Neilesh Bose
Beyond Bollywood and Broadway: Plays from the South Asian Diaspora
A nytheatre voices cyber-interview
Neilesh Bose is the editor of this new anthology of plays by South Asian authors living in the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Canada. Neilesh has a PhD. in South Asian History and is well known in academia for his papers on this topic. He is very interested in theatre as practiced by South Asians both in America and in the various countries in which they have migrated. This new anthology of plays is having a series of readings, panels, and receptions at the Martin E. Segal Theatre, Graduate Center CUNY in early August.
Pictured: Cover: Beyond Bollywood and Broadway by Neilesh Bose
To begin with, congratulations on the publication of your anthology, Beyond Bollywood and Broadway: Plays from the South Asian Diaspora. Can you give readers a brief overview of what's in the book—which plays and authors, and specifically how and why you chose to include these particular plays and playwrights?
Thank you so much, Martin. the book includes eleven plays—three from the United States (Sakina's Restaurant by Aasif Mandvi, Chaos Theory by Anuvab Pal, and Merchant on Venice by Shishir Kurup); three from the United Kingdom (2001: A Ramayana Odyssey by Jatinder Verma, Song for a Sanctuary by Rukhsana Ahmad, and Strictly Dandia by Sudha Bhuchar and Kristin Landon-Smith); three from South Africa (The Lahnee's Pleasure by Ronnie Govender, Working Class Hero by Kessie Govender, and Looking for Muruga by Kriben Pillay); and two from Canada (Bhopal by Rahul Varma and The Death of Abbie Hoffman by Rana Bose). All are written by individuals with South Asian diasporic connections of varying types—Jatinder Verma from the UK, for example, who started the Tara Arts Theatre Company in London 33 years ago, migrated to the UK in his youth from East Africa, where his family had settled generations before. Shishir Kurup, the American playwright, has a similar 'twice-migration' life history, whereas the South African writers, including Ronnie Govender, an elder statesman of theatre in South Africa, or Kriben Pillay, a theatre scholar and researcher, hold collective memories of indentured labor struggles in the distant past (the late 19th century), not recent migration. Most Indians of South Africa descend from the indentured laborers brought into southern Africa from the 1860s to the 1910s and therefore their cultural identity and political consciousness may compare, in part, to the African American cultural and political ethos: deeply woven into the land (America for African-Americans, Africa for South African Indians) but also linked, through a distant and idealized past, to a homeland in a different part of the world.
How I chose these plays relates to both aesthetic and political choices and also the mundane world of publishing and the constraints of resources. My goal was to document plays from the English-speaking South Asian diasporic world that have made lasting aesthetic and political impacts, modern classics, for lack of a better term, plays that have captured their eras, have captured a moment in time, that will live on for future generations, and show future generations about the aesthetics and politics of South Asian diasporic people. Some of the politics I find to be important: race and racialism in South Africa, the USA, and UK, the comparative ways western classics are understood, and also how socio-economic class is perceived and engaged with in different points in the diaspora. This collection shows the diversity of aesthetic choices and political positionings—from the descendants of indenture, to apartheid, to Indian academics in the USA, to domestic violence in 1980s UK, to youth culture in contemporary London, and the appropriation of Indian events (in Bhopal by Rahul Warma). I included Rana Bose's Death of Abbie Hoffman not because it shows something South Asian diasporic, per se, but because it is an adaptation of an Indian political play—Procession (Micchil in the original Bengali) by Badal Sircar—and therefore shows yet another side to diasporic theatre.
As a scholar and critic, I am making these choices quite subjectively and through my own vision—I freely and heartily acknowledge that others may have different visions, different choices. the point is rather to begin the conversation and to learn from other groups and their theatre traditions/histories—such as the African American and East Asian American theatre traditions—we have to start somewhere and my goal is to document South Asian diasporic dramatic literature both for historical purposes but also for theatre artists, to give South Asian diasporic theatre artists a sense that there is a dramatic literature out there and we should learn from and build on that literature.
I find these four locations—the USA, UK, Canada, and South Africa—to be the four main English language regions of South Asian diasporic theatre. More of course exist—Trinidad, Fiji, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Guyana. The book is a representive sample of the vision I laid out above. but I hope that this work will stir more research and prouductions relating to plays from those areas as well. I wish strongly to emphasize non-American locations. To know of South Asian theatre practices and traditions in Africa, Canada, and the UK is important for us; to know that we are not just living in a bubble in New York City.
About publishing constraints, some authors originally in mind were just too expensive, not responsive, or had unwieldy permissions processes. Some of the plays were never published and some have been published—the goal was to have a mix. For the unpublished, it was to document these plays in a format that would be accessible to the general reader, student, and scholar throughout the English-language world. The book has been picked up by British libraries and in Southeast Asia, and bought by a few libraries in India. I had hoped to include more female playwrights and there certainly are more than the two included here but many of the female playwrights I wanted already were published and 11 plays is already quite a lot for one book. but again, hopefully this will encourage others to do more.
The book's title alludes specifically to India and the USA, but of course the South Asian Diaspora takes in much more geographic ground than that. I know that the anthology covers other South Asian cultures and other areas of the world where South Asians have emigrated. Are there important differences—in terms of the kind of theatre that's created, and the way South Asian theatre is received--among these cultures, and among these destinations?
To clarify, South Asia refers to the contemporary nation-states of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldive Islands. The term is a product of the cold war and geo-political designations made by the USA and the Soviet Union during that time period. It lives on with us now, but it is more accurate, in my opinion, to refer to the kaleidoscope of South Asian languages, cultures, aesthetic forms, religions, etc., as one whole, rather than to take out India or Pakistan as national markers. One example includes the languages of Hindi and Urdu, now the national languages of India and Pakistan. They really derive from the same language that can be written in two scripts; this is a way of understanding the kinds of religious practice and literary self-expression in South Asia as well.
As I mention in the book, there are two main patterns/conditions of migration: 1) indentured labor migration in the 19th century from colonial India to South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad, and Guyana In terms of theatre I just have South African plays in the book, but these other regions are also just as important. 2) post-1947 (1947 being the year of partition of colonial India into the states of India and Pakistan, with lines drawn through Bengal and Punjab, eastern Bengal going to then Pakistan (now its own state of Bangladesh), and western Punjab going to the new Pakistan. Migrants in the post-1947 era to the UK, Canada, and the USA, have also been of two main groups, both working-class migrants in the 1950s and 1960s, who sought work in mills, factories, and throughout all echelons of working society (this being the case in the UK), and professionals, doctors, scientists, and technically qualified individuals (this being the case in the USA and Canada).
Finally about the theatre cultures in each location. the USA, UK, and Canada all have established professional theatre traditions into which non-whites have had to assimilate. In each of these cases, the UK being the most visible, South Aians have initially had to face breaking into a largely white industry and finding ways to fit into white theatre, i.e. by doing European classics or entering 'color-blind' casts. But from the 1970s, due to virulent racism against South Asians, Jatinder Verma started Tara Arts, and from that a need to train professional artists, and then an audience followed. Today, there are three to four solid professional South Asian-themed theatres in the UK, all who produce work of high quality. In the USA and Canada, we haven't yet got there but there is a growing mass of South Asian American theatre artists who are quite talented, but yet to be a company/set of classic plays/etc. that can move things forward. I think it will happen, but perhaps not for a generation or two. The Tara Arts story is akin to the African American theatre history—politics necessitated the creation of art which necessitated the training of artists and the cultivation of an audience. One of the factors that we in the USA face is that, in my opinion, we need to cultivate our own dramatic literature, our own distinctive stories and plays, akin to the way that African-Americans and other groups have done. I think the book is a small step in that direction.
In South Africa, the case is very different—there has been a sophisticated professional theatre culture, but mediated by apartheid, where white theatre artists were guaranteed training and a career. There had always been an oppositional black political theatre tradition there and a smattering of Indian involvement in that tradition, but the Indian component after apartheid is somewhat alienated, as it is now alienated from the black majority. South African current theatre culture is professionalized, but the Indian traditions are rooted in community performances of the apartheid era or straight-forward political theatre, of the kind I have in the book. Now the question facing us is the future and we wait with great enthusiasm.
I'm very excited about the South Asian Diasporic Theatre Conference that will be coming to CUNY Graduate Center's Martin E. Segal Center on August 10 and 11. Can you give readers a rundown of the conference events? How did you go about parsing this huge topic, to figure out what to include in the conference? And how did you select the panelists and speakers?
It was difficult to coordinate all this and ideally all the playwrights would be in attendance, but out of 11 plays, 7 playwrights will be there, and I've asked Ronnie Govender, the senior personality of South Africa, to give the keynote address on Tuesday, and he agreed. We have invited local professors and a few agents and theatre artists to give a well-rounded feel to the event. August 10 I will give the opening speech followed by British Asian plays and discussion, South African plays and discussion, and a reception with Ronnie Govender and Kessie Govender. On the 11th the keynote address:will be by Ronnie Govender followed by Canadian plays and USA plays with discussions, There will be another reception in the evening.
What do you see as the primary trend in South Asian Diasporic theatre in the early 21st century?
Moving from inclusion into a dominant paradigm/theatre tradition and carving out distinction and difference without sacrificing professionalism or the universal impulses of great art. to create great works of art, we have to speak to audiences broader than our own minute communities (however important that is) and create stories and works of art that resonate at a human level. As artists in a situation where we are in a minority, we must embrace that condition as an advantage, a unique and important starting point into the human condition that all artists investigate.
Finally, can you tell us a little about your career and background? What's next for you, in addition to working on spreading the word about your book?
I am actually someone who is a bit schizophrenic but happily so. My training is in anthropology and history and my PhD is in South Asian history and I am employed as a professor of South Asian history. I also am a theatre critic, dramaturg, and actor. I have published academic work on theatre studies, particularly on South Asian American theatre, as well as worked on South Asian history proper, which for my dissertation, focuses on intellectuals in the late colonial era and the ways in which region, religion, and culture work together in the late colonial period and during decolonization, from the 1920s to the 1950s. To this end, I am planning a series of academic articles and a book based on that work. In my theatre work, I have also recently published a co-edited translation of an extraordinary Bengali play, Maanusher Adhikare (Of Human Rights), about the 1930s Scottsboro trials of African American boys in Alabama. Our translation (myself and Sudipto Chatterjee, a scholar and theatre artist based in the UK) is published by Seagull India Press, from Kolkata, and is the first English language version of this play. My next theatre project is a full-length study of South Asian American theatre and performance history as well as another academic study of intercultural theatre as it has been practiced by directors like Peter Brook, Ariane Mnouchkine, and Jerzy Grotowski, and their troubled origins with anthropology and other political developments of the 20th century.
July 20, 2009
