Indian Theatre in the Past Tense: Contextualizing Language and Culture

Abstract

Indian theatre is now influenced by occidental sources and avantgarde experimentations. Linguistic expressions and cultural heterogeneity are injected into Indian plays considering them as something new, unique, and transcultural. However, it is necessary to understand that Indian theatre, since the classical times, has presented regional and indigenous cultures in regional languages or/and indigenous dialects. Moreover, its rich and diverse branches have not disintegrated Indian audience(s) but have connected them down the ages. This is because the chief sources of theatrical representations were chiefly borrowed from Indian mythologies, epics, and oral traditions. Historical erasures and cultural violence by colonial agents and monopoly of cinema couldn’t impact the regional theatres in India. Rather Indian theatre influenced the European theatre system and in turn got further heterogenized and diversified culturally and linguistically. However, in the present moment of cultural studies, it is necessary to revisit the rich history of Indian theatre by tracing the diverse roots of Indian cultures and languages that have fed the Indian theatre since its inception. For this, the present study is divided into three sections. While the first section introduces the study and proposes a methodology, the second section traces the roots of Indian theatre up to the modern times. The third section thereby makes conclusion.