Database of Printed Modern Drama in India

A secular and commercial urban theatre emerged for the first time in India during the mid-19th century, under Anglo-European and local influences that were initially concentrated in major colonial cities such as Calcutta and Bombay (now Kolkata and Mumbai), but gradually encompassed urban venues throughout the country. Although this theatre was largely performance-oriented until the 1930s, new plays began to be published in modern Indian languages as early as the 1850s, and drama’s connection to print culture was firmly established during the late colonial period (1870-1940). This relationship has grown exponentially since independence (1947-) as numerous major playwrights have emerged in multiple languages, theatre institutions of various kinds have successfully staged their work, and plays have appeared regularly in their original language of composition as well as in translation into several other languages. In the early-twenty first century, Indian theatre can thus be described as a leading contemporary national tradition that is also a notable component within postcolonial and world theatres.

The Database of Printed Modern Drama in India is the first digital resource to offer bibliographic information about plays published in sixteen Indian languages, from the 1840s to the present. In alphabetical order, the languages are: Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Panjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. There are two principal sources for the citations in the database: C. C. Mehta’s Bibliography of Stageable Plays in Indian Languages, a 2-volume collection published jointly by M. S. University (Baroda) and the Bharatiya Natya Sangh (New Delhi) in 1963 and 1965; and the Online Catalogue of the Library of Congress. Mehta’s bibliography is the main source of information for plays published from the 1850s to the 1930s, while OCLC is the main source for publications since the 1930s.

The database was supervised from July 2018 to September 2021 by Aparna Dharwadker, Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. It was supported by flex funds attached to the Vilas Associates Award that Dharwadker received from the Graduate School Research Committee and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation for the 2018-2020 academic years, and by a supplemental award from the GSRC (2020-21). The citations in C. C. Mehta’s printed bibliography were digitized by Sandeep Kindo. Tori Yonker, Holly Berkowitz, and Aparna Dharwadker compiled the OCLC lists for individual languages. The entries from Mehta were standardized through the addition of diacritical marks by Rini Tarafder (Assamese and Bengali), Zara Chowdhry (Gujarati and Hindi), Timothy Lorndale (Kannada and Sanskrit), Aaron Sherraden (Malayalam), Milind Ranade (Marathi), Ujaan Ghosh (Odia), Asa Willoughby (Panjabi), Kristen Rudisill (Tamil), Jamal Jones (Telugu), and Sundas Amer (Urdu). Todd Michelson-Ambelang, the South Asia Librarian at Memorial Library, served as a resource throughout the process of standardization. The various stages of database construction were undertaken by Karen Rattunde, Digital Metadata Strategist, and Jesse Henderson, Digital Services Librarian, both of the Digital Collections Centre at Memorial Library, UW-Madison.

Consisting of about 17,000 entries, this database fulfills several functions for scholars, students, and general readers interested in modern Indian theatre. It establishes the monumental scope and rich multilingualism of modern drama in India, and confirms the intimate connection of this performative genre with the culture of print. The basic categorization by language reveals the difference between major theatrical mediums such as Bengali, Marathi, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Gujarati, and less active languages such as Panjabi, Odia, Manipuri, and English. The citations for each language also include translations, providing information about the large-scale “carrying across” of Western and world drama into the modern Indian languages, and of Indian plays from the original language of composition into multiple other languages. Searching by author, publisher, place of publication, or date provides other kinds of vital information. Author searches reveal, for instance, that in addition to playwrights whose work became successful on stage, modern Indian drama includes a large number of “closet dramatists” who were compelled to write plays without any expectation of production or performance. The frequent recurrence of certain publishers and publishing houses within a given language indicates the seminal function that specific individuals and/or companies came to play in the preservation and popularization of drama. Searching by date within a language or across languages reveals the gradual or rapid acceleration in the pace of publication, serving as another objective measure of growth in the field of drama. The titles of the plays, which have been retained in their original form, provide information about genre, subject, and theme.

The database includes plays published in Urdu, Bengali, or other languages in cities such as Lahore, Karachi, and Dhaka until 1947, because until then they were part of British India. After the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, these publication venues became part of Pakistan and/or Bangladesh, and our decision was to limit the database to the territorial boundaries of independent India.

The database will be corrected and updated periodically. Readers who wish to identify additional citations should contact Professor Aparna Dharwadker at adharwadker@wisc.edu.

Images notes:

1. (Left) Playwright-actor-director Utpal Dutt (extreme left) in a production of his play Kallol (Ocean Song), 1970s.
2. (Center) Dharamvir Bharati's Andha yug (Blind Epoch, 1954) at the Purana Qila (Old Fort) in New Delhi, directed by Ebrahim Alkazi for the National School of Drama Repertory Company, 1974.
3. (Right) Surekha Sikri, Manohar Singh, and Uttara Baokar in Mohan Rakesh's Adhe adhure (Half-Done, Incomplete; 1969), directed by Amal Allana for the National School of Drama Repertory Company, 1976.