Exploring the Boundaries of Dalit Theatre in Maharashtra

Exploring the Boundaries of Dalit Theatre in Maharashtra

Satyawan S Rao Hanegave
University of Mumbai, K J Somaiya College, Mumbai.

Tel. No 91-22-27715535 (R)  +919920387557(Mob)

Email ID: satyahanegave@gmail.com

Abstract

Dalit consciousness and cultural empowerment took center stage through creative work of Dalit Theatre in Maharashtra. Dalits are people of the under castes in India aka the untouchables. Through rainbow of desire and cops in the head activities this theater critically examines internalized oppression and reflects in the form of action. To leverage community wisdom towards mobilization it created a forum of theatre an anti-model and deconstructed the process of conventional theatrical forms. My paper attempts to give an insight to comprehend the basic idea of dalit theatre, its objectives and explores its boundaries in terms of themes, impact, costs and characterization.

Terminology: Dalit Theatre, Dalit Rangbhumi, Oppression, Oppressed, Oppressor, Tamasha, Jalsa, Powada, Devdaasi and Songadya

Dalit Theatre came into existence in the form of folk/oral/street performances after the Independence as a catalyst for generating awareness on social and women's issues and it has been taken up for scrutiny of the atrocities committed against Dalits and relevant issues of cultural appropriation, discrimination and epistemological violence. Dalits are generally the performers of this theatre. Its libertine nature, the voice culture and body language of the artistes and inherent music in their lives make this form distinctive and impressive. It seems from the theatrical performances of Dalit Theatre that the liberation of oppressed people is a Dalit struggle as liberation movements echo one another in proclaiming rights of equality, freedom and liberty inherent to all human beings which is indeed deserved, but not always realized by the marginalized. And thus, such marginalization in this construct leads constituents to response to oppression by donning the armor of struggle to wrest free from the chains of oppression and slavery.

Dalit Theatre is influenced by the philosophies of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar created a need for pause as the countrywide implications and potentials of collective liberation are analyzed and realized for the empowerment of people of oppressed class. Therefore, this realization is captured in the response of the oppressed to the oppressor, where the rhetoric of revolution (in a broad sense) spans from consciousness-raising to violent action and has been utilized as a strategy for liberation. This strategy is designed through various art forms and Dalit Theatre is outcome of this strategy.

"The Hindus wanted the Vedas and they sent for Vyasa who was not a caste Hindu.

The Hindus wanted an Epic and they sent for Valmiki who was an Untouchable. The Hindus wanted a Constitution, and they sent for me. "..................

-          Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Mathai 1978: 25)

Dr. Ambedkar's startling claim, quoted above, could be read in several ways, but it seems to suggest most boldly a claim to a Dalit tradition, a Dalit culture, which in itself is both great and creative which contributed to the essential factors of all-Indian culture. And Daya Pawar, an important modern Dalit Writer, in particular holds this opinion, and quotes a Marathi proverb to show acceptance of the idea of Mahar gifts:

In the Brahman house-writing

In the kunbi house grain

In the Mahar house-singing…….       

Pawar mourns the loss of the "great cultural treasure" the Dalits could have had if the kind of music his father and those who visited his home made had not been considered "debased" by other castes. It is clear that Dalits did have a place in the cultural lie of traditional Maharashtra. Even though it is the Untouchable Mang caste which most often is described as "village musicians" in the Gazetteers, Mahars seem to have been the chief musicians and actors in Tamasha the folk drama of Maharashtra. We do not know if Mahars had a part in creating Tamasha which was a recognized form by the 16th century and at its height under the Peshwas of the 18th century, but we know they dominated the field. The revival of Tamasha in the late 19th century is credited to a Brahman, Patthe Bapu Rao, together with his "beautiful Mahar consort," Powada. "Dalit culture" has now become something of a fashionable article of faith. The Dalit Voice, English weekly from Bangalore, claims from time to time that Devadasi (woman slave server to god) culture, which includes the classical dance form Bharata Natya is a Dalit form of creativity. The earliest Dalit Theatre took the form of Jalsas that were performed to spread Ambedkar's ideas. Mahars and Mangs were traditional performers of Tamasha, which at one time was part devotion and part entertainment. The Jalsa writers rejected the religious ritual of Tamasha while retaining the music and making the narrative didactic. The Songadya or a clown was transformed into the chief spokesperson.

Several Dalit drama conferences have been held, and it is said that there are now more than forty Dalit Theatre groups. Many write their own plays, a few adapt plays from the American Black Theatre; some revive the arts of Tamasha. B. S. Shinde is the founding father of Dalit Rangabhumi, has written plays based on Buddhist themes and a drama built around the legendary Mahar hero Amrutnak. Whatever the forms of dramas do have existed, but it was obvious that this was crude beginning of the Dalit Theatre in Maharashtra. More recently Dalit Theatre has entered the proscenium stage in an effort to expand its audience to the middle class, though the different performance modes have occasionally compromised its political agenda. A Dalit Theatre conference held in Pune in 1984 and subsequent meetings elsewhere have highlighted the challenge of sustaining a theatre of the oppressed in the new commercial and religiously fundamentalist environment of India understanding the complexities of contemporary society. Politics remains a struggle not only in Maharashtra, but also in other states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu where Dalit Theatre is active.

The Dalit Theatre belongs to the people who have been alienated from social, economic and educational benefits by the orthodox caste system of Hinduism. This theatre reflects their concern and pain, sorrows and sufferings of those neglected, their protest and their aspiration for human dignity.

The theatre exposes and presents the naked reality of injustice and atrocities committed over the ages and the biased religious system. The origin of the Dalit Theatre though it can be traced in the folk plays and folklores but this stream of consciousness stared in Maharashtra during and after the Ambedkar's social reformation movement which attained maturity only on the foundation of Dalit Panthers. If we compare its present day form with its primary form, it reveals that a small stream has now converted itself into a big flow and creating branches and sub branches which have been reached even outside Maharashtra. In states like Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Goa, Dalit writers and artists who have been inspired by Dr. Ambedkar's thoughts of social change, have started the work of social awakening through the medium of drama and street theatre. The movement of drama has emerged in these areas and its credit however, goes to the thoughts of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Dr.B R Ambedkar.

The inception of this theatre first credited to Mahatma Jyotiba Phule in the year 1855 through publishing his "Three Jewels" (तीन रत्न/तिसरे रत्न) a weapon for social reformation. Dalit Theatre is distinctly different from the mainstream of Marathi theatre which has a tradition of about a hundred and fifty years. It savours human values, drives to make men human and to inculcate the values of freedom, equality and fraternity in Dalit as advocated by Ambedkar and Phule. It was during the Dalit Panther movement of 1970s, we could see scores of names like Dr. Datto Bhagat (आवर्त), Dr. Gangadhar Pantawane’s The School of Death (मृत्युशाळा), M B Chitnis, Dr. Suresh Meshram (Ragging), Prabhakar Dupare, Kamalakar Dahat, B S Shinde, E M Nanavare, Ramnath Chavan, Shilpa Mubriskar in mono act plays. It was In Darkness Womb (काळोख्याच्या गर्भात) the Dalit theatre made a serious impact on stage.

"We will not be satisfied easily now. We do not want a little piece in the Brahmin... We want the rule of the whole land. We are not looking at persons but at a system. Change of heart, liberal education, etc., will not end our state of exploitation. When we gather a revolutionary mass, rouse the people, out of the struggle of this giant mass will come the tidal wave of revolution."………………………..     (काळोख्याच्या गर्भात)

The Dalit Theatre is distinguished from the rest of Dalit literature as this theatre is meant for collective audience or the crowd to fulfill the interest of the oppressed and the suffered not the people those who squat on the luxurious chairs and entertain themselves by reading it. The established conventional writers and producers of Drama of Marathi Theatre in Maharashtra suspected the success and the attraction of audience as well as the writers in the initial stage of Dalit Theatre. But this neo generic theatre emerged as one of the new factions of Drama in Maharashtra as a voice of those oppressed, suffered and to generate a movement for social harmony and equality by breaking rules of conventional theatre. This theatre strengthened the confidence of Dalit writer, producer and actor to germinate a distinguished dramatic culture of own as Dalit felt that their problems are raised by those people who are the part of the wagon of oppression and their manner is faulty because they lack experience. Therefore, Dalit Theatre must be based on the thoughts of Dr. Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj and Lord Buddha to emancipate the sufferer from the age old agonies and pain.

The Dalit Theatre of Pune purposed to publish the entire Dalit literature in order to make it available for the common reader to evoke them to the movement of reformation and entire change as well as to help to eradicate the odds within the hierarchal social system of caste, inequality and exploitation. The basic issues of equality, share of power, land distribution, poverty, standard of living, exploitation and liberty are being addressed by this theatre. "The main aim of this theatre is to bring all the people suffering from the same problems under the umbrella of unity for humanity and dignity," said M B Shinde of Pune Dalit Theatre.

Dr. Yashwant Manohar: The horizon of Dalit Theatre is destined to meet the society based on the thoughts and aspirations of the great Dr. Ambedkar and Jyotiba Phule to relinquish the sufferer from sufferings.

Dr. Laxman Deshpande: Dalit Theatre is meant for the expression of the oppressed and his desire for the liberty and change and to strengthen the unity of Dalit and to recreate a nation based on the Ambedkar's thoughts of social, economic and political equality.

The word Dalit was coined along with theatre in the beginning to safeguard the interest of dramatist expressing his experience as being Dalit and to strengthen the movement for liberty by providing the voice and stage for those who have statued as deaf and dumb. Therefore, Dalit Theatre is the saga of suffered Dalit and his Dalit attitude, his difficult problem, his desired solution by constructing it aesthetically to rebel or revolt against the existing odds and the acceptance of new thoughts and to recreate social belongingness through self art and self language to promote the reformation and liberation.

The historical advancement of Dalit Theatre as an instrument of revolution ignited by the stalwarts for equality, liberty, justice, fraternity and struggle has certainly guided and inspired the non Dalit faction. This theatre challenged the established, conventional and authoritative theatre, culture and literature of Maharashtra and added an impetus to the Dalit movement of liberation of oppressed, women's emancipation and in whole the liberation of humanity by painting the hopes of sufferer. The Dalit dramatist is expressing his agonies, pains and suffering through mono acts, multi acts, folk plays and street plays.

The Dalit dramatist felt that the boundaries of his Dalit Theatre  is entirely different from the established conventional and other theatre which lacks the basic questions of Dalitness and fails to present the prospects of Dalit reformation. They felt the audience need to cater the Dalit thirst to know and understand the progressive thoughts of Ambedkar, Phule and Shahu on liberation. Therefore, the questions of established theatre and existing ground realities gave rise to this theatre.

“Sant Chokamela, Maatang and Raidas were outcastes

They were degraded, but to the Lord they were holy

Why could these devotees of the Lord not enter the temple

Those who have realised the Lord

They were outcasted by the orthodox

So why not accept another religion?”

It is quite visible on exploration of later Dalit Theatre that it is now trying to get rid off its narrow domain of Dalit and have tried to incorporate the issues relating to untouchables, landless labourers, and oppression of women, mill worker and exploitation of every individual in society. The plays like a story of the plights of Brahmins performing last rites, Circle (रिंगण)- issues of Mahar and Mang community, The Wife of God (देवानारी)- the issues relating to the devdasis, Gangman- the problems of railway labourers, Hail to Revolution (जय क्रांती) - story of leper and mill workers, Sunset (सूर्यास्त ) - slave system, Kaifiyat(कैफियत)- the plight of Maharashtra's Shahirs , Sons of Soils (भूमिपुत्र) and etc. bears a testimony. But, Dalit Theatre in greater extent is successful in quenching the thirst of Dalit audience and his Dalitness, his culture, his art, his literature, his language, his attitude and his vision of the world. At the same time, Dalit Theatre enabled the successful dialogue between the folk art like Tamasha, Powada, Dandhor and folk plays by incorporating the language, music, acting style, problems within the play, acting, actors and life within the drama. Bansode's Five Star Drama of Ancient Religion (धर्माचा पंच तारांकित तमाशा), M B Shinde's ‘In the Womb of Darkness’ (काळोख्याच्या गर्भात), Dharmesh Sontakke's Republic party of Indora, Sanjay Jivane's Proclamation (घोषणा) and etc. falls in this category.

The presence of Ambedkar's, Phule's and Black Writer's progressive and scientific philosophy and demarcated new dimensions to it by projecting aggressive protagonist and repeated references to the Dalit reformers throughout the play makes these plays unique and thought provoking.

Dalit artist knows the boundaries of Dalit Theatre as they have long time appreciated comprehensively the expectations and taste of their audience. Therefore, the themes of these plays are based on their real experience in social life, the exploitation that they have suffered. The idea is to provoke the audience to understand their surrounding and educate them to revolt against it (in the Ambedkar's word "Slave revolts on learning his slavery").

Johar, Mai-Bap, Johar.

I am the Mahar of Your Mahars.

I am so hungry I come for your leavings.

I am full of hope; I am the slave of your slaves.

Chokha says: I have brought a bowl for Your left-over food. ......... (आवर्त)

The Dalit Theatres boundaries seems to extends beyond political, social and economic issues of Dalit, movement for instance naming Marathwada University, reservation policy, free education, the incident of Ramabai Nagar, stray incidents of Dalit atrocities, untouchability, attack on Hindu Gods, the problems of livelihood, the problems of unemployment, the problems of urban slums, the power hungry Dalit politician and their inability to unite and etc.

The aim of Dalit Theatre is to address the problems of Dalit and seek their progress through it; therefore, progressive thoughts are at first preference and the entertainment at secondary place. Although it is difficult to assess the impact and change that this theatre can make, but the advancement of it towards the large scale movement is testimony to hope. Besides, the human values (प्रज्ञा, शील, करुणा) of Buddha and democratic and human values (justice, equality, fraternity) of Ambedkar and Phule can be observed in the plays like पोतराज, मन्वंतर, अन्याय, वाटा पळवाटा and etc. The decoration of stage, makeup of characters, costumes and dressings in the Dalit Theatre is economical as theatre is meant for the poor and oppressed class. Moreover, audience may not be able to afford to pay for expensive ticket to watch it and the producer may unable to spend. Therefore, rural scenes are prominent with various dialects spoken in various parts of Maharashtra in this theatre.

The rhetoric and action of the Dalit Theatre movement has set precedence for future liberation movements. By understanding the recipe for the political and social movement of the oppressed, it becomes possible also to understand the oppressor and the institutional oppression that threatens the Diaspora. These movements existed in a hostile environment in which oppression was political, cultural and economic. Therefore, the leaders and influential actors in this theatre recognized the collective import of their actions and the common oppression of people of oppressed descent. Thus, the strategies were connected and comparable. They spoke of friend-enemies self-empowerment, collective struggle, and fallacious religious teachings, all to highlight the abysmal conditions of these predicaments as well as the hope of liberation. These theatrical movements did not exist in a vacuum and future movements will also be connected.

People of caste descent must recognize the international and transnational implications of moving as a collective and must develop strategies and movements that will address the unique nuances of a connected world. As there is a continuing investigation of revolution and continuing agitation of change, there will be need to move from mobilization to organization. Understanding the rhetorical strategies that have been used gives a gauge of the successes and challenges of revolution, and while revolution is more than words, words (and experiences) are what raise consciousness and make action possible.

Reference:

1. Ramnath Chavan's Presidential Address at the Seventh All India Dalit Drama Convention, held in Nashik, Maharashtra, in December 1992.

Published in Marathi at Pune.

2. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Mathai 1978: 25)
3. Daya Pawar 1974
4. A Proclamation at Dalit Panther Movement in 1976.
5. Baburao Kamble, Justice and Drama (न्याय आणि नाटक) My Role
6. Premanand Gajavi at Pan India Dalit Theatre Convention at Alagpur (Presidential Address) 1982
7. R S Jadhav, निळी पहाट,
8. Gangadhar Patawane वादळाचे वंशज Ancestors of Storm: Preface
9. Bhimrao Kardak: धर्मांतर-Conversion to Another Religion: A Jalsa
10. Dr. Ishwar Nandpure, दलित नाटक आणि रंगभूमी
11. Datta Bhagat आवर्त: Whirlpool

Note: This article is published  in Thematics Publications Pvt. Ltd. An Inter Disciplinary International Refereed Research Journal, Vol 1 Issue 1 April 2013, ISSN 2320-5075