In these fractious times, the Hindu right has been usurped and commandeered by our very own ‘basket of deplorables’, whose fervent allegiance to the cause appears to have very little to do with the tenets of ideological principle. A new play strikingly posits that fundamentalism has its roots in impassioned intellectual thought, and traces a continuum for the Hindu faith that begins at a time when Buddhism was at the very cusp of imminent decline. This imagined vanguard of conservatism provides dramatic fodder to Muktidham , the brainchild of Bengaluru-based auteur Abhishek Majumdar, one of contemporary theatre’s foremost thinkers.
Although drawn from reams and reams of historical material (with Vandana Menon on board as a co-researcher), the speculative universe of the play is set in the fictional mountain town of Beerpur, in a Hindu monastery or matha . In the eighth century, late classical Bengal came under the purview of the Pala Empire with its Buddhist kings. In the matha in question, an intriguing battle of religious succession is played out. The head mahant is headed towards a site of seclusion and salvation, to the promised muktidham (the place for attaining salvation). Three acharyas put themselves forward as prospects with equal claim to taking over his hallowed position, whereby anointing themselves as self-styled defenders of a Hindu denomination in crisis. One is a firebrand scholar committed to an armed resistance to Buddhism, another is a great egalitarian who hopes to sound the death knell of the caste system by opening the doors of the temple to all. The archetypes that emerge in the midst of this soul-searching are instantly recognisable as extant players even in the polarised circles of today. One line in Muktidham ’s blurb stands out, “Even the most radical position is not anti-intellectual,” thus running on a tantalising tightrope of argument and fallacy.
The slow drip of radicalisation will likely provide the play the charged atmosphere in which certain sections win out, and set in motion societal changes whose effects linger on to this day. It will be certainly interesting to experience how Majumdar, with a focus on such a microcosm, can deal with upheavals of cosmic proportions. That history is never innocuous is something that the play hopes to foreground by lingering, albeit fictitiously, in a period before the obvious resentments and acrimony set in. The relative pacifism of Buddhism (although the Pala rulers were militarily inclined) appears to be placed as a force of opposition in the narrative, and this queers the pitch somewhat of the narrative in which the Hindu reactionary is a product of centuries of oppression not of its own making (read, the onslaught of Islam).
Before the India Foundation for the Arts came on board with funds, previous backers of the project had developed cold feet. On the cover, Muktidham is unapologetic about its excavations into the very heart of early religious discourse. This sound and reasoned approach is by itself contentious when it comes to questioning what is hailed as arbitrarily sacrosanct in this country by the forces that be. Whether it is seen as liberal agenda, or taken at face value as an exploration whose time has come, will decide where the play is placed on the cultural sphere, and who its champions will be. Yet, the journey from rationale to paranoia is bound to be compelling (and perhaps, revelatory) to those trying to make sense of the contradictions rife today.
The Indian Ensemble Theatre, Majumdar’s group, has frequently worked with actors and technicians drawn from theatre practices from across the country. This play is as emphatically pan-Indian an effort, with Mumbai actors like Kumud Mishra and Shubrajyoti Barat (both thespians were last seen in Majumdar’s opus Kaumudi ) in the mix alongside Indian Ensemble regulars Irawati Karnik and Sandeep Shikhar, Kannada songbird M.D. Pallavi, and Ajeet Singh Palawat and Ipshita Chakraborty from Rajasthan, both of whom had recently top-lined Mohit Takalkar’s Main Huun Yusuf aur Yeh Hai Mera Bhai . The multi-faceted Takalkar has served as the scenographer on this project. A national tour began last week at Bengaluru’s Ranga Shankara. After Mumbai, Muktidham will travel to Pune, to be showcased at the Vinod Doshi Theatre Festival.
Muktidham will be staged at Prithvi Theatre today and tomorrow (two shows, at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.). Details on bookmyshow.com
