Abstract

INDIGENOUS ELEMENTS IN THE PLAYS OF TAGORE: A BRIEF STUDY ON THEATRE ARTS

Dr. T. Raja Sekhar

Volume: 1 Issue: 1 2011

Abstract:

A careful examination of his plays reveals how Tagore significantly influenced the development of open theatre, tiny theatre, indigenous theatre, and the root theatre on the Bengali stage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From Valmiki Prativa to Shyama, he set out on a dramatic quest for a new language of theatre or a parallel theatre that would liberate Indian performance from colonial mimicry. Tagore incorporates elements of classical and folk Indian music, dance, and drama into his work. This article will attempt to provide some introspection on Tagore's theatrical engagements with both modernity and indigenous heritage. The purpose of this article is to r-evaluate Tagore as a playwright in order to investigate his endeavour to enact alternative modernity by undermining the capitalist paradigms of Western modernity through the indigenous or traditional aspects he incorporated and appropriated within his plays.

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