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J Car= A Taiyam performer inwkes

1 a ", - _- , the d~vinr(vm Torram song &fore

, dannng. b~ , &.:-- " 7 "h 7 -- * . , * q r ;;:- . -- Photograph. Mohan Khokar

Nntak is a quanerly journal of music. dance and drama vublished from 1965 bv Saneeet Natak I COmrBLTORS

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~kademi-~ational Academy of Music. Dance and Drama for India. The journal chiefly carries writingson Indian performing a m . All writinps. illustrarions and photographs published In Sangerr Narak arc coppight. except where arrribulcd loothcrsources, and can be reproduced onlvwith publisher's permission. The oplnrons are of the writers in question. and do nor n.-cessarilv rcnect the polic~es of the Akademi. Contributions offered for publi-a~ion should be r submirtcd to rhc editor in duplicate. rypcd dwble- space. with a minimum of foornovs. pith illusrrarions where necessary. Sangeer Natak Akademi publishes. rpan f;om Sangcci Nank. books m d monographs on Indian muslc. dancc. and,theatrc. Enquiries and orderr may be wnr ro the editor.

'Annual mbnripClw in India: individuals Rs 30. institucionrll~brarin Rs SO (Rs 2Oextra for rcgirtcred port); each issue: individuals Rs 10. institur~onr libraries Rs IS. Annual oversc~subrcripnon: I I5 (I 10 extra for airmail); each issue S 5. ChcqueVdnftil postal orders covenngsubscription should be payable to kcrcrary. Sangerr Narak Akadem~. New Delhl.

' Monry-ordcn may pleast be avo~dcd.

Publisher: K.S. Korhari. Smeary. Sangeet Narak Akadem~. Rabindra Rhavan. Ferozc Shah Road. New DeIhl-110&1!.

C m r dr LWI. Kaqti Roy I Rinttd It: NU Tech Phnlolirhopraphen. Dana Can]. New Dclhi. 1

Malini Bhattacharp is a Redder in English a! Jadavpur Universiry. Calcutta: has publislted a monorraph in Beneali on [he IFTA movement: G a n a n a t ~ a S;~n$ha 0 Gananarya Andolan lW-148; clccted to the Lok Sabha in 1989.

Mohan Khokar is a writer on dance as well as a phorographer: publicarions ~nclude Tradirion3 of Indian Claxsical Dance & m e Splrndours of Indian Dance.

Sujatha Vijry8rPgh.m is an editorial assoeiare of Smri. a classical music &dance magazine published from Madras.

Bharat Cupt teaches En~l i sh in the University of Delhi: isspecially inrerested in theethosfi modes of performing ans-thcatrc & masic in particular.

C.A. Tprkknr is a musicologist & Sanskrit scholar; publications include a critical edition of Sarngadeva's Sangecra Rarnakara 9L The h a n Chants: A Review o f Research. K.S. C'padhpya h:~\ h c n involved with the pmmorron of Yakshaeana and Karnareka puppet? in !ndia & ahri~arl: has u,ritrrn on these sub~ccts tn I;dnn;lda S: Engl~st?.

The Indian People's Theatre Association: A Preliminary Sketch of the Movement and the Organization 1912-47

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MALIWI BHA'ITACHARYA

hk artic!e will be descriptive rather than analytical. I will try to give an elementary account of some of the activities in and around the Indian People's Theatre Association between 1942-47 which seem

to me to demonstrate the character of the theatre movement or the movement in the ~phere of the performing arts of which the organization was the spearhead. 1 a 1 taking it for prantzd here that such a movement. involving a change in certain dramatic forms. is possible and did happen at the time. I am also assumiiig that one may talk in terms of there being a close. though indirect and intricate, relationship between the above- mentioned change and a crucial shift ir! the political-ecomomic situation. These assumptions will remain outside the scope of my discussion. but 1 hope my examples will. to some extcnt. bring our the relationship between political-economic change and the change in aesthetic perception and aesthetic forms. Since the object of my enquiv is thc movement which developed around the organizarion. I have p;lid more attention to the periphery rather than the centre. But the terms periphery and centre are after all metaphors, useful only in so far as they counteract the impression of localized spontaneity. They are not meant to establish any objective and abstract prri2minence of the latter over the former. In fact. the organization would not have been formed if the stirrings of a movement had not been felt. I t is also true that while the movement gained momentum and went in a particular direction because of the organization, the latter existed for the movement. The exrrnr to which the movement was sustained in the peripheral arcas could be an important measure of the success of the Organizarion.

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