‘Resistance can come only from theatre’: an interview with A. Mangai

ABSTRACT

Dr. Padma Venkataraman, alias A. Mangai, is an Indian academic, activist, actor, playwright, and a director. This conversation with her draws on the interface between feminism and theatre in the Indian context. It refers to Mangai’s dramatic and critical oeuvre, primarily focusing on the prominent directorial ventures, such as Pacha Mannu (New Earth, 1996), Aanmai o Aanmai (Macho o Macho, 2010), Vakkumoolam (Testimony, 2013), along with the critical study on Indian feminist theatre, titled Acting Up: Gender and Theatre in India, 1979 onwards (2015). She candidly talks about women’s participation in a genre dominated by men, the aesthetics of the street theatre, the Dravidian movement’s gendered discourse, patriarchal indifference towards women’s works, feminist dramaturgy, and sustenance of theatre.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• performance
• theatre
• Indian feminist theatre

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In Hindu mythology, Shakti is the divine energy personified by the female consort of the Hindu God Shiva. The group, Shakti, was the women’s cultural wing of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Chennai. AIDWA is a women’s organization founded in 1981, which is also the women’s wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

2. An autonomous cultural troupe of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, Tamil Nadu founded in 1993.

3. Marappachi literally means dolls made of wood given to daughters.

4. In the Mahabharata, Amba, along with her siblings Ambika and Ambalika, was abducted by Bhishma, a powerful warrior, to offer to his half-brother Vichitravirya as a bride. However, Amba confessed her love for the King of Salwa whom she had planned to marry. Hearing this, Bhisma sent Amba back, but she was rejected by the King of Salwa because of Kshatriya dharma (code of conduct for the warriors). Dejected Amba returned to Bhishma and asked him to marry her following the code of conduct which Bhisma refused owing to his vow of celibacy. Angry and humiliated Amba swore to avenge and killed herself and was reincarnated and transformed as Shikhandi. In the great Kurukshetra war, Amba/ Shikhandi rode in the chariot of Arjuna to fight with Bhisma. Seeing a woman/ resembling a woman/ a woman reincarnated, Bhisma withdrew his weapon, resulting in getting pierced with combined arrows of Arjuna and Shikhandi.

5. Koothu (also Therukoothu and Kattaikoothu) is an indigenous folk form of art which originates primarily in Tamil Nadu, India, where performers mix music, songs, and dance while retelling/narrating stories from the epics.

6. Isai natakam (literally music-drama) refers to musical drama or special drama that originated in the early nineteenth century in Tamil Nadu, India and flourished until the advent of motion pictures in the twentieth century. For an analysis of isai natakam, see Hansen (2021). Tamil drama in colonial Madras: the Parsi theatre connection.

7. The Dravidian movement started primarily as a protest against the dominance of the Brahmins in British India in 1916 with the formation of the Justice Party in Tamil Nadu. Later the movement gained impetus as a self-respect movement under the leadership of E. V. Ramasamy Naicker, commonly known as Periyar, who became head of the Justice Party in 1939, and changed its name to Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944. Periyar was a social reformer and an educationist who advocated for the eradication of caste, poverty, women’s secondary status, Aryan domination, Brahminism, and exploitation of non-Brahmin people by the Brahmins. He also championed the idea of an independent Dravida Nadu (a sovereign state for the Dravidians) based on Tamil identity. He voiced his dissent against the introduction of Hindi in the schools of Tamil Nadu and launched anti-Hindi agitations across the state.

8. Nagamma or Nagammal, as described by Mythily Sivaraman (1939–2021; a prominent leader of CPI(M) and AIDWA) in an article for the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW 1978, Vol. 13, No. 26, pp. 1055–1056), married outside her caste and went on to live with the lower-caste (Dalit) people. She protested against the wrong doings of upper-caste men for which she was falsely accused of theft. She was arrested and sexually assaulted while her daughter was gang-raped. Upon release after the Emergency in India, she fought for justice, and to her utter surprise, realized that the person entrusted with the job of enquiry was the same person who supervised her torture.

9. Augusto Boal (1931–2009) was a Brazilian theatre scholar, theatre practitioner and political activist, famous for his invention of Theatre of the Oppressed, Forum Theatre and Legislative Theatre. His seminal work Theatre of the Oppressed (1974) demonstrates the four stages of the ‘poetics of the oppressed’ through which Boal seeks to transform the passive spectators into active ‘spect-actors’ by providing them opportunity to perform/ suggest alternate possibilities in the theatre.

10. Self-Help Group.

11. Non-Governmental Organization.

12. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a right- wing major political party in India.

13. Zindabad, literally meaning long live, is meant to express support and encouragement.

14. Inquilab, born as Shahul Hameed (1944–2016), is a renowned Tamil poet, playwright, social activist, Communist, and retired as a professor of Tamil at The New College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The plays of Inquilab, Avvai, Manimegalai, Kurinjipaatu, Yaadum Nammoor, and Palsaanteerey, are directed by Mangai.

15. B. Jayashree (1950–) is an actress, theatre director, and singer, recipient of the Padma Shri (fourth-highest civilian award by the Government of India) in 2013, and a former Member of Parliament, Government of India.

16. V. Geetha is a feminist activist, historian, writer, playwright, and translator.

17. Na. Muthuswamy (1936–2018), recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1999, and the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India in 2012, is a prominent theatre director of the Tamil stage, famous for his avant garde technique and exploration of koothu as a total theatre.

18. Koothu-P-Pattarai is a prominent Tamil folk theatre group founded by Na. Muthuswamy in 1977.

19. Pralayan Shanmugasundaram Chandrasekaran, commonly known as Pralayan, is the founder and convener of Chennai Kalai Kuzhu, who focuses mostly on open-air political theatre in Tamil Nadu.

20. National School of Drama (NSD) is an autonomous theatre training institute which was established in 1959 by the Sangeet Natak Akademi under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India at New Delhi, India.

21. The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), founded in 1969 by J. R. D. Tata and Dr. Jamshed Bhabha, is a multi-purpose cultural institute in Mumbai, India that aims at promoting the vibrant traditions of Indian art, dance, music, theatre, literature, and film.

22. Anuradha Kapur (1950–), recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2004, is a theatre director, professor of drama at National School of Drama, as well as a former Director of it.

23. Recipient of B.V Karanth Smrirti Puraskar in 2010 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Direction in 2011, Kirti Jain (1949–) is a theatre director who also served as a Professor of Drama at National School of Drama and later headed the institute as its Director.

24. Tripurari Sharma (1956–), recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Direction in the year 2012, served as the Professor of Drama at National School of Drama as well as Acting Director of National School of Drama.

25. Maya Krishna Rao (1953–) is a social activist, theatre artist, comedian. She was awarded with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for acting in the year 2010 and returned it in 2015 as a protest against rising intolerance in India. She served as an Associate Professor at National School of Drama, Professor at Shiv Nadar University, India, and presently is working as Visiting Faculty at Ashoka University, India.

26. Vijaya Mehta (1934–), recipient of the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for acting in the film Rao Saheb in 1986, is an actor, and theatre and film director. In the year 1975, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Direction was conferred on her.

27. Rabijita Gogoi, recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademy Ustad Bismillah Khan Award in the year 2006, is a theatre artist, theatre director, and a translator.

28. Safdar Hashmi (1954–1989) is street theatre activist with Left allegiance, playwright, director, lyricist, exponent of political theatre, and founding member of Jana Natya Manch (JANAM) in 1973, a left-wing street theatre group aimed at voicing working class/common people’s demands, who was murdered while performing a street play named Halla Bol in Jhandapur (U. P., India) in 1989.

29. Dalit, literally meaning oppressed, refers to people from the ‘low’ caste in the Indian caste system, previously termed as ‘Untouchables’ or ‘Harijans’ (literally ‘Children of God’ as described by Mahatma Gandhi), and legally denoted by the term Scheduled Caste.

30. Vanniyar refers to people belonging primarily to the agricultural profession and recognized as the Most Backward Class in Tamil Nadu, India. After independence, the importance of Vanniyars grew in Tamil Nadu, and some clashes with the Dalits also took place.

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Soumya Mohan Ghosh

Soumya Mohan Ghosh completed his M.A. in English and Comparative Literature at Pondicherry University, Puducherry and received his Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India. Previously, he taught at J. R. S. College Jamalpur, a constituent unit of Munger University. Presently, he is an Assistant Professor and Head, Department of English at Purbasthali College (affiliated to University of Burdwan), West Bengal. His research papers have published in many international journals. He co-edited the book on Problematics of Gender Discourse: Perspectives on Masculinism and Feminism. He can be reached at [email protected].