Emergent Trends and Issues in Indian English Drama

Drama in India is as old as its Customs starting right from the Vedic era. The distinct style of Indian dramaturgy evolved as an illustration of the rich mores of Indian traditions rituals, customs and ethnicity from Bharat Munis Natya Shastra which is also known as the fifth veda. It is said to have taken recitation from Rig Veda, imitation from Yajur Veda, melody from Sama Veda, and aesthetics from Atharva Veda as a means to subtly communicate significant experiences. Drama flourished in ancient India but with the decline of Sanskrit language it slipped into oblivion. However, the folk tradition continued unhampered in its various regional forms for a long time and kept the dramatic tradition alive. In the pre-independence era, playwrights like Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo and Harindranath Chattopadhyaya contributed significantly to the growth of Indian English drama. With time the nature of English drama changed once again from being a depiction of the European lifestyle to showcasing culture and traditions and propagating ideas of independence and after independence to being a broader representation of the social political and economic life of the country. In the meanwhile drama in regional languages also started to emerge as an important genre and writers like Dharamvir Bharati, Badal Sircar, Mohan Rakesh, Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Kamad began to experiment with and use remarkable innovations in themes, treatment and technique. Eminent theatre personalities like Habib Tanvir, Girish Kamad, Vijay Tendulkar, Mahesh Dattani, Marijula Padmanabhan and many others are responsible for the movement of English drama in India towards maturity making it stand apart as a distinct art form which is both serious and dignified. Drama today has emerged as a powerful resurgent medium to project the problematic of the social, cultural, political, traditional and historical changes that the Indian society faces besides the issues related to gender, class, caste and communities. Present anthology contains twenty three scholarly papers looking at Indian English drama from a variety of critical positions providing useful insights. The collection will certainly prove to be useful to students, research scholars teachers and others with interest in English Literature especially drama.