People's Democracy

FOR the past few years, people’s theatre activists from all over India have felt the need to come together, share their experiences, reflect on political and theoretical issues which confront them, discuss the changes in the larger cultural scenario of the country, and work out strategies to counter the challenges of communalism and globalisation that face us. As part of this process, the Fifth All India Meeting of People’s Theatre Activists was held in Patna from February 26-28, 2004.

This process began in Delhi, when Jana Natya Manch organised the first such meeting in 1998. In that meeting, several groups and organisations came together and since it was the first meeting of the kind, it was essentially devoted to getting acquainted with each other’s work. After a gap, the second meeting was also held in Delhi in 2002. This meeting focused on questions of communalism and globalisation, as they impacted on the cultural sphere. Since the carnage in Gujarat was on at that time, naturally that formed the immediate political context of the meeting, and much of the discussion was centred on the question of what was happening in Gujarat and trying to understand the larger cultural and political factors that went into the Sangh parivar strategy there.

In the Delhi meeting, no discussion was possible on the organisational issues that different cultural groups and organisations face in their day-to-day activity. The focus of the next meeting, organised by Praja Natya Mandali, Andhra Pradesh, in November 2002 in Hyderabad, was on organisation. In Hyderabad, various groups and organisations reported on the organisational issues that they face. Some groups are very small, with effective membership of barely a dozen or so, while some organisations are very large, with units in several cities. For instance, Praja Natya Mandali has over 1,000 units all over Andhra Pradesh with a membership of over 25,000 while Indian People’s Theatre Association, West Bengal, has over 350 units. Thus there is an entire gamut of organisational issues which different groups and organisations face across the country and the conditions of work are also varied.

In the Hyderabad meeting, it was decided to set up informal regional working groups to help various groups and organisations coordinate their activities and help each other. However, it must be understood that this effort does not represent an effort to form any kind of all-India organisation or association. The nature of the meetings has always been as a kind of open platform where like-minded people’s theatre activists can come together and learn from each other. It is quite clear to all participants that given the enormous variation in the nature, scope, extent and areas of work of the different organisations, it is neither possible nor desirable to impose any kind of all-India network from above.

The following meeting was held in Guwahati in June 2003 and was hosted by IPTA, Assam. The focus of this meeting was on questions of aesthetics and politics. Papers were presented by some participants on this question, which was followed by in-depth discussion. There was also another session on organisation, wherein some participants presented the experiences of their organisations in expanding their work, reaching out to new sections, facing organisational problems, and so on. This, too, was followed by detailed discussion. There was also reporting on the progress made (or not made!) by the regional working groups. It was decided that the following meeting would be hosted by Prerna (a constituent of Janwadi Sanskritik Morcha, Bihar) in Patna and would focus on the question of ‘Caste and Culture’.

The meeting was inaugurated by noted historian R S Sharma, who began by reflecting on the meaning of the word sanskriti – which originally indicated the acquiring of various sanskaras, including the ‘sacred’ thread. By implication, then, shudras could not be included in this category, and thus the word sanskriti itself has a loaded meaning that excludes dalits. Similarly, the word dharma originally meant ‘the regulation of social life’ rather than ‘religion’ in the western sense of the term. Thus the Dharmashastras lay down codes for social behaviour, and as such reflect the wishes of the ruling classes and the elites. Professor Sharma made a fervent plea to the assembled cultural activists to fight relentlessly against caste as well as commercialisation.

This was followed by a lucid and thought-provoking presentation on the question of ‘Caste and Culture’ by the well-known Hindi critic Murli Manohar Prasad Singh. He began by pointing out that the current epoch is dominated by finance capital-driven imperialism. In the 60 years that have followed the end of the Second World War, the advanced capitalist countries have displayed remarkable unity, in spite of all their internal contradictions, and not indulged in destructive wars against each other. War has been exported to the Third World, in large parts of which imperialism has carried out direct military campaigns, or has provoked wars between poor nations, or aided and abetted terrible civil wars. In doing all this, imperialism always needs to take hold of, and strengthen, everything that divides the people, be it differences of race, or religion, ethnicity, or language, or caste.

M M P Singh then went on to talk at length about India, and made the point that there have been two main currents in Indian history, the Vedic and the non-Vedic. The first major revolt of the non-Vedic against the Vedic can be dated to the 6th century B C, with the rise of several heterogeneous sects, including Buddhism and Jainism. After Brahmanism reasserted itself, the second major revolt occurred in the early medieval period, starting around the 12th century A D But we must remember that the Bhakti movement was never a unified, homogeneous movement and there were many internal contradictions within the Bhakti movement. Later, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when there were movements against caste oppression in several parts of the country, again these movements display many internal contradictions. The main weakness of the anti-caste struggles, according to M M P Singh, has been that they have not, with very few exceptions, linked the struggle against the caste system to the annihilation of feudal structures of property ownership. Throughout his presentation, M M P Singh gave a number of examples from literature to illustrate the points he was making.

This wide-ranging presentation was followed by group discussions, in which participants shared their experiences of working on questions of caste in their respective regions. Many participants felt that while the Left has focused, quite rightly, on questions of class, we have often tended to ignore questions of caste. In the cultural sphere in particular, if our movement is to reach out to dalits and other oppressed sections, we simply have to engage with this question in our artistic presentations.

In the evening, there was a public seminar on ‘Globalisation and Culture’. The speakers were Sudhanva Deshpande of Jana Natya Manch, Delhi, the Hindi critic Khagendra Thakur of the Progressive Writers’ Association, and M M P Singh.

The second day of the meeting was devoted to the various groups/organisations reporting on their work and activities. There were forty delegates representing twenty groups/organisations from twelve states. In the evening, Prerna, Patna, presented its production of Julius Caesar ke Antim Saat Din, based on a short story by Bertolt Brecht. This excellent production was directed by Rakesh Ranjan, who also put in a superb performance as Caesar, the megalomaniac autocrat rapidly losing power and control.

The presidium of the meeting comprised of Ashok Mishra of Janvadi Sanskritik Morcha, Bihar, Pijush Sarkar of IPTA, West Bengal, P Kadalundi of Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangha, Kerala, and Ashok Tiwari of Jana Natya Manch, Delhi.

The meeting strongly condemned the attacks on artists by the Hindutva forces and called upon all artists and cultural activists to observe March 23, Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s Matyrdom Day. The meeting resolved that the tasks for the coming months would include reactivating the regional working groups, organising skill workshops in different states, as well as to identify fraternal theatre groups in different states who can become a part of this meeting. Jana Natya Manch proposed to hold a week-long street theatre workshop for groups in north India. The resolution adopted at the meeting, apart from outlining the challenges facing the cultural movement, called upon all progressive forces to defeat the BJP-led government in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

It was also decided that the next all India meeting is to be held in Chennai, in early January 2005. The meeting will be hosted by Chennai Kalai Kuzhu (as part of their twentieth anniversary celebrations) and coordinated by Jana Natya Manch. This meeting will focus on the performative aspects of street theatre. Apart from discussions with master directors, it would also involve looking in detail at some plays.