Mamta
Assistant Professor (Journalism)
Kalindi College, University of Delhi
SAMAGRA PUBLICATIONS
DELHI
Preface
I was searching for a material on the base and
superstructure cultural theory of Marxism as a part of literary
criticism and this book is a product of that. I am neither an
expert of culture nor that of Marxism and I do not claim that
the views expressed in the book are my own original views. I
have only collected them for an analysis. I am thankful and
indebted to those journals on whom I have relied for
information and quotations, especially Social Scientist and Naya
Path as well as the books, especially those of Leftword and
Peoples Publishing House. I sincerely thank my father Mr.
Thakur Dass who helped me in my search of material for this
book without which it would have been a very difficult task
for me. I also thank the publisher who has agreed to undertake
the task of publishing the same. I hope the readers will find it
beneficial.
Any suggestions for improvement are most
welcome.
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Contents
PREFACE
CONTENTS
V
VII
INTRODUCTION
STATE
12
PHILOSOPHICAL SUPERSTRUCTURE
23
POLITICAL SUPERSTRUCTURE
31
35
MEDIA
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51
63
67
77
viii
REVOLUTIONARY SONGS: LEGACY OF IPTA
91
DISINTEGRATION OF IPTA
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98
99
104
107
ANNEXURE
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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INDEX
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Introduction
and the emerging classes and how they have evolved in our
country and what are their effects.
J.V. Stalin
J.V.Stalin in his article Concerning Marxism in
Linguistics explains the base and superstructure relationship
in the following words:
The base is the economic structure of society in at the
given stage of its development. The superstructure is the
political, legal, religious, artistic, philosophical views of
society and the political, legal and other institutions
corresponding to them.
Every base has its own corresponding superstructure.
The base of the feudal system has its superstructure, its
political, legal and other views, and the corresponding
institutions; the capitalist base has its own superstructure, so
has the socialist base. If the base changes or is eliminated,
then, following this, its superstructure changes or is
eliminated; if a new base arises, then, following this, a
superstructure arises corresponding to it. (J.V.Stalin, 1976)
The superstructure is not only the product of the base,
but having come into existence, it also assists the base to shape
and consolidate itself, and to eliminate the old base. It passes
from a position of active defence of its base to adopt an equal
attitude to all classes, and it loses its virtue and ceases to be a
superstructure. Stalin explains this in the following words:
Further, the superstructure is a product of the base, but
this by no means implies that it merely reflects the base, that it
is passive, neutral, indifferent to the fate of its base, to the fate
Gramsci
After the conditions of 1917-1921 in which the Russian
revolution had materialized were over, revolutions in the west
had failed or the capitalism had managed to survive the
economic crisis and stabilised itself. Gramsci was gripped with
this question. Marxists had a general understanding of the
inevitability of the crisis of capitalism and revolutionary
political transformation but lacked a concrete and detailed
analysis of the conditions. There was no adequate Marxist
theory of the state or of what Gramsci called the sphere of the
complex superstructures: political, legal, cultural. (Gramsci,
The Gramsci Reader Selected Writings 1916-1935, 2000) He
went on to have such an analysis and for that he studied the
Theses on Feuerbach and Marx and Engels historical classics
(The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, The Civil War in
France, Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany). He also
studied Italian idealist philosopher Bendetto Croce for his
insight into the ethico-political sphere; the ideological, moral
and cultural elements which bond the society together. He
went back to the passage on structure (base) and
superstructure in Marxs 1859 Preface to a Contribution to the
Critique of Political Economy and read it in a strongly antieconomist way. He finds that the passage says that changing
socio-economic circumstances do not themselves produce
political changes. They only set the conditions in which such
changes can take place. What is crucial, in bringing about
these changes, are the relations of forces obtaining at the
political level, the degree of political organization and
combatively of the opposing forces, the strength of the
political alliances which they manage to bind together and
their level of political consciousness, of preparation of the
struggle on the ideological terrain. (Gramsci, The Gramsci
Reader Selected Writings 1916-1935, 2000)
Althusser
Althusser insists on the revolutionary character of the Marxist
conception of the social whole which is distinct from the
Hegelian totality. He says Marx conceived the structure of
every society as constituted by levels or instances
articulated by a specific determination: the infrastructure, or
economic base (the unity of the productive forces and the
relations of production) and the superstructure, which itself
contains two levels or instances: the politico-legal (law and
the state) and ideology (the different ideologies, religious,
ethical, legal, political). According to him in Marxist tradition
there are two determining points: (1) the relative autonomy of
superstructure; (2) the reciprocal action of superstructure on
base.
Engels Clarification
For later Marxists, including Gramsci, superstructure as well
has come to be no less importance. In The Preface to the
Communist Manifesto Engels summarizing the content says:
economic production and the structure of society of every
historical epoch necessarily arising there from constitute the
foundation for the political and intellectual history of that
epoch (Engels, Marx- Engels: Selected Letters, 1977)
Such laying more stress on the economic side than is due to it,
as above, led to some misconceptions among the younger
Marxists. Engels clarifies the position in the following words:
Marx and I are ourselves partly to blame for the fact that
younger people sometimes lay more stress on the economic
side than is due to it. We had to emphasize the main principle,
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11
State
State
13
14
State
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16
State
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18
Religion
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Religion
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22
Philosophical Superstructure
24
Philosophical Structure
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26
Philosophical Structure
27
theory, the things thought of became mere ideas and thus the
knower, the subject, sought to emancipate itself from the
inhibitions of the known or the object, and a look at the latter
as but products of ignorance or avidya. (Chattopadhyaya,
Indian Philosophy: A Popular Introduction, 1986)
The struggle between the two schools of philosophy was
so bitter and prolonged that the outcome was decided by what
Chattopadhyaya calls politics:
The spokesmen of Indian politics were above all our
law-givers whose writings are generally called the
Dharmasastra. What these lawmakers were basically concerned
with was of course the safety of a social structure which they
considered as the ideal one. Such a social structure generally
goes by the name Varnasrama, by which is meant a society in
which the conduct of everybody must be regulated by the
caste in which he or she is born as also by the stage of life
reached by everyone. Concretely however, it stood for the
norm of a society in which a minority of the population
consisting of nobles, priests and traderswere entitled to all
material privileges, though in varying degrees. The rest of the
people which could only mean the direct producers whose
surplus products alone could create the material benefits for
the dwijas, was dumped under the general category called
Sudras. And the lawmakers insisted that these direct producers
were entitled to have nothing more than was essential to keep
themselves alive. Their only duty was to serve the upper strata
of society, because the creator himself brought them into being
exclusively for this specific purpose. (Chattopadhyaya, In
Defence of Materialism in Ancient India, 1989)
This has serious implications for our country as Marx
stated:
The paramount power of the Moguls was broken by the
Mogul Viceroys. The power of the Viceroys was broken by the
Mahrattas. The power of the Mahrattas was broken by the
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Afghans, and while all were struggling against all, the Briton
rushed in and was enabled to subdue all.
And this happened to a country which to quote Marx
again, has been the source of our (Europeans) languages, our
religion, the question arises why did our country with
brilliant antiquity fall to the degradation of pre British days?
The answer in the words of E.M.S. Namboodiripad lies in that
the defeat of the oppressed caste at the hands of the
Brahminic overlordship, of
materialism by idealism,
constituted the beginning of the fall of Indias civilization and
culture which in the end led to the loss of national
independence.(History, Society and Land Relations, Selected
Essays, Left Word, pp.39-40) Further, on page 40 of the same
he states, In Indiathe battle of the two philosophical
schools ended in the defeat of one (the materialists) and the
domination of the other. This battle, however, was an unequal
one, the full force of the socio-political establishment (the
regime of caste domination) being made use of in favour of the
idealist and against the materialist school. The victor and the
vanquished in our country were not two philosophies in the
abstract but two social classesthe dominant and oppressed
castesusing the two philosophies as weapons in their
arsenals. The victory of Shankara and his philosophy therefore
was the victory of the Brahmin and other dominant castes, the
defeat of the rest of Indian society. On page 41-42 he
concludes, the defeat of the materialists in this unequal battle
was the beginning of a millennium-long age of intellectual and
socio-political backwardness which culminated in the
establishment of British rule in our land. Here I am giving a
few verses from Shankaras Charpata Panjari and Dvadsha
Panjari which were written by him to popularize his views and
which have been translated and published by S. G. Sardesai in
his book Progress and Conservatism in Ancient India (Sardesai,
1986):
Day and night, morning and evening,
Philosophical Structure
Winter and spring time and go,
Thus time play with life,
Thus does life ebb away;
And yet you cling on the fragile thread of hope,
Oh foolish one, Oh deluded one,
Pray to Govind, pray to Govind;
When the hour of death arrives,
Nothing is going to save you.
While a man supports his family,
What loving care they bestow on him,
But his aged body is worn out,
Who cares for him? Not even his nearest kin,
(Repeat) Oh foolish one, Oh deluded one, etc.
Feeble has grown the old mans body,
Toothless his mouth and bald his head,
He limps on crutches,
And yet clings to fruitless hope;
(Repeat) Oh foolish one, Oh deluded one, etc.
When a child, you are lost in play,
When young in your beloveds arms,
When old, you brood on your sorrows,
And yet you do not remember the Para-Brahma,
(Repeat) Oh foolish one, Oh deluded one, etc.
Birth and death, lying in the mothers womb;
Endless the cycle goes on;
Hard to cross is the ocean of life (Samsara);
(Repeat) Oh foolish one, Oh deluded one, etc.
Who are you and who am I?
Whence have we come? Whither do we go?
Who is your mother? Who, your father?
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30
Political Superstructure
32
Political Superstructure
33
34
culture and which has held that such a culture cannot come
into being, in the specific conditions prevailing in India,
without also building a genuinely socialist society: socialist in
a sense far more radical than the Nehruvian. Second, and far
stronger, has been what one might call the vision of national
independence together with social reform, industrial
capitalism, and a political democracy in short, a modern
bourgeois order. Finally, there has been the conservative,
caste-based elitism which came eventually to be monopolized
by the RSS, with considerable fuel from the Hindu
Mahasabha, which had itself come into being in opposition to
both the Communist and the bourgeois- nationalist
movement.
If the Communist movement was inspired by Marxism,
Hindu extremism was undoubtedly inspired by Fascism, as the
direct links between Italian Fascists and such leaders of this
extremism as B. S. Moonje and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee
would testify. The conflict between the two visions was
inevitable because they represented radically opposed visions,
both on the national and the international scales. Within the
country, though, the third vision, that of capitalist democracy in
the framework of an independent polity, was by far the
dominant one. So, whether a culture of civic virtue or a culture
of hate and cruelty shall prevail in our country has depended,
in general, on the actual balance of forces among the competing
visions, we could also describe as vision associated with the
Left, the Centre, and the Right respectively.
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Media
Media
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Media
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Media
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The synchronic organization of texts yields place to the nonlinear. Consequently, attention becomes habitually flitting and
homogenized, parallel to the miscellaneous flow, or rather, the
torrent, of images and sounds. The texts become self-reflective,
minimizing their referential function, so that nothing outside
the closed sensorium of texts disrupts the cosy feel-good
quiescence of the great consuming public. But the hidden
agenda of finance capital and the conniving State apparatus
make this sensorium a part of the surveillance ever-tightening
its grip over the people, denying the space to social desire,
stifling access to inter communication. The working of the
internet shows up the trend. The job of disruption and
resistance falls therefore to the vanguard of the people who
work in the interstices of the system to subvert its ends, and to
those who physically come out to be together and tear asunder
the magic web of media. The recent upheavals in the Arab
world and elsewhere demonstrate the power of the radical
tradition which seeks both to understand the world and
change it.
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Media
47
Paid News
In 2003, Bennet, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL) started a
paid content service called Medianet. It sent journalists to
cover product launches or celebrity-related events for a fee. It
was opposed by its competitors saying that it was a violation
of the media ethics but BCCL management argued that it was
acceptable as it appeared as advertorials in the city specific
colour supplements. It institutionalized the paid news in
48
which the newspapers were paid for positive coverage and the
readers thought that the news was covered by an independent
journalist. It became a wide-spread practice before the run-up
to the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Rates or packages were
given on plain paper for the publication of editorial content
praising a particular person. The record such financial
transaction was not kept so that it became difficult to unearth
it. P. Sainath wrote a series of articles on it but it was denied
by the newspapers. But the Chief Minister of Maharashtra,
Ashok Chavan could not explain how the same articles
praising him appeared in different and competing
newspapers. The matter went to the Press Council of India. A
report was prepared but a watered down version, under the
influence of publishers lobby, was presented to the
Government. The situation became comical when the full 71
page report was leaked and was available on a number of
websites. Another worrying trend in the media is that private
treaties are struck in which advertising space is given to
corporate fore equity shares. This was also initiated by BCCL.
Net Neutrality
Fair and balanced flow of information is very important for all
the people. Any kind of manipulation can be harmful. During
the late 1970s and early 1980s demand for a fair and balanced
flow of international news came up as the transnational news
agencies had a control over the collection and distribution of
news. News agencies like Reuters, Associated Press, Agence
France Press, etc were often criticized for the lack of fairness
and balance. The proposals for a New World Information and
Communication Order (NWICO) stirred up a controversy in
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). Today the issue of net neutrality has
stirred the debates in media across the world.
Net Neutrality means that all the Internet data pack should be
treated equally, that there should be no fast or slow lanes for
Media
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n the 1930s the economic crisis has engulfed the world and
Hitler captured power in Germany and persecuted and
drove out many writers and scientists out of the country. He
even had set his ministers to implicate the leaders of trade
unions and also the leader of the Bulgarian communist party
Dimitrov who was exiled from his country and was living in
Germany, in a case of setting fire to the German Parliament
building which they had themselves done to lay blame on the
communists. Dimitrov not only defended himself and other
communist leaders but also turned the tables on the fascist
government itself by exposing their designs. It was the period
when the reactionary crowds surrounded the French
parliament building and the cabinet submitted its resignation
in fear and a more reactionary cabinet was formed. The French
working class responded immediately and they went on a
general strike. In Italy fascism has captured power. Both
Germany and Italy had their eyes set on Austria. A dictator
Dollfuss captured power in Austria and with this fascist
designs were fulfilled. The Austrian workers fought an
unequal war against the dictator but were defeated by the
superior forces of the government. These were the
circumstances in which a World Conference of Writers for the
Defence of culture or International Conference of Writers for
the Defence of Culture took place in Parish in July 1935 in
which top writers from all over the world participated. It was
the period when writers fronts against fascism started
working in many countries. These were the circumstances
which stirred the minds of some Indian writers living in
London to draft the manifesto of Progressive Writers
Association. Mulk Raj Anand, Dr. Jyoti Ghosh and Sajjad
Zaheer were prominent among them. A meeting was called in
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I.
To establish organizations of writers to
correspond to the various linguistic zones of India; to
coordinate these organizations by holding conferences and
by publishing literature; to establish a close connection
between the central and local organizations and to
cooperate with those literary organizations whose aims do
not conflict with the basic aims of the Association;
II.
To form branches of the Association in all the
important towns of India;
III.
To produce and to translate literatures of a
progressive nature, to fight cultural reaction, and in this
way to further the cause of Indias freedom and social
regeneration;
IV.
To protect the interests of progressive authors;
V.
To fight for the right of free expression of
thought and opinion. (Pradhan, 1982)
The clouds of fascism and war were gathering over the
world. In such circumstances the Second Conference of the
International Writers Association was taking place in London
(19-23 June, 1936), a Manifesto signed by Rabindranath Tagore
, Premchand, Jawaharlal Nehru, Nandlal Bose and others from
PWA declared the following:
Today the spectre of a world war haunts the world.
Fascist dictatorship has revealed its militant essence by its
offer of guns instead of butter and the lust of empirebuilding
in place of cultural opportunities. The methods resorted to by
Italy for the subjugation of Abyssinia have rudely shocked all
those who cherish a faith in reason and civilisation. Rivalry
and contradiction among big imperialist powers, deliberate
provocation of crude national chauvinistic sentiments, high
speed rearmamentsthese are but portents of the critical
situation in which we are placed today. On our own and on
behalf of our countrymen we take this opportunity to declare
with one voice with the people of our countries that we detest
war and want to abjure it and that we have no interest in war.
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donations for the Bengal sufferers and went from one row of
seats to the others. I remember, when one of them came close
to where I sat, a young lady in the row ahead of mine took of f
her gold ear-rings and put them in the actors jholi.
It was a very moving experience, a strange, disturbing
experience. What I had seen had little to do with the kind of
drama with which I had been familiar earlier. That sense of
detachment with which you as a spectator watch a play on the
stage had given place to a sense of intense involvement.
(Sahni, 2011)
Bhisham Sahni reminiscing the days of IPTA again
observes:
IPTA was a dramatic movement of social commitment.
It aimed to present a graphic, vivid picture of social reality,
not from the angle of a detached observer but of a participant.
Art is created not in a spirit of neutrality but of a deep and
passionate involvement and that was the reason why the IPTA
made a profound impact on the development of theatre in
India during the forties. Those of us who witnessed or
participated in the activities of the IPTA cannot but remember
it with a sense of elation. Its branches were shooting up in
every linguistic reason. In Bengali, they would stage the Jatras
on contemporary themes, or shadow plays, or plays in the best
traditions of Bengali theatre; dance and song ensembles grew
up in many states; the Maharashtra branch would stage
Pawaras while the U.P. artists would present Nautankis. The
movement was reviving folk forms as also innovating new
forms. Besides, Western plays would be adopted and staged as
for instance, Gogols Inspector General, J. B. Priestleys They
Came to a City and Inspector Calls and many others. The IPTA
was unique in having brought the artist closer to social reality
as inspired him to participate in the struggle on the side of
progressive forces. Dramatic activity was no longer confined
to the elite or the professional theatre. (Sahni, 2011)
85
It was not only theatre but films also that were produced
either directly by IPTA or by those artists who were connected
to it. The spirit in the making of films was the same as that of
the plays. Both had at the centre the problems of peasants and
workers or the poor people and their exploitation by
moneylenders and landlords as well as the British imperialists;
it was a fight for their rights and justice. In 1936 Achchut Kanya
was made to focus on the problems of the most downtrodden
sections of society with a modern perspective. Dharati Ke Lal
was a path breaking film produced in 1946 by IPTA and was
written and directed by K. A. Abbas. Its cast actors included
Shombhu Mitra, Balraj Sahni, Damayanti Sahni, Anwar Mirza,
Tripti Bhaduri, Hamid Butt and Zohra Sehgal. Music was
given by Ravi Shankar. Balraj Sahni writes how and in what
situations it was produced:
In the days of World War II the British Government
would sometimes grant well-known artistes and companies
licenses to make films.
Thanks to the enterprising spirit of Abbas and Sathe,
IPTA too got a license as a result of which we could produce
Dharti ke Lal. It was the first major experience for me in my
film career. The entire film was planned by Khwaja Ahmed
Abbas, all by himself. He was both its writer and its director.
He was assisted by three men who hailed from different parts
of IndiaShombhu Mitra from Bengal, Vasant Gupte from
Maharashtra and I from Bombay. The film was based on three
books which in those days had been acclaimed as classics. All
three had the Bengal famine as their central theme. They were
the two plays by Bijon Bhattacharya Zabaan Bandi and
Nabanna, and Krishan Chaneders lyrical novel Annadata.
It was IPTA that had planned the film Dharti ke Lal
and inevitably the Bengali group became the most powerful
group in IPTA. Who indeed could be better acquainted than
they with the hardships the famine-striken people of Bengal
had to endure? Our difficulty, however, was that none of them
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Prem Dhawan:
Shankar Shailendra
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Sheel
Desh humara, dharti apni, hum dharti ke lal, naya
sansar banayenge, naya insaan banayenge
Naya aadmi maang raha hai, jeene ka adhikar, dekho
jabde cheer maut ke gadhta hai sansar
Rajendra Raghuvanshi
Sukhi dharti ke anchal se, uthti aaj pukar
Sri Sri
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Kaifi Azmi
Disintegration of IPTA
Disintegration of IPTA
95
members had accepted the socialistic goals the IPTA had set
itself and its national spirit, they certainly did not believe that
the theatre should remain a mere platform to propagate a
particular political creed.
P. C. Joshi blames the Left sectarianism for its failure:
The Central Troupe of the IPTA was just coming to its
own not only politically, professionally and organizationally,
but was also earning a reputation for attempting something
unique and distinctive in our cultural life. It is then, during the
end of 1947, that a sectarian offensive inspired by the
incorrigible left comrade Ranadive was put into operation
through the good-hearted but narrow-minded treasurer
Ghate. As the treasurer, he complained that too much of the
central funds were being wasted in cultural work by
subsidizing the IPTA troupe while its earnings were nominal.
This non-stop campaign unfortunately led to the closure
of the Andheri centre and the disbandment of the IPTA troupe
during mid-1947. It was the first glimpse of what Left
sectarianism was going to cost the party soon enough when
comrade Ranadive became the party leader after the Second
Congress of the party, early in 1948. Sectarianism with its
narrowness is the enemy of culture. We experienced long
before Maos cultural revolution. (Sahni, 2011)
EMS Namboodiripad, however, thinks that this was due
to the political differences:
The
favourable
circumstances,
national
and
international, under which the PWA was formed, however,
did not last long. The political unity which embraced
Communists and Socialists at one end, and the bulk of Left
Congressmen on the other, was broken in three years: the
electoral victory of Subhas Chandra Bose in the keenly
contested presidential election of the Congress (1939) turned
out to be the beginning of the split between the Communists
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Disintegration of IPTA
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not much of a known fact but street play is more than social
change. Its a goofy, musical and closely audience interacting
form of acting in which, even Romeo and Juliet has been
performed. In this marketing crazy world, this art form now
becomes a way of promoting companies, their ideas and their
products leading to emergence of corporate street plays. Its a
new trend to advertise through street plays. Big players like
the UN, Goonj, CRY etc. prefer this form for propagating their
message to their target audience for its characteristic of being
an audience magnet and being closely connected to them.
(Sharma, 2014)
"Street theatre is people-friendly. The dynamic and mobile
nature of street theatre makes it possible to go to people where
theatre is not accessible: like streets, markets, slums, villages,
schools, office complexes, parks, residential areas. It is a free
show for everyone: paan wallah, officer, labourer, housewife or
student. Therefore, it never has a limited or 'repeat' audience.
With actors moving at the same level as the audience, there's
no hierarchy. The simple and direct performance gives it
power to reach people. There are no tickets as the aim is not to
make profits. Rather, the audience is asked for contributions,"
explains Prabha, a social activist from Buxar who has used the
humble 'nukkad natak' (street corner play) to raise awareness
among women on issues of income generation. (Krishner,
2013)
Today street theatre is a recognized form and numerous
workshops are conducted on it. Youngsters who want to make
their career in theatre and acting often join these theatre
groups.
Today street theatre is also being used by political parties
other than the Left for political campaigns. From highlighting
candidates to taking satirical digs at the opposition's policies
to generating voter awareness for the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections, ST has gone beyond street corners or nukkads and
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Annexure
The Naure and Purpose of Literature
Munshi Premchand
Presidential Address of Munshi Premchand, delivered at the First
All India Progressive Writers Conference, held at Lucknow on 10
April 1936. (Translated from Hindustani.)
This conference is a memorable occasion in the history of our
literature. Hitherto we had been content to discuss language
and its problems; the existing critical literature of Urdu and
Hindi has dealt with the construction and the structure of the
language alone. This was doubtless an important and
necessary work. And the pioneers of our literature have
supplied this preliminary need and performed their task
admirably. But language is a means, not an end; a stage, not
the journeys end. Its purpose is to mould our thoughts and
emotions, and to give them the right direction. We have now
to concern ourselves with the meaning of things, and to find
the means of fulfilling the purpose for which language has
been constructed. This is the main purpose of this conference.
Literature properly so-called is not only realistic, true to life,
but is also an expression of our experiences and of the life that
surrounds us. It employs easy and refined language which
alike affects our intellect and our sentiments. Literature
assumes these qualities only when it deals with the realities
and experiences of life. Fairy tales and romantic stories of
princely lovers may have impressed us in olden days, but they
mean very little to us today. Unless literature deals with
reality it has no appeal for us.
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Annexure
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Annexure
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Annexure
115
Such are the objectives which have led to the formation of the
Indian Progressive Writers Association. It wants literature to
bear the message of efforts and action. It is not concerned with
problems of language as such. With a correct ideology,
language will become simpler and better. So long as the
content of our writing is on the right lines, we need not worry
about the form. The literature which is patronised by the
privileged classes will adopt their forms of expression; the
literature which is of the masses will speak their language.
Our object is to create such an atmosphere in this country as
would help the growth of progressive literature. We want to
establish branches of our Association in all the literary centres
of India; we want to organise the creative literary life in those
centres, by reading papers, by discussions and by criticism. It
is in this way that our literary renaissance will take place. We
want a branch of the Association in every province and in
every linguistic zone, so that we can carry our message to all
parts of the country. For some time past, Indian writers have
been feeling the necessity for such an organisation. At various
places some steps have already been taken in this direction.
Our object is to help all such progressive tendencies in our
literary world. We writers suffer from one great defect, and
that is the absence of action in our lives. It is a bitter reality; we
cannot shut our eyes to it. Indeed, this absence of an active life
was considered to be a virtue by our writers, for it was agreed,
an active life was leads to intolerance and narrowmindedness. A puritan, enforcing his doctrine on others, is
certainly a greater nuisance than a libertine; the latter may
save himself, whereas there is no hope for an arrogant puritan.
So long as the object of literature was mere entertainment, so
long as it was a means of escape from life, when it demanded
a mere shedding of tears over life and its sorrows, an active
participation in the social struggles was not required from a
literary man. We, however, have a different conception of
literature and the duties of a writer. We shall consider only
that literature as progressive which is thoughtful, which
awakens in us the spirit of freedom and of beauty; which is
116
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Index
A
A Midsummer Nights Dream ..... 90
Aam Aadmi Party ...................... 33
Abyssinia..................................... 75
Achchut Kanya ............................. 85
agit-prop.................................... 100
Agra Bazar .................................... 88
alternative and oppositional
culture ..................................... 56
Althusser ................................. 9, 13
ancient Greece ...................... 26, 64
Ancient India ................................ 28
anti -religious .............................. 20
anti-Brahminical movements ... 65
anti-Communists........................ 96
Arthashastra ................................. 17
Aryans ......................................... 37
Asmita ............................... 104, 106
Asmita Theatre ......................... 104
Aurobindo................................... 65
avatars .......................................... 94
avidya ........................................... 27
B
B. S. Moonje ................................ 34
Bahadurshah Zafar .................... 33
Bal Gangadhar Tilak .................. 65
Bal Mandirs................................. 36
Balika Mandirs ........................... 36
Balraj Sahni ............... 80, 85, 87, 94
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee ..... 65
Base and Superstructure ....... 3, 51
Bedouins...................................... 22
Bendetto Croce ............................. 6
Bharatiya culture ................... 37, 38
C
Cannes Film Festival.................. 86
capitalists..................................... 13
Chandra Kanta tales..................... 72
character of communications.... 56
Charka ......................................... 39
Chetan Anand ...................... 86, 87
Christianity ................................. 21
classical capitalism ..................... 44
classical philosophy ................... 63
communication studies ............. 60
Communist ... 33, 34, 77, 81, 94, 97
communist parties ..................... 20
Congress Party ........................... 33
cultural state ............................... 13
Cultural Superstructures........... 63
cultural traditions ...................... 88
Culture........................................... 1
123
E
E.M.S. Namboodiripad ............. 28
economic structure . 3, 4, 30, 52, 63
Egypt ........................................... 39
emergent ..........................56, 58, 62
Engels .......................................... 12
England .................... 63, 88, 99, 100
ethical .......................................... 13
ethico-political .............................. 6
F
Fasnai Ajaib.................................. 72
Feuerbach.................................... 6, 8
Feurbach ..................................... 20
fideists ......................................... 25
Fifth Symphony ............................ 61
flatism .......................................... 44
folk artists ................................... 88
Fordism ....................................... 41
freedom struggle........................ 70
French Revolution ..................... 31
French working class................. 67
H
Habib Tanvir ............... 88, 100, 101
Halevy ......................................... 14
Hamlet .......................................... 61
Hazare ......................................... 33
Hegel ..................................... 23, 31
Hindu Mahasabha ............... 33, 34
Hinduism .................................... 37
Hindutva ...................................... 65
Hollywood blockbuster ............ 42
homologous structure ............... 52
Humanism .................................. 17
I
Indian Literary Council............. 71
Indian Peoples Theatre
Association....................... 77, 83
Indian polity ............................... 39
Interventionist State .................. 15
IPTA .. 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84,
85, 86, 87, 88, 91, 94, 95, 99, 100,
107
124
J
J.V. Stalin ....................................... 4
Jacobinism ................................... 31
Jainism ......................................... 37
Jan Natya Manch........ 99, 100, 103
Jan Sangh..................................... 33
JANAM. 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 108
Janata Party ................................. 33
Janwadi Lekhak Sangh ...... 98, 108
Japan ............................................ 78
Jatra .............................................. 77
K
K. A. Abbas ............... 79, 82, 85, 87
Kanad .......................................... 55
Kautalyan state ........................... 18
Kerala Peoples Art Club........... 81
Kosambi....................................... 17
L
Lenin ............................ 8, 24, 25, 70
Lok Sabha .................................... 48
Lower Depths ............................. 86
Lucas ...................................... 43, 52
M
Maabhoomi ................................. 82
Magadhan State......................... 17
Mahabharata ................................. 64
Mahrattas .................................... 27
Malaparte .................................... 15
Manusmirti .................................. 38
market capitalism .......................... 41
N
Nabanna ................................. 79, 85
nacha ............................................. 89
Naredra Modi ............................. 33
Nautankis ..................................... 84
Naya Theatre ................................ 89
Neecha Nagar ............................... 86
Nehruvian ................................... 34
Nepoleonic .................................. 31
Net Neutrality ...................... 48, 49
Nishant Natya Manch ............. 104
O
of Subhas Chandra Bose............ 95
125
P
Paid News................................... 47
panchayats .................................... 12
Pawaras ........................................ 84
Pedantic concept ........................ 39
Peoples Theatre in India ........... 78
Philosophical Superstructure ... 23
plebeian ................................. 88, 90
point dhonneur ............................ 19
political and cultural hegemony
................................................. 13
political campaign ................... 100
Political Superstructure............. 31
politics and ideology ................... 7
popular culture .......................... 88
Prabhat Patnaik .......................... 17
Praful Bidwai.............................. 37
Praja Natyamandali ................... 81
Press Council of India ............... 48
Prithvi Theatre ........................... 80
Progressive Cultural Movement
........................................... 40, 44
Progressive Writers' Association
.......................... 67, 71, 77, 86, 98
psychological theory ................. 60
publishers lobby......................... 48
puppets ..................................... 102
Q
Quit India struggle .................... 96
R
Rabindranath Tagore .....66, 71, 75
Ramayana ............................. 37, 64
Ramayana legend ...................... 37
S
salvation ...................................... 21
Saraswati Vandana ...................... 36
Sashi Kumar ......................... 40, 44
Satish Rajwade ......................... 104
sensorium ................................... 45
Shankara ............................... 28, 52
Shishu Mandirs .......................... 36
Shivaji cult .................................. 65
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee ....... 34
Social Scientist .................. v, 40, 44
spirit of Bharat............................ 38
Spirituality .................................. 38
State ............................................. 12
Steven Spielberg......................... 43
Street theatre......................104, 105
Structure and Superstructure . 7, 8
Sudras .......................................... 27
superstructural elements .......... 16
superstructure v, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 30,
31, 40, 51, 53, 57, 60, 107
surya namaskar ............................ 35
Swadeshi Movement ................. 65
Swatantrata Theatre group ..... 104
126
Vedas ........................................... 37
U
Upanishadic India ...................... 26
Upanishads ................................. 37
V
V. Shantaram .............................. 87
Vande Mataram ............................ 36
Varnasrama .................................. 27
Wikileaks ..................................... 44
WikiLeaks ....................... 45, 46, 47
World Conference for Peace ..... 71
World War II............................... 85
Wuthering Heights ....................... 61
Z
Zamindari system ........................ 32
Zubeida ................................... 79, 80