Decolonizing the Indian Theatre

Abstract: Decolonization, as a post-colonial movement, attempts to dismantle colonial effects and imperialization of weaker countries. It is a process of uprooting colonial facade coated on the valuable Indian cultural legacy with the purpose to de-evaluable. Theatre is one of the glorious legacies of India. The seeds of decolonization were already planted during the freedom struggle by the freedom fighters such as Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Chandrashekar Azad etc. Gandhi's battle cry for 'Swadeshi', Hind Swaraj and 'Quit India Movement ' enflamed the zeal for decolonizing the Indian mind. Literary writers such as Tagore, Tendulkar, Karnad, Anand and Raja Rao realized the need to decolonize, re-discover & re-establish the glory of Indian culture, myths, language, religious ethos, democracy, Indian governance etc. and prepared an international stage for the textuality of Indian theatre. The plays of Badal Sarkar, Vijay Tendulkar, Tagore, and Karnad have dominated the world of theatre and proved the defiance against the effects of colonialism. Re-inventing Bharata's Natyashastra raises India to, at least, compete with the Aristotelian theatre. Kalidas's plays have sufficient theatrical flavour to dominate Shakespeare's plays. In post-modern period, the plays like Vijay Tendulkar's Ghasiram Kotwal and Girish Karnad's Hayavadana have evidenced the incomparability of Indian theatre