During the struggle for freedom and in the decades that followed Independence, theatre has been an important tool in social and political movements through plays such as Deenabandhu Mitra's “Neel Darpan” (Bengali,1872) to Thoppil Bhasi's “Ningalenne Communistaki”, (Malayalam,1952).
Playwrights and directors have used the stage to sensitise people to the many issues close to their hearts.
Through this play, Dara Shukoh - one of the most colourful characters of Indian history - Gopal Gandhi projects the creed of harmony. This gracefully written historical play highlights the ideological struggle between two positions.
The eldest of Emperor Shajahan's four sons, along with Aurangazeb, Murad and Shuja, Dara Shukoh was his father's favourite and the heir-apparent. With his sister, princess Jahanara, Dara kept close to the happenings at court.
Echoing the efforts of his great-grandfather Akbar in the search for concord among religions, Dara looked for the common thread in Islam and Hinduism. Well versed in Sufi ideology, he translated the Upanishads into Persian in a book titled Sirri-i-Akbar.
To understand Hinduism he had long discussions with the saint Babalal Vairagi. His association with Catholic priests like Father Bussee brought him close to Christianity.
However, in the field of battle, he was a mediocre general and the Kandahar campaign of 1652 that he headed ended miserably for the Mughals.
In the end the mystic Dara lost out to the wily machinations of his brother Aurangazeb who saw him as an apostate. Dara was chased by Aurangazeb's men in the Rann of Kutch, caught and paraded before being executed.
Little known
But the story of this tragic prince is relatively little known because, as Maulana Azad wrote in a 1910 essay, “the pen which recorded the history of the Moghul period was always held by Prince Dara Shukoh's enemies.”
Gopal Gandhi has come in to fill the gaps through this play. The seven-act play that centres on the story of Dara is set in the 1650s.
The dramatis personae include, in addition to three generations of the royal family and commandants, a Jesuit priest, a Jewish mystic, a Jain and a Sanskrit scholar from Varanasi. A number of well-etched minor characters such as Nur, the young lady jilted by an insensitive man; the blind beggar and the paanwala make history come alive.
Set in short verses, the play is in the traditional Indian drama format, complete with a jester.
Though written in English, through its form, the play transcends the narrow definition of English Theatre in India and remains rooted in the soil.
Chronicle of love
The style and tone is appropriate for this chronicle of love against hatred, of battles, fratricide and bigotry. In quite a few scenes, Dara explains his stand. For example when his followers shout ‘Shuja murdabadh', he says “Let us not wish death to any one/That is base;/All of us have God's breath in us,/In any case./We live and have our being/ With his grace.”
In the last act the jester goes into a long soliloquy that appears like an exposition of the playwright's ideas. “Don't you see how justice/is slain by injustice?/Goodness trapped, chained, butchered/By Evil and vultured/by Satan's avengers,/His hungry scavengers.”
The play can be read as an allegorical tale owned by any generation in India. It reminded me of the poem Gopal Gandhi wrote when the big banyan tree at Adyar was uprooted by a storm.
This play was first published in 1993; one year after the medieval mosque was razed to the ground by a crowd of zealots. It is all the more relevant now as our religious identities have grown sharper, communal riots have claimed thousands of lives, and hate politics has taken deeper roots.
This neatly-produced book, with reader-friendly fonts, features an arresting portrait of Dara, in the classic Moghul miniature school, on the cover.
The book is bound to add to theatre scholarship in India.
Dara Shukoh: A Play, Gopal Gandhi, Tranquebar Press, Rs.250 (First published in 1993 by Banyan Books).
