On To The New India We March

They called themselves New India Theatre Group. They staged plays on contemporary themes. The specialty of this group is that audience too could participate. They raised funds through crowdsourcing, and they staged their place in open public spaces. Staging a play in open public spaces by itself was challenging; where do you find open spaces where a few hundreds could gather? The group consisted of a spirited youth, and they carried on with all the challenges. They staged one such play in Cubbon Park in Bangalore on a Sunday morning. The play began.

All of a sudden, an eerie scream of a girl filled the park. A pantomime of four guys molesting a girl got enacted. Then they burnt her. What shall we do to them asked a voice? Someone in the audience shouted, “burn them alive;” “lynch them then and there,” shouted another voice. Burn them or lynch them started a chorus. “What about an inquiry and ensuring that we are not burning the wrong persons,” asked one voice feebly.

The scene shifted to a mock parliament as someone from the theatre group announced. Parliamentarians came on the stage. “Eye for an eye,” said a lady parliamentarian. Another countered, “police cannot kill them even if they want to. Why do we have a legal system in place? We are not a banana republic;” then a gentleman parliamentarian said it is unfortunate that people want instant retribution, they have lost faith in the established system.

The sober voice of the Chief Justice of India said, “justice should not become revenge.” A few days later, the Supreme Court announced a commission to investigate the rape and the subsequent encounter. The atmosphere got charged already. Discussion among the audience continued heatedly.

Suddenly a procession for the dead took place on the stage. A voice announced grieving the farmer who committed suicide, for he could not reap what he had sown. Instead, death reaped his life. Nobody said a word as farmers' death was as common or was it a case of too many urbanites unable to relate to the rural brethren.

A group of youth gathered on the stage and did a pantomime of a factory working. A voice reeled out some data regarding how, in the past, one year or more unemployment and underemployment has become the norm. The voice announced that the factory was temporarily shutting down as they were no orders. Workers were marching out of the factory, some looking grim and others in tears. The audience did not get that emotive. A voice from the audience said recovery is going to take a long time. We will have a significant youth unemployment issue in another five years, announced another voice.

A truck stopped by noisily by the roadside. A voice announced from the truck two-kilo onions for only Rs 100.00. A mad scramble took place before the audience realized it was a prank that got pulled by the Theatre group.

An elderly man with a white beard started speaking, “Mitron, have faith in me, good days will come.” The audience started booing him. Somebody threw a banana peel, and there were peels of laughter. He got booed away from the stage.

A few youngsters came on stage and belted out a music copying the “shape of you,” but the lyrics that got repeated read we don’t like the shape of you, economy. That got applause, and some whistles got heard.

A hush fell as the member of the New India Theater Group announced the next theme would be a mock parliament on the CAB. Many members descended upon the stage. The first one said that the CAB is a bill to be written in golden history and reflects the humanitarian ethos of the country. Someone from the audience whistled. A second one that CAB is unconstitutional and anti-secular. An audience reposted “a patriot is one who hails a CAB;” a second voice by corollary said “anti-national is one who does not hail a CAB;” a third voice said “ buskaro and reduce pollution.” A mirth emerged from the crowd. A member of the theatre group said like Israel is for Jews, we need India for Hindus. Some applauded this statement. Someone sharply retorted why to discriminate against a particular religion. Emotions got stronger as time passed. Unnoticed by the audience, some rowdy elements mixed with the audience and started throwing banana peels and stones too. A scuffle started, and people started screaming. The theatre group leader seemed to have anticipated this reaction. Soon the members of the group isolated the rowdy elements and handed them over to the posse of policemen who had by that time arrived as if they had got called by one of the theatre group members.

Both the audience and the group gathered themselves after the chaos. The leader announced that the parliament had passed CAB. A group of five did a pantomime of carrying a dead body. They chanted, “Ram Nam Satya Hai.” Someone asked who died. The group said that the spirit of Gandhi had died.

Once again, silence fell. Somebody sniffed in sorrow. A melodious voice started singing Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram. Then someone started singing “Vaishnava janato..” then again, silence.

The leader then announced the end of the play. She said that what all of us had witnessed and participated was the new India seen in the last few months. They had been putting up such plays to bring about awareness and empathy. They have been raising funds through crowdsourcing and said members would collect any donations from the public. The audience gave generously. Some gave 100s, some 200s a few gave even 500s and 2000s. Spontaneously a human chain formed, and the crowd dispersed slowly.