After Independence, in 1947, in their efforts to create an ‘Indian’ theatre that was different from the Westernized, colonial theatre, Indian theatre practitioners began returning to their ‘roots’ in classical dance, religious ritual, martial arts, popular entertainment and aesthetic theory. The Theatre of Roots - as this movement was known - was the first conscious effort at creating a body of work for urban audience combining modern **** theatre with traditional Indian performance while maintaining its distinction from both.
By addressing the politics of aesthetics and by challenging the visual practices, performerspectator relationships, dramaturgical structures and aesthetic goals of colonial performance, the movement offered a strategy for reassessing colonial ideology and culture, and for articulating and defining a newly emerging ‘India’. The theatre of Roots presents an in-depth analysis of this movement: its innovations, theories, goals, accomplishments, problems and legacies.
Indian Theatre expands the boundaries of what is usually regarded as “theatre” in order to explore the multiple dimensions of theatrical performance. From rural festivals to contemporary urban theatre, from dramatic rituals and devotional performances to dancedramas and classical Sanskrit plays, this era is a vivid introduction to the colourful and often surprising world of Indian performance. Besides mapping the vast range of performance traditions, the book presents representative genres, including well-known forms such as Kathakali and Ramleela and little-known performances such as ‘”tamasha”, explains the historical background of the theatre form and interprets its dramatic literature, probes its ritual or religious significance, and, where relevant, explores its social and political implications.
