New Delhi: The Bajrang Dal in Madhya Pradesh have forced a theatre festival to be cancelled over their objection to the title of a play by the legendary Vijay Tendulkar. Times of India, which has reported the news, spoke to members of the rightwing Hindutva outfit, who said they had not read the play Jaat hi pucho sadhu ki but had a problem with ‘sadhu’ in the title.
The annual Indian People’s Theatre Association was to have organised their festival at Chattarpur town, according to the report. However, the Bajrang Dal objected to Tendulkar’s play, citing that the play was “anti-Hindu and anti-Indian culture.”
In reality, Jaat hi is the Hindi version of Tendulkar’s Marathi play Pahije jatiche, a biting satire on caste, social divisions and the futility of rage displayed by the rich.
The play’s protagonist Mahipat is shown to struggle with acquiring nearly everything that keeps a person going. From education to employment, society erects barriers for Mahipat at every turn – in what is a reflection of the everyday sorrows of a large chunk of India’s youth even today.
A screengrab from an YouTube video of ‘Jaat hi pucho sadhu ki’, uploaded by a page called ‘Action Haryana’.
Shantanu Pandey, who had directed the play, however, told TOI that the “sadhu” in the play’s title did not refer to a holy man, but rather to a “sajjan or gentleman, which is how the word is often used in Hindi.”
Pandey, along with the IPTA’s general secretary for Madhya Pradesh, Shivendra Shukla, had reportedly asked for police protection, but received none. The Chhindwara SP told TOI that he received no application.
The two alleged that the Bajrang Dal had also issued threats, to which their district chief Surendra Shivhare reportedly said that the outfit had “not issued any threats but had written to the police and administration” asking for the play to not be staged.
Shivhare said they had also asked for another play – Prem Janmejaya’s Hindi Besharam mev jayate – to be cancelled.
Neither the Indian People’s Theatre Association, nor Vijay Tendulkar are strangers to censorship and political hounding.
While members of the IPTA, as India’s oldest theatre artiste’s organisation, have ritually produced plays which are critical of establishments, Tendulkar’s sharp critique of society in plays as iconic as Shantata! Court chalu aahe, Ghashiram Kotwal, and Sakharam Binder had faced severe opposition from the Shiv Sena under Bal Thackeray.
Tendulkar’s plays have withstood the test of time and have, for years, held a mirror to Indian society’s essential flaws.
Theatre veterans like Rohini Hattangady, Lillete Dubey and Atul Kumar have signed a petition against the cancellation of the festival, TOI has reported.
Madhya Pradesh recently played host to the arrest of comedian Munawar Faruqi and four of his associates from Indore even before he had performed his set, based on unproved allegations levelled by the son of a BJP MLA, who claimed to have “overheard” Faruqui rehearsing jokes that insulted Hindu deities and Union home minister Amit Shah. All five are now out on bail.