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Challenges before Cultural Resistance
Methods of Intervention
Arjun Ghosh*
Any intervention of the Left in the field of the dominant media must be guided by an adherence to politics and
seek to fundamentally alter the relations of artistic production and make art more accessible to the people. A democratic
politics cannot be asserted through an undemocratic set up. Through its performance of Bush ka Matlab Jhadi the Jana
Natya Manch has indeed proved its ability to handled 'large' forms of performance. But it was the call of its politics which
disabled it from repeating the show beyond WSF. For, the WSF provided a certain cushioning environment where Janam
could put up such a 'large' show. If the WSF provided the funds and the infrastructure it produced precisely those
conditions which Janam cannot obtain on its own. And I would argue that Janam need not obtain such conditions. For
the WSF, in many ways, emulated the conditions of the dominant media – a rock show atmosphere – which may be
thrilling as an emphatic expression of dissatisfaction but does not promote radical alternatives.
Arjun Ghosh*
*
In January 2004 the Jana Natya Manch [Janam] was invited to perform at the World Social
Forum [WSF] in Mumbai. The Organizing Committee of the WSF had handpicked certain groups to
perform at the main stages which had been set up at various parts of the huge WSF arena at
abandoned factory spaces in Goregaon East in North Mumbai. These groups were selected to show
case the richest examples of the culture of resistance from across India. With its pioneering role and
continued activity in the field of Street Theatre and Peoples' Theatre in India the Jana Natya Manch
was an obvious invitee. The invitation to perform at the event was nothing new for Janam for in its
thirty years' existence the group has regularly been regularly invited to perform at various theatre
festivals across the country. But Janam is most well known for its street theatre performances. But on
this occasion the group had been asked to perform in a location which was quite contrary to the
conditions of performance for street plays. Stage Faiz, one of the three main outdoor performance
arenas in the WSF site. It was a stage which had enormous dimensions of 60' x40'x15'. A street play
performance on such a stage was out of question. Moreover, most of Janam's theatre being heavy on
dialogue was not suitable for such a large stage. In fact, any of Janam's proscenium plays were too
'small' in comparison to the 'large'ness of the stage. What made the invitation even more curious was
the fact that the WSF site itself had three arenas earmarked for street performances – and one of them
was named after Safdar Hashmi, a founder member of the Jana Natya Manch. It was fine that the WSF
organizers wanted to honour and showcase Janam, but how did the group respond to the challenge.
From the very beginning Janam was on the look out to match the large stage with a 'large'
performance. The theme of the performance was to be a celebration of the resistance to the imperialist
designs of the US-led 'War on Terror' and the anti-war movement across the globe. An important
requirement of a 'large' performance was a 'large' cast and an equally large support team. The members
of Janam started mobilizing actors and artists for the project. It was clear to all from the beginning that
any contribution to the performance would be voluntary entailing no payment. The only reason that
the artists came together for the production – Bush ka Matlab Jhadi [Bush, is a Bush] – was their
agreement on the overall theme of the performance, the goals of the WSF platform and a respect
towards the Jana Natya Manch and its work. The collaboration was therefore, a political one.
The required 'large'ness of the play was translated in several dimensions. Of course, many of
the aspects were ones which Janam had experienced even earlier – like the large cast, live on-stage
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music and improvised costumes and properties. Notable among the costumes were two giant masks of
George Bush and Tony Blair made of latex, including a strap-on tail for Blair – Blair was portrayed as
Bush's pet dog in the play. But the most notable element was the use of video footage. Specially edited
video footage supplemented the actors. The video served two purposes – one, since the action of the
play was largely a caricature and comical in treatment, the video provided a Brechtian link with the real
world outside the play, the world where the donkey, the kid and the people of Iraq have not been able
to corner Bush and Blair; two, the projection screens allowed for a greater coverage of the visual field
of the spectator and assisted the 'large'ness of the performance.
The 'large'ness of Bush ka Matlab Jhadi also required a 'large' budget. Because the WSF
Organizing Committee had commissioned Janam for the show a large part of the budget (almost half
lakh rupees!) was reimbursed by the WSF Organizing Committee. However, Janam had to bear the
costs of the two shows which were held in Delhi as part of the run-up to the WSF. The 'large' bill of
expenses was predominantly made up of the costs of the production of the video, video projection and
live music. Without such large funding these multimedia inputs could not have been possible. As we
have already noted the multimedia inputs were themselves necessitated by the 'large'ness of the
performance space. Conversely, therefore, it can be argued that without a 'large' funding Janam could
not have performed in as 'large' a space as it did at the WSF. Indeed, after the WSF Bush ka Matlab
Jahadi was not revived. There was some talk, within the group of reworking the play minus the video
projection, using playback music. But that was a difficult proposition as the action of the play was very
much integrated with the multimedia element. So, it would not be possible to revive the play without
fundamental alterations.
Janam's performance of Bush ka Matlab Jhadi at the WSF was somewhat of a departure from the
group's usual activities. Though Janam is a group which maintains a habit of constant innovation,
seldom has it used such cost intensive technology for its performances. In fact, it could be argued that
the use of multimedia is more associated with the dominant media, or a media which is capital
intensive, produced by the few for the consumption of the few or for the masses. It is associated with
media practices which are undemocratic. Janam's departure, away from cost effect 'small' performances
to a 'large' performance could form the basis of an assessment of the relationship between media
technology, media practices and media politics. This paper shall explore the scope of cultural resistance
and the forms that such resistance may take. If the dominant cultural modes represent the dominance
of the ruling classes is there a way that these modes can be made to serve the task of resistance? Should
the dominant modes be subverted or should they be restructured? Of course, my point of entry into
this debate would be from the side of resistance, through the experiences of the Jana Natya Manch.
Founded in 1973 the Jana Natya Manch has always been guided by the slogan of 'Theatre to
the People'. Although the group has performed all over India, the bulk of its work has been in the
working class localities, educational institutions and lower middle class neighbourhoods in and around
Delhi. The nature of Janam and the kind of theatre Janam has engaged itself in for much of its over
thirty years' existence can be said to have been defined by the way the group responded to the
conditions prevailing after the political emergency which was imposed on the country by the Indira
Gandhi regime between 1975-77. It was not that Janam had not performed 'street plays' before the
emergency – plays like 'Nixon-Kissinger Dialogue' and Kursi, kursi, kursi were short dramatic pieces which
were performed at political rallies and sit ins. But Janam's primary activity in this period were
proscenium plays which were performed at outdoor locations on makeshift stages. The local host
organizations, mostly trade unions and youth organizations made the arrangements for the stage, the
light and the sound. But the attacks on democratic organizations during the emergency wrecked their
ability to put together resources for Janam's shows. Janam was thus faced with a problem. It was then
that the members of Janam had to rethink their strategies and in one of the discussions Safdar Hashmi
suggested to his colleagues, 'agar hum bade natak nahin le ja sakte hain janta ke beech mein to hum chhote natak
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le jayenge [if we can’t take big plays to the people then we must take short plays]'.1
And if Janam was to produce short plays to the people the only way they could overcome the
paucity of 'short' scripts was to write their own plays. Machine was the first of many collaborative and
collective ventures which Janam has produced. Thus, Janam's decision to shift to 'short' or 'small' plays
instead of stage plays was essentially a political response to the post-emergency conditions. For ten
years the group performed only street plays, before returning to the proscenium in 1988 with Moteram
ka Satyagrah. Since then Janam has produced an average of one proscenium play every two years. Street
plays continue to be the mainstay of the group.
The predominance of street plays have great implications on Janam's balance sheet. Though
street plays account for a small percentage of Janam's expenses, post-performance collections from
street plays account for a vast fraction
ofUp
theof group's
income.
Break
Income Sources
(1989-2004)
Others
1%
Sales
12%
Street Play Collections
24%
Donations
20%
Reimbursement
Proscenium Collections
28%
15%
Fig. 1: Break Up of Janam’s Income Sources (1998-2004)
Post performance collections are not only a crucial source of funds for the Jana Natya Manch, it also
forms the primary link between the groups and its audiences. Collections after street plays account for
almost a quarter of Janam's finances. In the graphic 'Reimbursement' includes the money received by
Janam from host organizations as performance fees, donations or reimbursement of travel expense.
The Jana Natya Manch is a voluntary political organization which does not pay its actors for
their performances. Nor does it accept any funding from the government or any corporate entity for
the group believes that seldom does such funding allow political independence to the recipient. This
restriction of access to finance has a twofold implication on Janam – first, there is a very high turnover
of actors with most actors who join the group sticking with it for a few years at best before they
become preoccupied with their jobs and household responsibilities; and second Janam has little or no
access to the infrastructure of the dominant media.
To take up the issue of membership first it must be said that for a political theatre group like
the Jana Natya Manch its membership and its actors are the mainstay for its survival and independence.
A successful and effective Janam actor also needs to be politically trained and a clarity on ideological
issues lends to the sharpness of his/her contribution to the collective play making process. And such
political training can be garnered only by the length of one's association with the group. Other than
political training artistic and creative training is also honed within an actor. So, once an actor gains
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experience (s)he is in a position to help newer members develop themselves both artistically and
politically. More senior actors can then concentrate on other tasks of organization building. Thus, can
be set in motion a cycle of renewal of skills and commitment. But a high turnover rate induced by the
pressures of the pecuniary existence hinders the growth of the organization both in its aesthetic and
political growth, as well as its horizontal growth and increasing the sphere of its activities. At the same
time the newer members arrive with a consciousness which may never have had any acquaintance with
Janam’s politics. With a constant crop of new members the over all political consciousness of the
organization remains low. This can have multiple effects on Janam’s activities. It can affect the
commitment that a member shows in Janam’s work or it can also affect improvisation sessions which
demand a certain political understanding from the actors. However, according to Sunil Pokharayal of
the Arohan theatre group of Kathmandu, the phenomenon of people taking up theatre as a part-time
activity is the strength, rather than the weakness, of the theatre movement in South Asia. Non-profit
theatre groups are able to pay little or no wage to their actors. Thus activist theatre can only sustain
itself as a part-time activity. If such groups demanded full time activity they may not have been able to
continue to work.
The second issue is that of access to resources. I need not go into any details to press home the
advantages of scale which the electronic media and the entire entertainment industry holds over
resistance forms like street theatre. The ability to penetrate every household and into the interiors of
the country till today remains unmatched by any alternative cultural effort other than in certain
pockets. The hegemony which the returns from the entertainment and news industry asserts over the
cultural life of the people of our country today can be hardly overestimated. What are we to conclude
from this disparity of scale between forms like street theatre and the dominant modes of cultural
production and transmission? If we turn to the history of the Indian media we find that there was for a
very long while after the Independence a remarkable influence of the ideas of socialism on it?
Continuing from the Independence movement and the experience the Indian Peoples' Theatre [IPTA]
and the Progressive Writers' Association [PWA] the assertion of socialist and democratic ideals were
recognisable through the work of Prithviraj Kapoor, K.L. Saigal, Bimal Roy, Pankaj Mullick, Balraj
Sahni, K.A. Abbbas, Sachin Dev Burman, Utpal Dutt, Habib Tanvir, Ritwik Ghatak, Majrooh
Sultanpuri, Javed Akhtar. Yet it also needs to be noted that though these stalwarts did keep socialist
ideas in the view for over two decades, it can be argued that if they had continued to function from
within the organizational fold of the Left cultural movement their talent and efforts may have
strengthened the movement. But this is not the place where we can go in the debates surrounding the
break up the the IPTA and the relationship between the Communist Party and its cultural fronts. I
would like to argue that the nature of the involvement of the afore mentioned stalwarts and the
possibility of the artists of the Jana Natya Manch intervening in the dominant media are distinct in
their parameters. For the stalwarts the dominant media was their primary field of activity, whereas for
the members of Janam it is Janam itself. Responding to a question on the possibility of Janam's actors
working in the dominant media Safdar Hashmi said:
You see ... we are giving a lot of time to our theatre, but the pressure is beginning to get too
much now.... domestic pressures are there. Take Manish. He is one of our finest actors. Both
his parents are over 75. his wife is always ill. He has two children. He is running a small printing
press which is not doing well. He is surrounded by 1,001 problems. He wants to give time to
Janam but he can't and there is this constant sense of guilt, you know. The three most senior
members of our group are thus no longer able to give all the time that is necessary. Teagi [sic] is
certainly one of the finest actors in the city. If he wants to get into cinema he only needs to
spread the word that he is available. He doesn't want to do it. The same goes for Manish and
me. Last year, my wife [Moloyashree Hashmi] was asked to play the lead in the film that won
the national award for the best film of the year. It would have meant a great deal for her. But
we have not taken those opportunities.2
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Only Safdar had actually worked as a script writer for a television series on the state run television, but
that was for very little money when the more lucrative offers from the Bombay film industry but he
abjured from all of them. At the point when Safdar spoke these words in 1988 the choice of entering
the electronic media was facing not only the members of Janam in their individual capacity but as a
group. The group needed money to fund its project of setting up a cultural institute in order to advance
the movement. Safdar proposed to use his talents as a script writer to earn the necessary money for
Janam. But he realized the danger involved in such a proposition. His proposal therefore, included a
safe guard:
[A] trust will be set up even before a penny comes in. no money woll come in my name but
only in the name of the trust.... i will become a member of the trust and will receive a salary.... I
come from a very poor background. I had a very tough life as a child. So this danger is there, i
have never seen money. If I see 200,00 rupees, I may just lose my balance.3
But earning money was not the only concern before these artists. There was also a dissatisfaction with
the substandard cultural fare which vast sections of the population were being subjected to by the
dominant media: 'Television is (a) full of blatant government propaganda and (b) in terms of serials
only the worst stuff reaches them.4. Safdar felt 'if we do not become active in this new medium which
is opening up it will be our own lose.'5 Thus, the group was caught between the need to intervene and
alter the dominant system, and the danger of being copted or sucked into a system one was opposed
to. If we turn to the Janam of today we find that there has been an intensification of the conflict
between the two possibilities. Many of the new members who join Janam are ones who want to utilize
Janam as a take off point, to brush off the rust, in the quest for a space in the limelight of television
serials and films. Needless to say for them the grind of performing in dusty, noisy lanes of working
class slums in the outskirts of the city proves too much after a while. On the other hand we have seen
that over the last few years several of Janam's actors who had gathered experience of 3 to 10 years quit
Janam to be able to further their careers in the dominant media. There are other actors who are
intermittently offered work in televisions serials or telefilms, work which fetches them some financial
respite. There is thus, a possibility that repeated association with sources of remuneration outside the
fold of Janam may open up possibilities of a career in the lucrative electronic media. The electronic
media and other forms of commercialized performance forms hold yet another incentive for the actor.
Artists committed to their art have an inherent desire to present their art before greater and greater
number of people, a desire for fame and glory. The artist, therefore, seeks to constantly broaden the
distribution of his/her art. The scope of distribution offered by an organization is proportional to its
sphere of influence and organizational strength. Thus, we see that on both counts of finance and
distribution the dominant media have an advantage over Jana Natya Manch.
It would seem that there exist fundamental differences between dominant cultural forms and
forms of resistance, among other things in terms of their finance and distribution. The dominant forms
being dominant have greater influence over individual artists. But as I would like to demonstrate it is
not formal differences which should be our main concern in searching for ways to counter dominant
forms. To do so I would like to discuss the alternate forms of street theatre – which differ from each
other in one primary element that of politics. Though street theatre is seen by most people as
associated with the Left, the Left is not by any means the sole practitioner of street theatre. In fact, we
may note here the astonishing fact that though the Congress Party and its goons were responsible for
the murder of Safdar Hashmi in 1989, as early as 1991 it was the Congress Party which employed street
theatre groups to campaign for its candidates. Today all political parties of the right use street theatre
to campaign during elections. There is, however, a vast difference between Janam's style of
campaigning and those of the political parties of the establishment. These parties use the structure
which has been put in place for the use of street theatre to carry out public awareness campaigns under
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the aegis of government agencies like the Song and Drama Division. They hire artists on a contract
basis to carry out public information campaigns on topics like ‛Save Oil’ and ‛Family Planning’. Though
they are not of much artistic merit, like the street theatre of the NGOs, the theatre of this kind also go
on to define street theatre to the uniformed. The approach of such agencies to street theatre is revealed
from an advertisement which was placed by the Department of Family Welfare, Ministry of Health
which invited ‛sealed quotations from reputed parties in the profession, for organising street plays during
the India International Trade Fair.’6 Gone are the illusions of ‛social messages’, street theatre has been
reduced to advertisement, a commodity which is available in the market. This approach has given rise
to a circle of theatre contracting in Delhi where young men and (sometimes) women look to make
‛some money’ out of such campaigns.
When Janam takes up a campaign it follows a democratic process through which the theme of
the play is decided and the play is prepared through a combination of improvisation and scripting.
Thus, all actors get an opportunity to contribute in the play making process, with the more experienced
and talented members contributing the most. But almost never can it be said that the play making
process reaches a conclusion. For as the play is performed by those who have created it they are at
liberty to alter it. Also, since the group itself is motivated by a politics the pollitical party, i.e. the
CPI(M) need not act as a censor over the performances to ensure that the political line of the party is
not violated. Thus, in the middle of a campaign the group can make suitable alterations to suit the
peculiar needs of a particular locale or to incorporate a response to some recent happening. In the case
of the parties of the establishment and the government agencies, however, such liberty cannot be
granted. The script of the campaign play is centrally prepared and and approved by the party's
campaign managers. 'Actors' are then recruited on a contract basis on a fixed rate of payment per
show. As the primary motive for these 'actors is money and they were never a part of the play making
process they cannot be trusted to alter the play for fear of a wrong projection of the party's political
position. In fact, I have come across such 'actors' who are decidedly against the party for which they
perform – they are in it only for the money. The result is that the performances remain the same for all
localities and the play cannot be updated during the campaign. It is, thus, an extremely top down
structure.
As we can see though the form remains the same the ultimate effects of the two styles of
performance lay in the structure of the performing organization. While the Jana Natya Manch follows a
democratic set up, the performances of the establishment replicate the undemocratic top-down model
of the electronic media and the capitalist production system. The two structure represent, precisely,
two different politics. The question, thus, is not whether street theatre is a democratic form and the
television and cinema are undemocratic forms, the question is not whether the establishment shall
appropriate the forms of resistance or whether the resistance shall intervene in and alter the dominant
modes of cultural production and dissemination. The question to be asked is what is the politics on the
basis of which a particular cultural production is based – does it empower its producers and recipients
or does it empower its owners?; who are the owners of the means of production of art – whether it is
the media tycoons, the sponsors, funding agencies like the Ford Foundation or is it the actors and the
audiences who fund the theatre themselves? For the politics which a art form propagates is the politics
which also determines its organizational structure. If a group like the Jana Natya Manch wishes to
campaign for a democratic society through its theatre it must preserve the democratic environment
within its own folds.
It is this politics, as well, which can sustain a Left cultural group in the face of the constant
challenges and threats from the dominant cultural modes as we have seen earlier. It is his political
commitment and conviction that empowered Safdar Hashmi and his coactors to reject the lures from
the mainstream media. Like all Left organizations members of cultural organizations of the Left have
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to undergo a process declassing themselves from their middle class moorings and free themselves from
the influence values and ideas inculcated by the ruling classes. And it is the politics which must form
the basis of the resistance to, intervention in and restructuring of dominant cultural modes. Since, they
operate in the field of theatre groups like the Jana Natya Manch need to intervene politcally in the
larger field of theatre, to democratize it. The evolution of theatre in ancient Greece from the choral
song is an evidence of the formation of class distinctions. At the beginning theatre was in the chorus,
the mass, who were the true protagonist. But with the differentiation between the protagonist, the
antagonist and the chorus the theatre was 'aristocratized'. Similar discriminatory distribution of
privilege recurs in the relationship between the author and the actors, or between the performers and
the spectators. The resistance in the field of theatre needs to challenge and change the theatre
apparatus. The existing theatre apparatus exhibits a revulsion to any attempt to change it, or any
innovation which is far reaching by nature. But the experience of various Left theatrical practitioners
have shown that their innovations have always lead them to bring about alterations in the fundamental
relations of production in theatre. In Soviet Russia in 1930-31 there were efforts made to write plays
collectively. The effort included a practice in which the worker-authors read and discussed their
manuscripts with other members of the literary circle. Not only plays but a large number of novels
(though unpublished) were also produced in the process.7 The German dramaturg Erwin Piscator
looked upon theatre as a parliament and the audience as a legislative body. In Piscator's theatre a whole
staff of playwrights worked together on a single play, and their work was reviewed by a team of experts
who were mostly historians, economists and statisticians.8 However, it is not that all attempts at mass
participation in the creation of art were successful. In revolutionary China the mass participation in
creative work under state control resulted in a decline in artistic standards.9 Nevertheless, the moot
point is the identification of the apparatus of artistic production as an object of change. The central
control of the ruling elite under the capitalist order exercises a hegemonistic control through the
power/knowledge relationship. A mass culture which is mass produced but without the participation
of the masses as the producers has a dual fall out – it prevents resistance to the class rule of the
bourgeoisie by containing the laughter and other disruptive emotions; and it reduces culture to a
commodity. The effects of the relations of production on art is similar to that of science, where the
greatest inventions and discoveries of humankind have been used to further consolidation relations of
domination. Thus, 'increases in production lead to increases in misery; only a minority gain from the
exploitation of nature, and they only do so because they exploit men'.10 The greatest products of
human art are treated as symbols of ruling class superiority and are inaccessible to interpretation and
reworking for generations of human majority. Reversing this relation is an essential task of the
proletarian cultural revolution.
Revolutionary theatre and art should look to democratized not only the production but also the
distribution of art and theatre. Theatre should rigorously ally itself with the people, and be responsive
to the masses – and to do so it must abandon the proscenium space which maintains an incognito
between the performers and the spectators; it must travel to the people, to the suburbs, the slums, and
the remote hinterland. It is in this attitude to reaching out to a audience which has never been exposed
to theatre and other art forms which differentiates between 'revolutionary' and 'anti-establishment' or
avant garde art. While 'revolutionary' theatre seeks change by addressing those who have most to gain
from it, 'anti-establishment' theatre expresses its rage among those audiences which have a lot to lose if
change occurs and is therefore, fruitless. In its attempt to reach out to larger sections of the exploited
people radical art forms must make use of the latest technology, for technology like science, the classics
and the five senses is the property of the majority which has been used by the minority to perpetuate
its class rule. As Brecht wrote – 'technology is international'.11
One, of course, may argue that the 'latest' technology would come at a price which may be
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prohibitive for a Left cultural group like Janam. I would like to answer the question in three points.
First, if politics is the source of strength for developing the organization, then the organization is the
source of strength for countering the apparent disadvantages in finance and distribution of art. If the
Jana Natya Manch had a wide network of operational units in and around Delhi, then, leike the West
Bengal IPTA or the Praja Natya Mandali in Andhra Pradesh there would be no dearth of audience.
Similarly, resources can also be mobilized. In 1997 Janam mobilized a huge sum of money from its
audiences and well wishers to fund Safar – the mobile theatre which it now uses to stage its
proscenium plays and other shows. Also, Janam today has developed a healthy corpus of funds which
it can use to fulfill some of its infrastuctural needs.
To take on the dominant media the Left needs to think beyond the prevalent modes of
operation. It must change the rules. It need not be bothered beyond a point about costs, for
technological advance – in the form of digital video recorders and storage, transmission equipment,
FM radio services and broadband services – have now brought the erstwhile unreachable technologies
within reach. But if according to all 'technology is international' or universal and, therefore, not
untouchable for anyone, it is also true that technology itself is not political. It take on the shape of the
politics which wears it. We can take a look at a tremendous innovation which Hugo Chavez's
Venezuela is bringing about in the entire Latin America. It seeks counter the stranglehold of Americanproduced Spanish language programmes which are transmitted from Miami and Atlanta to all over
Latin America; at present 97% of all television viewing in Latin America is produced in the USA! The
Venezuelan government alongwith the governments of Argentina, Uruguay and Cuba has set up a new
pan-Latin America channel – Telesur. The most interesting part of this project is the effort to involve
communities or barrios in the task of producing programming. Venezuela already had a vibrant
Community TV movement – notably Catia TV – which took off from the public outcry against the
media generated coup which temporarily removed Chavez from office in 2002. the Catia Tv which
operates under the slogan 'Don't watch television. Make it' – allows communities to submit and
transmit their own programming. A cost effective and a democratic solution.
Any intervention of the Left in the field of the dominant media must be guided by an
adherence to politics and seek to fundamentally alter the relations of artistic production and make art
more accessible to the people. A democratic politics cannot be asserted through an undemocratic set
up. Through its performance of Bush ka Matlab Jhadi the Jana Natya Manch has indeed proved its
ability to handled 'large' forms of performance. But it was the call of its politics which disabled it from
repeating the show beyond WSF. For the WSF provided a certain cushioning environment where
Janam could put up such a 'large' show. If the WSF provided the funds and the infrastructure it is
produced precisely those conditions which Janam cannot obtain on its own. And i would argue that
Janam need not obtain such conditions. For the WSF, in many ways, emulated the conditions of the
dominant media – a rock show atmosphere – which may be thrilling as an emphatic expression of
dissatisfaction but does not promote radical alternatives.
Notes
1
2
3
4
5
Hashmi, Moloyashree (1997). ‛Drama has to created and crafted, even on the streets’ interview to Anjum Katyal.
Seagull Theatre Quarterly. No. 16. Dec. 57-71. 58-59
Hashmi, Safdar (1989). Right to Perform: Selected Writings of Safdar Hashmi. New Delhi, SAHMAT. 176.
Ibid 178.
Ibid 177.
Ibid 176.
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Deshpande, Sudhanva (1997b). ‛The “Inexhaustible Work of Criticism in Action”: Street Theatre of the Left’.
Seagull Theatre Quarterly. No. 16. 3-22. 3.
7
Borland, Harriet (1950). Soviet Literary Theory and Practice during the First Five-Year Plan, 1928-32. New
York, King's Crown Press. 67.
8
Brecht, Bertolt (1979). Brecht on Theatre. John Willet trans. New Delhi, Radha Krishna Prakashan. 130-31.
9
Pickowicz, Paul G. (1981). Marxist Literary Thought in China: The Influence of Chu Chiu Pai. California,
University of California Press. 250.
10
Brecht op cit. 184.
11
Ibid. 69.
6
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