The book Decolonial Existence and Urban Sensibility: A Study on Mahesh Elkunchwar meticulously reflects upon some of the selected translated plays of Marathi playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar. It revolves around the themes of decolonial existence and urban sensibility in contemporary India as portrayed in his plays with respect to post-independent utban existence, socio-cultural existence and gender. The book also looks forward to establish a counterargument against the idealized and totalitarian definitions of West-centric existentialist philosophy, and establish indigenous dimensions of decolonial existence within specific contexts. It dismantles the colonially structured existing binaries of urban/rural, ethical/unethical and high culture/low culture through the diverse portrayal of human relationships in contemporary India and broadly addresses two inter-mingled perspectives. Firstly, it outlines the thematic and dramatic perspectives of the selected plays of Mahesh Elkunchwar and secondly, it explores the multi-dimensional philosophical perspectives that encapsulate the theoretical latitude of decoloniality and urban sensibility.
sayan Dey is a Lecturer, Postgraduate Department of English, Royal University of Bhutan. He obtained his PhD (English) from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He is a recipient of Charles Wallace Short-term Fellowship, Journal of International Women’s Studies Fellowship(twice), and Volkswagen Foundation Scholarship with respect to his research projects on decolonial studies. As a documentary filmmaker, he is one of the founding members of "Aurthaat Productions: A Creative Research and Academic Archive" which documents stories associated with unique histories, cultures and traditions across the world.
His first documentary Their Stories, their voices: The Orphans of the British Raj has been screened in several film festivals and academic forums across the world. His areas of interest are decolonial studies, postcolonial studies, racial studies, cultural studies, social anthropology, food humanities and modern Indian theatre.
During the colonial era, the textual and performative aspects of Marathi theatre were widely influenced by European socio-political ideologies. Besides translation and adaptation of plays by William Shakespeare, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett and several other Western playwrights, the social Marathi plays composed by playwrights like Mahatma Jyotibha Phule’s Truteeya Ratna (Third Jewel 1855), Raghunath Shankarshashtri Abhyankar’s Saar Sakesha (trans. Al Widow with hair who is of loose Conduct 1871) and N H Bhagwat’s Mor LLB Prahashan (1882) were limited in scope and applauded the socio- cultural contributions of the colonizers. Phule talked about the ways in which a ‘Kunabee’ (lower agricultural caste) family is threatened and exploited by a Brahmin priest before a European Christian priest tries to awaken them. Abhyankar’s play also appreciated the British and their contribution towards lessening violence against the widows. Bhagwat in his play criticized the individuals who regarded every tradition in Indian society as wrong and blindly mimicked the ‘modern’ British ways of free man-woman relationship, drinking alcohol and dancing, without being concerned about the existing socio-cultural problems. But, the thematic framework and character development in his play acknowledges the British socio-cultural attitudes and behavioral patterns, especially Moreshwar who admires British lifestyle and moves ahead to study LLB Therefore, with India’s independence, playwrights like Anna Bhau Sathe, Niloo Phule, G P Deshpande, Vijay Tendulkar, Satish Alekar and Mahesh Elkunchwar not only diminished the colonial fetishism of their predecessors, but also projected the habitual existential grievances through trelearning histories, re-contextualizing mythologies and representing practical experiences.
With respect to this dissertation, the plays of Marathi playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar reflect the multi-dimensional faces of decolonial existence and urban sensibilities of contemporary India. This book matures around the following interrogations:
This project not only pursues new ideological trajectories, but also counters the already existing premise of postcoloniality and disengages from it. The six chapters explore the multifarious sub- concepts which underpin the decentralized idea of decoloniality. The study not merely discusses ‘existence’ as a concept but also reflects on decolonial perspectives of existence which should be conceived in order to recover the indigenous elements of contemporary Indian society. It also analyzes the divergent existential options which disengage from the dilemmas of ‘postcolonial internationalization’ and ‘decolonial territorialization.’
The book has been divided into six chapters. The first chapter, "Introduction," draws the theoretical foundation of the book and establishes its relation with the themes of Elkunchwat’s plays. The Decolonial Existence and Urban Sensibility: A Study on Mahesh Elkunchwar second chapter, "Mahesh Elkunchwar: Setting the Stage," explores the position and contribution of Mahesh Elkunchwar as a playwright in the realm of Marathi theatre vis-a-vis the Indian theatre. The third chapter, ‘"Post-Independent Urban Existence: Commodification of Social Identity,’ analyzes how the concept of post-modern urbanization and its conflictive digression from the rural areas is nothing more than a project of modernity/coloniality.
The fourth chapter, "Socio-cultural Existence: Multi-layered Issues of Class, Community and Traditions," investigates the diverse socio- cultural sensibilities that are practiced within the contemporary urban framework through the multi-layered issues of class, community and tradition. The fifth chapter, "Gender and Urbanity: Decolonizing Female Body and Space" shifts our focus from the colonially conceived ‘usual’ feminine problems towards decolonial ‘arterial’ ones through the plays — O/d-Stone Mansion (1985), Party (1976), Sonata (2002), Garbo (1970) and Deszre in the Rocks (1972). The sixth chapter concludes the book through the perceptions of ‘border thinking,’ ‘metaphysical decoloniality’ and ‘de-mechanization of theory.’
The present study has been conducted by relying on the English translation of Mahesh Elkunchwar’s plays. The effort has been made to foreground the themes of ‘decolonial existence’ and ‘urban sensibility’ through the textual and critical analysis of Elkunchwar’s plays.
Once upon a time, approximately, 60 years ago, when I was a child of ten or twelve, I thought of becoming a writer; a novelist; a poet and everyone I could imagine. Out of curiosity, I just tried to see if there is any other person who thought like and to my surprise, there were many such people, including Shakespeare to Keats, and Shirwadkat to Khanolkar. Thinking it would be a waste of time, I gave up the idea of becoming anyone from the field of literature. And all of a sudden, on a cold morning of Dec 16, a young man, named Dr Sayan Dey, approached me, I do not know from where on earth, and insisted, that I should write a foreword to his book on the works of Mr Mahesh Elkunchwar, one of the very few and significant playwrights in the world of Marathi theatre. I was and still I am impressed by the idea of someone trying to analyze Mr Elkunchwar’s work in theatre literature, but to me, it’s rather difficult to understand Elkunchwar in totality. Mahesh Elkunchwar, my senior and friend of more than three decades has been attracting me through his extremely snnovative sense about an unimaginable and complex world of men and women, not only on physical levels, but also on a strange platform of intellect.
Dr Sayan Dey, seems to have done an in-depth study of Elkunchwar. The study not only of his theatre literature, but also of his other works. Dr Dey compares Elkunchwar’s work with Toril Moi’s view points in the Indian gendered context. He notes the ways Elkunchwar frames the so called ‘Independent and Free woman’ from an elite class, in post modern era, of one of his play named Party to finally, in an indirect way, serving the Man’s world against her wish and will. Dr Dey compares and analyses Elkunchwat’s Party with Audre Lorde. He also studies Elkunchwar’s skills of blending two distant and different aspects of feminism and the art. Elkunchwar's Vasanakand is an example. I have watched this play and seen the then Palekar couple performing in Mumbai, some 35 years ago, but I have a strong opinion, that not only me, but no one from the then audiences along with performing Palekars, had understood the representation of claustrophobic experiences of Lalita in the play. Dr Dey notes the similarities between Vasanakand and A Room of Once Own of Virginia Woolf’. He points out the similarities between Lata and Garbo, both being used, as a sexual weapon by the world of men, nourishing and enhancing their creative perspectives.
Dr Sayan Dey quotes Simone de Beauvoit’s viewsx in her book The Second Sex to ptove that men possibly use women as sexual weapons. Noting the brilliance and originality in regards with Elkunchwar'’s blending expertise, Dr Dey does not forget the influences of Anton Chekhov on Elkunchwar’s theatre literature. Using ‘silence’ as a character is an achievement on the stage and in the proscenium arch! Because the world of theatre is full of words and there is usually a spoken language of theatre, but there are so many other languages in theatre which are unspoken and yet they exist. While pursuing the study of Elkunchwar, Dr Dey goes back into Indian myths; mythological beliefs and superstitions by traditions at times, which reminds me of a few playwrights who are our contemporaties such as Mr Kiran Nagarkar, Mr Girish Karnad, Mr Vijay Tendulkar, Mr Jaywant Dalvi, Mr Satish Aalekar and to a certain extent Mr Vasant Kanetkar, and as long as a man-woman relationship is concerned Mr Satyadeo Dubey along with Mr C T Khanolkar, though a rather poetic playwright.
In conclusion, I would say, Dr Dey has tried his best to know Mr Mahesh Elkunchwat. But while comparing Elkunchwar with other great playwrights of the world, he also should know Elkunchwar’s contemporaries of Indian soil to know him deeply. I wish Dr Sayan Dey good luck for this project on Mr Mahesh Elkunchwat’s work.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
For privacy concerns, please view our Privacy Policy
Christian (207)
Agriculture (83)
Ancient (957)
Archaeology (524)
Architecture (505)
Art & Culture (813)
Biography (587)
Buddhist (528)
Cookery (156)
Emperor & Queen (497)
Hindu (859)
Islam (229)
Jainism (254)
Literary (887)
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist