Fifty years ago, Utpal Dutt’s play, cover, Attacked Kolkata. Since I believe its content is very relevant today, I decided to translate it. A political drama, it is ostensibly about the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933, but is really about events in India in the turbulent years leading up to the Emergency.
Here I pause to introduce Dutt to today’s readers. Acknowledged as one of the pioneers of post-1947 Indian theatre, he and Badal Sarkar were among the tallest in original Bengali drama, with over 50 plays each. While many of Sarkar’s plays have been translated into English, Dutt’s never received the same recognition. Dutt pledged allegiance to Marxism from an early age. Noted Bengali critic Kironmoy Raha called him “the foremost proponent of political theater with a clear leftist orientation”. Dutt staged embers (1959) on a coal-mine disaster, the first of a series of spectacular productions in which he aimed to cast a spell on the audience through lights, sound, music, visual grandeur, tense acting and melodramatic situations… The spell cast Made the audience captive and receptive to the message.
A moment from Utpal Dutt’s play ‘Teener Taloyar’ with Dutt in the centre.
Then came such powerful hits Kallol (1965), Tinar Taloyar (1971), barricade (1972) and Nightmare City (1974). Leading cultural commentator Rustom Bharucha says that barricade “Stunned” him with “a giant shadow of Hitler gesturing like a madman, intricately choreographed street fights, the jury sitting with their backs to the audience in the orchestra pit – memorable dramatic effect.” Dutt continued to stage notable plays Ajmer Shah Jahan (1984) and jantar efim (1992).
immediate trigger for barricade It was political and timely. When the Naxalite movement peaked in 1971, West Bengal under President’s rule was going through extreme instability. Hemanta Basu, a respected 75-year-old leader of the left-wing Forward Bloc party, was stabbed to death outside Kolkata in February 1971, which saw a number of politically motivated murders. The murder, which took place just before the general elections in March, horrified everyone. The Congress party and others blamed the CPI(M) for the murder, making it their campaign for the Legislative Assembly elections, which were held simultaneously.
naked aggression
Nevertheless, as Dutt pointed out, “the CPI(M) emerged as the single largest party in the state”. However, the Congress-led coalition formed the government, which lasted only three months before falling to another round of President’s rule. “In 1972,” Dutt wrote, “we had to be on the offensive. They were doing the Reichstag fire trial after Hemanta Basu’s assassination. They were trying to pin the blame on the communists and hope to win elections that way.” … And to the embarrassment of the intelligentsia, not a single voice was raised against this naked aggression against democracy.
He found close parallels to the Nazi takeover of Germany. decision to describe barricade as a “historical drama” was a wise move that protected them from political vendetta and indictment while the audience understood the implications without any difficulty. Bharucha recalls, “I can still hear the audience cheering the climactic moments of the trial and cursing the Congress government with gusto.”
Dutt himself commented ironically about the reactions: “Ipta [Indian People’s Theatre Association] And under its leadership the airmen found nothing to like in the play, and although they themselves were doing absolutely nothing, they were so scared of the brown shirts of the Congress, they attacked our play furiously.
Surprisingly, many Bengali writers condemned barricade as not being communist enough. Marxist Theater Monthly acting Dutt was called ‘Babu Budhijeevi’.
CPI canceled the invitation to the forum barricade, Dutt described the strange circumstances as follows: “The first attempt to censor plays under Indira Gandhi’s rule came not from the Congress, but from the right-wing communists. After that, barricade Ran into rough water. Heavily armed and inebriated ruffians regularly followed us on stage and warned us not to say anything against the Lady. We’ll counter this with a simple argument: The play is about Hitler, why does it hurt you? Do you accept that the hat fits, that you are a Nazi? They usually left after that.
tomb of democracy
six main characters in barricade Represents important functions of democracy: media, politics, judiciary, intelligentsia, civil class. Protagonist Otto, an investigative journalist who remains doggedly independent, practices a professional dedication to fact-checking and the truth, and ultimately puts ethics over personal safety. Even the antagonist, the SS leader Lippert, declares in court that the witch-hunt is anti-people: “We should not pay attention to leaflets of this type until we are absolutely sure. Because Then it would no longer be the trial of a murderer, it would turn into a sweeping blow against an entire political group. That would be the grave of German democracy.
Locating them among moderate factions of the Nazis in 1933, we might be tempted to take them at face value and accept their sentiments. More likely, he initially speaks in an absurd manner here, like the Nazi Party. This recurring streak of irony resurfaces in Dutt’s writing when Otto’s boss, co-opted newspaper owner-editor Landt, reacts appreciatively to Lippert’s supposed objectivity, “People say about these Nazis. Yes, they are the enemy of democracy!” With the collusion of politicians and the press, Dutt places the greatest confidence in the legal system in the person of the impartial Justice Voss, who threatens Lippert with contempt of court in his last appearance – before the Nazis eliminate him. done.
Dutt in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Aguntuk’.
Dutt wants intellectuals and common people to stand firm as Voss, not compromise. Scholarly eyewitness Dr. Strubel distances himself from current affairs and prefers to read literature instead. Finally, when the Nazis infamously set fire to books in front of Humboldt University, Strubel’s conscience awoke: “If I am to live by carrying out their orders, where is my honor to read Schopenhauer and Karl Marx?” They’re burning books, understand?”
Dutt’s portrayal of Ingeborg Zoritz, whose murdered husband Hemant Basu’s fictional counterpart, is the most complex. She categorically rejects violent extremism and is a staunch Catholic: “I’m not a communist, I know nothing but Jesus.” When the Nazis capture and torture her adopted son Paul, she says, “You are the end of civilization. You’re crucifying Jesus again.” Standing on the barricade in the finale, she says, “Now I understand that first the communists die, then one by one others turn, then… then one day I see that the whole country is a prison.”
History repeats itself. As a result, pointing to the past as a warning to the present holds the utmost validity for the purpose of political theatre. Today, the rise in power of right-wing parties and radical fundamentalism around the world means that the co-optation of democracy and civil society that led to Nazi fascism could happen again – or indeed has already happened – thus barricade its immediate urgency.
The author is a leading theater scholar and translator. his new translation barricade Published by Seagull Books.