LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:9 September 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Treatment of History in Girish Karnad’s
Tughlaq and Tale-Danda

A.M. Prathipha, M.A., MPhil.


Abstract

Girish Karnad's plays reflect the contemporary Indian society, cultural and social life through the use of folk-tales, myths and historical legends. Indian Drama has from its origin borrowed heavily from the country’s mythological and historical past. Tughlaq and Tale-Danda are the two primarily historical plays in which Karnad employs history to comment on the pathetic and corroded state of Indian modern day politics. In Tughlaq, Karnad has taken a chapter from the Muslim period of history and drawn striking parallels between India then and India now.

Karnad’s Tughlaq should be studied to find parallelism between the realities of the fourteenth century India ruled by the Sultan and the twentieth century democratic country governed by a Prime minister and his colleagues in the cabinet. In Tale-Danda Caste system has given the Brahmins and other high caste people a privileged position and they have never tolerated any violation, including an inter-caste marriage. This condition has not changed till now.

So, in Tale-Danda, Karnad deals with one of the most sensitive issues of all times – the ugly face of caste system of India that was in the past hailed as an ideal one. Though the play is based on an historical event, Karnad’s adept use of symbolism, irony and humour makes it a modern play. It is because of these modern devices that the situations and the minor characters in the play dramatize the contemporary socio-political scenario in India.

The play Tughlaq offers a clear suggestion that mixing of religion and politics always results in national disaster. Girish Karnad has shown us the importance of the past in the present. Through the select plays, he has not only raised the issues of majority-minority religions but has also given vent to intra-religious problems like caste system. Although he delineates the issues of both inter-religious and intra-religious problems, he advocates a non-violent and need- based ideology without giving privilege to any one of them. He is of the view that there is a need to learn lessons from the past as our past prefigures our present and myths resonate in modern experience.

Keywords: Girish Karnad, Tughlaq play, Tale-Danda play, treatment of history in plays, Basavanna, veerasaivism.

Presentness of the Past

Girish Karnad is one of the foremost playwrights of the contemporary Indian stage a richness that could probably be equated with his talents not only as playwright but also as an actor and a director. He is widely appreciated for his technical experiments, as well as, displaying a wide range of themes and subjects. He merges myth and reality, past and present. He brings in legendry and historical figures that are able to carry his message of restructuring the present society. Karnad artistically links up the past and present in his plays, even when he takes up a legendary or a historical figure like Tughlaq in Tughlaq, or King Bijjala and Basavanna in Tale–Danda. He relates them to the present times, they hold a contemporary relevance. Commending his plays, Kirtinath Kurtoki has said, “Karnad’s plays are thoroughly modern in outlook and spirit” (239).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


A. M. Prathipha, M.A., M.Phil.
Assistant Professor in English
A. A. A. College of Engineering & Technology
Sivakasi-626123
Tamilnadu
India
aaaprathipha@gmail.com

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