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Kriti Bajaj 478296@soas.ac.uk

EARLY PARSI THEATRE: A Talk by Kathryn Hansen

attracted to a performance by the beating of a drum. But soon, Western style playhouses caught their eye and their fancy, morphing this art form into something completely different the simplicity was replaced by a high arch, lighting, elaborate costumes, machinery, enormous painted curtains and large stages. Later, there were also seating classes, boxes, orchestra stalls, a dress circle and a gallery. The audience was heterogeneous, often non-Parsis outnumbered the Parsis, and this upmarket promotion and external grandeur aroused interest amongst the elite Indians and Europeans, making Parsi theatre seem superior to other styles. Using maps and photographs, Hansen pointed out the most famous and influential playhouses like the Victoria playhouse and the most recent - the Royal Opera House which still exists but is no longer used for theatrical performances. The earliest plays were adaptations of Shakespeare, as well as enactments from the Iranian epic, Shahnameh. By 1868, companies vied for attention and started running profit-making ventures, selling not only tickets but also song books, play scripts and published dramas, which, as Dr. Orsini later discussed, helped the publishing boom and the spread of literacy in North India the song lyrics especially were marketed as essential prerequisites to enjoy a play. With the growth of rival businesses, companies began to tour, visiting and performing in Hyderabad, Delhi, Calcutta, Rangoon, Singapore, and Mandalay. Although the plays were adapted from the European tradition, their sound was very Indian, with dance, songs, ghazals, ragas, and the use of Urdu linking it to the fading Islamic tradition. The styles of this theatre influenced the vernacular, and introduced a variety of people to theatre in Indian languages including Hindi. Themes also changed and became more nationalised with the national political awakening in the period, with the mythical genre becoming an allegory for anti-colonial resistance. Hansen claimed that this use of mythology in Parsi theatre Betabs Mahabhrata in 1913 being a turning point - played an important role in early cinema, which borrowed many themes and actors from the playhouse. In the comments that followed, Ravi Vasudevan put forth the idea of the theatre as the progenitor of cinema, which set the mis-en-scene for films. He felt that there are still many questions about this era that are unanswered, referring to the relationship between this form of theatre and Indian cinema as an archaeology to be worked out and uncovered. Hansens book thus tells us about an unexplored world where there is still much to be discovered.

The India Media Centre at the University of Westminster played host to an engaging talk by leading scholar of South Asian theatre history, Kathryn Hansen (pictured below right), as a part of the DSC South Asia Literature Festival on 14th October 2011. A professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Hansens theme was the forgotten era of Parsi theatre and its influence on early Indian cinema before the advent of the phenomenon that was Bollywood. Her latest book, released in October 2011 and titled Stages of Life: Indian Theatre Autobiographies, focuses on four actors whose lives provide insights into not only the shaping of Parsi theatre and Indian cinema, but also into the nationalist atmosphere that pervaded India in the 1920s. The talk was followed by a short discussion with Dr. Francesca Orsini (SOAS) and Ravi Vasudevan (Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi), moderated by Rosie Thomas (University of Westminster). Hansen compared the London of 2011 to the Bombay of 1911 the hustle bustle, liveliness and perpetual need for entertainment being the hallmarks of these times. In the Bombay of yore, Parsi theatre created a new visual biography that preceded and affected cinema. Interestingly, Parsi theatre was really a hybrid of many traditions the actors, audience and themes were not always specific to this small community. The nomenclature probably arose from the investment of Parsi businessmen in this form of entertainment. The earliest theatres were simply courtyards, and audiences were

objections raised by a section of the academic staff that the essay could not be properly taught by college teachers who arent Hindu. Ridiculous as it may sound, the truth is that the University has been Vidya Venkat - 265504@soas.ac.uk under tremendous pressure from right wing student groups since 2008 to remove this essay from the If India, as ancient syllabus though three out of four members of an civilisation and modern expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court nation, has retained had endorsed Ramanujans essay without reservasomething of its chartion. acter throughout, it is In 2008, students of the Akhil Bharatiya its plurality of culture. Vidyarthi Parishad, a right wing student organisaIndologist A.K. Ration, had vandalised the office of the then Head manujans essay Three of the Department in an effort to get the essay Hundred Ramayanas removed from the syllabus. They said that the esis a celebration of this say hurt the sentiments of Hindus because of its plurality. By describing portrayal of Rama, the epic hero, as the brother of the numerous retellings Sita in some versions though she is his wife in the of the Sanskrit version Sanskrit version. They have also raised objections of the Ramayana written by Valmiki, this essay shows how an anto some pornographic references in the essay, cient story has been retold in different ways that enrich the narrative perhaps a reaction to the use of the word vagina tradition in Indian literature. in the story of Ahalya as treated in Kampas version Ramanujans essay is in news, however, for the wrong of Ramayana. reasons now. The essay which was part of the undergraduate hisA close reading of the text shows that most tory syllabus of the Delhi University for the course Ancient Indian of the objections raised are dubious. Ramanujans Culture was recently removed by the Academic Council due to essay does overturn the assumption of a fixed,

An Epic Controversy

normative original form to be found in the traditional Sanskrit version of Valmiki, though he acknowledges it to be the earliest and the most prestigious of all. In fact, the Jain version Paumacarya portrays Ravana as a tragic hero and challenges that the Hindu version has unfairly treated Ravana as a villain. This feeling surprisingly, found a resonance even in the Mani Ratnam directed movie Ravana. The essence of the controversy therefore is whether students in university can be taught to challenge normative narratives of Indian history and culture or not. The proponents of Hindutva ideology have for long tried to construct the idea of a Hindu nation drawing from epics such as Ramayana to claim glory for the ancient Hindu tradition. This homogenising view of culture is at the core of the Hindutva project. It is in times such as these that one needs to go back and Ramanujans essay that celebrates the diversity of Indian culture and it is unfortunate that the University has succumbed to right wing forces. It raises disturbing questions about the space for intellectual freedom within the Indian university system.