The Existentialist Transmogrification: Deconstructing the Modern Ashwatthama in Dharamvir Bharati’s Andha Yug
Author : Swasti Sharma
Abstract :
The modern Indian theatre is an epitome of experimental drama. Partly inspired by the western dialectical method, the playwrights of post-independent India embraced and appropriated Brechtian weltanschauung [1], Zola’s naturalism, and Beckettian existentialism (and by extension inherent nihilism) to complement the disposition of the Indian audience. Residual folk theatre techniques have embellished the fusion-oriented contemporary theatre, including tamasha, lavani, nautanki, swang, jatra, Ankiya naat bhaona and Yakshaganga. Dharamvir Bharati’s Andha Yug (translated as The Age of Blindness by Alok Bhalla), without exception, has recasted the theatre of roots [2] movement. Besides reclaiming the voices of the subaltern groups from the margins, the play endeavors to scrutinize the existing hierarchisation through figurative language. Ashwatthama, the nemesis of Pandavas, personifies “blind” abomination. His resemblance to the Partition-mongers of Bharati’s times is uncanny. Thus, he is the interpellated subject of the dominant ideology. As Bhumika Sharma noted:
Bharti's reconstitution of this historic-political event is chiefly understood against the backdrop of India's partition, which brings forth the animal instincts and madness of the individuals as well as masses. The element that enters into its reading is the moral overtone which reinterprets its textual significance for a more contemporary analysis. The literary rendering of the aftermath of a historical battle seems more concerned with the moral and ethical than political issues of the human society. Its political canvas bears the strokes of Indian philosophy in the context of present degradation of a modern man (Sharma 175) the “backdrop of partition” against which the narrative unfolds is the reference point of psychoanalytical intervention. Unrelenting when confronted with defeat, he echoes the myth of Sisyphus. The research paper attempts to primarily examine the intrinsic undertones of hermeneutic ontology in modern Indian theatre. Through close textual analysis of Bharati’s seminal play, the paper will outline the crisis of contemporary existence. Many scholars have deemed it a postmodern play. The focal point of the paper shall remain forging intertextual links with the oeuvres of other vernacular playwrights in post-independent India to evaluate the ramifications of the persistently shell-shocked psyche. Essentially a pacifist, Bharati espoused anti-fundamentalist jargon. The changing landscape of modern dramatic aesthetics, the evolving trajectory of reader-response and the perils of translation are also some of the ancillary concerns that would contour the discourse.
Keywords :
Weltanschauung, subaltern, interpellated, hermeneutic ontology, reader-response
