This book is envisaged as an intervention in the ongoing explorations in social and cultural history, into questions of what constitutes Indianness for the colonial and the postcolonial subject and the role that Shakespeare plays in this identity formation. Performing Shakespeare in India presents studies of Indian Shakespeare adaptations on stage, on screen, on OTT platforms, in translation, in visual culture and in digital humanities and examines the ways in which these construct Indianness. Shakespeare in India has had multiple local interpretations in different media and equally wide-ranging responses, be it the celebration of Shakespeare as a bishwokobi (world poet) in 19th-century Bengal, be it in the elusive adaptation of Shakespeare in Meitei and Tangkhul tribal art forms in Manipur, or be it in the clamour of a boisterous Bollywood musical. In the response of diasporic theatre professionals, or in Telugu and Kannada translations, whether resisted or accepted with open arms, Shakespeare in India has had multiple local interpretations in different media. All the essays are connected by the common thread of extraordinary negotiations of postcolonial identity formation in language, in politics, in social and cultural practices, or in art forms.
Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Introduction 2.0 Shormishtha Panja and Babli Moitra Saraf SHAKESPEARE AND INDIAN VISUAL CULTURE Chapter 2 “To Confine the Illimitable”: Visual and Verbal Narratives in Two Bengali Retellings of Shakespeare Shormishtha Panja CONTEMPORARY SHAKESPEARE PERFORMANCE ON STAGE IN INDIA AND THE DIASPORA Chapter 3 Urban Histories and Vernacular Shakespeares in Bengal: Kolkatar Hamlet, Hemlat and Hamlet 2011 Paromita Chakravarti Chapter 4 Shakespeare and the Re/Vision of Indian Heritage in the Post-colonial British Context Claire Cochrane Chapter 5 Indian Shakespeare in the World Shakespeare Festival Thea Buckley SHAKESPEARE AND INDIAN FILMS Chapter 6 The Othello-figure in Three Indian Films: Kaliyattam, Omkara and Saptapadi Trisha Mitra Chapter 7 Shakespeareana to Shakespeare Wallah: Selling or Doing Shakespeare Paramita Dutta Chapter 8 Shakespeare, Cricket, Decolonisation and Diaspora: Analysing Dil Bole Hadippa! an Indian Adaptation of Twelfth Night Rosa García-Periago TRANSLATION AND ISSUES OF LANGUAGE AND POLITICS IN REGIONAL SHAKESPEARES Chapter 9 Mapping Shakespearean Translations in Indian Literatures T.S. Satyanath Chapter 10 “ Murmuring Your Praise”: Shakespearean Echoes in Early Bengali Drama Sayantan Roy Moulick and Sandip Debnath Chapter 11 A Future Without Shakespeare Jatindra K. Nayak Chapter 12 Shakespeare Visits Manipur: Reinterpretation and Reinvention Ningombam Rojibala and Usham Rojio IDENTITY AND THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE Chapter 13 Does Shakespeare’s Text Even Matter? Preti Taneja Chapter 14 Utpal Dutt and Macbeth Translated Naina Dey SHAKESPEARE AND INDIAN ICONS Chapter 15 Tagore and Shakespeare: A Fraught Relationship Radha Chakravarty Chapter 16 Mapping Shakespeare and Kalidasa: Early Indian Translations Himani Kapoor NEW DIRECTIONS, NEW MEDIA Chapter 17 Invisible Hands: Macbeth and Mandaar Pompa Banerjee Chapter 18 Digital Archiving and Bengali Shakespeares: Case Studies of the Local and the Global Amrita Sen AFTERWORD Postcolonial Genealogies of Shakespeare Jyotsna Singh About the Editors and Contributors Index
Shormishtha Panja is former Professor of English, University of Delhi, India and former President of the Shakespeare Society of India. Babli Moitra Saraf is a polyglot translator and translation studies scholar. She taught in the Department of English and retired as Professor and Principal of Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, India.
