Ghashiram Kotwāl





                        Ghashiram Kotwāl

Vijay Tendulkar



Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar (6 January 1928 – 19 May 2008) was a leading Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, and social commentator primarily in Marāthi. He is best known for his plays Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (1967), Ghāshirām Kotwāl (1972), and Sakhārām Binder (1972). Many of Tendulkar's plays derived inspiration from real-life incidents or social upheavals, which provides clear light on harsh realities. He has provided guidance to students studying "play writing" in US universities. For over five decades Tendulkar had been a highly influential dramatist and theatre personality in Mahārāshtra.

Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar was born on 6 January 1928 in Girgaon, Mumbai, and Maharashtra, where his father held a clerical job and ran a small publishing business. The literary environment at home prompted young Vijay to take up writing. He wrote his first story at age six.

He grew up watching western plays and felt inspired to write plays himself. At age eleven, he wrote, directed, and acted in his first play.

At age 14, he participated in the 1942 Indian freedom movement, leaving his studies. The latter alienated him from his family and friends. Writing then became his outlet, though most of his early writings were of a personal nature, and not intended for publication. During this period, he participated in the activities of Nabajiban Sanghatana, a splinter communist group. He said that he liked sense of sacrifice and discipline of the communists.

Tendulkar began his career writing for newspapers. He had already written a play, Āmcyāvar Koṇ Preṃ Karṇār (आम्च्यावऱ कोण प्रेम करणार who will Love us?), and he wrote the play, Gṛhastha (The Householder), in his early 20s. The latter did not receive much recognition from the audience, and he vowed never to write again.

Breaking the vow, in 1956 he wrote Śrīmant, which established him as a good writer. Śrīmant jolted the conservative audience of the times with its radical storyline, wherein an unmarried young woman decides to keep her unborn child while her rich father tries to "buy" her a husband in an attempt to save his social prestige.

Tendulkar's early struggle for survival and living for some time in tenements ("cāḷ/chawls") in Mumbai provided him first-hand experience about the life of urban lower middle class. He thus brought new authenticity to their depiction in Marathi theatre. Tendulkar's writings rapidly changed the storyline of modern Marathi theatre in the 1950s and the 60s, with experimental presentations by theatre groups like Rangayan. Actors in these theatre groups like Shriram Lagoo, Mohan Agashe, and Sulabha Deshpande brought new authenticity and power to Tendulkar's stories while introducing new sensibilities in Marathi theatre.

Tendulkar wrote the play Gidhāḍe (The Vultures) in 1961, but it was not produced until 1970. The play was set in a morally collapsed family structure and explored the theme of violence. In his following creations, Tendulkar explored violence in its various forms: domestic, sexual, communal, and political. Thus, Gidhāḍe proved to be a turning point in Tendulkar's writings with regard to establishment of his own unique writing style.

Based on a 1956 short story, Die Panne ("Traps") by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Tendulkar wrote the play, Śāntatā! Court Cālū Āhe ("Silence! The Court Is in Session"). It was presented on the stage for the first time in 1967 and proved as one of his finest works. Satyadev Dubey presented it in movie form in 1971 with Tendulkar's collaboration as the screenplay writer.



Introduction to Play

Vijay Dhondo Tendulkar (b. 1928) is an eminent Marathi playwright, screenplay writer, essayist, and journalist. He first came into prominence in the 1950s and 60s with one-act plays like Ratra (1957), Ajagar anigandharva (1966) and Bhekad (1969). But his signature style began to develop clearly with his association with the experimental theatre movement, which was part of the advent of modernism in Marathi literature. With modernism came the break from the traditional musical drama, the plays with mythological and folk ingredients and the imitations of Shakespeare, and a growing concern with social and political themes. This also meant the influence of playwrights like Ibsen and Shaw, Ionesco, Pirandello, Strindberg and Brecht, and a strong emphasis on formal and thematic experimentation. Tendulkar’s close association with the experimental theatre movement began with the plays he wrote for amateur groups like Rangayan, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Kendra and Avishkar. The plays that he wrote between 1955 and 1964 were keen explorations of middle class life and the isolation and alienation of individuals from the world around them, and include Manus navache bet (An Island called Man)(1955), Madhlya Bhinti ( The Walls Between) (1958), Chimanicha ghar hota menacha (Nest of Wax) (1958), Mee jinklo Mee harlo (I Won, I Lost) (1963), Kavlanchi Shala (School for Crows)(1963). His 1968 play, Shantata, court chalu ahe ( Silence! The Court is in Session ) brought him national recognition and a number of awards followed, among them the most prominent being the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Award and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1971.

Ghashiram Kotwāl (English translation by Jayant Karve and Eleanor Zelliot) was first performed in the original Marathi on December 16, 1972, by the Progressive Dramatic Association at the Bharat Natya Mandir in Pune. It was directed by Jabbar Patel and the role of Ghashiram was played by Ramesh Tilekar while Mohan Agashe played Nana Phadnavis. After nineteen performances, however, the President of the Progressive Dramatic Association banned the play on the grounds that it was anti-Brahman and gave an inaccurate picture of the historical figure of Nana Phadnavis. Most of the actors resigned from the Association and formed Theatre Academy on March 27, 1973. The production was revived on January 11, 1974. Since then, popular and controversial, and always contemporary, the play has been produced in many Indian languages, and Theatre Academy has also performed it in several European countries. The NSD production, directed by Rajinder Nath for Nandikar’s 17th National Theatre Festival, like Jabbar Patel’s, stays true to the play’s extensive use of traditional devices of the Marathi folk theatre.

Histoncol context:  The play is set in Poona during the last years of the rule of the Peshwa Baji Rao n and his Chancellor Nana Phadnavis. Once when he makes Ghashiram the kotwal, and again at the end when he throws Ghashiram to the mob. One of the reasons stated for the banning of the play by the President of the Progressive Theatre Association was that the audience would not take kindly to the legendary figure of Nana being shown as debauched and evil, & Ghashiram, as Tendulkar himself tells us, was a minor figure of that period and therefore offers great scope to the playwright to flesh him out to suit the play’s representation of socio-political issues of our time.

The Brahmans were the most privileged of the various classes in Poona during this period, since they were also the class in power. While the government formulated a strict code of behaviour for them it also assured that they enjoyed the highest social status. They were granted a great deal of license and this is probably one of the incidental issues that attracted Tendulkar’s, allowing him to show that decadence could very well be the result of undeserved or excessive privilege. In the play, an interesting aspect of their preeminence is seen, as there is almost total absence of the other castes. On being questioned about the historicity of the play, Tendulkar’s very firmly states: This is not a historical play. It is a story, in prose, verse, music and dance set in a historical era. Ghashiram are creations of socio-political forces which know no barriers of time and place. Although based on a historical legend, I have no intention of commentary on the morals, or lack of them, of the Peshwa, Nana Phadnavis, or Ghashiram.’ On being asked whether the play sought to expose Brahman corruption and pretensions, he replied, ‘The decadence of the class in power (the Brahmans, incidentally, during the period which I had to depict) also was incidental, though not accidental.’

Since Ghashiram Kotwal continues to be a popular play, Tendulkar has commented on it in various contexts. At one point he says, ‘Ghashiram started with a theme, then came the specific ‘story’ or incident which was historical.’ Also pertinent to the theme of the play is his statement: ‘I had in mind the emergence, the growth, and the inevitable end of the Ghashiram; also those who create, and help Ghashiram to grow; and the irony of stoning to death a person pretending that it is the end of Ghashiram.’ Written and performed in the years leading up to the Emergency, which is considered to be the darkest period in the history of independent India, when the basic freedoms - to act, speak and think - became casualties, the play’s depiction of absolute authority unleashed on the people must now appear to have been prophetic. When we speak of historical context, therefore, it is as necessary to be aware of the play’s actual historical background, as it is important to recall when it was written and performed, and to be sensitive to the context in which it comes to us with each new performance.


Theme

Since the play is set in a particular historical context, is possible to locate its themes in this context. The idea that would strike a reader immediately is that of a dominant class, the Brahmans, enjoying many privileges but also revealed as taking advantage of their position and their proximity to the ruler. We see them breaking class codes and indulging themselves Nana s participation in their revels in Bavannakhani suggests that they have the protection of the ruler and despite their violations of the Brahman The portraits of Nana and Ghashiram help develop the idea of authority or power - Nana used to having it and therefore relaxed m exercising it over people below him, Ghashiram newly powerful, and therefore carried away by it and engaging in violent and brutal demonstrations. However it becomes apparent from a comparison of these two representations of the theme of authonty that at bottom they do not differ significantly from each other.

Power of different kinds is seen in many of Tendulkar’s Pays and it is commonly acknowledged that Ghashiram Kotwāl is about the power of the state and its institutions or its various organs. But it is his probing and investigative approach to its operation in human relationships that is most striking - how within various institutionalized power structures individuals use one another. Both Nana and Ghashiram as authority figures show a remarkable callousness about people, caring little about the effects of their actions or their decisions on others. They display an equal degree of selfishness and a similar willingness to use people to reach their own goals and Tendulkar’s ethical concern is most prominent here - in his understanding of one’s relationship to others who are different from oneself, belonging to a lower economic or social status or the opposite sex.

In the context of our times, in our increasingly polarized and violent societies, it may be interesting to note how Tendulkar treats the ideas of insularity and violence. The city of Poona is regarded almost as personal property by the Brahmans. They close ranks against the outsider, making it difficult for him to earn a living, humiliating him and banishing him from the city. It is only in the aftermath of such treatment that the worst elements of Ghashiram’s character come to the fore and the brutal Ghashiram Kotwal is bom.

On violence, Tendulkar has admitted in A Testament, written in 1992 : ‘I feel fascinated by the violent exploiter-exploited relationship and obsessively delve deep into it instead of taking a position against it.’ In Ghashiram Kotwal, he explores how and why violence erupts. We are shown the violent treatment meted out to the outsider, the Brahman from Kanauj, and the threat of violence behind the permit-system in Ghashiram’s rule stunning the people into a state of apathy. We see it in the brutal ordeal conducted to establish the truth and, finally, we are given an example of mob violence - mob anger satisfied only with bloodshed. Behind these varieties of violence is the authority and sanction of the state. (TENDULKAR)

A GAME OF POWER IN TENDULKAR’S GHASHIRAM KOTWAL



Since immemorial times, human beings have been striving to become powerful and superior to others. They always urge to be more powerful than others hierarchizing the divisions. This has made the social pyramidal where the few at the top usurp the great power of the masses. It has become possible and usual because the people give away their power by taking the hierarchized society for granted. As the higher rungs of the hierarchized society are endowed with greater power in addition to the greater privileges, people struggle to scramble up the ladder of power. In this journey, some people go up while some go down. This sort of striving for power is recurrent in Vijay Tendulkar’s Ghashiram Kotwāl that explores the game of power in politics and human relations.

Ghashiram Kotwal, written against the backdrop of Maratha history, is about the discourse of power, absolute power, and “a powerful satire on the power-politics.”5 It explores how men in power give rise to certain fascist ideologies to fulfill their desires and later destroy them when they become useless. Ghashiram Savaldas is a poor Brahman from Kanauj. He comes to Poona for livelihood along with his wife and daughter. He becomes a servant in courtesan Gulabi’s house when he doesn’t get no noble employment that suits him and his caste. In addition to the housework that he does for Gulabi, he also sings and dances when people come to enjoy her erotic songs and dance. Once, Nana Phadnavis, the late eighteenth century Marathi Machiavelli, visits Gulabi and tries to dance with her. But suddenly he slips and his ankle sprains. Then, Ghashiram holds Nana’s hurt foot in his hands and says that he has fallen grace in his hands that makes everyone envy of him. Nana feels flattened and pleased and offers him a necklace of pearls and leaves. Gulabi snatches the necklace from him and sends him out with the help of her thugs. Ghashiram feels hurt and insulted. Thus, Gulabi who once rescues persecutes him later. He, being in the position of a victim, remains helpless and powerless.
When Ghashiram thrown out of the Poona he searches for the best way to get enough power to persecute the people of Poona and also to take vengeance against the people who tortured him. He disguises himself as a servant and appears with Gauri, a girl, none but his own daughter. He sends her to Nana to quench the latter’s lust. Nana, impressed by the beauty of Gauri, makes advances towards her. Taking this as an advantage, Ghashiram seeks power through his daughter. He says, “Now he’s in my hands …. I’ve given my beloved daughter in the jaws of the wolf” Nana enjoying the erotic pleasure with Gauri issues the order making Ghashiram, the Kotwal of Poona.  

The moment Ghashiram secures his trump card of power, he starts victimizing the offenders who have humiliated him before and persecutes the enemies of Nana. He feels that he is superior to his Victims (the people of Poona). He calls the people of Poona as pigs. The Brahmans of Poona, once enjoyed the erotic pleasure with courtesans, start suffering. Even the Brahman wives who enjoyed the company of Maratha lovers and courtesans like Gulabi also see the wrath of Ghashiram. An order is passed that everybody should take permission from Ghashiram to do anything out of routine.
Ghashiram once sold his daughter for power, now accepts her death only to continue exercising his power. This is a perfect example of Ghashiram’s crude self-annihilation.

Ghashiram starts acting out his fury caused by the death of Gauri. He starts murdering people. As such the people of Poona are greatly frightened. Prisons are overcrowded. Some people die of suffocation. Poona Brahmins fed up with Ghashiram’s wickedness demand Nana to issue an order to ‘behead Ghashiram Kotwal.’ Without much hesitation, Nana gives them the order and tells them to do with him whatever they like. He says, “Use a thorn to take out a thorn. That’s great. The disease has been stopped. Anyway, there was no use for him anymore”

The angry Brahman mob surround Ghashiram, beat him, shave his head, paint saffron on it, ride him on a camel, tie him to the leg of an elephant, tie his hands behind his back, and pelts stones at him violently to death. Ghashiram, overcome by remorse, shouts at them to beat, to hit as he wasted the life of his little daughter. He, further says that, must be punished for the death of his daughter. In the end, he succumbs to injuries and dies. Ghashiram’s death reveals “the characteristic violence that is a concomitant of all desire for power.”7 The play ends with the epilogue of Nana in which he says that ‘a threat to the great city of Poona has ended today with the death of Ghashiram who plagued all the people.’ (G.Sailaja)

Woeful Women: A Feminist Reading of Vijay Tendulkar’s Ghashiram Kotwal



Tendulkar is a playwright who is concerned with the social issues. He is not a feminist but his plays in general shows the atrocities and cruelties perpetrated by the male characters. Through his large number of plays Tendulkar has shown that male hegemonic social order has not only silenced the ignorant women but also the educated and the economically independent women. Simone de Beauvoir’s words are fully applicable in case of Tendulkar’s women characters. “They have gained only what has been willingly to grant; they have taken nothing, they have only received.”(Beauvoir, xv) Leela Benare and Mrs Kshikar, Kamala and Sarita, Laxmi and Champa, Gulabi and Gauri – all of them are victims of socio-political patriarchal hegemony in one way or the other. As an iconoclast in Indian drama, his plays deal with not only on the tabooed topics like sex but also depict the violence on women by the patriarchal codes, rituals and habits.

The play begins with the first arrival of Ghashiram Savaldas, a Brahman from Kanauj and his ill-treatment by the Poona Brahmans, the elite class who falsely accused him of theft. This caused anger in Ghashiram and swears to come back to Poona and take revenge on the city for making him a Shudra, a criminal. Ghashiram is in search of an opportunity and it comes in the form of Nana Phadnavis’s demand of his daughter, Lalitha Gauri. Ghashiram without thinking gives his daughter and compelled Nana to appoint him as the kotwal1 the city. And then Ghashiram’s reign of terror begins making the city a hell. These include allowing people to work exclusively under permit, falsely accusing a Brahman of theft, humiliation of a respectable woman as being a prostitute and inhumane punishments like pulling out of nails from fingers and chopping of heads. While Ghashiram is enjoying his reign of terror on the city and its Brahmans, Nana is relishing with the youth and charm of his luscious daughter. However, Ghashiram wakes up lately from his addiction of power when he learns that his daughter is dead, and Nana is marrying for the seventh time.

Women are the marginalized characters in the play. Very little space is given to them in the form of dialogue. Ghashiram, Nana and the Brahmans take up whole of the play. Lalitha Gauri hardly gets a chance to speak. She speaks a few words in her first encounter with Nana when he tries to touch her in front of Ganapati. After that she is mute amidst her loss of youth, honour, and when she finally loses her life with a baby in her womb. Ghashiram’s wife is absent from the action. Ananya observes the absence of the marginalized, “Gauri has no identity of her own, and she merely plays out Nana’s imagination. At the moment where Ghashiram is digging out her body, she has no physical presence on stage, for Nana’s illusions have moved past her.” (Feminism In India) The other woman speaks in the play is Gulabi. She tries to show some authority over Nana when she calls her men to beat Ghashiram and snatches the necklace given to him by Nana. But her status as a public woman, a plaything for men’s pleasure reveals the hollowness of her power and authority. Chandra, the mid-wife appears for a moment and she is not given a full sentence to complete. She merely utters, “There- we buried her there…”

Voiceless and Powerless

In Ghashiram Kotwal, the playwright has made the women characters insignificant throughout the play except as sensual and sexual objects. All the women characters in the play are marginalized and victimized by patriarchal socio-political forces. They are portrayed as the weaker sex. This is clearly indicated in the use of words. Ghashiram’s assurance of giving his daughter on condition reflects this- “If the hunter is ready, the prey will be found.”(49) Again reference of Nana as ‘wolf’ (51), ‘beast’ (51), ‘devil’ (74), ‘monster’ (74)and Gauri as ‘deer’ (48) and ‘peach’ (52) reveals that she is weak, vulnerable and fragile in his power. Nana’s description of Gauri- ‘How beautifully formed! What a lovely figure!’ (49) and ‘What a bosom! Buds just blossoming… we’ll squeeze them like this! (50) indicate she is nothing but a sex-object in hands of men of power like Nana.

A close reading of Tendulkar’s Ghashiram Kotwal reveals the fact that all the women characters are voiceless and powerless in the patriarchal hegemony. The men are the main characters who hold power and authority and take decisions at their whims. In this play, Lalitha Gauri, a young and innocent girl is commoditized between the desires of a power-hungry father, Ghashiram and a luscious ruler, Nana Phadnavis .The father barters his daughter with Nana for the kotwali3 of Poona to fulfill his personal vendetta to tyrannize the Brahmans against his humiliation while Nana uses Gauri to satiate his perverted lust. Nandana Dutta in her ‘Introduction’ to Ghashiram Kotwal remarks, “They display an equal degree of selfishness and a similar willingness to use people to reach their own goals and Tendulkar’s ethical concern is most prominent here – in his understanding of one’s relationship to others who are different from oneself, belonging to a lower economic or social status or opposite sex.”

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak says, “The ideological construction of gender keeps the male dominant” (Spivak, 32) and this ideology is prevalent throughout the play. In Poona the Brahmans enjoy the highest social order and power. They belong to the ‘Centre’- the symbol of power. The postcolonial view, the idea of powerful, dominant West with masculinity and submissive, weak and obedient East with femininity is clearly manifested. Women are considered ‘Other’- simply taken to be granted. They have no power and social status except the traditionally prescribed roles-wife or sex-partner. Nana Phadnavis symbolizes the patriarchal hegemony that keeps women subordinated in all places and situations. Lalitha has no choice but to be bartered as a sex toy to Nana. Neither she nor her mother speaks any words against her father’s opportunistic decision. They are colonized - they are conditioned not to think or take decisions as if they haven’t any intellectual ability.

In this play women are dominated, exploited and inferiorized by patriarchal oppression and repression. The women characters are denied of their personal and intellectual abilities and capabilities. It is the male characters who take decisions on behalf of them. Women are treated in any way by the men as if they are the owners. The fate of Gauri lies in the hands of two males. Nana wants to relish the youth and beauty of Gauri and Ghashiram wants to climb the power ladder. And Gauri fulfills the immoral aspirations of both of them. She is a colonized woman- voiceless and powerless. Her silent acceptance of her father’s dictates reveals the fact that in patriarchal society a woman has no choice at all except accepting male dominion. The Brahman wives are not happy with their lecherous husbands, but they are silent in solitary confinement. Nana’s wives have ‘become’ women- voiceless and powerless. They have nothing to do with Nana’s decision whether his playing with an innocent girl kills her or in his decision of marrying another girl. They are just ready to accept whatever he does or decides without any comment.

Manipulation of Power

In patriarchal system, males manipulate power in their own way to satisfy their immoral wants. During the puja4 ceremony of Ganapati, Nana comes but he is not listening to the kirtan5 rather she is looking ‘unblinkingly at a pretty girl’(48). When he comes close and touches her, she pulls back his hand and reminds him that “He (Ganapati) will see.” (48) But lustful Nana tries to convince her using religion as a weapon to hunt his prey and says‘ he won’t say anything’ (48) as Ganapati has two wives. When she finally escapes from his hand, he leaves no opportunity to slip finding the ‘Erect! Young! Tender!’(49) Girl. To have ‘the prey’ in his hand Nana fulfills Ghashiram’s demand for the kotwali in exchange for his daughter. Nana enjoys his perverted sexuality with her and throws to die when she is pregnant. She dies but even a death ceremony is not provided to her. Ghashiram is angry with Nana for killing his daughter but he is soothed by Nana’s philosophical speech. Then ‘Sab Theek Hain” - everything is fine, and Gauri is lost from both of their imagination.

Nana’s long monologue is a defense on his behalf – “This time, there are two bullets in this gun. With the first one, we’ll fell your luscious daughter. But with the second we will make the city of Poona dance.” (55)As the women characters are weaker, no space is given to them to decide. They are just puppets in the hands of men who make them dance and crush their body and roast their individuality like youngling chicks.

In Ghashiram Kotwal, all the women characters are colonized by dominant masculine hegemony. Men are the masters. They have social, political and military power. They belong to the elite class. It is their natural right to rule, control and exploit the women- the ‘other’- the servant class. They can do anything with them on their whims. The women are the resources, and their exploitation serves multiple purposes. The exploitation of Gauri gives Ghashiram power to rule ‘Gauri dances, Nana dances, and Ghashiram’s reign has come’ (58) and pleasure of sex to Nana. The Brahmans make their wives suffer ‘solitary confinement’ while they lose in relishing the prostitutes of Bavannakhani. Ghashiram uses his own daughter to become a kotwal and he humiliates a respectable woman as a prostitute taking her out from her home. He chokes Chandra, the midwife to death though he knows the real culprit is Nana. Nana has several wives of different ages but again Nana’s acquisition of ‘a tender blossoming bride’ (70) with a deal of hundred gold coins and big portions of land indicates that women are mere resources and materials that serve only to satisfy the male ego. Here the institution of marriage is used as a tool to subjugate the socio-economically poor women.

Conclusion

 In conclusion it can be said that Vijay Tendulkar in the play Ghashiram Kotwal has dealt with the harsh realities of the contemporary society. The play from a feminist perspective makes it clear that in a patriarchal society, women are considered almost insignificant except as sex-objects. Women are used, abused, sold, humiliated and suffocated by the amoral ideologies by patriarchal hegemony. They have no pleasures in life but are used as objects of pleasure for the men. Happiness is not even an occasional episode in their lives. They have no voice and choice of their own. The male dominated society is indifferent to their role of taking decisions. They are just conditioned to behave at the wink of a finger as prescribed by the patriarchal hegemony. The play is a brilliant political satire written against the emergence of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, but re-reading and reinterpretation of the text makes it a chronicler of male dominance and violence on women in contemporary India. (Roy)


Links for further reading





Works Cited

G.Sailaja, Dr.K.Gopal Reddy, Dr. V. B. Chitra. "A GAME OF POWER IN TENDULKAR’S GHASHIRAM KOTWAL." VEDA’S JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (JOELL) 5.1 (2018).
Roy, Trailakya. "Woeful Women: A Feminist Reading of Vijay Tendulkar’s." Language in India 18:8 (2018).
TENDULKAR, VIJAY. Ghasiram Kotwal . Oxford University Press, 2004.



















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