From Revolution to Dissent: A Case Study of the Changing Role of Theatre and Activism in Bengal
In: World Political Theatre and PerformanceSearch for other papers by Pujya Ghosh in
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Abstract
The Naxalbari Movement and the period of Emergency (1960-1970) generated a cultural impulse which framed the idea of ‘the political’ for the Left movement in Bengal, exerting a strong influence on forms of political action up to the present times. From this standpoint, the chapter focuses on two prominent, committed Bengali playwrights, Utpal Dutt and Debesh Chattopadhyay, to address the question of the artist’s position as a performer and an activist – individually and collectively. In the form of a performative conversation between Japen Da, the protagonist of Utpal Dutt’s Japen Da Japen Ja, and Paltu Da, a very similar character created by Debesh Chattopadhyay in Paltu Da Bolen Ja, the chapter confronts the playwrights’ theories about theatre with some of their own productions in order to establish what it means to be a committed left-wing activist-performer in Bengal.