This story is from February 23, 2019

Artistes condemn cancellation of Bengaluru director’s play in Jaipur

The second show of Abhishek Majumdar’s Eidgah Ke Jinnat at Jaipur’s Jawahar Kala Kendra was cancelled following allegations that the play hurts national sentiments
Artistes condemn cancellation of Bengaluru director’s play in Jaipur
The second show of Abhishek Majumdar’s Eidgah Ke Jinnat at Jaipur’s Jawahar Kala Kendra was cancelled following allegations that the play hurts national sentiments
And once again art was assaulted. A poor understanding of the context, a provocative post on social media and an equally inciting news report saw the staging of Bengaluru playwright-director Abhishek Majumdar’s internationally-acclaimed play
The Djinns of Eidgah
, based on the human cost of the Kashmir conflict cancelled, at the prestigious Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK) in Jaipur, recently. This play was earlier staged at global platforms including London’s The Royal Court Theatre, and featured veteran actors like Vincent Ebrahim and Rajit Kapur.
What premiered in Jaipur on February 18 was a new version of the play, titled
Eidgah Ke Jinnat
. But violent protests and sloganeering by a fringe group, alleging that the play hurts national sentiments, led to the cancellation of the February 19 show from the ongoing Navras Festival schedule.
“We are living in a time when mobs are essentially allowed to do anything they want. But the recent incident in Jaipur has only created more awareness about the play and made us determined to take it to more and more people.
Eidgah Ke Jinnat
will now be staged on streets, corners, markets and homes. The team – that comprises people from six states speaking nine languages – will ensure that the play doesn’t not succumb to any threat or temptation,” says Abhishek, adding, “It is still OK to be ignorant about certain aspects of the play, such as where it was previously performed and how the audience had responded to it. But we cannot afford to be ignorant about our own role in the society. The resistance we faced on the premises of JKK makes it further imperative that we continue staging the play. And we’ll run it as our life now.”
The incident has stirred up the entire artiste community in India, more particularly theatre practitioners in Bengaluru. While everyone is expressing solidarity towards the team, many have also filed petitions, calling for safeguarding freedom of expression.
‘We need to be out there and speak about it’

“A play or a book can be liked, disliked or debated over. As citizens of a democratic nation, we have to ask questions. There should be room for dialogue and discussion. But that should not amount to restricting someone’s artistic freedom. It’s also important to point out the serious lack of responsible journalism in this incident because, it’s a ‘misleading’ report on a local daily in Jaipur that incited the mob, and eventually led to the cancellation of shows. As a community of artistes and theatre lovers, we should show solidarity and the willingness to fight back. We are pro-constitution and pro-democracy,” says
Arundhati Ghosh, Executive Director, India Foundation for the Arts.
‘Good art makes the establishment panic’

“Art always makes the establishment uncomfortable, and good art makes it panic. The whole point of storytelling is to make one wonder and ask questions, and sometimes ask aggressive questions. Theatre has always been about bringing human conditions to the fore. Be it the Shakespearean classics or our folktales, plays imbibe the ability of self-awareness and raise consciousness about our surroundings. If you don’t like a piece of art, we can always have a conversation or debate over it. Banning a performance is not democratic,” says Prashanth Nair, theatre actor-director.
‘The law of the land needs to be strict’

“Once again an artistic expression has fallen victim to a mob that has very little or distorted understanding of what the piece contains. I have read Abhishek’s play, and I can tell you that it’s one of the most intense, nuanced and relevant performances in recent times.
The Djinns of Eidgah
delves into the human cost of the conflict in Kashmir, focusing on the predicament of people who live in the Valley. We need the law of the land to be stricter so that the freedom of an artiste is not curtailed by brute forces like these, and a venue is not compelled to cancel its shows,” says singer-actor MD Pallavi.
IMG_6732

Mobocracy is not democracy

Stage and screen actor Ashwath Bhatt, who plays a pivotal role in the play and also hails from Kashmir, says, “You cannot make an assumption about something and come to kill somebody on the basis of your distorted understanding. You may disagree with me on a certain idea or, in an extreme case of conflict, drag me to the court of law, but you cannot assault me just because you don’t like my opinion. I am a Kashmiri, and have contributed towards various initiatives undertaken by social groups as well as Army Education Corps in the Valley. I have seen and have been a victim of mob violence in the past. One cannot judge my patriotism because of their inability to comprehend the fact clearly. In today’s time, anything can be blown out proportions. We should be careful about what we speak and write. There should be respect for each other. The Constitution of India cannot be interpreted by a mob. Mobocracy can never be a solution.”
End of Article
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