modernity. History of Marathi theatre reveals how the Brahman middle class, led by the
Chitpavan Brahmans occupied the new colonial, secular cultural space of proscenium theatre in order
to project itself as representative of Marathi speaking community. 2 Understanding visibility of

1
The term ‘Marathi theatre’ is used inclusively in this study because professional and experimental theatres are
not always differentiated adequately and clearly in Marathi theatre practice. Critically appreciated experimental
productions are frequently transferred to the professional stage albeit with modifications suiting the commercial
purpose. Both kinds have developed and flourished in same geographical locations, namely the cities of Pune
and Mumbai. Theatre critic Shanta Gokhale’s (2000) usage of the term in her book ‘The Playwright at the
Centre: Marathi Drama From 1843 to the Present’ includes both the secular, urban touring professional theatre
as well as the experimental theatre that came into existence as a reaction to extremeties of the professional
theatre. Veteran theatre critic Pushpa Bhave (2012: 222) also understands Marathi theatre as a collective identity
including all those theatres which believe in loyalty to the profession.
2
Elaborating the caste, class and gender formation in colonial Maharashtra, Sharmila Rege (2006: 22) mentions
that the social structure of colonial Marathi society contained three major elements—Brahmans, non-Brahmans
and ‘untouchables’. She mentions the deshasthas, chitpavans, karhadas, saraswats, and the chandraseniya
kayastha prabhus as Brahman castes. The Chitpavans belong to the coastal area of Maharashtra. They acquired
political prominence with their appointment as Peshwa (ministerial office) under the Maratha rule in the
 2

Brahman caste in colonial cultural space problematizes the common, proud and uncritical perception
of achievements of Marathi theatre and appeals for consideration of its social implications.

1.1 Colonial Modernity and the Cultural Shift

Marathi theatre commenced as proscenium theatre in imitation of the colonizer’s theatrical

heritage. With it, there came into existence a system of theatrical performance that was entirely
different from indigenous performance traditions in the aspect of ‘separat[ing] the participants from
the observers; [with] ticket sales put[ting] an emphasis on theatre as a commodity, making it available
to a smaller, and wealthier, group of people’ (Mee 1997: 1). The role of colonial intervention in this
historical development contained ‘the shift from a cultural order that reproduced itself mainly through
oral transmission to one where modes associated with print were taken to be the norm’ (Naregal
2001a: 7). Before elaborating on this shift it is important to register that it had serious implications,
listed below, for indigenous stratified social structure, emerging colonial middle classes and for the
feminine gender. The implications need to be observed because after inauguration, the theatre quickly
rose to become the only secular cultural form of the new powerful elites whose ideological oeuvre
was filled with nationalist ideas, Brahmanical patriarchy, 3 and a desire for attaining socially
representative status. The following discussion identifies dominance of Brahmans in public fields,
overlap of social and structural categories of class and caste in urban areas and gendering of women in
the public discourse as the prominent features of the colonial cultural shift.

1.1.1 Continuation of dominance of Brahmans. Constitution of Marathi public sphere4 was

an outcome of colonial education and was assisted by spread of print culture and technological

seventeenth century. The city of Pune from where the Peshwa ruled till the British occupied power remained
their stronghold in political, social and cultural ways.
3
The idea of Brahmanical patriarchy, elaborated by Uma Chakravarti (1993: 579) is explained as a social tool
realizing an effective control of sexuality of upper caste women. It derives from socio-religious understanding
that purity of caste is contingent upon sexual purity of its women members. What Chakravarti (2006b: 138)
means by it is ‘possibly the central factor responsible for the subordination of upper-caste women: the need for
effective sexual control over such women to maintain not only patrilineal succession (a requirement of all
patriarchal societies), but also the purity of caste, an institution unique to Hindu society’. The concept facilitates
intellectual movement from questions of status of women to the structural framework of gender relations where
exploration of the relationship between caste and gender, elaborated later, becomes necessary.
4
Sudipta Kaviraj (2011) reflects that the idea of ‘civil society’ in non-European societies does not belong to the
western specific configuration of the idea. Christopher Pinny (2001, 19) calls attention to the ‘linguistically
overdetermined’ nature of the Habermasian notion of cultural politics embodied by public sphere and to its
‘grounded[ness] in a notional dyadic interchange between two discoursing (and immobily seated) men’.
Elucidated use of the concept of public sphere in Indian situations, in their view, is constrained by two absences,
namely consideration of bodies involved in the cultural politics of the public sphere and performative element in
such encounters. Still, in the context of colonial Marathi world, the two attributes of the original concept—
linguistic over-determination and agency of men—are present, though the ‘coffee house’ chronotope might be
missing. Secondly, scholars have worked on different aspects of the nineteenth century public domain (see
Naregal 2001b, Rege 2006) and extended the concept of public sphere to illuminate connections between
reforms and caste communities, literary expressions and domination and marginality, and caste and gender. The
concept of public sphere works in plural and fractured form in case of western colonial India due to inequalities
 3

innovations like the printing press and new means of transportation that the colonial rule brought in
for consolidation of its own power. The local discourse of colonial modernity hosted by the print
culture bestowed social leadership exclusively on those enabled by their traditional cultural capital to
use the print media effectively as a medium of expression. In native social terms this phenomenon
implied that such a benefit could best be reaped by the upper caste middle class urban and educated
male subject. It resulted in rendering prominent agency on him in the nineteenth century Marathi
public domain. The pre-colonial cultural capital of Brahman caste considered in terms of
appropriation of religious authority and traditionally honed reading and writing skills, was enhanced
by colonial education. It helped them monopolise local administration and professions like teaching
and public service irrespective of their ‘minority status’ (Rege 2006: 27) in contemporary society. The
writings of Sir Valentine Chirole (1910) register their presence thus:

They were quick to adapt themselves to new conditions and above all to avail themselves of
the advantages of Western education. Their great administrative abilities compelled
recognition, and Chitpavans swarm to-day in every Government office of the Deccan as they
did in the days of Nana Phadnavis. They sit on the Bench, they dominate the Bar, they teach in
the schools, they control the vernacular Press, they have furnished almost all the most
conspicuous names in the modern literature and drama of Western India as well as in politics.

Jotirao Phule (1827-1890), the nineteenth century revolutionary social reformer, sharply
perceived such proliferation of Brahmans in most of the ‘new’ colonial fields to be detrimental to
equality of opportunity as anticipated in the legal and bureaucratic aspects of the British rule. The
deliberate mention of Brahmanshahi (rule of the Brahmans) in Phule’s verse (1969: 72) was
suggestive of the plight of low caste people suffered in the pre-colonial Peshwa rule (1713-1818):

‘Satta tuzi ranibai, Hindustani jagrut nahi, / Jikade tikade Brahmanshai, dole ughaduni pahi’

(Your rule in Hindustan, O Queen, has not been aware of circumstances. Open your eyes to
see how the Brahmans are ruling everywhere, my translation).

1.1.2 Conflation of caste and class. Thus placed ‘in a position of intellectual and political
advantage’, the Brahman castes moved on from the ‘moment of dissemination’ of new knowledge
acquired through familiarity with English language to ‘advancing their own representative status’
(Naregal 1999, 3447). This phenomenon can be read in the Brahman male writers’ conscious acts of
writing prefaces in English to their works written in Marathi. Probably they wanted to reach across

of caste and access to education/print culture. In the context of present discussion the term denotes the realm of
western colonial cultural nationalism and the agency of Brahman middle class in it.
 4

their readers as creators of ‘new’ knowledge. Veena Naregal (ibid. 3450) identifies this intention as
forming ‘a vernacular discursive network in the Marathi-speaking areas which simultaneously
valorised upper-caste opinion and reinforced its enormous local clout, acquired through the dominant
upper-caste presence in the provincial bureaucracy’. In her view, this was the manoeuvre by which the
‘vernacular intelligentsia’ sought representative status (ibid. 3454). An important result or aspect of
this process among the educated, urban, and largely bureaucratic community of Brahmans was the co-
optation of class as a social category by the indigenous, deeply entrenched and discriminating caste
system. Secular proscenium theatre in Marathi language manifests the co-optation of middle classes
by upper castes.

1.1.3 Gendering of women. Another important aspect of the new cultural shift was
involvement of women as subject of reform rather than their acknowledgment as agents of reformist
discussions. This phenomenon strengthened masculine agency in the colonial socio-cultural sphere.
The gendered woman was an important object for colonial caste and class discourse. For instance,
colonial contestations over caste status often used women and their chastity as an argument to uphold
supremacy of caste, as observed in case of the famous colonial dispute during the 1830s between
Chitpavan Brahmans and Marathas (see Rege 2006). In this particular example, violation of
endogamy by Maratha caste women proved to be a stronger factor in comparison with claim of the
caste to perform Vedic rites which was otherwise important in deciding the hierarchical status of the
caste. Sharmila Rege mentions that the argument between the castes resulted in consolidation of
Brahmanical gender code for women (ibid. 20). Gendering of women was also important for the
internal split between extremist and moderate view points of the colonial Brahman middle class
regarding determining priority between social reforms and political independence. The split was
caused by the nineteenth century reformist movement that pertained to a new construction of feminine
gender. With the rise of nationalism that aimed at unification of all Hindus, a single notion of
womanhood was constructed in alignment with Brahmanical patriarchy to the exclusion of identities
of women of other castes. These briefly sketched developments regarding caste and the feminine
gender suggest that the new colonial cultural order was not an inclusive order.

1.2 Cultural Shift and Genesis of Marathi Theatre

It is commonly understood that a royal order to design a new type of performance to be

performed in a princely court happens to be the genesis of Marathi theatre. 5 Shrimant Chintamanrao
Appasaheb Patwardhan (1775-1851), the Brahman ruler of the post-Peshwa princely state of Sangali

5
A different view about genesis of Marathi theatre considers plays written and performed in seventeenth
century in the court of the Maratha royals in Thanjavur (in the Indian state of Tamilnadu) as the beginning of
modern Marathi theatre. Yet from the perspective of the present study, Bhave’s proscenium attempt can be
counted as the inaugurating moment for he began to perform secular ticketed shows under public patronage for
the first time, and this fact changed the social context for performing arts. See Naregal (2001a, 7-23) for a
detailed description and socio-political context of Bhave’s attempts.
 5

in south Maharashtra, commissioned Vishnudas Bhave and his troupe, most of whom were Brahman
men employed in his service, to present a ‘khel’ (entertainment show) in the court. He desired an
improvement in the quality of traditional folk performances as would be suitable to the elite taste. His
orders to create a ‘refined’ performance hinted at removal of traces of ‘crude forms of entertainment’
which had come to be associated by that time with indigenous folk performing traditions or ‘ungenteel
genres’ like Tamasha (Solomon 2004: 119). 6 Crudity in this context did not imply only vulgar
sounding primary ideas of entertainment, or a blind propagation of tradition in need of reform but a
relation of aesthetics with caste structure. Loaded with caste values, the Brahmanical aesthetics
disapproved roughness, crudity, inappropriateness, and vulgarity experienced in traditional
performances as baser elements in art and credited their presence to the low caste status of the
performers. The association of superiority of caste with superiority of taste assigns ‘the sublimated,
refined, disinterested, gratuitous, distinguished pleasures forever closed to the profane’ (Bourdieu
1984: 7) to Brahmanical aesthetics. It exemplifies the ‘social function of legitimating social
differences’ attributed to art and cultural consumption by Pierre Bourdieu (ibid.). In this regard, Adya
Rangacharya’s (1971: 97) observations about the ‘khel’ or ‘akhyana’ (dramatic poem) named Sita
Swayamvar performed by Bhave’s troupe in the court of Sanagli are meaningful: ‘Two other things
must be noted. Tradition is being scrupulously followed and the performance is before a selected,
sophisticated audience’. The two elements namely tradition and new sophistication suggest that the
theatrical event should not simply be perceived as a pre-proscenium composite form of performance
but may be read as a statement anticipating monopolization of the new proscenium form by the
Brahmans.

The second part of the conventional story of genesis of the theatre reveals how caste, class,
masculine gender, urban conditions, colonial education and the proscenium form collaborated in
establishing Marathi theatre. Demise of Bhave’s patron in 1851 made him migrate to the colonial city
of Bombay because he was refused the promised donation of land by Balajipant Mate, representative
of British company government at the court. Instead, four years’ leave was sanctioned to the troupe
for performing elsewhere and earn enough to repay their loan (Kale 1976: 4; Naregal 2001a: 12). The
new location of Bombay promised public patronage, media publicity, introduction to proscenium
stage and useful acquaintance with native intelligentsia: in brief, a ‘cultured’ life that characterizes
cosmopolitan context of civil society. A regular theatre culture infused with English, Urdu and
Gujarati language theatre performances already existed in Mumbai and was appreciated by its
culturally diverse elites and wealthy mixed native population, apart from resident British officers and
soldiers. It certainly influenced and attracted Bhave as he writes (cited in Patil 1993: 116) about his
desire to perform in Bombay auditoriums:

6
Tamasha is a native form of secular entertainment that combines Vag (drama) and Lavani (song and dance).
 6

At the time an [sic] European play was being performed there and I went to see it with my
friends. I was extremely pleased to see the order, the seating arrangements, the curtains, the
scenery, etc. I thought it might be good if we could secure the place for our own performance.
But how could this be [sic] brought about?

Accordingly, Bhave performed his first show in the Grant Road theatre in Bombay on 9th
March 1853. It was advertised as Pauranik khel and received publicity in the print media (Bombay
Times, 8th and 11th March 1853). It happened to draw some enthused suggestions on improvement of
his art vis-à-vis the proscenium theatre from some of the eminent, English educated social
personalities like Bhau Daji Lad, Jagannath Shankersheth and Sir Jamshetji Jejebhoy (Bhave 1885). 7
It may be seen that more than dramatic and theatrical qualities of Bhave’s ‘khel’ presented in
Bombay, it was his use of proscenium theatre space that explains the genesis of Marathi theatre.

1.2.1 Impact of print culture on the theatre. The next stage of evolution of Marathi theatre
can be identified with emergence of the Bookish Playwright. 8 The playwright was an essentially
English educated upper caste man writing under literary influence of classic drama that he had to
study for university courses. It made him painfully aware of the quality of contemporary folk theatre
performances. Rise of Bookish playwrights within a decade or so of Bhave’s presentation in Bombay
marks the colonial shift from oral to print culture referred to above. In their hands, Marathi theatre
came to be further distinguished from indigenous performance tradition by import of written word in
the place of traditional, improvised interaction between characters. Nourished on the role models of
‘refined’ dramatic taste, the university graduated playwrights condemned their illiterate predecessors
for crudity of their art. For instance, in 1871 K P Gadgil wrote an ‘English’ epilogue to his Marathi
translation of the Sanskrit play Venisamhar that was staged as student production in Deccan College,
Pune. In it he writes: ‘Illiterate players have usurped the stage, / with scenes obscene depraved this
rising age’ (cited in Gokhale 2000: 11). Gradual customisation of written script developed a fit
correspondence between words written by the playwright and those articulated in the performance.
Written script used to be advertised as a novelty. For instance, an advertisement of the play
Shankardigvijay published in the Belgaum Samachar (28th December 1874) states that ‘the actors will
generally speak according to the book’ (cited in Gokhale 2000: 16). Gradually the Playwright doubled
as rehearsal master in early company theatres and assured correct delivery of dialogues. The energy
devoted to dialogues sometimes meant negligence of other skills and techniques of acting. The
7
Ramkrishna Vitthal alias Bhau Daji Lad (1822-1874) was a physician, Sanskrit scholar and an ardent supporter
of education in colonial Bombay. Jagannath Shankarsheth (1803-1865) was a wealthy businessman,
educationalist and philanthropist. Sir Jamshetji Jejebhoy (1783-1859), another resident of Bombay had amassed
fortune in opium trade, much of which he donated for public causes. All of them were concerned about modern
reforms, growth of Bombay as a city, construction of public works in Bombay and spread of education.
8
The early, educated playwrights were called ‘bookish playwrights’ because they printed and published their
dramatic scripts which was a novelty at that time.
 7

Playwright’s importance increased so much that even the ‘most experimental phase of the parallel
theatre’ located in the post-colonial period did not question it (Gokhale 2000: xi). Subsequently many
new conventions of standardised diction along with different kinds of structuring of plays as in the
Sangeet Natak genre (musical plays, 1880-1920)9 were required to be learnt anew. Printed text thus
underlined role of colonial modernity in indirectly determining eligibility for and intentions of doing
proscenium theatre in Marathi language. The script was one of the initial areas in which Marathi
theatre began to acquire its exclusionary caste, class and gender character.

Apart from introduction of written dramatic text for theatre performance, the nineteenth
century print culture also intervened in the process of building conceptual understanding of the
proscenium form. Literary magazines like Vividha Dnyanvistaar (1867-1937) used to publish
extensive critical discussions usually penned by educated Brahman men. These addressed the genre of
drama, problems of translation, choice of language for particular characters and other similar topics. 10
Shreepad Kolhatkar (1871-1934), a lawyer by profession and an important playwright of the early
Marathi theatre, began his literary career by writing criticism of Marathi drama and theatre in Vividha
Dnyanvistaar. Articles on the art of proscenium theatre printed in such magazines denounced Bhave-
style akhyanas or pauranik khels as ‘crude’, ‘less refined’ and slovenly form, compared to the ‘better-
crafted’ and apparently ‘more modern’ Sangeet Natak plays (Naregal 2001a: 8). This change in
critical taste indicated ‘increasing ideological influence that the new intelligentsia wielded by the last
quarter of the nineteenth century’ (ibid.). Precisely for this reason, these otherwise sincere and well
meant discussions in print media about Marathi theatre can be identified in hindsight with an attempt
to ‘teach’ the difference between ‘high’ (borrowed) and ‘low’ (native) art. The basis of distinction
between high and low art can be generally structured in different ways and may presuppose
‘questionable traditional ideas’ since the distinction results from a ‘tendency to grade the types of
cognition and character involved in appreciating various genres’ (Fisher in Gaut and Lopes 2005).
The perception of characteristics of high and low in Marathi public domain appears to be one of
aesthetic values and of degree of sophistication when contextualised by indigenous social
stratification and dominant presence of Brahmans in Marathi theatre and thus manifests a caste bias.

1.2.2 Consolidation by exclusion: from ‘khel’ to ‘natak’. Gradual replacement in written

theatrical discourse of the term ‘khel’ by ‘natak’ (written drama or a theatre performance) informs
about progressive and historical distinction of Marathi theatre from folk performance traditions. This
distinction or separation was based on the logic of refinement. As mentioned in sec. 1.2 above, the
first moment of the distinction sought to redeem folk performances in aesthetic ways under the rubric

9
The genre of Sangeet Natak is said to have achieved the rare feat of being ‘popular and combin[ing] ‘high’
aesthetic merit with commercial viability’ (Naregal 2001a, 8) within fifty years of establishment of Marathi
theatre. Known for its richness and abundance of drapery, painted curtains, stage music, and charms of female
impersonators, the genre often presented love stories derived from historical-mythological stock.
10
See V L Kulkarni (1976) for details about Vividha Dnyan Vistaar and the criticism of drama published in it.
 8

of traditional patronage. It was prompted by a particular diminishing native power in the early
colonial period. The second moment of refinement of theatrical art differentiated between productions
of classic dramatic works and ordinary folk-based theatrical productions with the help of colonial
knowledge of literature and theatre. Unlike the first one, it occurred in the academic institutional
space and was contextualised by public patronage and the new public sphere. Moreover, it was meant
for an internal sophistication of theatrical taste. What was common in both these moments was the
Brahmanical agency in defining the attributes of refinement, taste and quality in relation with
pleasures extracted from the proscenium theatre. This agency is possible to be read as an extension of
the traditional Brahmanical custody of knowledge in the new cultural field of proscenium theatre. Its
impact was visible in different kinds of exclusions in the theatre as illustrated by the gradual ousting
of and denial of opportunity to traditional community of low caste artistes, or the choice of subject
matter for plays, as explained below.

That the community of traditional artistes attempted to enter the new form of proscenium
theatre can be deduced from Neera Adarkar’s (1991a) mention of some professional dancer and singer
women of low caste and the short lived theatre companies owned by them (see chapter 3). But gradual
disappearance of traditional artiste communities from Marathi proscenium theatre is considered to
have caused by the historical ‘shrinking [of] their traditional patronage base’ (Solomon 2004: 119),
resulting from the new colonial system of collection of revenue and related policies. 11 In addition to
that, the factor of their inability to access the new public sphere for various reasons including skills in
languages of power like English or Sanskrit language should also be considered. No other cultural
expression flowered in equal measure during the long period of political peace under the British rule
like the proscenium Marathi theatre. Therefore, from a social perspective it is important to note that
such a cultural development notably did not have much space for traditional artistes and the traditional
genres of performances which were gradually relegated as old and pre-modern forms worthy of
sacrifice, in the wake of changing times.

Choice of subject matter for writing plays also contributes to exclusionary aspect of the
theatre because it largely pertains to the interest of urban, middle class Brahmans and their life-world,
displays a sort of community bonding and thus contributes to generate Brahmanical character of the
theatre. In the colonial period theatrical subject matter entertained issues of reforms for women and
nationalist political events. In the post-colonial times it came to focus on problems confronted by
urban middle class nuclear family, failings of educated working woman, degeneration of human
values, and changes in ethical choices etc. These problems were a concern more for the Brahman

11
See Bandyopadhyay (2004) for elaboration on changes in methods of revenue collection in the colonial times
which resulted in fragmentation of land, in changed cycles of agrarian productions, in generation of a new
community of money lenders, and in displacement of communities including those of traditional performing
artistes.
 9

middle class than other classes and castes. In a way the choice of subject matter designates continuity
of the historical embrace of Marathi theatre by Brahmans. It becomes clear on comprehending issues
that did not substantially and frequently appear more or less throughout the entire theatrical history.
Protests against caste-based exploitation, questions of material survival, class-struggles, issues of
rightful access to resources like land, issues of identity, reservation and communalism etc did not
surface adequately in the theatre.12

As I demonstrate in chapter 4, by virtue of its colonial genesis, Marathi theatre was

historically and potentially put in a position of assimilating different native, caste-specific life-worlds
that co-habited the colonial time and space and underwent massive changes. But the theatre did not
grow in that direction because it was savoured as the new cultural ideal by Brahman middle class. It
was infatuated with the dream of cultivating a modern, progressive self-image and that of attaining the
status of a civilized society in imitation of the colonizers (Gokhale 2000: 2-11). A comprehensive
overview of Marathi theatre’s history shows that largely speaking, not only playwrights but actors,
company owners, other people involved in the business of the theatre, and even the well wishers have
been leading men from the Brahman castes who were engaged in the middle-class vocations of
teaching, law, journalism and medicine. 13 These supporters of theatre worried about its status and
financial health, and offered guidance and active help whenever it was on the verge of becoming
redundant (Kale 1976: 18-19). It is in the glorification of their seriousness regarding the theatre, that
critics like K N Kale (ibid. 17) and Shanta Gokhale (2000: 14) distinguish Marathi theatre from its
contemporary Parsi theatre (1850-1930) and argue that Marathi theatre had a serious social and
political purpose.

1.3 Brahmanical (?) Marathi Theatre

It is not merely a coincidence that on national and international levels what has been
identified as Marathi theatre for decades is a body of theatre practices mainly located in the cities of
Mumbai (Bombay)-the seat of colonial power and Pune (Poona)-the pre-colonial seat of Brahman
power. Both the cities are historically known for leadership of Brahmans in socio-cultural matters that
is facilitated by their cultural capital. Pune particularly drew ‘sustenance from a traditional
Brahmanical culture with its own value system nurtured in the memories and practices cherished
within the wadas [traditional homes], and invested with pre-Independence nationalist sentiments and

12
Social exploitation and exclusion did become the main subjects of plays produced under the identity of short
lived reactionary Dalit theatre (1980-90). But Dalit theatre never aspired for becoming a part of the mainstream
theatre activity. It rather wished to see its credit in being another cultural expression, like Dalit literature, of
Dalit movement aimed at ending caste exploitation. It is in this context that Dalit theatre claims alternate,
counter hegemonic tradition in Phule’s play Tritiya Ratna (1855), and the forms of Satyashodhak Jalasa and
Ambedkari Jalasa (see chapter 4, sec. 4.2).
13
Annasaheb Kirloskar, S K Kolhatkar, Appa Kharkhanis, Ganpatrao Bhagwat, G B Deval, K P Khadilkar are
some of the eminent men of early Marathi theatre included in this criteria. See Deshpande (2009, 179) for
details.
 10

aspirations’ (Bandyopadhyay in Alekar 2009: 3). Such limited identification of Marathi theatre with
the two big cities does not imply that theatre activities do not happen in rest of the Marathi speaking
region, or that there are no alternative theatre traditions in Maharashtra. Instead, it means that the
Brahman dominated theatre activities in these two cities have an edge over other theatre activities in
the region in gaining national and international recognition. Recognition of a linguistic theatre as
culturally being representative of the entire linguistic region when in reality it can be identified with
two cities in the state echoes Rustom Bharucha’s (2000: 38) caution about the problem of ‘a total
conflation’ of linguistic states and regional theatres. Bharucha stresses the more problematic
assumption underlying the problem ‘that everyone within these states speaks the same language,
regardless of differentiations in class, caste, and community’. The problem does not remain restricted
to geographical identification of Marathi theatre but further affects conceptualisation of theatre.
Reflecting on problems anticipated in the ‘most hopeful moment of our post-Independence culture’
(ibid.) that is the First Drama Seminar organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1956, Bharucha
calls our attention to the fact that the representatives present at the seminar were, ‘almost without
exception urban, middle-class, upper-caste practitioners of the ‘modern’ theatre’ (ibid.). To derive
from his argument, if the ‘most hopeful moment’ is to be considered as an element in the process of
initial construction of cultural identity of the nation-state, then the seminar did authorise the exclusive
urban, upper caste conceptualization of modern Marathi proscenium theatre.

In this regard it needs to be registered that Marathi theatre generally does not facilitate
explicit caste identification of characters, for example by mentioning surnames. Surnames frequently
happen to provide clue to a person’s caste in most parts of India. The absence of surnames in Marathi
theatre is possible to read in the wake of its evolution as a commonly understood assumption that
unless stated otherwise, majority of the characters would be Brahman men and women. M S S
Pandian (2002) explains two ways in which caste gets mentioned in native written discourses: caste as
self definition of identity used in majority of the lower caste writings, and the method of transcoding
caste and caste relations into something else in writing, used by majority of upper caste writings.
Marathi theatre, having an upper caste authorship, abides by the second method. Caste is transcoded
in the cultural capital of the characters which is easily deciphered by audiences who shared the same
cultural bond (Gokhale 2000). Cultural capital of characters may find a visible body in the
performance in terms of objects, gestures, diction, movements, colours, and attributes. It is from these
pieces of information or clues that audiences are tacitly expected to form an idea about the caste
background of characters.

1.3.1 Prevalence of Brahmanical values. Yet, the historical proliferation of Brahman men in
the theatre indicated by their commanding positions in Marathi theatre may not suffice to suggest that
the theatre is Brahmanical. The adjective Brahmanical does not exclusively and always refer to the
caste component in the present discussion; it rather suggests a gain of hegemonic position founded on
 11

the notion of purity in any social field. Hegemony14 as connoted by the adjective Brahmanical in local
context stems from an assumption of purity. It echoes the power originating from religiously
sanctioned place of Brahman caste members at the top of caste pyramid (see chapter 4 for elaboration
on purity in relation to caste). Thus Brahmanical character of a cultural entity fundamentally denotes
its concern with purity that is based on an ingrained caste principle of exclusion. The gendered
Brahman caste-specific beliefs and value systems are also founded on the assumption that Brahmans
enjoy a status of purity. All these meanings are called upon in consideration of the Brahmanical
character of Marathi theatre and are observed to have permeated the concerns, content, presentation
and conventions of the theatre. An ordinary example of religiously observed theatrical conventions of
worshipping the apex deity of all arts Nataraja before the proscenium curtains are drawn and singing
of a song—the ‘Nandi’—in praise of Ganesh the god of knowledge, at the beginning of a performance
would illustrate the argument. These rituals become hegemonic devices in the hands of Brahmans in
Marathi theatre because they invoke Brahman claim to cultural power contextualised by their
immediate political past as rulers in the region. The fact that the Peshwas used to worship Ganesh as a
deity of personal belief weighs on the praise of Ganesh in the theatre. The context expands to include
nationalist caste politics since the Brahman extremist leader and a patron of Marathi theatre B G Tilak
had by then commenced a public worship of Ganesh. His intention was to find new spaces and
occasions to gather people together for achieving goals of nationalist movement.15

It was for all these hegemonic appeals carried by the rituals that they were parodied by non-
Brahmanical performance traditions. 16 Parody is counted as one of the deliberate and symbolic

14
The term ‘hegemony’ as used by Antonio Gramsci is interpreted variedly to denote the cultural authority
gained by dominant social groups in a civil society. The notion ‘provides the key to [Gramsci’s] formulation
that the strength of a system lies (...) in the acceptance by the ruled of a conception of the world which belongs
to the rulers and which, filtered through a series of layers of consciousness, emerges as the common sense [that]
assumes the form of consent and the political distance between the rulers and the masses is faithfully preserved’
(Gupta 1988: 1621). The concept is notable for recognizing ‘the function of the state and of public culture (…)
[and] foreground[ing] the ideological role of the representation of ‘common sense’, the power of the ‘taken-for-
granted’, and thus the importance of the entire field of popular culture’ (Turner 2005: 179). The process of
hegemonic control reveals that the field of popular culture is ‘an area of negotiation’ between the imposed
ideology and oppositional cultures, and different elements ‘are ‘mixed’ in different permutations’ (Bennett et al.
1986 cited in Turner 1990: 179). In Indian social conditions, caste inequality becomes the important source of
hegemony. The relevance of Gramsci for present Indian social context is due to his anticipation of
‘heterogeneity in discourses of homogeneity’, of the new problems faced by Indians today in relation with civil
society, and also due to his address to ‘some of our old problems in a refreshing way’ (Patnaik 2004: 1120).
15
The cultural nationalist leadership of Tilak unfolds in amusing and poignant ways in Marathi theatre. It
becomes the site of interface of leader and his followers and several theatrical gestures are duly reciprocated by
both the parties. Veneration of Tilak’s nationalist ideas in theatre productions, also manifest in women
characters, was one of its political consequences.
16
Non-Brahmanical school of thought is the counter hegemonic discourse that reveals caste to be the mainstay
of various social exploitations and visualises a more egalitarian society. It initiates in nineteenth century in the
collective body of writings and actions of social reformer leader Jotirao Phule (see Omvedt 1976). It later
expands its theoretical origins in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s works. This important active philosophy has not
yet lost its significance in view of formation of new exploitative forces, like the political rejuvenation of
Hindutva and expansion of market forces in the post-liberalisation period which perpetuate structural
inequalities like caste and retain their capacity to exploit and to marginalize.
 12

counter-hegemonic moves in the non-Brahmanical dramatic performance genres. Instead of

considering Ganesha as custodian of knowledge as the Brahmanical tradition would have it, the deity
is subversively invoked as Ganapati (leader of the masses) in the Satyashodahk Jalasa that developed
as a means of Jotirao Phule’s counter hegemonic politics (Omvedt 1976).

Permeation of caste-specific values can be observed in the theatre’s emphasis on purity. As

explained below, the notion lurks as a distilled value in all those things that were theatrically desired
to be ideal in performance: stage music, style of acting, diction or even performing bodies.

The development of stage music as semi-classical music is one illustration of the

phenomenon. Attention to stage music in performance provided by both, the music composers and
singer actors, as well as the receptors came to be focused on distinguishing it particularly from one of
its folk sources—the Lavani—which was much criticised for erotic expressions. The expressions were
considered to be vulgar mostly on account of its association with low caste of the performers and
largely of the spectators, too. To counterbalance its reputation and generate a separate self-identity,
the stage music strived to incorporate elements of classical music by way of observing purity of notes
of classical ragas (Bhirdikar in Singh 2009). 17 An insistence on purity of notes meant a rigourous
training for the singer-actor and also expected the audiences’ ability to appreciate it, factors that
contributed to exclusionary theatrical practices (See chapter 5 for more details).

A second instance exemplifying theatrical emphasis on purity is of the historical and lengthy
discussion published in the magazine Rangabhumi (see Adarkar 1991a for details) about whether or
not to allow women to act in theatre performances. Far from being an introspective exercise worrying
over masculine nature of the theatre, it was the context of diminishing business of the theatre in the
first half of twentieth century that had caused the discussion to take place. Nevertheless, it was not the
question of any woman acting on the stage, but of the ‘respectable’ (kulin) woman to be allowed to act
on the stage. 18 The very occasion of the discussion in fact contradicted past examples of low caste
women’s ownership of theatre companies that happened to be selectively forgotten.

The kulin woman was desirable as an actor in the theatre in comparison with the professional
artiste woman for what may be seen as terms of feminine purity. They referred to her (upper) caste
17
The import of classical music became feasible because during the same period Marathi classical singers and
teachers of music like Bhaskar Raghunath Bakhale (1869-1922), Govind Sadashiv Tembe (1881-1955), Vishnu
Digambar Paluskar (1872-1931) etc., travelled far north to learn and perform in concerts. Their reputation made
theatre companies invite them to compose music for theatre plays. Their own refined training, teaching, and
regular contribution to public platforms like music appreciation societies, public concerts, stage music and to the
new medium of Radio added to by availability of notations helped middle classes appreciate music. It soon
became marker of refined taste. The raised status of music in Marathi Brahman middle class domestic world
was evident in the conventional query put to the would-be-bride if she could sing.
18
The epithet ‘kulin’ meant woman of dignified social status which was not really assigned to a woman in her
individual capacity, but belonged to the caste and social profile of her parental or in-laws’ family. For the
periodic, convenient compression and expansion of theatrical definitions of kulin as well as non-kulin women,
see Adarkar (1991b).
 13

and dignified social status which was directly proportionate to her conformation with the gender code
prescribed by Brahmanical patriarchy. If a lower caste woman aspired to attain the kulin status she
had to follow the code that might be unaffordable for the political economy of her situation. The
debate also happened to address another sub-area of bodily purity, namely possibility of on-stage
appearance of a menstruating woman actor. According to religious conventions observed generally
among Brahman caste everyday life, a menstruating woman is perceived to be contaminating presence
in the household. She used to be therefore segregated and confined to a room for four days. Observing
such rules about bodily purity was historically possible only among the non-labouring castes. As Rege
(2006: 28) elaborates ‘strict observance of the purity and the pollution taboos and the purity of women
became the two pillars of Brahmanism’. The performing body or the woman actor thus became a site
of projection of Brahmanical value of purity in Marathi theatre.

Such substantiation of importance of the value of purity as explained above is not to imply
unfailing Brahmanical nature of Marathi theatre. It does not suggest that the theatre always refrained
from articulating caste criticism or does not mean that it turned a blind eye to unethical benefits
reaped due to Brahmans’ socio-religious sanction and custody of knowledge. There are deterrents
though such instances of internal criticism are rare. They nevertheless constitute an intermittent
tradition in Marathi theatre. For example, Annasaheb Kirloskar’s early sangeet natak, Ramrajya
Viyoga (ca 1884), based upon an episode from the mythological story of Ramayana, presented
Shambuk, a character of low caste, criticizing Brahmans for not sharing their knowledge with the
shudras (low castes). Some unusual experimental plays in the post-colonial period like Satish
Alekar’s plays Mahapur (1975), and Mahanirvan (1974), etc., make a parody of values and
conventional way of life of Brahmans particular to the city of Pune. Further, it is generally agreed that
the shock value of Vijay Tendulkar’s plays as in Gidhade (1970) for instance, is contained in their
exposure of rotten values of the Brahman middle class. Its staging was compared to ‘the blasting of
bomb in an otherwise complacent marketplace’ by Girish Karnad (cited in Tendulkar 2006: 575).
Similarly, another play by Tendulkar, Ghashiram Kotwal (1972) raised a great controversy on account
of one of its reading as being disrespectful of Brahmans and their pre-colonial rule in Pune. Despite
these exceptional plays, it is still difficult to say whether theatre practitioners remained aware or not
of its exclusionary caste nature considering the post-colonial continuation of the theatre’s
unmistakable Brahmanical character.

1.3.2 Hegemonic control of the theatre. The rationale of refinement of taste and the
understated insistence on the value of purity appear to be located in the search for self-identity of
Brahmans that was routed through the theatre. In the early stage of this search, the theatre was
carefully differentiated from indigenous performance traditions like the Tamasha and the Lalit. These
and other similar traditional performance genres were rejected as unworthy of sophistication or
elevation of audiences and were accused to be responsible for cultivating derogatory taste
 14

(Dyanprakash of 30th November 1855 and cited in Marathe 1979: 35). Such condemnation seems a
manoeuvre of caste cultural politics because whenever the theatre’s survival as a business was
threatened, it did not historically hesitate to borrow elements from these forms, for instance as
illustrated by occasional accommodation of farces in theatre plays during the first decade of twentieth
century (see chapter 4, sec. 4.4.1). The condemnation was political also because the theatre’s
differentiation among indigenous performance traditions was largely based on caste status of the
performers. The forms Keertan and Akhyaan, usually performed by Brahmans also made use of erotic
descriptions in narrating mythological stories but they were not looked down upon as cultivating
derogatory taste. From this, there appears an emphasis on forming a connection between superiority
of taste and that of the caste (sec. 1.2).

The Brahman search for identity, in Govind Deshpande’s (1995) view, was required by the
loss of political power caused by defeat of the Brahman rulers (Peshwa) in 1818; memories of which
were still fresh in the collective Brahman conscience when the theatre commenced in the colonial
period. Icons in early Bookish plays were derived from immediate history of the Brahman rule, for
example as in Vinayak Janardan Kirtane’s (1840-1891) ‘instantly acclaimed’ (Gokhale 2000: 12) and
first bookish play, Thorale Madhavrao Peshwe (1857). It praised Madhavrao Peshwa’s kingship for
taking care of the subjects ‘as if they were his own children’ (Kirtane in Gokhale, ibid.). The character
of Sutradhar in the play says to Vidushaka:

Why should I take them (audiences) to a place where people from other isles hold command,
where kings, no more than parrots in their cages, do not recognize even the shadow of their
supremacy? Rather, I will take them to the Elder Madhavraosaheb Peshwa, who looked after
his subjects as if they were his own children …

It is revealing to ponder upon possible meanings of the event of performance of Kirtane’s

play and its hybridism regarding proscenium form and content. The production was a marriage of
western proscenium form of theatre with elements borrowed from Sanskrit tradition of drama.
Similarly, the audience it received was a racially hybrid group comprising Brahman graduate students
and their English professors gathered under the aegis of colonial education system. The theatrical
content that such a gathering savoured was of upholding questionable virtues of the Brahman rule in
Pune. The subtext of this theatrical documentation of the immediate past—the memories of Brahman
political power and aspirations—may alternately suggest nostalgic reverence for the conservative and
discriminatory social norms, the ‘fixed notions of Brahmanism, rigid hierarchies of caste and a strictly
regulated code of conduct for women’ (Rege 2006: 20-21) as exercised in the Peshwa rule. Marathi
proscenium theatre in this way became the mode of construction of identity of the Brahmans as well
as of the re-assertion of hegemony of Brahman caste in the new field. Reflection on the time period of
 15

presentation of the play, its form, content and agency of performance elaborates the complexity of
historical contextualisation of Marathi theatre’s meaning-making processes.

This concern for identity gradually came to be focused on the theatre’s evocation as a
‘respectable cultural domain’ (Singh 2009: 4). 19 It aimed at establishing caste hegemony in tune with
the attempt of ‘internalization of British bourgeois representational forms’ (ibid.) The effort was
partially necessitated by newly arisen class realities of Brahman castes referred to earlier (sec. 1.1.2)
and their subsequent desire to be representatives of modern civil society. Superiority of caste
combined with class aspirations put the Brahmanical theatre in the position where it was ‘trying to
‘imagine’, ‘narrate’ and ‘perform’ a nation into existence’ (Solomon 2004: 118).20

1.4 Theatrical Matrix of Women, Nation and Caste

An essential part of the theatrical exercise of ‘imagining’ and ‘performing’ the nation was the
space it offered for discussing the question of reforms for women in the nineteenth and early twentieth
century. Both the sides of the debate of reforms for women were presented in theatre plays. This kind
of response of the theatre to the new, progressive, discursive social imagination vis-à-vis the feminine
gender enhanced its role beyond entertainment and helped it in acquiring progressive identity. For
instance, the Child Marriage Restraint Act (1929) came to be popularly known as Sharada Act
apparently for a peculiar similarity in names. The act was proposed by Harivilas Sarada after Govind
Ballal Deval’s play Sangeet Sharada (1899) had become very popular. The play depicted sufferings
of the protagonist girl, Sharada, who is forced to marry a septuagenarian.

With rising popularity of Sangeet Natak plays, however the theatre responds to conditions of
women in a different manner. It increasingly fails to accommodate new socio-economic or political
realities of women and independent perspectives of women. Rather with its new role as an ally of the
nationalist struggle for Independence, the theatre tends to project allegorical meanings of
mythological-historical stories in which the woman (mother country) renders inspiration to the
warrior hero who protects her. With such meanings receiving prominence in plays like Kichakvadh
(1907), the contemporary social reality of women that had begun to appear in plays like Sharada was

19
Involvement of Vishnudas Bhave’s influential, wealthy and educated Bombay audience in gaining
respectability for his art and for his performers cannot be overlooked. It should also be noted that beginning in a
private princely state, Bhave develops his art in the metropolitan city of Bombay and then names it as ‘national’
entertainment, in possible anticipation of Marathi theatre’s future role as a cultural expression of the middle
classes.
20
Solomon (2004: 118) has also commented on the pan-Indian theatrical imagination of nation:
‘Irrespective of its language, however, this theatre sought to project both modernity and Indianness in its style
and subject matter and thus constituted a fundamental component of the Indian intelligentsia’s grand nationalist
enterprise to invent, on the one hand, an identity that was modern but with roots in an ancient past and, on the
other hand, a pan-Indian nation state that was modern but which incorporated the numerous old royal kingdoms.
In short, like the authors of the ancient Hindu epics noted earlier, they too were trying to ‘imagine’, ‘narrate’
and ‘perform’ a nation into existence.’
 16

gradually overshadowed. A new change in depicting realities of women surfaces during the period
between the two World Wars that can be seen as responding to the challenge of retaining dwindling
numbers of theatre audience. Disinterest of audiences in the theatre owes to ageing of star female
impersonators and to the new attraction of Cinema. In search of a different and socially relevant,
unpretending model of theatre new generations sought inspiration in the Norwegian playwright
Henrik Ibsen. In their translations or adoptions they unfortunately ended up following more of Ibsen’s
dramatic techniques rather than his modern and radical content. It is evident in productions by short
lived theatre companies like the Radio Stars and Natyamanvantar (est. 1933) and also in plays like
Gharabaher (P K Atre, 1934) and Kulvadhu (M G Rangnekar, 1942). Women in these plays are
shown to be aware of unequal treatment meted out to them by their family members but they do not
understand the level or kind of domestic exploitation since they appear to be always ready to get
accommodated back into the same patriarchal fold at the first opportunity (see chapter 5, sec. 5.3.4).
The theatre continued to take up women related issues such as dowry, marriage, employment
opportunities, work, domesticity, etc., in the post-colonial period (Manohar 1985), but the manner of
treating the said subject matter, even in the post-colonial depictions along with colonial ones,
generally appears to be unconcerned about inclusion of women’s perspective. The bemused portrayals
of women in problematic or unconventional situations either show them taking unconvincing and
illogical decisions as in plays like Savitri (Jayavant Dalvi, 1981) or Aai Retire Hotey (Ashok Patole,
1989); or present them as inactive in the face of a shocking awareness of their condition as in the play
Kamala (Tendulkar, 1981). The views and messages theatre plays usually convey characteristically
undermine women’s own responses to changed socio-economic realities. Hence most often the views
read as judgmental exercises, albeit fictional, regarding women’s lives. Interestingly it can be
observed that such views particularly appear in cases of protagonist women who are shown to be
modern, thinking, and successful. The case of Marathi theatre need not be singled out regarding
indifference towards women’s interest as it is commonly observed phenomenon across various
regional theatres of India. Aparna Dharwadker (2006: 330) considers it to be a shortcoming of Indian
urban realist drama that women are rarely shown as desiring subjects. Irrespective of donning modern
sensibilities in the post-colonial period, she finds that the drama largely incarcerates women
characters in stereotyped, romanticized maternal role, constrained by marital fidelity. Maya Pandit
(2003, 100) similarly finds portrayal of women in the works of modern Indian playwrights like
Mohan Rakesh, Badal Sircar, Girish Karnad and Vijay Tendulkar as not at par with men characters. In
her view, women characters become receptacles of cultural values and:

(….) the site on which to resolve the issues of tradition and modernity, identity and alienation
and selfhood and subjectivity (….) they (the playwrights) end up endorsing, and to some
extent even legitimizing, the traditional gender ideologies. This represents a contradiction in
the consciousness of modern middle-class Indian writers (…). That is why representation of
 17

gender issues in post-Independence modern Indian theatre presents an interesting field of

inquiry.

The non-inclusiveness of Marathi theatre as a patriarchal social institution did not bother to
notice, acknowledge, encourage or accommodate women’s theatrical creativity. It has never invited
women as directors, playwrights, actors, or owners of theatre by generating conditions conducive to
their work. The situation has not changed much today, going by the number of women presently
active in various capacities related to the theatre, apart from being actors.

Its disinterest in women is manifest in two sites, the performance and the practice. Since the
days of Sangeet Natak when the theatre was adored basically for stage music and epitomic acting
skills and melodious voice of star female impersonators like Balgandharv, it has constructed feminine
gender in the performance in increasingly artificial ways, with almost no cognisance to women’s
larger and distinguished life-worlds infested with differences (see chapter 4 for elaboration). The
stardom of Balgandharv celebrated conventional feminine virtues idealised in the male gaze, making
it difficult for the deviator, non-idealistic characters to win popular attention. The fascination for
female impersonation seems to be evergreen, going by the recurrence of female impersonators today
in rejuvenated theatre productions or comedy shows on television. Deconstructing the phenomenal
female impersonation epitomised in Balgandharv, Kathryn Hansen (2011: 237) writes:

Finally, through the institution of female impersonation, a publicly visible, respectable image
of ‘woman’ was constructed, one that was of use to both men and women. This was a
representation that, even attached to the male body, bespoke modernity. As one response to
the British colonial discourse on Indian womanhood—the accusations against Indian men on
account of their backward, degraded females—the representation helped support men,
dovetailing with the emerging counter-discourse of Indian masculinity (...) Female
impersonators, by bringing into the public sphere the mannerisms, speech and distinctive
appearance of middle class women, defined the external equivalents of the new gendered code
of conduct for women.

Apart from performance, the theatre’s agency of construction of womanhood continues in its
business practice. It discriminated against women as audiences and women as actors. Its confusion
over allowing kulin women to act in plays is referred to in the above discussion. The distinction
between ‘kulin’ and ‘veshya/kalavantini’ (genteel versus women of no repute) was also applied to
women audiences and fundamentally had no other basis but different kinds of patriarchal claims on
 18

women’s sexuality.21 The veshyas were seated separately and charged more for watching a theatre
performance.

Considering the theatre’s overall disregard for gender and caste there emerges a possibility of
finding whether it assisted the theatre’s project of identity and cultural hegemony. In the light of the
argument that cultural processes are not superstructural and ephemeral to the production of
sociological knowledge as they are usually assumed to be in comparison with the political and
economical hard matters (Paul du Gay, Stuart Hall et al. 1997: 1-2), theatre may be considered as a
site of sociological knowledge. The matrix constituted by the project of identity of Brahmans, their
long time dominance in the theatre, underwriting of caste in theatre plays and the narrow social base
for theatrically normative woman qualifies the theatre to be the site of sociological knowledge. On the
basis of this rational, the present study proposes to critically analyse the politics of representation of
women in select post-colonial theatre productions to find out how the theatre historically understands
and creates womanhood, uses it as a device to generate hegemony and contributes to the social
discourse about women.

21
Veshya is not only a prostitute but also a courtesan. She is also a sort of connoisseur of the art of singing,
dancing or performing coquettish mannerisms.