Synopsis
A volume of three street plays from the women s movement, written in the 1980s and widely performed as part of the cultural activism of the time.
Giving Away the Girl and The Monkey Dance are both anti-dowry plays.
Why All This Bloodshed is a play written in the wake of the widely-debated Shah Bano case in India in the mid-80s, centring around a Muslim woman s right to maintenance.
All the plays remain remarkably relevant, opening up key issues of the movement in a complex and nuanced manner, facilitating debate rather than offering simplistic solutions.
Brought together for the first time with an introductory essay by the playwright and a note by filmmaker and activist Madhusree Dutt, who directed these plays, the book provides invaluable documentation of a significant period in the history of women s activism in India.
These plays have been translated from the Bengali by Sarmistha Dutta Gupta and Paramita Banerjee.
Malini Bhattacharya is Professor of English and Director, School of Women s Studies, at Jadavpur University.
She is also a cultural critic and a former Member of Parliament.
Madhusree Dutt is a feminist activist and filmmaker, associated with the legal aid cultural centre, Majlis
Sarmistha Dutta Gupta is an editor, translator and activist who has also acted in these plays.
Paramita Banerjee is a Calcutta-based translator engaged in theatre research, especially on women s issues.
