Dramatic performances in Assam: Representing politicised identities and negotiating “In-between” spaces

Dramatic performances in Assam have acquired much less recognition in the realm of modern Indian theatre as a distinctive category representing matters of politicised identities and negotiating spaces for those identities based on class, religion and gender. The tradition of dramatic performances in Assam initiated by Srimanta Sankaradeva was devised as kind of resistance against the politicised religious practices in Assam during the fifteenth century. Under the influence of the Bhakti movement in North India Sankaradeva started the practise of Vaishnavism in namghors where he began presenting episodes from the lives of Krishna and Rama. Sankaradeva's pedagogical interest was to enlighten people with the fact that man can have a direct relationship with God in Vaishnavism and this ideology finally troubled the existing power relationships in the society obstructing Brahmanical rituals and subverting class structures in society based on caste differences. Sankaradeva created the play Cinha Jatra during his pedagogical experiments with dramaturgy. This play is believed to have inspired the ‘jatra’ of Bengal and later the popular mobile theatres of Assam. Contemporary dramatic performances in Assam however, are diverse ranging from pedagogical to political showing the dynamics of power structures in the society. Mobile theatres performed in the native language reaches out the mass in remote areas reflecting the taste of the popular whereas plays performed by groups like Stage Fusion in English or Seagull in town halls reveal the savour of the elites and the intellectuals respectively. Metaphorically, these performance spaces comprehend to the larger dialectics of ubiquitous politicised identities based on class, religion and gender. Synthesising the traditional and the modern, incorporating the indigenous forms with the European, strategic enactments of power relationships are played out providing both respite and negotiating spaces for those within the layers of those power structures.