106. Eldhose AY

Abstract 106
Eldhose AY           

Plays and Counter Plays: A Study of Dissent towards Dissent

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore the artistic nuances of dissent and counter dissent in drama in the socio-cultural context of a radical phase in Kerala with reference to You Made Me a Communist by Thoppil Bhasi. Thoppil Bhasi’s play is a strong dissent/protest drama which appeared in Malayalam theatre in the year 1952. The play was a protest against the exploitative tendencies employed by the feudal lords upon their tenants. Later, in 1995, a play entitled Whom Did You Make a Communist written by Civic Chandran was staged. This play can be considered a counter dissent voiced against an established protest drama, i.e. a dissent towards decent. Initially, the paper looks at the artistic and theatrical nuances of the present play and counter play duo. It will proceed to consider what happens when a newly emerged dissent culture becomes dominant.  For instance, the protest play, You Made Me a Communist, and its communist ideology, were once an ‘emergent culture’ in Kerala. Though this play was instrumental in creating a public sphere in the cultural context of Kerala, one can find a “number of significant exclusions” within its text.  The opinions of certain classes, especially the subaltern, were rendered unequal when the mainstream communist ideology exerted its dominance. Nancy Fraser called this an act of “bracketing of inequalities”. The subalterns should un-bracket the inequalities by creating their own “subaltern counter publics”. This study posits that Civic Chandran through his play Whom Did You make a Communist attempted to create a Dalit counter – publics in Malayalam theatre by addressing the plight of Mala, a Dalit and a strong communist character from You Made Me a Communist, whose voice was being suppressed by the playwright and the communist ideology respectively.

Keywords: Play and counter play, public sphere, subaltern counter publics, protest theatre.