The staging of the Dalit play Bali Aadugal (The Scapegoats) which was stopped by the Pondicherry University a few days ago, was eventually staged at the university campus on Tuesday.
Considered to be the first ever Tamil Dalit play written by K.A. Gunasekaran, it has been staged at several forums including the Indian Theatre Festival since 1992.
The staging of the drama was originally scheduled to be performed on March 27 as the final programme of a three-day seminar by the university’s School of Performing Arts.
On Vice-Chancellor Chandra Krishnamurthy’s order, the event was cancelled much to the disappointment of the delegates and students.
Following complaints about the content of the play from some quarters, the staging of play was first stopped and then rescheduled by the university authorities to the occasion of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s birthday.
Scholars, artists and students witnessed the play performed on Tuesday at a mini hall of School of Performing Arts.
Bali Aadugal is based on a stone inscription found in a temple in Kong region and threaded with a conversation between Dr. Ambedkar and Mulk Raj Anand, which has been extracted from Ambedkar’s book The Annihilation of Caste.
Strong in the theatre elements, it gives a realist picture of the atrocities perpetrated on Dalits by upper caste Hindus.
When the temple car of Amman breaks down during a temple festival, the chief priest pronounces that a human sacrifice alone can assuage the anger of the goddess and atone for the lapse.
The Dalits of the village watch helpless as the priests, like birds of prey, corner a Dalit youth. The play towards the end, transforms from a Dalit text into feminist narrative.
Dr. Gunasekaran, who is also Dean of School of Performing Arts, thanked the Vice-Chancellor for permitting the staging of play and said the play would be staged in several places.
Professor Sujatha Vijayaragavan, Department of English said, “It is good sign to see that art and literature are becoming a mass movement. Theatre deserves to be performed for a larger audience.”
Prof. T. Marx said, “It is quite inevitable such a powerful, well-received and most widely accepted play has to be staged again and again.”
