Indian Drama in English: Texts and Contexts

The impetus for this book arose from the persistent marginalisation of Indian Drama in English in literary scholarship, often overshadowed by the more extensively studied genres of prose fiction and poetry. While novelists and poets have long been celebrated within and beyond the canon, dramatists writing in English or translated in English have received comparatively limited critical attention. This neglect, however, is not a reflection of the genre’s literary worth or thematic depth. Rather, it points to a gap in scholarly engagement that this volume aims to address.This monograph interrogates the aesthetic strategies, ideological underpinnings, and performative aspects of plays, and seeks to contextualise them within the larger frameworks of colonial encounter, nation-building, identity politics, gender discourse, and globalisation. Topics such as identity and displacement, postcolonial resistance, gender and sexuality, and the politics of representation are explored through critical engagement with the texts of prominent dramatists such as Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad, Mahesh Dattani, Manjula Padmanabhan, and others. Special attention is also paid to emerging voices, acknowledging the evolving nature of the form and its engagement with contemporary socio-political realities. This monograph is intended for students, scholars, and general readers interested in Indian English literature, and postcolonial studies.