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Politicians as Players

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2021

Extract

Until a hundred years ago, the Tamil theatre of South India was devoted exclusively to the presentation of stories derived from Indian epics and other religious sources. The first plays focusing on contemporary social problems were written in the 1870s. Although the bulk of Tamil drama continued to be primarily religious in content, this newly articulated concern with social problems introduced a separate line of development which was to become a major factor in the political evolution of Madras in the second quarter of this century.

Starting in the twenties, the Indian independence movement began to draw the Tamil theatre into direct involvement with social and political reform. The theatre was used to propagandize the activities of the Congress party, which led the struggle against British rule. Plays were written to urge the people to unite and fight colonial oppression.

Type
Theatre and Politics
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 The Drama Review

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References

* This refers to the division of language found in early grammatical texts into phonology, morphology, literary content, prosody, and rhetoric.