Women and Theatre in India

Transcription

1 Personal Details Role Name Affiliation Principal Investigator Prof. Sumita Parmar Allahabad University Paper Coordinator Prof. Sumita Parmar Allahabad University Content Writer/Author (CW) Prof. Anita Singh BHU, Varanasi Content Reviewer (CR) Prof. Sumita Parmar Allahabad University Language Editor (LE) Prof. Sumita Parmar Allahabad University, Allahabad (B) Description of Module Items Subject Name Paper Name Module Name/ Title Module ID Pre-requisites Objectives Keywords Description of Module Women s Studies Women & Literature Women and theatre Paper-2, Module-13 The reader should have some idea about the practice of theatre in India To make the reader aware of the gendered nature of theatre in India. Theatre, feminist, drama, tradition Women and Theatre in India Theatre is a public institution, a theatre performance a public event. On stage the theatre makers offer vision on the cultural and social conditions of a society and negotiate, so to say, with the audience (altering) norms and values of the society. Therefore a theatre performance is both an aesthetic, artistic phenomenon and a social and political event. Existing Literature Theatre in India has a long tradition and the the association of women with the dramatic arts is as old as the institution of theatre itself. However, there is lack of proper source and study materials on women s participation and presence in Indian theatre as an area of reading and research. Theatre scholarship in India is only just beginning to respond to the insights and emphases suggested by feminist criticism and feminist activism although women have performed roles that have ranged from playwright to direction and acting, to criticism, research and organization, The Natyashartra The lissom Mohenjodaro daneuse is testimony to women s ancient connection with drama. But this association, was either defined in relation with men or as an exclusive female commune. Natyasastra- first Indian treatise on dramaturgy portrayed men as taking up a good deal of space whereas women are portrayed as shrinking from the space and enclosing themselves. Women s positionality as encoded in Natyashastra is indicative, and even reflective, of the social status of women. In the Natyashastra Bharata suggested to Brahma that

2 to make drama effective, particularly when dance and romance were involved, female roles must be played exclusively by women. In response to it, Brahma created Apsaras. Extending the claim to the temporal extant Bharata clearly stated in his Natyashastra that the natya, i.e the drama in heaven depended on the Apsaras and so it should depend on the terrestrial women in this world. Thus, directly or in conjunction with men, women have always shadt a connection with the stage. Lasya is a form mentioned by Bharatmuni in chapter twenty of his Natyashastra. The women s' dance style lasya, is replete with shringar rasa, while the male choreography is loaded with tandava movements. As noted in the Natyashastra, all the twelve kinds of lasyas described therein are acted out by women only. There is a continuous production and reproduction of what Laura Mulvey calls the 'male gaze', where woman is viewed as an object of male desire (Mulvey cited in Storey), categorized and classified vis`-a-vis the male and tailor made to fit male requirements. Hence, it follows from this, that female dancing is probably for the entertainment of the androcentric world. In the opinion of Bharata there were four classes of heroines: the goddesses, queens, women of high families and courtesans. All women belong to three classes says Bharata, They are best, worst and mediocre. Bharata defines them according to the nature and temperament of the character. Dhanamjaya made further observations on the same issue and asserted that heroines in relation to the hero maybe of three kinds: 1. sva or sviya, the hero s own wife, she maybe of three categories: If she is of young age, easily convinced and innocent, she goes under the name, Mugdha. The second type Pragalbha, is competent to understand the deceitful behaviour of her husband or lover. And she who has passed the first stage, but has not reached the second, goes by the name Madhya. 2. Anya or anyastri, a woman who is either a maiden or someone else s wife. 3. Sadharana stri, who belongs to everybody, is a courtesan, a public woman. Shameless and cunning she tries to entrap the rich by her gestures and techniques (2.24). The heroines are more subtly divided in accordance with the hero s behavior towards her: Svadhina bhartrika - satisfied with her husband who companies her. Vasakasajja adorning herself for the while her husband is to return. Virahotkanthita dejected, because her committed husband is late to return to her. Khandita scrutinizes signs of another woman on her own paramour and doing so involves jealousy. Kalahantarita requests for repelling away her husband for a mistake. Vipralabdha offended on not turning up punctually on appointment. Prositapriya Bereaved husband stays abroad for work.

3 Abhisarika Self-indulgent to fulfill her carnal desires; searches her own lover or induce a lover to find her. ( tr.manmohan Ghosh) The female control is displayed in the canonical depiction of femininity (dictated by its source text/bible, the Natya Shastra), whereby eight heroines are codified as "male-defined ideal women." In the resultant repertory, the woman's plight consists of "longing, hesitation, sorrow, loneliness, anxiety, fear, parting, yearning, pleading, forgiveness, faithfulness, despondency, envy, self-disparagement, depression, derangement, madness, shame, grief, and being rebuked, insulted and mocked by one's family and deceived by one's lover"( Hanna 42), and points to the gender inscriptions and restrictions within the art form itself. Stree Preksha: An Exclusive Female Zone A brief survey of the Sanskrit stage and dramas with a focus on the function of women unearth the fact that the door of the theatre proscenium was not closed to them. Nonetheless Woman had limited admission to the male space or she had her own space defined for her an all women theatrical space, the Stree Preksha. The term Stree Preksha was first adopted by Kautilya, the author of Arthashastra in the fourth century B.C. indicating plays performed exclusively by female artists. In the Ganikadhyaksha Prakarana, Kautilya writes in detail about Ganikas, Nata, Nartaka, Gayak, Vadak and others, their salary, price of their freedom, etc. In this same chapter Kautilya refers to the state administration where women should have her husband s permission to visit a performance. Any women caught without the permission will be fined 6 panas if she goes to see plays by stree preksha and double the amount if caught watching plays by purush preksha and during night the fines double. Again, if a woman wished to see a performance at night, she should be accompanied by her husband. These constrictions projected the codes of morality of the society. Even Kalidasa referred to this tradition of Stree Preksha in his play Vikramorvashiya. In the play, a mythical account was dramatized by an all-female cast in the court of God Indra the play within play, Laxmi Swayamvara was composed by Saraswati, the goddess of learning. Apsaras like Urvashi, Varuni, Maneka complied with the direction of Bharata. In this mythical account, we find the reflection of the contemporary tradition of an all-female dramatic spectacle with which Kalidasa must have been well acquainted, (Varadpande). Kalidasa wrote during the Gupta period around 4 th and 5 th century hence the continuation of Stree Preksha around the centuries can be assumed. In the Harivamsha Purana written about 3 rd or 4 th century A.D., an elaborate description of women actresses staging a number of episodes from Krishna s life on the sea-shore is recovered. An episode in Vishnupurana captures instances of female actresses entertaining the Yadava clan led by Krishna and his elder brother Balarama, with their dance, song, acting. Regional taste found its expression in their dress and dialects. Kuttinimatam Kavyam by Damodaragupta, the 8 th century Kashmiri poet depicts the presentation of the first act of Sriharsha s play Ratnavali by the ganikas of Varanasi. The enactment was an all-female affair, where prominent male roles like those of Vatsaraj Udayana, Vidusaka or Narmasachiva Vasantak which was all acted out by women. Even the histrionic skill of Manjiri playing the role

4 of Ratnavali and a ganika disguised as king Udyana proves to be the best illustration of an allfemale theatre tradition, where women impersonate men and which flourished in India since the 4 th century B.C. Moreover, Bhasa s dramatic oeuvre portrays women s ideal role as wives.with such restrictions on female spectators, we can deduce that the actresses who were then performing were doing so under disabling circumstances. This constraining atmosphere rigidified itself gradually and by the age of Bhavabhuti around 8 th century the decadence in their position was rated the maximum. Their disappearance impelled another crisis in the enactment of the female roles. They provided a solution to it by introducing young boys below 14 years to impersonate women characters in the plays. Women almost disappeared from the theatrical scene with series of foreign invasions along with the institution of purdah system. The Sanskrit Sutradhara was accompanied by a female character called Nati. In a dialogic tone the Sutradhara introduces the play to the audience. The Nati by her songs and dance amused the audience. The Charanas, (a hereditary class of theatre artists by 10 th century A.D) continued this tradition under the patronage of Kings, viz., the Vijayanagar Empire. So the female roles in theatre were now played by Natis who were better nomenclatured as Devadasis. The Devadasi: In the Service of God The Hindu practice of dedicating girls to a life in temples by symbolically marrying them to the deity of the temple surfaced during Medieval India. They were called the Devadasis. As their name suggests they were the dasis (attendants) to the God, i.e., they serve God through dance and music and completely submit themselves to God by controlling their natural human impulses and senses. Devadasis generally danced twice daily, once in the morning where audiences were allowed and secondly in total seclusion to the Lord at night. The popularity of Devadasis seemed to have reached its pinnacle around 10 th and 11 th century A.D. The name of Devadasi Sutanuka is inscribed in the Jogimara cave just adjacent to the most ancient Indian cave theatre of Sitabinga in the Ramgarh Hills. This clearly links Devadasi s with the theatre institution. Devadasis, Ganikas, Nati all served the Indian theatre tradition for a long duration till the Muslim invasion. But the stigma of prostitution clung to their work. They came under attack in the 1830 s by Victorian morality and social reformist programs that saw it as a system that actively encouraged prostitution. Devadasis, as unmarried women who were sometimes romantically involved with their male patrons, posed a threat to the ideal of the respectable married family woman and to the notion of a Hindu community organized around marriage (Kannabiran 59-69). During the nationalist movement that emerged in the late 19 th century, discourse about women occupied a central role. The status of women was seen as an indicator of India s modernity and fitness to be nation, at the same time women were seen as the rightful keepers of tradition (Mani ) as Partha Chatterjee (1997) has suggested, elite Indian nationalism was highly gendered; the re-articulation of Indian womanhood was the foundation upon which the notion of an inner sphere, representative of Indianans, was built. Idealized notions of womanhood, central to the idea of inner sphere came to be inscribed on

5 the bodies of women by regulating how they should look and dress, how they should speak, sing and hold themselves, where should be, and with whom they should interact. The opposition between the inner and outer sphere of the nation enabled a series of other parallel and related oppositions : Private public; home world; women-men; middle class women lower class women; family women- prostitutes (Banerjee 1990, 1998, Weidman 2003). Nowhere did this dichotomy become clearer than in the social reformist discourse on the devdasis. The artistic accomplishment of devdasis women and their prowess as musicians and dancers were overshadowed in the 19 th and early 20 th century. The devadasis system as it is called was legally abolished in 1947, long after social stigma had already accomplished the work of removing devadasis from the public sphere as performers. The bharatiyanari and gender masquerades of Parsi Theatre and Folk theatre The latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century was a period of transition when the public image of Indian womanhood was being crafted not only through literature and social experiments but also through the commercial media of the Parsi theatre (highly influential between the 1850 s and 1930 s)and silent cinema. Sexes were firmly segregated. Women from good families dared not come out into the mardaan khanas (spacious living rooms for men) of their own houses, where their husbands sat smoking their hookahs, chewing pan and watching nautch girls dance and sing with their male friends. Yet all communities, including the otherwise progressive Parsis, believed that the presence of real flesh and blood women in theatre groups and on stage would corrode moral values and lead to extremes of debauchery. So not only female impersonators but also editors, thespians, directors and theatre owners, all came together in blocking real women from joining commercial theatre companies and enacting female roles on stage (Pande ). The sight of a woman in public was enveloped in moral condemnation, and the actress's low status was re-inscribed in the theatrical discourse. For the viewer, thus incapacitated in his/her ability to read the actress as other than "Prostitute, the female impersonator of the Parsi theatre offered a more palatable surrogate. The discourse of respectability promulgated by reformists existed uneasily beside a fascination for erotic display, the staple of audience enjoyment, and both were manipulated by the profit-seeking proprietors in a struggle for control of the represented female body. Parsi theatre was the most intriguing for its use of gender and race cross-dressing. Hansen rightly mentions that for most of the history of the theatre in south Asia, women have been represented by men. And when women do come on stage in the late 19th century and appeal in the cinema in the 20th, their identity is constructed as racially other : actresses of Anglo-Indian, Jewish, or mixed parentage (including courtesans) predominate. ( Stree Bhumika ) Here the female impersonator played a critical role in the construction of new norms of Indian womanhood. S/he was complemented by Anglo-Indian and Jewish actresses who masqueraded as Hindu and Parsi heroines. Hence by the apparent anomaly of Indian males passing as females and foreign women passing as Indian, the Parsi stage established a paradigm for female performance even before Indian women

6 themselves had become visible. Female impersonators structured the space into which female performers were to insert themselves, effecting the transition from stigmatized older practices to the newly consolidated normative representation Indian Woman ( bharatiya nari) of the nationalists(hansen127). Pande writes that these female impersonators assumed feminine airs she writes of Master Champalal, an erstwhile player of female roles in various travelling Parsi theatre companies for nearly a decade. He recounted in great detail the intense sadhana that was required of young thespians to become the perfect woman on the stage, whose chal dhal (gait and graces) even women from good families secretly emulated. In fact, in Maharashtra, women copied Bal Gandharva s style of draping the nine-yard sari, and walking. Some fans of another transvestite Wasi were so overcome by emotions that they ripped their sleeves and fell in a dead faint in the aisles (Pande 1647).And certainly there was much more to this womanhood than a mere stuffing of bosoms. The female image this presented enabled patriarchal power not only of the materiality of the female self but its symbolic projection. Women s visibility in the performance space in the last century or so has been the result of, as Katheryn Hansen states, a lengthy process of negotiation, wherein the performer's status and image have been reworked to incorporate the signs of Indian womanhood. Parsi theatre which polished the art of female impersonation by male actors can be seen as the precursor of Hindi films. The relentless exposures and close ups of the cinematic image began to reassert the demand for women in women s roles. Exclusion of women from the camaraderie of the theatre is also recorded in other forms of folk traditions, viz., Raslila, Ramlila, Jatra, Kutiyattam, Ayyappam Tyatiatta and many more. The Raslila is a devotional dance drama, a distinctive product of the Braj Region of Uttarpradesh. The performances are entirely devoted to the adulation of the love of Krishna and Radha and the earthly exploits of Krishna. The Ras troupe consists of ten to eighteen people, who are all male. Of these, six or eight boys ranging from the age group of about eight to thirteen play the roles of Krishna, Radha and Radha s milkmaid companions. And adult appears in roles such as Yashoda, Kansa, Shiva, Uddhav, so on. Yashoda played by an adult male would completely cover her face with the end of her saree during the performance. Other members composed the singers and instrumentalists. These boy actors were recruited around the age of eight to ten years, when they are the proud owners of good looks, good voices and good memories. The Bhavai of Gujarat and the Jatra of Bengal also consist of male actors who specialized in both and male and female roles. The Nautanki poets take delight to describe women as murderers, lustful vamps, warring goddesses, sorceresses. Underlying these casts the poet expounded an ideology of female chastity and subservience. The theatre, after all, is intrinsically public and therefore restrictive to women, it is not surprising that the experience of woman as outsider, devalued, objectified and often subservient is a recurrent theme. Like the Sanskrit era, the women s role as wives and mothers are accentuated. The heroines of Nautanki stories are framed according to the mythic prototypes from the Hindu epics in their potential to shape social conduct and serve as cultural ideals. Stories of warrior woman protecting her integrity were popular. The most popular virangana story is the Virangana Virmati. Virmati assumes heroic stature through active intervention in the events of the world and in doing moves beyond the morality of husband worship and feminine modesty. (Hansen,

7 194) The virangana stories foreground the moral fortitude, mental strength, determination in the weaker sex camouflaged under physical prowess, thereby inaugurating a counter paradigm for Indian women. Generally this concept of virangana arrives when the need arose to freshly restore the moral order of righteousness. Women s first appearance on stage Around 1930s women were seen enacting the roles of the heroines in the drama. As actresses they were first introduced in Kanpur Nautankis where they received better remuneration than men. Gulab Bai, a woman of the backward caste was the first women to perform in Nautanki. She performed the role of Laila in Laila-Majnun, Shirin in Shirin Farshad, Taramati in Harishchandra, Farida in Bahadur Ladki. Gulab Bai joined the theatre at an early age of twelve years and gained her fame and recognition by the late 1930s. Unfortunately this traditional theatre coupled between its modern counterpart and the Indian cinema suffered a severe setback around this same period. But the cause of its degeneration was discreetly assigned to the arrival of women in the genre of theatre. Society stigmatized the public appearance of women and this gravely affected these female artists. Exclusively they hailed from the lower Bedia caste or deredar Muslims or from the outer circles of a respectable society. Thus all women appearing on the stage were collectively branded as loose women. Absent or present on stage, women have been largely the looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size (Woolf 43). Female image, actual or as masquerade perpetuated patriarchal control not only of the material female body but its visual manifestations. Largely the theatre practice till 1970 s reinforced the categories of gender and cultural controls operating within women s live