CHA

APTER FO
OUR

SIRCA
AR’S PL
LAYS OF
F EARL
LY YEAR
RS 1956
6-1970

4 Introduction:
4.1.
Previoous chapter has dealt with
w the dev
velopment off Bengali Theatre with a
sp
pecial refereence to the Jatra and B
Badal Sircar’s experimenntation not only
o with thhe
T
Third Theatree’s structure and techniqques but alsoo with the theemes, and thhe structure of
o
thhe plays. He has appplied manny techniquues like pparticipatoryy and direct
coommunicatioon, emphasiis on humann body, imprrovisation, rreduced distance betweeen
thhe performerrs and the audience, redduced use off props, costtumes, makee-up, open-aair
performancess, and collagge to the Thiird Theatre. Hence, it beecomes flexiible, portablle,
annd inexpensiive.
This chapter
c discuusses in detaail Sircar’s plays
p of earlly phase i. e 1956-19700s.
B
Badal Sircar, greatly inflluenced by M
Marxism, prresented life as it is with
hout trying to
t
m
moralize or philosophizze it in anyy way. Thee plays focuus on man with all his
h
coomplexities. His plays reepresent nott only the soccial problem
m but also an
n aspect of ouur
so
ocio-politicaal and cultural life mostly on psychoological level. His plays dealt with thhe
pointlessness of existennce, compoounded by a sense oof associativve guilt annd
reesponsibilityy in disturbed persons beelonging to the urban middle
m class, in a world of
o
inncreasing vioolence and innhumanity. H
He has usedd drama to assk questions rather than to
t
prrovide answ
wers. Sircar is interestedd more in thhe creation of
o theatre th
han in writinng
pllays. He stattes:
What can I write? I am noo writer of esssays. I am a thheatre man. I
wrote some plays because I am a man of the theatre, nnot because I
am a writer. (Sircar par. 2))

4 Evam Indrajit-19
4.2. I 963
Evam Indrajit is a milestonee in the histo
ory of modeern Indian Drama.
D It is a
sttory of a plaaywright wh
ho struggless painfully in
i vain to write
w a play. As furiouslly
teears up his manuscripts,
m his inspirattion appears as women, whom the dramatist
d callls
M
Manasi. The writer is nott able to wriite a play, ass a conscienttious and hoonest artist, he
h
fiinds that lifee is too chaootic and fraggmentary to cohere into a dramatic mold and tooo
mechanical to have any meaning. His agony is the agony of the artist who is deeply
aware of the sterility and horror of life. Badal Sircar offers no hope like T. S. Eliot in
The Waste Land. He deals with the aspect of physical as well as mental dichotomy in
his plays Evam Indrajit and There’s No End. In the play Evam Indrajit he throws light
on the physical and mental dichotomy through the eponymous character.
4.2.1. The Thematic Networks:
4.2.1.1. Physical abd Mental Dichotomy:
In primitive times, there was not any kind of discrimination in human beings.
As the civilization progressed various dichotomies invade the human being. The
alienation and antagonism between the mind and the body inevitably leads to physical
dichotomy as well as mental dichotomy. Through the character of Indrajit Sircar takes
objection to the way girls and women are treated in the society. When Manasi says
that girls have to go by rules Indrajit’s reaction follows. “Girls have to! How often I
heard you say that about girls! Girls must follow the rules. Men can do what they like,
but women must be obedient”(Sircar 65)
The dichotomy in the physical and the mental and the gap between the ideal
and the real is presented in the play Evam Indrajit. The protagonist of the play shows
here what he desires to create through his literary works does not get produced
however hard he tries to write something. This contradiction is one of the themes in
the thematic network of this play. Indrajit cannot be as happy as Amal, Vimal, and
Kamal are because he has tasted the fruit of knowledge and therefore he is conscious
of harsh realities of the present day life which pricks his conscience. This is how the
physical and the mental sides of the same personality get divided
4.2.1.2.Existentialism:
Sircar portrays the philosophy of existentialism in the play Evam Indrajit. But
when he was asked in an interview whether he considered “Evam Indrajit” as a
political play, or an existential play; he said that he never considered the play as a
political play, and he did not know the philosophy of existentialism. Therefore, the
play is perceived as an absurd play. The play keeps on echoing that our existence is a
pointless particle of dust. Therefore, the play is unconsciously coloured with
existentialism. The theme is evolved through the dreams, despair and disillusionment
of the protagonist Indrajit. The theme of identity crisis is echoed by the very title
“And Indrajit’. He is ‘and Indrajit’, a part of whole. He is described in terms of
society, and not in terms of his own existence. He prefers to be called Amal, Kamal,

64
or Vimal and remaining conformed to the dictates of society or the doctrines of
tradition. His identity is again questioned by his teachers by a mere roll number. He
can therefore easily pose as Amal and answer his roll-call.
Evam Indrajit (1965) handles the same problem of existentialism as Indrajit
cannot and does not adjust, accommodate and assimilate in the social structure of his
times. He has lost his aspirations as Indrajit is one of those men who are trapped in the
routine struggle for existence just mere existence. It has become extremely difficult
even to exist. To exist nowadays is just the opportunity to breathe freely. This simple
activity of inhaling and exhaling breathe a puff of air—has become quite complicated.
The dusty, smoky, sweaty, dirty bubbles of air hung around these blackened globules
of air are to be pushed inside and then outside. This has become a difficult and even
risky exercise in the contemporary times; therefore, even mere existence has attained
the status of life. To live is to breathe and to breathe is to exist. The entire atmosphere
around has become uncompromising, dominating and unresponsive. Indrajit says,
“We just walk”. (Sircar 118) It is mere walking, walking aimlessly and hopelessly,
walking solitarily, walking strangely is what an individuals like Indrajit are required
to do, are compelled to do, just walk between birth and death, just continue to breathe
between birth and death. This is what life is. In Waiting for Godot the two tramps
waits for Godot’s arrival but they have to meet with accomplishing their wishes, their
desires, their goal, if there is any, waiting becomes life in Beckett’s play and walking
is called life in Evam Indrajit. The existentialist thinking is projected in this play. The
dramatist has denied any reading of the existential philosophy. It is possible that
Sircar did not read Soren Kierkegaard or Martin Heidegger but he might have read
novels and plays by Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, in particular No Existand The
Outsider. That is reflected in this play. Therefore, it can be stated that the theme of
existentialism is treated in the play Evam Indrajit by Sircar.
Indrajit, the protagonist of the play Evam Indrajit is baffled because he does
not know who he is. He has lost his identity. His individuality is split not just into two
halves but there are lathered as many as five or six fragments as personified in
characters like Amal, Vimal, Kamal, Nirmal, Manasi who present one or the other
aspects of his own personality. The search for identity is one of the major themes
handled by Sircar in almost all his plays including Evam Indrajit.

65
4.2.1.3. Psychological Realism and Absurdism:
There is no realism, and yet the play rather portrays a psychological realism,
where external conflict reveals internal chaos. Everything on this earth has an
identity; knowledge of life comes through identity. All life is about contact; that is the
work of our senses, to contact and express. The deeper the contact, the deeper the
understanding about the thing you come in contact with. One has to teach one’s
senses that instead of making superficial contact one has to go deep and establish
deeper contact with everything, so that one comes to realize that superficial
knowledge arises out of ignorance. Only when the person goes deep in things, he can
find true knowledge. Then it is possible to understand the game, and so play it better
and know more. When the person feels he is nothing, the person will be drawing
closer to himself and will recognize the day he started growing with this identity of
being nothing.
Knowledge that you are nothing and the identity that comes with it will connect
you with your true Self and so make it possible to connect with the biggest identity:
Zero. The Zero is bigger than nothing, in this we will be a full circle, complete; you
will then acquire the right attitude to life because that is what we truly are – Zero.
When you are complete and in tune with completion, you achieve Zerohood, so to
speak, a state that reveals nothingness. Thus, the theme, the technique, and the
language of Evam Indrajit links it with absurd drama. The protagonist searches for
meaning in his life but finds, as in Sartre’s No Exit, that there is no escape from
ordinary life. Even when one is sincerely to be an Indrajit, one has got to end up as
Nirmal. It is not for nothing that it has been said that Evam Indrajit is Waiting for
Godot in Indian Theatre.
Contemporary Indian drama in English has made bold innovations and fruitful
experiments in terms of both thematic concerns and technical innovations of various
types. It has been turned to history, legend, myth and folklore. The vitality and vocal
popularity of these sources used to get splendid results.
The four charioteers of Indian English Drama and National Theatre of English
are Mohan Rakesh, Badal Sircar, Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Karnad who have
written their plays in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Kannada respectively. These
dramatists have produced pan-Indian theatrical movement in the later twentieth
century. Badal Sircar has always projected and presented something refreshingly new.
He has always daringly challenging the established norms of society in his plays. He

66
is very much under the impact of Marxism, therefore dramatizes the suffering of men
and women who are victimized by socio-economic as well as political authorities and
cultural dominance. The existentialist attitude to modern life is presented through
contemporary situations.
4.2.1.4. Marxism:
Marxism is a major influence on Sircar’s thinking and writing plays. He states
in Evam Indrajit that there are two and a half percent graduates in the population of
Kolkata and this group is called the group of middle class persons or the group of
intellectuals. “If they only relied on intellect, they would die of starvation.” (Sircar
45) The comment on the intellectuals that they would die of starvation if they just
depended on the intellect to earn their livelihood has the ting of the Marxist view of
life. The protagonist Indrajit has remarked that though being a writer he has written
many plays he does not know the life of “the suffering masses,….the toiling
peasants,…the sweating coal-miners,….the snake charmers, the tribal chieftains, or
the boatmen.” (Sircar 45-46). The protagonist knows nothing about the millions of
individuals in the social world around him. These are the ‘workers and peasants’-the
main crust of any society. The dramatist shows his concern for the toiling, laboring,
sweating, suffering humanity that is suppressed on account of the economic
inequality.
The three thinkers, who have shaped the twentieth and twenty first century, are
Karl Marx, Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud. Economic equality for all
individuals, just and appropriate distribution of resources, amenities and wealth, the
notion of evolutionary perfectibility and the opening of subconscious and the analysis
of impulses and the collective and personal consciousness are the path-breaking
concepts which have percolated to the masses through the enlightenment carried out
by these stalwarts. In Evam Indrajit there are Amal, Vimal, Kamal, Nirmal or Indrajit
who are presented as four different persons. What differences are there among these?
The regimentation and the evolutionary products being the logs of the wheels of the
chariot of the contemporary civilization are the two forces that are shown as
dominating in the world. The diversions of mind sheer the splitting of mental
activities are displayed through the four characters in separate but linked parts of the
psyche. There is another character which is a sort of alter ego of the protagonist
Indrajit. And she is Manasi. The name itself suggests that she is the division of mind.
Indrajit desires to possess ‘Manasi’ but their relationship cannot be realized because

67
of the social constraint. Indrajit confides in her and his ‘confessional’ note reveals
what lies in deeper in his mind, what lies in his mind is the universal experience of the
present day youth. Sircar is known for the realistic presentation of the contemporary
life of the second half of the twentieth century. The “absurdity” of “existence” is
portrayed highly artistically and dramatically by the dramatist in his plays. Evam
Indtajit is no exception to that. The middle class life in the metropolitan centers in
particular in Bengal in Kolkata. The projection of contemporary Indian life is most
dramatically made in this play.
Humanitarianism is the noblest of all religions of the world. It is universal in
its multi-splendored aspect. Sircar wrote for common and in his plays he has upheld
the eternal values that humanity needs to maintain such as peace, love, non-violence,
liberty, equality, brotherhood and compassion for other. He has witnessed the horrors
of wars. He preaches non-violence as the solution against the war mongering
tendencies or the violent protests and the effect of rebellion in many parts of the
society that the dramatist presents through his plays like Evam Indrajit. Love for one
another leads to equality and liberty to be cherished among all the members of the
contemporary society.
4.2.1.5. Socio-economic Dichotomy:
The exploitation of the marginalized is a theme of the play. The discrimination
on the basis of gender and class is constantly almost invariably dramatized by him.
The class distinctions have divided the society into the classes of haves and have-nots
and the status of a woman is secondary even in the last decades of the twentieth
century, class distinctions point out how given the class of “Have” in the society to
dominate the economic and political fields and that helps in acquiring power. The
economic differences are the results of the discrimination on the basis of material
possessions. Poverty and hunger are like the twin curses of the contemporary Indian
social life. Exploitation of the marginalized such as the groups of women, tribal’s,
deprived castes, the poor, the crippled, the sufferers, the sick and the underdogs has
became the daily practice. It is noticed in the presentation of the three middle class
persons like Amal, Vimal and Kamal. Each is thinking of something that will make
their present condition better such as finding a shelter, participating in the business
scheme or getting better qualification These are the people who are mirrored in
improving their condition through the attainment of their petty middle-class targets.
The real and the ideal are contrasted here.

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 The present-day life in the metros is totally characterized by the evils of
modernity such as hopelessness on the account of frustration caused as no
opportunities are available for the jobless youth. They are estranged and alienated
from others in the society in which they are required to live. Homelessness and
rootlessness have encompassed these individuals fully. They find life to be chaotic,
disturbed and without any plans or systems. These features of the modernism are
presented by Sircar in Evam Indrajit. These realities which have made modern life
bare and barren are produced by man himself. This is the man made complexity,
“What man has made of man” is noticed in the uncompressing condition around
which pressurized young men like Indrajit to became the “cogs in the wheels” of the
social edifice or else they are driven out, made isolated and aliens in their own homes
and in their own society. Opportunities are denied. No economic nor any political
system gives them any comfort. The rift between these who are “haves” and
“havenots” has widened and is still getting wider and wider day by day. There is no
solace from such a hopeless situation. The middle-class suffers the most because their
conscience pricks them and because they are intellectual enough to understand the
reality behind the situation around. They know what it is but cannot change it for the
better and have to see with open eyes the situation getting worse.
The circumstances are hostile. This is the environment which oppresses men
and women. Suppression is what rules the most day in and day out. This hostile
atmosphere is well projected by Sircar in the way the restless generation of the present
times reacts to the hostility, oppressive environment in which they are required to
exist. Sircar has dramatized realistically the struggle for existence of an individual in
the hostile environment around.
4.2.2. The Story:
As the play starts, writer searches for a theme to write a play but finds none.
Manasi advises him to write about four middle-class people who come late. So, he
invites them on the stage. He asks their names. They are Amal, Vimal, Kamal and
Indrajit. Writer then describes them:
According to the census of 1961, the population of Calcutta is
2,92,12,891. Of them about two and a half percent are graduates.
They are known by different names. They are the middle-income
group, although within that group there is enough disparity of
income. They are the intellectuals, although if they really relied on
their intellect, they would die of starvation. (Sircar 45)

69
 Auntie asks him to have his meal. Manasi asks him whether he has written
anything. He answers in the negative. He regrets his ignorance of the toil and
suffering of peasants and workers. It is, thus, shown that writer is also one of them,
the elite and the middle-income group.
The three acts of the play portray the three major phases of the lives of Amal,
Vimal and Kamal. The first act dramatizes their studies, examinations, hobbies,
pastimes and other things that characterize their college life. They get jobs and marry
in the second act. They have various ambitions in their life and achieve their goals in
the third: Amal gets a promotion as a manager in ABC Company; Vimal buys a plot
and builds a house there; and Kamal starts business to earn more money. Indrajit
loves Manasi, his first cousin on his mother’s side and wants to marry her which is a
taboo. He wants to visit London and this visit, he believes, will liberate him from the
banality of life. His awareness of the ennui of life which Amal, Vimal and Kamal lack
makes him rebellious and restless. He says, in a proud manner, to Manasi: “If I hadn’t
tasted the fruit of knowledge I could have gone on living this paradise of your blessed
society of rules. Now I can only batter my head against the wall.”(Sircar 68) He
changes the job from Calcutta to Bhopal. Then he gets a transferable job and goes to
Bombay, Jallunder, Meerut and Udaypur. Manasi does not agree to marry him against
the taboo and becomes a school teacher in Culcutta. She and he write letters to each
other and meet once a year in Calcutta. He visits London but this does not change his
life in any way. Then, he marries another Manasi and leads marital life. He tells
Manasi about his family: “My wife looks after the house. I work in the office. My
wife goes to a film. I go with her. My wife goes to her parents’ house. I eat in a
restaurant. She comes back. I go marketing.” (Sircar 112) Thus, he falls into the
whirlpool of banal life that he has striven hard to shun. He realizes at last that he is
not different from others. He talks about his disillusionment:
INDRAJIT :So long as I couldn’t accept my ordinariness I
dreamt. Now I accept it.
MANASI : Indrajit…
INDRAJIT : No, Manasi, don’t call me Indrajit, please don’t.
I am Nirmal. Amal, Vimal Kamal and Nirmal.
Amal, Vimal, Kamal and Nirmal. (Sircar 117-
118)

70
 When he sees no sense in living, writer enlightens him on existential
philosophy:
Walk! Be on the road! For us there is only the road. We shall walk.
(Sircar 118)
The playwright thus conveys the philosophy of existentialism to the elite of
the middle-income group who feel too frustrated with the banality of everyday life.
4.2.3. The Conflict:
Sircar portrays the personal and intrapersonal conflict in the play. The conflict
between Manasi and Indrajit regarding their marriage against social taboo and the
internal conflict of the writer and the character Indrajit are depicted in the play. It also
deals with the conflict between men and women, the problem of unemployment and
the ordeal of interview, the social taboos and the desires of common man and many
others like late running and breakdown of trains, traffic jams, crowded buses,
admission procedures, and health problems that middle-class man has to suffer.
4.2.4. The Symbol:
The names, Amal, Vimal, and Kamal symbolize the sameness of humdrum
life. The efforts of the writer to write a play symbolize the human struggles for happy
and successful life. The portrayal of everyday life by the writer:
Why should you love? Why should you hate? Why should you
suffer and blame it on fate? Why should you weep and why should
you cry? Everybody does it. That’s why, that’s why.
Why should you always sleep in the night? Why should you always
try to be right? Why should you live? Why should you die?
Everybody does it. That’s why, that’s why. (Sircar 86)
These lines suggest the changelessness and staleness of mundane life. The title
of the play Evam Indrajit or And Indrajit represents the commonness of life and the
identity crisis. The repetition of words indicates the monotony of routine life.
4.2.5. The Realistic Presentation of Contemporary Problem:
The problem of unemployment is the most significant issue in the
contemporary context. Young men and women have to spend days, weeks, months
and years and years for a long period hunting for jobs, searching advertisements,
making in queries, appearing for the interviews and finally getting an opportunity to
get a petty job in an office as a white collar job suitable for the middle class people.
Jobs are few and candidates are many is the deplorable situation in this respect. An
educated middle-class person has no other option except doing the office work. The

71
political situation is grim, corruption is rampant. Nothing worthwhile takes place
without the use of corrupt practices. Self-interest is the only interest. The pursuit of
monetary wealth and material possessions has got prime importance. Now-a-days the
economics is utilitarian and values have become ‘worthless’. Culturally, the alienation
and estrangement is caused because a man of present time has yet to understand who
he is and what his identity is. The cultural dichotomy is being experienced as outlined
by Edward Said as the conflict between ‘us’ and ‘they’. The reality has been made
bare to expose how human life has become hopeless, rootless and worthless.
Alienation is common. Man has been deprived of peace. The social, economic,
political, cultural and existential issues of the present times are handled through the
projection of dramatic action in Evam Indrajit.
4.2.6. The Use of Language:
The language of the play is simple and clear. The dialogues are short and
crisp. The repetition of words and phrases shows the intention and the intensity of the
intrapersonal conflict in the mind of the Writer and Indrajit. The monotony and the
mechanical nature of the contemporary times are stressed by the repetition of “one-
two-three”, words like “From home to school, from school to college, from college to
the world” and “after files tea-then files-then snacks- then files-then tea” and the
phrases like “going round”. The language of Evam Indrajit transports us to the world
of absurd drama with its cyclical and repetitive pattern. The stichomythic design adds
to the phenomenon where single lines or parts of lines are spoken by alternate
speakers.
The inadequacy of language echoes the lack of meaningful human
associations. The language verges on word-play and is playful at times. The dialogue
becomes purposefully elliptical. Like Pirandello, Sircar utilizes meta-theatrical
techniques of writing a play within the play, and discovering the apt hero for the play.
In Rhinoceros, Berenger remains the only human on Earth who hasn’t turned into a
rhinoceros and refrains from conforming like Indrajit.
The repetition of words like ‘files’, ‘then’ and ‘cha-tea’ has made deliberately
to create an effect of chanting of the ‘mantras’ (verses). The phrases have been used
to produce an effective ironic effect, as in the case of the reactions like ‘ no
promotion’, ‘poor business’, ‘sick wife’, ‘useless government’, ‘corrupt country’,
‘dirty game-politics’ and ‘ terrible quarters’. There are internal rhymes that delight,
echoes that haunt, puns and wry repetitions that startle. The power of the text Evam

72
Indrajit lies in the loose free verse used in the language spoken by Indrajit and
Manasi, the prose dialogues used by the young friends. The allusions that are
conveyed by the ordinary language make what is commonplace profoundly
philosophical. This is what is known as the technique of ‘de-familiarization’ that
produces the effect of estrangement. This leads to the impression of alienation of the
young who are frustrated and dejected. Each character uses a different idiom so as to
create the universalization of human experience.
The Writer : I can’t seem to complete my play, Indrajit?
Indrajit : So what’s the point of completing it? It has no
end. Its beginning and end are all the same.
(Sircar 118)
The middle-class protagonist exiles in protest but fluid movement floats on fill
the end signifying the importance ‘walking on road’. Evam Indrajit is at once
personal, but at the same time global and even cosmic, at once local but at the same
time universal, at once topical but at the same time eternal. The end suggests that
walking ahead and rolling the stone uphill fruitlessly is the destiny of man. Indrajit
accepts the truth of this statement.
Indrajit is approached at the bus stop and observed a seven or eight year young
boy accompanied by a year-old toddler. The young boy wants to polish his shoes.
Indrajit is disturbed by the injustice of the social system and the dialogue exposes his
restlessness:
“I can’t accept him. A system in which a seven-years-old boy has
to polish shoes for a living with his year-old brother beside him. I
can’t accept such a system”. (Sircar 66)
Indrajit protests but he is still confused. He is bound to be so. This pricking
conscience makes him different from the group of the other restless young men like
Amal, Vimal, and Kamal. The spark of resistance is still active and so the writer tells
Indrajit:
“The Writer: Still we must live. Still we must keep walking. For us
there is no holy place, just the journey, the pilgrimage.” (Sircar
119)
Indrajit becomes the traveler on the unending road. This image unfolds
Sircar’s dialogues of this play. This shifts from one to the other resister: there is the
colloquial speech, there is the use of poetic, journalese and officiates resister. The
mechanization of life gets exposed through dialogue.

73
 Amal : The country is full of corruption
Vimal : This government is useless.
Kamal : Power is bound to corrupt one.
Amal : Politics is a dirt game………….
Amal : No promotion.
Vimal : Terrible living quarters.
Kamal : Wife is sick.
Vimal : Child failed in school.
Kamal : Father died… (Sircar 102-103)
This rhetorical technique shows how Sircar in his characteristic Third Theatre
style has made use of dialogue which shift according to the moods of the speakers and
the dialogues are pliable enough to express the dramatic content quite richly in the
appropriate phrases.
4.2.7. The Dramatic Narration:
Evam Indrajit is a play on the familiar real-life issues of the middle classes.
The dramatic action narrates the limited blind routine view of the life of the middle
classes towards the end of the twentieth century. This limited worldview is
encompassed by the larger but meaningful life beyond the individual existence. It is
the representation of the global view and even the cosmic view of life not just of the
human beings but of all the living organisms and even inanimate objects and places.
The dramatist has covered the themes of universal significance such as injustice,
oppression, violence and war. The drama of intellectual seriousness is what Evam
Indrajit aims to present and narrate. Sircar wrestles with the issues of creativity and
expression in Evam Indrajit and this struggle, this inner quest is revealed through the
conversations between The Writer –Manasi, Indrajit –Manasi and The Writer –
Indrajit. The Jatra –the pilgrimage on the road is what is going to occupy Indrajit
throughout, his career and till the end. The journey is endless. There is only the ‘road’
(for Indrajit), “the God Jupiter cursed Sisyphus so that he had to keep rolling a harry
boulder all the way uphill” (Sircar 118-119). The writer comments that all men and
women are doomed like Sisyphus. Yet we must push it uphill. Without hope …our
past and our future are all mixed up. We know that what lay behind us also lies ahead
of us”. (Sircar 112).

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4.2.8. The Innovative Devices and Experimentation:
The play itself is experimental hence there are many innovative devices in the
play. Sircar used eleven poems and one full length song which effectively take the
fundamental theme of absurdity of life. There is effective use of mime and
pantomime. The imagination of selection of characters from the audience and choice
of characters and their rhymed names, Amal, Vimal, Kamal and Niramal, is an
innovative intellectual dramatic device. Collage of life events is Sircar’s most
repeated innovative device in his plays. In this play there is a collage of different life
events of the characters. It is a play within a play. This play was written for the
proscenium but it also possesses a few attributes of his later Aanganmancha style. For
example the four major characters Amal, Vimal, Kamal and Indrajit of the play Evam
Indrajit are conceived to emerge from among the members of the audience.
Majority of Sircar’s plays are experimental in nature. They are based on the
‘Jatra’ conventions. The admixture of the conventional and the ultra-modern is
noticed in his plays. In Evam Indrajit there are just seven characters who are the
different projections of the protagonist himself. This device is very artistically used in
the present play by the dramatist. Amal, Vimal, Kamal and Nirmal (Indrajit) are the
typed characters who symbolically represent the youth of the modern times after the
two World Wars. The unemployment among the youth has frustrated them. They feel
rootless and find their existence difficult struggle in the hostile environment that has
oppressed the young of the contemporary times. There is the writer who acts as the
coordinator as well as the presenter of the dramatic action from the beginning to the
end of the play; he is one who introduces the present time and the current world
through the situation that is dramatically presented. The presentation of dramatic
action, the presentation of the past and the future action, the comments on the three
phases–of the dramatic action of the past, of the present and of the future and
coordinating every aspect of the play such as the various thematic, technical and
structural strands of the play are the various tasks which are performed by this
character of the writer. He has performed the roles of the chorus. In the Greek plays
the chorus performed all these tasks but in Evam Indrajit the chorus and the
coordinator are combined in a single person. This is an innovative feature. There is
the use mass movements which are the synchronized components. This too is an
innovative dramatic component which Karnad as well as Sircar and others have used
to present the drill-like movements of the masses. The mass movement is the

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presentation of the public as a single unit. The use of the chorus is made in different
ways by the dramatist. Amal, Vimal, Kamal and Nirmal (Indrajit) make one type of
chorus being the presenters of contemporary reality of the rootless and hopeless life.
Manasi and Indrajit present the ideal, the dream and the reality and that is the chorus
of the alter ego. The writer is an independent commentator enacting the role of the
chorus. Visual effects, mime, mock drills, no setting, no props, no curtains, no stage
are the innovative features of the plays by Sircar. These experimental components of
Evam Indrajit show the skills of the stage craft of the dramatist.
4.2.9. The Plot Construction:
Evam Indrajit occupies the central position in Sircar’s career of both the
playwright and the director. The first phase of writing and directing of comedies was
over and with Evam Indrajit began the writing of structural and original plays. The
middle class life with its haste and destruction is disclosed through the constant
conflicts between the ideas and identities. He goes on questioning what constitutes
life, what makes a play an ‘original’ one, what the dichotomy of the target and the
reality means. The plot construction is how the dramatist presents the actions in his
play. The inner confusion and the outer routine have made Indrajit disturbed and
restless. This is dramatically revealed through the conversations between Indrajit –
Manasi, the Writer-Manasi, Indrajit and The Writer in the first act of the play. This is
restlessness of single individual. Then Amal –Vimal –Kamal –Nirmal (Indrajit)
become a single unit that represents today’s young generation. This is the scheme of
the first act of the play.Indrajit’s succumbing to mechanical routine gets its
representation in the second act. The third act shows how the spark of protest and
resistance is still alive in Indrajit and therefore he realizes that he will have to
continue moving forward, walking ahead, making the endless journey. That is how
Indrajit will win over his organs physical and mental. His ‘manas’ (mind, psyche)
needs this drowning to grasp the reality of life. The plot is constructed through such
sequential episodes and conversational oral pieces.
4.2.10. The Mode of Characterization:
There are seven characters in the play, the Writer, Manasi, Amal, Vimal,
Kamal, Nirmal (Indrajit) and the Auntie. The play Evam Indrajit centers round the
eponymous character Indrajit. He refuses to accept society as it is and desperately
tries to search the right path to follow. Amal, Vimal, Kamal, and Nirmal (Indrajit) are
prototypical characters. The first three are delineated as caught in the web of

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meaningless, self-centered, and uneventful existence and therefore, accept everything
as it comes without raising a question. Indrajit is, somewhat, exceptional, since he
wants to rebel against the senseless obedience and conformity. But in his brave
encounter with the bitter realities of life, he becomes exhausted and somewhat
frustrated. At the end of the play, however, he appears as an undisturbed individual.
Unable to discover an ideological solution to the problems, Indrajit chooses the road
rather than the destination.
There is no concrete characterization. The various characters appear to be the
projection of the protagonist himself. According to Martin Esslin, absurdism is “the
inevitable devaluation of ideas, purity, and purpose”. (Esslin 235) Here too the play
Evam Indrajit is deduced as “nothing but an expression of despair”. Nevertheless, we
can discern a ray of hope in the dreams of Amal, Kamal and Vimal. Indrajit is no
exception in this regard. As critics perceive him as the mythical Sisyphus preparing to
carry on the burden of his existence, one can discover a ray of hope in his words.
“This is the keynote of our initiation. There is no pilgrimage. Herein lays both deity
and destination.”(Sircar 119-120) Amal, Vimal, Kamal, and Nirmal form the
background for this. They take routine life for granted and try to overcome their
joylessness by being busy doing the things that their civilized life demands. But,
Indrajit, like the mythical character, the son of Ravana who defeats Indra the Hindu
Zeus, is a rebel. He is conscious of and bored with routine, mundane life. He,
therefore, cannot find any joy in it and wants to be different in order to overcome his
joylessness. In his endeavour to be different, he goes round and finally reaches the
point where he starts. So, he realizes that he cannot escape from the routine. He
admits that he is Nirmal, one of them, but not Indrajit. At last he thinks, “Dying! That
is greatest happiness.”(Sircar 105)
There are seven characters in the play. They are: Auntie, Writer, Manasi and
Amal, Vimal, Kamal and Nirmal (Indrajit). Of these seven characters, Auntie has to
play the role of a functional character. She has cooked food for Indrajit and calls him
again and again but he does not respond to her appeals of eating so that she can finish
her work in the kitchen. She represents the stereotyped characterization of a motherly
figure. She takes good care of Indrajit and blesses all the four young men. Manasi is
the alter-ego of Indrajit. She is what Indrajit desires to attain but Sircar shows how
“one cannot get what one aspires to attain”. In Shelly words “We pine for what is
not”. (Shelly stanza 18) Her concern for him and his welfare is genuine and is

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presented transparently, she is the “Mind” – the ‘subconscious’ compartment of
Indrajit division of mind. Indrajit loves her but it is impossible for him to marry her as
she is his first cousin from his mother’s side and so the social taboo will not allow
them to come together. In one sense, Manasi is Indrajit’s ‘creative inspiration’ his
‘dream’, his goal. There are four characters who are typed presentations of today’s
young generation. The routine dullness, boredom, petty joys, struggles and sufferings,
disillusionment and the hopelessness and meaninglessness of the life in the
contemporary times are the features of contemporaneity which are symbolically
presented through the characters- Amal, Vimal, Kamal and Nirmal. These four
individuals are the representatives of the young generation. This is the generation that
is involved in their pursuit of material power, employment and good income. The
‘ordinariness’ of these four young men is emphasized in order to differentiate them
from the protagonist Indrajit who states that he has tasted the fruit of knowledge
which has made him conscious of something higher than the material pursuits. The
sameness of the routine daily activities have made life in the metros dull and boring. It
is therefore often said that in the most innovative plays of the present times the
hopeless waiting and meaningless existence, endless suffering and continuous
boredom.
The Writer: After the files, tea. Then files. Then tram, bus, train.
There are bigger offices where even more important business is
transacted. There files- then tea ….(Sircar 81)
All these characters live a life which is completely meaningless, and full of
pointlessness, rootlessness and helplessness. These characters are representatives of
the millions of mortals who lead their aimless lives without any goals before them.
Nirmal is in a sense Indrajit. Though his name is Indrajit, the protagonist Indrajit goes
on repeatedly saying that he is tired, he has just to tread on, walk forward and move
along because there is no other option except doing this. Indrajit the commoner and
the Indrajit the poet present the two divided selves of his split personality. The close
link between Indrajit and Manasi is again the division of his selfhood in what he is not
and what he aspires to be. It is the dichotomy of the real and the ideal between the
tamper of the sensuous organs (Indrajit -the victor controller of Lover organs –
Indriyas) and the super-ego- the conscious mind, identical with the mind and its goal–
Manasi. It is this sense that the characters in the play have different projections of the
same personality –that of Indrajit, and these are the four youths –Amal, Vimal,

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Kamal–those separate and Nirmal who is nobody else but Indrajit himself. The
business interests, the academic pursuits and the monetary gains are the goals for
Kamal, Vimal and Amal respectively. Nirmal-cum-Indrajit knows that he has to move
on selflessly but compulsorily as there is no alternative for him except become “one
of the millions of the mortals”. There is the indication that Indrajit has the creative
energy, which he wants to invest for creating works of literature –in particular he is
very much interested in the writing of poems. The office goer Indrajit and the poet
Indrajit present this dichotomy. There is generally a character in almost every play of
Sircar, that acts as the monitor and coordinator of actions, presenter of whatever takes
place on the stage and a commentator on whatever has happened, is happening and is
about to happen. In the ancient dramatic tradition, this character has personified by
the Sutradhar (the holder of the threads of actions, theme and characterization and
other dramatic elements and properties) or the chorus in the Greek drama. In the
present play, this character is the writer. Indrajit, Manasi and the writer are the major
characters of the play Evam Indrajit.
4.2.11. The Dramatic Structural Patterns:
Evam Indrajit is the play within a play. The structure of the play is like a
round in which the events are same but the personalities are different. At the outset,
aunty asks the “writer” to stop writing and later on Manasi asks to the writer to write.
The writer needs to write at the cost of neglecting important biological functions,
stressing for a purpose in life. The writer endeavors to explain Indrajit’s life, love and
his revolutionary tendencies against society. But the dictums of society begin to crush
him gradually. Amal, Kamal and Vimal function as cogs in the wheel and we laugh at
their humdrum existence. Indrajit resists himself from the monotonous existence;
towards the end he realizes that there is no escape. He reaches a stage where even the
fulfillment of his love would not have provided the answer. A visit to London is futile
and he tries to commit suicide; he finds himself incapable of the same. He concludes:
“The past and present are two ends of a single rope”. (Sircar 49)Through the play
Evam Indrajit Sircar portrayed many vital social and cultural problems of the
contemporary society which brings to the society catastrophic existential and spiritual
exigencies. Jyoti Singh Rathore rightly states:
“He actually represents the depressed and frustrated Youngman,
who in spite of their high educational qualification and middle
class status in society. Move here and there for searching some

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 respectable position. Referring to the bible, Indrajit holds the
mythical fruit of knowledge responsible for all dissatisfaction and
frustration in human beings” (Rathor 1437-1441)
The protagonist of the play as writer understands that there should be a
concrete plot to write any literary piece and finds nothing than that of the middle class
life that is blending of many clashes and contradictions in the monotonous everyday
life. Hence, he portrayed how the aspirations of a young middleclass man get crushed
in the name of social taboo and how he has to accept that he is not different from all
and has to follow the unending ‘path’ of ordinariness.
Evam Indrajit mirrors the contemporary reality. It presents the typical life
cycle of a middle class individual. He first goes to school, finishes school education,
goes to college and gets graduate degree, finds a job, gets married, starts families and
produces children. These children in their turn go to school, finish school education,
go to college and get graduate degree, find job, get married, start families, and
produce their own children who in their own turns follow the routine of the same life
cycle. Life is therefore, the repetitive pattern of the routine activities through the
stages of the child, a school boy, an adolescent, a youth, a man, a mature person, an
old man in his second childhood. This cyclic pattern is presented thorough the five
four individuals who portray the ordinariness of life in the present times. The
interview and the routine file pushing work are almost stereotyped as expressed in the
writer’s comment on the hopeless boredom:
The Writer: First files, then cha. Then files, then tiffin. Then files.
Then cha. Then tram-bus-train. A bigger office. Move important
work. First files, then tea. Then files. Then lunch. Then tea. Then
files. Then Hindustan-that standard. (Sircar 81)
The repetitive mechanical emptiness is revealed through the repetitive use of
‘files’ ‘cha’ ‘tea’ ‘tiffin’ and ‘lunch’. The structural pattern of the play has three act
divisions. The narrative has jerks, shifts and juxtaposition. There sequences, scenes
have become the units of the narrative form of the play. Repetition is used with the
brilliant dramatic purpose and this repetition of phrases words gives a feel of
contemporary realistic life. The sequences and dramatic scenes are presented without
any breaks. There are poems inter mixed in the prose dialogues. This has elevated the
structural pattern and is quite useful in the presentation of the shifting of the moods of
the characters. Indrajit expresses what goes on in his mind to Manasi, his beloved his
dream but he is prevented to marry her because of the social taboos. Then there is a

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conversation between the Writer (Lekhak) and Manasi about Indrajit and his
psychological condition. He still holds on to his dreams. Manasi knows that he will
drown if these dreams vanish. That will make him face the reality. Then Indrajit
enters and recites a poem saying:
Man is restless, never still
Man is a surprising soul
Who kill a kingdom found even on a drowned and buried stone?
(Sircar 108)
Then the next sequence presents the confusion between the Writer and
Indrajit. The shocking sickness of the modern age is revealed and Indrajit is shown to
suffer from this disease. It exposes the mechanical structure of the dull daily
existence. Poetic expressions reveal the creative aspect while prose dialogue reveals
the mechanical side of the reality. Though Indrajit has surrendered to this
mechanization the spark of creativity continues to prompt him to continue the uphill
task of pushing up against odds….”just the journey, the pilgrimage” is the pattern that
he must follow. This movement from the sequence to sequence is the structural
pattern of this play which occupies the central core of the dramatic creations of the
playwright.
4.2.12. The Dramatic Setting:
The play is written in the absurdist tradition. The play has no logical or
coherent plot. The play is basically written for the proscenium theatre, in three acts.
There are three acts in the play. The location does not change as it is the evocation of
the writer but it is imagined by the writer that it should change on the stage according
to the acts. The scenes change from school to college, college to the world, and office
to house. The first act opens in drawing room, with writer searches for the theme to
write a play, but unable to write anything. He started to write a play on the life of
middle class people, as Manasi suggested for the theme. The play focuses the three
major phases of the lives of Amal, Vimal, Kamal, and Indrajit. The first act deals with
their school and college life, the second act talks about their job and marriage and the
third represents their success.
Birth, growth, maturity and end are the main phases of the cyclical pattern of
human as well as non-human life in the universe. In the contemporary life, the stage
of growth is occupied by childhood, adolescence and early youth which is the period
of the life of a school boy, a collegiate young man and a graduate. Education is the

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phase of the early life then starts job hunting. A routine, mechanical work is to be
performed in an office or a factory without putting heart in it as the heart is engaged
by travelling, earning and spending, performing tasks such as bringing home daily
necessities, maintaining family life and bringing up children, sending them to school
and then to college and to the office. The setting of the play Evam Indrajit is the same
It is the drawing room where there is writing material in the first act, the office
stationary in the second act and the same setting in the third act. The three acts
present three phases of the lives of the group of four five characters who are named
Amal, Vimal, kamal and Nirmal-Indrajit. The school and college life is recollected in
the first act. The second act presents the office routine as working men and the phase
of married life. The third act shows how Amal, Vimal and Kamal become successful
in their material gains as their set targets and how Indrajit succumbs to the routine of
daily life by accepting to become Nirmal. The same setting is used. The play has more
of the spoken dialogues and the action is more or less like mechanical drill –with
mass movements. As such, Sircar does not change the setting but desires his audience
to imagine the changes in the dramatic world presented in these three acts three
phases of life.
4.2.13. The Technical Effects:
The technical effects have become very prominent in the experimental plays.
The arrangement of lights and their effects through spotlight, colour screens and the
‘on’ and ‘off’ switching has its visual effect which matches with what passes on the
stage and also what passes through the minds of the characters. The spotlight
throughout is on the protagonist of the play Indrajit but at times in particular
whenever the Writer, the chorus, the commentator, the presenter and the coordinator
profoundly speaks in a philosophical tone giving us wise counsel and making his
critical comments –the spotlight puts him in the public gaze. The presentation of the
four young lads is made more effective through the appropriate lighting effects.
Manasi gets the attentation from the backstage artist or sometimes the front side
technician as far as her character is put in a sharp focus. The psychological levels are
also projected through the lighting effects. All these techniques are used in the
presentation of the dramatic action. Similarly, the background music, and other sound
effects make the dramatic presentation more effective and quite meaningful. The
sound effects show how files are handled and handed over from ‘inward’ and
‘outward’ sections. The ‘noises’ in the office, the sounds of vehicles and the street

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atmosphere is created in the dramatic world off and on the stage arrangement is that
of the drawing room or the office in the first and third acts and the second act
respectively. These technical effects have highlighted the dramatic presentation of the
play Evam Indrajit.
4.2.14. The Time and Space Organization:
The three phases in the lives of the major five or six characters are presented,
from the end of the school life and the beginning of the college life is the first stage of
youth that includes education and graduation. The second phase is of job hunting
appearing for the interviews and finally getting settled in the office and doing the
routine job of pushing files and taking tea, lunch and tiffin. The third stage is that of
the acceptance of life and succumbing to its routine in the case of Amal, Vimal and
Kamal but Indrajit is different from them because he has tasted the fruit of knowledge
and is therefore conscious and possesses conscience about the real nature of life.
These three phases are presented in the three acts covering the span of about twenty to
thirty years of the lives of the characters presented in the play. The second act shows
the world of officialdom. The space presented and the space covered are linked
through the dramatic skills using appropriate language, location, technical effects to
the global and cosmic life in general and the effects of universality is thus achieved.
This is how both temporal and spatial dimension have been treated in such a manner
that they have acquired perspectives which have made the play a cosmic experience
and a timeless work of art.
4.3. Baki Itihas-1965 (That Other History)
Sircar in That Other History deals with social problems of marriage, sex,
violence, and power politics in the middle class society and the devil that exist in the
mind of people which provokes them for evil acts. The play also depicts political
dichotomy of the Drama Triangle. It exemplifies the power struggle not only at family
level but at cosmic level. The play is in three acts and reflects the monotony of
meaninglessness middle class life. In the first, Vasanti tells her story while in the
second, Sharad, her husband narrates his story. The third is the reverie of Sharad.
4.3.1. The Theme: Socio-political Realism:
Sircar throws light on Socio-political realism in the play That Other History.
He depicts not only the history of the rulers but the destructive history of the world,
the harsh socio-political reality of common faceless people. This is the history of
Seetanath, who is not the hero of the story. He is like millions of average people in the

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backyard of history, is a person whose name is not recorded anywhere. But when
Seeatanath commits suicide because of the realization of the meaninglessness of life,
suicide becomes news in the column of a paper. Even this history is not of Sharad and
Vasanti, who try to write a story of Seetanath. This is the story of the mundane life of
the every middle-class man.
Baki Itihas (That Other History-1965) Tringsha Shatabdi (Thirtieth Century)
and Shesh Nei (There’s No End) make the trilogy on the nuclear holocaust with the
dropping of the atoms in August 1945 on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Sircar worked for eleven years as an engineer and then 1957 he went to
England for two years for advanced studies in town planning. In 1963 he went again
for studying town planning in France and from 1964 to 1967 he worked as a planner
in Nigeria. His close association with the world of drama, poetry, literature and other
fine arts, his interaction with avant grade practitioners and his keen interest in
dramatics widened his intellectual horizon, expanded his dramatic talent. The global
issues and the universal conflicts became the theme of his dramatic output. He
realized that the society as whole needed to be reformed. He struggled through his
plays to carry out the picture of a better ideal society. He could not accept the society
as it is and therefore made a search to find out the right path to follow. The futility
and the stupidity of war is exposed by him in this “trilogy” on the theme of war and
its consequences, violence, arm race, the competitive materialism and the major
causes of the outbreak of war in the contemporary times. The two World Wars of the
twentieth century 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 did not teach any lessons, did not bring
any wisdom to the world that continued war mongering even after that. During the
last sixty years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the hot sport of
warfare saw battlefield in all the continents of the war and the killing, the causalities
and the injured have been more than two times the number of the killed and the
wounded in two World Wars taken together. This has been severely and caustically
criticized and condemned by Sircar through his plays –in particular the plays like Baki
Itihas (That Other History), Thingsha Shatabdi (Thirtieth Century) and Shesh Nei
(There’s No End) –the anti-nuclear trilogy.
These three plays from 1965 to 1970 of 1960s are the three dramatic
illustrations of Nuclear Criticism, made in a full-fledged exposition in Indian English
drama in such as intensive and extensive manner for the first and the only time. The
Hiroshima Day (6-8-1945) and its terrible consequences expose the cruelty and

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viciousness of man in the present times from the middle of the twentieth century to
the present day. Middle class life is portrayed through the depiction of two middle-
class families of the Sharadindu and Vasanti and Seetanath and Kanak. Kanak the
middle-class house wife desires to have a roof over her head as a mark of security in
life. This social and economic security is what every person from the contemporary
middle-class society desires to have. In the materialistic competitive rat race for
material wealth and power, security of all types such as food, education, health,
economic, personal, social, political and environmental security has become the
watchword of these days. There are of course many obstructions in its way. The
portrayal of middle class life and the significant role of security on post-modern days
are the themes of the play Baki Itihas. The life of the subalterns is significant. The
corruption being a powerful force that pressurizes every aspect of life is shown the
way Kanak’s father behaves. The dramatic network of the play thus has the stamp of
contemporaneity but the local and global issues are handled at one and the same time
by Sircar.
4.3.2. The Story:
The play is written for proscenium. The play opens with a setting similar to
Coward’s ‘drawing-room comedies’ where a middle class couple, Sharad and Vasanti
starts their usual Sunday business. Their conversation ranges from the payment of the
electric bill to the wedding invitation. Initially, they have planned to take a short
holiday trip to Botanical Garden and Diamond Harbor, but ultimately decide to stay in
the home. Then Vasudev, the colleague from Sharad’s college, came to their house for
morning tea. In a cheerful holiday mood they have started their usual Sunday. One
comes to know that Vasanti is a creative writer and her recent story in a magazine is
quite a successful attempt. Vasudev insists her to write a similar smash hit. But
Vasanti says that she is out of any theme. When Vasudev has retired, Sharad gives
Vasanti a clue from the newspaper for her next story. The short news covers the
suicide of their distant acquaintance.
Vasanti starts to compose a story. Her version determines domestic
unhappiness as the cause of Seetanath’s suicide. Her narration is supported by visual
representation. With the lights slowly fading, the setting shifts to the house of
Seetanath. Her story informs Seetanath who is married with Kanak, both they are seen
struggling with their poverty. They have been sparing and saving all the year to build
a house of their own. He saves money and buys a site. He deposited some amount in a

85
bank regularly. Kanak is happy about it. Kanak is more obsessed with the economic
security than Seetanath. She possesses the dream of having a home of her own on a
newly bought land. Kanak is obsessed with a secure future than Seetanath. But for
Seetanath, Kanak is his only love. Kanak is a woman with an unthinking singleness of
purpose of saving enough money to build a home. She has been denying herself even
the minimum lavishness for that. She reacts hysterically when anything is said against
her dream. When Seetanath asked reason for her obsession, she tells him that she
knows about it and holds her deprived childhood responsible for that.
SEETANATH : OK. But tell me, why is having a house of your
own so important to you, Kanak?....
KANAK : You could have understood it, if you had grown
up in the kind of condition in which I did …...
Never had anything which I could say my very
own. (Act II, 6) (Sircar 24)
She said in the course of speaking that sister did right who becomes a strumpet
to survive and for a good life and thinks if her father is alive he would not have let her
to do so. But she does not know that her drunkard father compelled her sister to do
so. Seetanath who kept it secret from Kanak to see her happy and told her that her
father is dead in the accident. On the other side, taking advantage of Seetanath’s love
for Kanak, her father threatens him of making his wife a concubine if he does not give
him money for liquor. Seetanath yields to this blackmailing and gives him money
regularly. For this, he sells the house-site and withdraws the balance of money from
bank. Thus, he allows himself to be persecuted by her father in order to rescue his
wife.
One day, this story takes a twist when the agent brings the court-summon for
an unpaid mortgage repayment. Seetanath tries his best to hide the truth, but Kanak
ultimately comes to know that her dream is on mortgage; Kanak also comes to know
that her husband has sold the site and also that he has drawn all money from the bank.
In the state of shock she locked herself in the bedroom after a while she goes out. As
soon as Kanak left, her father enters the house and starts threatening and asking
money to Seetanath. When Seetanath refused to give, he picked up a costly thing and
departed.
Kanak comes back with a determination to leave him behind. Seetanath keeps
the blackmailing of her father secret. She is not told the real reason. So, she loses her
faith in him and leaves him to follow the example of her sister. Thus Kanak left
Seetanath behind Broken-hearted. He becomes hopeless and depressed. He fails in
changing and winning her mind and heart. He could not tell her the truth about her

86
father. In the state of shock he commits suicide. Thus, he persecutes himself in
rescuing his wife.
In the second story, Sharad’s version uses the setting of Vasanti’s story and
here Kanak is seen discussing about Seetanath’s strange behavior in last few days,
with Vijay, Seetanath’s colleague from the school. Seethanath is a teacher. He comes
to the drawing room. He told Vijay that he has decided to persecute a student, Ashok
because Ashok is caught reading Nabokov’s Lolita in the class, in which Lolita, a
small girl, is raped. While everybody including Vijay and the school secretary,
Vidhubabu regards Seetanath’s decision as heavy punishment for minor offence,
Seetanath is seen rigid to punish him.
This incident in the school symbolizes that he wants to punish himself. The
story of Lolita provokes the feeling of guilt in him as he once raped Parvati, a ten
years beautiful girl, when he visited the forest of Chambalghad ten years back with
his wife. Kanak narrated that ten years ago, Kanak and Seetanath went to Chambalgad
to spend their summer vacation, and they became familiarize with the forest officer
Banwarilal and his little daughter Parvati. There in the dark forest, Seetanath realized
the darkest evil in his heart. From then on he has been haunted down by the guilty
feeling. He slashed all the relationship and memories related to Chambalgad and he
repelled all the physical intimacy with his wife. Through determination he tried to
control his perversion. But Seetanath couldn’t come out of the incident and the guilt
feeling. Vijay knows that Seetanath is preoccupied with some thought often scribbled
the name Parvati and Chambalgad in the paper. But, neither Vijay nor Kanak knows
what exactly happens in Chambalgad.
But he realizes his mistakes at the end- one was punishing Ashok wrongly for
his own guilt, and the other was to run way from the guilt. After a burning debate over
this issue of crime and punishment, Seetanath goes out to calm his mind. But he
returns with a greater realization that Parvati was not an isolated event, but it is an
expression of the poisonous creeper rooted deep in his mind. He realized that he is
suffering from dreadful pedophile disorder called Lolita fixation.
He confesses before Vijay the sin he had committed in Chambalgarh and says
that Parvati is still living within himself. He admits that when he has gone to the
school secretary, Vidhibabu’s house, he saw Vidhubabu’s young granddaughter,
Gouri. The eight years old grand-daughter of the head-master, Gauri induces sensual
emotion in him. Presently he is afraid of repeating the old crime with Gauri.

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 Vijay tries to encourage Seetanath to overcome his guilt consciousness, but
Seetanath has already decided to kill the devil on whom he has no control. He wants
to end all his torment and to save the little girl, Gouri from his perverted scheme. So,
he decides to punish himself. He sends Kanak, his wife; out and commits suicide to
avert the crime. Instead of overcoming the morbid desire, he persecutes himself.
The Act III opens with the concluding narration and the critical remark of
Vasanti on Sharad’s version. Sharad realizes that slowly he is becoming obsessed
with Seetanath and his idea of suicide. He confesses that he is too obsessed to sleep in
the night. His obsession with the idea of suicide causes Seetanath’s ghost to appear
before him. Sharad knows that all were nothing but stories, but his irritation to reach
at some definite conclusion shows that Seetanath is deep inside him. Seetanath’s
ghost takes Sharad to the knowledge of human existence beyond his routine existence.
When Sharad asks Seetanath why he had committed suicide, Seetanath takes out a
scrap book full of images. The images show that the human history is the history
unspeakable cruelty, beastly extortion and bloodbath. The images range from the Joan
of Arc to the Vietnam War, from Bhima’s Revenge to Hitler’s concentration camps
and Second World War.
Seetanath says that in the ancient Egypt, the wonderful pyramids were built on
the frozen blood glued with sweat of the thousand labour, and in the ancient Rome,
people laughed at the sight of lion scratching human heart with sharp claws. The scrap
book is full of images of tragedy of humankind in Alabama cotton field, Spanish Civil
War and Pearl Harbor. Seetanath holds the view that every man is accountable for
everything happening around him and every human should take the collective
responsibility of the guilt. Sharad sees the other side, the negative side of history, in
his reverie. He witnesses the ruthless persecution of people by cruel kings and
dictators from Alexander to Hitler at various times and places from Jalianwala Bagh
to Hiroshima for expanding power.
In That Other History, Seetanath realized that human history is either the
countenance of endless cruelty of one over another or the accumulation of passive
gestures commanded by existence; and to him living in this absurd world is an act of
passivity too, thus he has committed suicide. He pursues Sharad to accept his logic
and to take the responsibility of every human act. He repeatedly asks Sharad “Why he
lives” but Sharad has no answer. Then Seetanath shown that Sharad is living an
inauthentic life dipped in world of daily routine. Sharad like Amal, Vimal and Kamal

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in Evam Indrajit is imprisoned in the countless self-deceiving gestures like passing
the exam, job, marriage, family and children. Seetanath sums up the life of Sharad in
the following ways,
“There was only one meaning to become man. Study, learn, and
pass the exam. To stand on one’s own feet which means get a job.
Which is other word meant that by regularly selling a big chunk of
one’s self, establish a timely boarding and lodging arrangement”.
(Sircar 71)
Seetanath narrated how he had continued living in the world of “being for
others” and “being in itself” till the day when he decided to put an end of the absurd
of life, Seetanath shows that there is no difference between his own life and Sharad.
Here Sircar marvelously shifts the dialogues which Sharad and Vasanti has shared
early in the play to Kanak and Seetanath’s conversation emphasizing how Sharad was
engaged in his meaningless existence like Seetanath. Seethanath says to Sharad:
“This, Sharad, is that other, the unspoken, the remaining history of thousands and
thousands of years.” (Sircar 75-76)
Sharad then sees Seethanath and his morbidity in himself. He feels horrified to
perceive the other side of his own personality which he has never expected to exist in
himself. Here Sircar wants to enlighten that Seetanath is the alter ego of Sharad. Both
are in the deadly vortex of absurdity. While Seetanath revolted against the absurd
living by voluntary death, Sharad goes on living in the world of mechanical gestures.
Then Seetanath leaves Sharad to realize the other history of human existence. As
Seetanath’s ghost had faded away, Sharad too decided to commit suicide like
Seetanath; but the chance appearance of Vasudev with news of Sharad’s promotion
saved him. He returns from the valley of the dead with a dreadful knowledge. He
heard the news of his promotion but still he was in the state of shock.
Seetanath gives him the “Tree of Knowledge” which drives him mad like
Indrajit. But he realizes that while Seetanath escapes the absurdity of life, he has to
fight the nightmare every day from now on. This psychological play of Sircar throws
light on the existence of the devil, the persecutor in the personality of everybody and
the havoc that it has caused throughout human history. It also shows how everybody
has in his mind the demon that is responsible for violence, destruction and wars, the
other side of history.

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4.3.3. The Conflict:
To be, or not to be, that is the question. (Shakespeare 773)
The widely used quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet shows the inner conflict of
an individual, likewise the play That Other History also focuses the inner conflict as
well as the social conflict. The conflict plays a vital role of one’s life. The play
presents the external conflicts of the characters, Sharad- Vasanti, Seetanath-Kanak,
Sharad- Seetanath and their intrapersonal conflicts.
4.3.4. The Symbol:
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely
players; they have their exits and their entrances; And one man in
his time plays many parts,” (Shakespeare 6)
Sircar portrayed the reality of the common man’s life in play as, one has to
perform many roles in their life and while performing the roles how man is trailed.
The title of the play That Other History itself symbolizes the inner self that one never
considers. The similarity in the stories of suicide shows the routine monotonous life
and the oppression of the weaker one in the society. The ‘suicide’ is used in the play
to symbolize the death of humanity, the consciousness of the guilt in the characters
and the coldness of human nature.
4.3.5. The Realistic Presentation of the Contemporary Reality:
The emphasis of Sircar’s play is on the life of the commoners, the ordinary
men and women in the street and the kitchen and the life of the middle classes. The
groups form the backbone of the society. Economy has become the pivot of the life in
the present-day life. Money has become the watch word and the most dominating
factor in the contemporary world. The pressures of economy are presented
realistically in the dramatic action of the play Baki Itihas. Political problems of the
contemporary world are linked with the economic issues. The propagation of the
ideology of the socialism has become the bounden duty of each and every
conscientious writer like Badal Sircar. The distribution of wealth equality and justly is
what is defended by such a progressive dramatist like him in this play Baki Itihas. The
cultural conflicts have emerged after the end of colonialism all over the world. We
and they dichotomy is cultural, Haves and Have-nots is the economic divide; the
capitalists and the proletariat is the political breakup, the Elite, the Bhardalok and the
low-class are the cultural groups. These different divisions of the various social
groups are presented in this play of the Hiroshima trilogy that shows the subalterns

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matter more than the heroic personalities. Sharadindu and Sitanath make the other
history of the world.
4.3.6. The Use of Language:
The language of the play is narrative simple and clear. The dialogues are short
and crisp. There is appropriate use of verbal and non-verbal language; it also carries
the tension in the mind of the characters.
“Day and night that ugly poisonous virus grew in my body – like
some horrendous germs it spread though my system –multiplying
in thousands, millions each moment” (Act II 16). (Sircar 58)
The tension, the guilt consciousness is expressed through these lines when
Seetanath confesses his sin before Vijay. The language used in the play is pliable and
it is used to match the character of the speaker as noticed below.
Sharadindu :Plot? The whole World is replete with
plots of stories. Life itself the plot of a
story…..
Vasanti :Leaving aside all these big matter, can
you tell a simple and easy plot?
Sharadindu : What do you mean by a simple and
easy plot? (Sircar 12)
The difference between the two a critic, a teacher of literature, a well-read
person Sharadindu and his house-wife Vasanti, who is a simple plain hearted woman,
hospitable, efficiently dutiful and an upcoming short story writer is noticed in the use
of the language by these characters of the play.
Sitanath : It’s a pretense of survival. When existence has
no meaning, then one turns to habit to help one
go through the motions of survival. Like I did.
Like you’re doing.
Sharadindu ; No, it’s not true. There’s another side to history.
There’s peace as well as war, love as well as
oppression. It has to be….Why did you kill
yourself? Couldn’t you have carried on living?
Like other people do. (Sircar 76).
This conversation between the two central figures in the play brings out the
two views to life presented by Sitanath and Sharadindu. The pessimism is the key
note in Sitanath’s language while Sharadindu presents the balanced view towards
human life in general. This view is presented through the language he has used. The
language of daily speech is used to give the play a realistic touch.

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 The central point of this play is the question: ‘Why should a middle-class
commoner commit suicide? What is the justification of his existence?’ The use of
dialogue is effectively made as noticed in the speech made by Sitanath:
Sitanth : Yes, the rest of history…..which is about oppression,
violence, destruction, war the sufferings of centuries.
(Sircar 75)
The rest of the history is a play that deals with the sorrows and suffering of the
middle classes in the realistic and materialistic world of the second half of the
twentieth century, in particular in the 60s of that century.
Sitanath : The history of the Pandav-Kauravs, Alexander,
Nero Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler.
Thousands of years of history etched into the
stones of the pyramids, the sands of the
Colosseum, the walls of Jalianwala Bagh, the
blasted earth of Hiroshima. Thousands of years
of another history. (Sircar 75-76)
The other history is the history of oppression and violence to which men and
women are ordinarily subjected. This is brought through the dialogue in which the
language used is the everyday speech, direct, simple and straight forward. The
conventional meaning and the recently attached meaning of the term “History” are the
types of meanings presented through the dialogue used in the play. The philosophical
meaning which is given to the term “history” on the basis of the personal tragedy that
indicates middle-class dilemma is conveyed through the use of the dialogue which
appears plane rises to very high levels in meaning. That is the testimony of the
effectiveness of the dialogue used in the action.
4.3.7. The Dramatic Narration:
An event takes place and it has various effects. The event acts like a stone
thrown in the pool of water which produces continues ripple effect. This is noticed in
the dramatic narration of this play. Sharadindu and Vasanti decide to present their
creative writing skills. They want to illustrate how a single event has the potential of
getting a lot out of it creatively. To this end they present their versions. The action is
set. A story based on the real life incident is presented through three versions of the
same incident. This is how the dramatic action is narrated in words and its variations
are dramatized on the stage, the three different interpretations of the suicide
committed by Sitanath. The husband Sitanath is the one who has to face the financial

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crisis but that has its effect on his relations with his wife Kanak. The strained relations
are due to the demands about the possession of a roof over the head which lie in the
domestic past of Kanak’s childhood and their married life. This is the representative
desire of all the middle-classes in the present-day world which is prominently
dominated by the economic environment.
4.3.8. The Innovative Device and Dramatic Experimentation:
Sircar used the dramatic device that is play within a play in That Other
History. It tells the story of Sharad and Vasanti as well as the story of Seetanath and
Kanak. The story of Seetanath and Kanak has two versions. The first version is
written by Vasanti and another is written by Sharad. He also uses the most powerful
device i.e. collage. The play is a collage of three different stories. Simultaneously, it
also depicts the contemporary social scenario, with use of history. It also depicts the
monotony and meaninglessness of life through the different stories.
In the presentation of the dramatic action itself, the innovative
experimentation is noticed. The play has the experimental feature of the structural
patterns of a play within a play. The main framework is the presentation of
Sharadindu, the Professor of literature in a college and his another colleague Vasu
(Vasudeo) and Sharadindu’s wife Vasanti. Here the action is two fold. There is a
marriage reception to which both Sharadindu and Vasu are invited. Vasu is going to
attend the function but Sharadindu does not want to go there as the host belongs to the
Science faculty of his college. Vasu tries to persuade him telling him about the
possible presence of the Principal and the knowledge of the senior colleague’s
departure from this college which may bring prospects of promotion for Sharadindu.
Sharadindu prefers to remain away from this function. When Vasu returns, he has
expected the news to tell about the prospects of Sharadindu’s promotion.
The other strand is the attempts of writing a story by both the husband -
Sharadindu and the wife –Vasanti on the incident reported in the papers about the
suicide of one of their acquaintances. In the two versions and the culmination of this
enterprise in the third act, the dramatic action is unfolded by presenting the play
within the play. Vasanti’s version is naturally that is presented from the feminist
angle. Sitanath’s wife Kanak leaves home as she is frustrated to find out that the roof
over the head is her only dream but that is shattered now. Sitanath finds it unbearable
–the loss of money the financial deception, the economic pressure and the loss of
domestic peace on account of Kanak’s departure from home and also from his life.

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This is Vasanti’s account of the possible grounds of Sitanath’s suicide. Sharadindu
gives it a twist and takes the action into the past. He shows Sitanath to be guilty of
perversion and that guilt conscienceness of what happened at Chambalgarh leads to
the unexpected tragic end of Sitanath’s life. It is a comment on the social conditions
dealing with the increasing occurrence of such situation which lead person to end
their lives. The third act presents another version and another aspect which is in fact
related to directly to Sharadindu and Vasanti and indirectly to the other history or
reality of the world. The flashback technique and the triple version of the occurrence
of dramatic action is presented in a dramatic manner. These are the experimental
features of the play which give it the touch of a play with a distinction. It is not men
like Hitler, Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan who alone make history but the
Other History is the history of the subalterns. This feature of “Subalternity” is an
innovative feature of this play. That Other History (Baki Itihas) is life of men in the
street and women outside the kitchen. Sircar has made a successful attempt to present
this Other History of the ordinary people.
4.3.9. The Plot Construction:
The curtain opens in a house in Bhavanipur in Kolkata. Sharadindu and
Vasanti are busy in their routine schedules of this morning rather leisurely as the day
is Sunday. They think of visiting the Botanical Garden in the afternoon. Sharadindu’s
colleague and friend Vasu’s arrival to the scene as it is expected by both of them.
Vasanti’s short stories have been published and even on this specific day she is trying
to write. She is stuck in writing and wants to find out the “seed” that will enable her to
develop her story. Their conversation leads to Vasu to suggest some event for Vasanti
to write story. In the papers they read a news which is about the incident that has
occurred in the life of one of their acquaintance –Sitanath. Vasanti remembers
meeting Kanak and Sitanath –the couple in the botanical Garden and sharing snacks
with them. This gave Vasanti as well as Sharad plot line for the story. As soon as
Vasu left Vasanti is seen busy writing the story. This point of the dramatic action
brings together the episodes which are woven in the play. First act reveals the version
of Vasanti’s story of Seetanath, then second act presents the story as imagined and
presented by Sharadindu. Finally the third act moves around the conversation of
Seenath’s ghost and Sharad, which is resolved by Vasu’s arrival with the news of
Sharad’s promotion. These are three episodes move around the “suiciude”, the plot
line of the play.

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4.3.10. The Characterization:
The story moves around the two prominent characters of the play, Sharad and
Vasanti and two subordinate characters Seetanath and Kanak. Other than these, there
are nine minor characters in play. There are four physically visible characters in the
play, Vasudev, Vijay, Vidhibabu, and Kanak’s Father and five other minor characters,
but not physically present in the play are Kanak’s sister, Ashok, forest officer
Banvarilal, his daughter Parvati, and Vidhibabu’s young granddaughter Gauri. And
there are other thousands of images of people who were killed by the cruel kings and
dictators from Alexander to Hitler at various times and places from Jalianwala Bagh
to Hiroshima.
Sharad a protagonist is a professor of the literature in the play. Sharad a
middle-class and a strong character is the modeled on Sircar’s ‘id’ that is instinct.
Hence Sharad is seen sensitive, contemplative, optimistic, and ethically wise but a
helpless character. The wife of Sharad, Vasanti is school teacher, and a story writer.
She too is sensitive, optimistic, and contemplative character. The play moves around
these two characters. Vasudev is a friend and colleague of Sharad. He is portrayed as
playful person.
The version of Vasanti’s story of Seetanath’s suicide reveals four characters
they are Seetanath, Kanak, her Father, and Vijay. Seetanath is central but helpless
character, who is middleclass man married with Kanak an ambitious lady. He is
careful husband, a sensitive son-in-low. Though Kanak is dominant wife she is
unwise and unintelligible character. According to her she becomes selfish and
pessimistic due to her miserable childhood, and now she wants to have her own
house. She is observed ethically wrong when she took decision to depart Seetanath for
the sake of money and lavish livelihood of Vijay. Vijay is affluent and a friend of
Seetanath. He is selfish and an opportunistic person and takes advantages of
Seetanath’s innocence. Kanak’s Father is an opportunistic, selfish, greedy,
pessimistic, and demoralized person, who also takes advantages of Seetanath’s love
for his daughter Kanak. There is one unseen character mentioned in the conversation
of play, i.e., Kanak’s elder sister, who is compelled by her father to be concubine for
livelihood.
The version of Sharad’s story reveals eight characters; they are Seetanath,
Kanak, Vijay, Vidhibabu, his granddaughter Gauri, Ashok, forest officer Banvarilal,
and his daughter Parvati. First four characters Seetanath, Kanak, Vijay, and

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Vidhibabu are physically presents in the act and the remaining four characters are
mentioned in their conversation. Seetanath of the Sharad’s version is schoolmaster
from middle class background. He is seen sensitive but an unintelligible person.
Apparently he is pedophile, but introspectively he is contemplative and feels repentant
when he thinks about his own thoughts about Parvati and Gauri. Kanak is caring,
helpful, and devoted wife of Seetanath. She is sensitive and optimistic towards
Seetanath. Vijay is the close friend of Seetanath, and is helpful and very careful about
Seetanath. Vidhibabu is a school secretary, he too is concerned about Seetanath.
In addition to this Sircar portrayed thousands of nameless and faceless
characters and a one more Seetanath in the play, who is counterpart of Sharad and
Sircar himself. Sircar, through all these characters portrayed different socio-
psychological spheres of the society and affirms the existential philosophy.
The image that stands out from the various events of the Second World War is
that of the 6th August, 1945 bombing on Hiroshima. Baki Itihas (That Other History)
is the indictment of the twentieth century violence. The history of death cannot be the
history of life. The theme of death, of totality, complete death is treated by Sircar
through Sitanath’s suicide. Writing and living both have become equally important –
Why do you write? Why didn’t you write? Why didn’t you commit suicide? These are
the pertinent questions put forward in this play. These questions are taken up in the
context of the inevitable death of an individual like Sitanath. The commitment of
suicide is the initial event that begins the action and the characterization in this play.
The characters belong to the present times. Sharadindu is a Lecturer in a college and
his wife Vasanti is a short story writer. Both represent the middle-class of the present-
day Bengali society. They came across the news in the paper that their acquaintance
Sitanath has committed suicide both of them attempt to explore the grounds of this
act. The couple presents a cultured, capable and contented. She is an upcoming writer
and is trapped in the process of writing a short story. Her husband remains supportive
and encouraging to her creative talents. Sitanath’s suicide is rooted in his relationship
with his wife Kanak (Kona). Vasanti’s short story interprets the event of Sitanath’s
suicide from the viewpoint of his wife –Kanak. She is obsessed with the desire for
security of money, protection, house and family life. She finds that security through
marriage is a false dream and leaves Sitanath and causes his suicide. Sharadindu gives
an interpretation of Sitanath in order to hide his drawbacks ends his life. The third act

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shows that the death is not for any ground in the individual but for the sake of the
other history.
In the mode of characterization Sircar remains a detached observer. Both
present the stereotyped figure of a husband. Both are docile. Both Sharadindu and
Seetanath are contented whatever they have. Both face financial difficulties and are
sensitive to the environment around them. They are the “commoners” of the present
century. Vasanti is a creative writer. She is a good house-wife and performs her daily
chores efficiently. Kanak is her foil but in a different sense. She is not contented in
her domestic life as Vasanti is. She has the desire to own a house of her own. This
desire has its roots in her past and her domestic background. She has built up her
dream on this single wish-fulfilment. Then the dream is ruthlessly shattered by the
turn of the events. Sitanath is duped and has lost whatever he has saved. This loss has
made Sitanath sad but Kanak cannot bear this shock. She leaves her home and goes
out of Sitanath’s life. This is the unexpected turn of events for Sitanath. Vasanti and
Kanak present two aspects of wifehood. Sitanath as shown in Sharadindu’s version,
Vasanti’s version and the dramatist’s version have three different images to present.
In one, he is guilty of crime, in other, he is a victim and in the third neither he is guilty
nor a victim. The two friends are benevolent, gentle, decent fellow like Vasu and
Vijay.
4.3.11. The Dramatic Structure:
This is a play within a play, in three acts, written for the proscenium theatre.
The first act opens with routine conversation of Sharad and Vasanti and ends with
Vasanti’s story. In the second act, Sharad tells his version of the story, whereas
Sharad’s reverie is found in third act. It is a collage of three stories as in every act
there are different stories. The play has an excellent dramatic structure. Each act of
the play has well knitted dramatic structure. There is good connectivity of exposition,
rising action climax, falling action and denouement in the play.
The play covers the text of seventy two pages and the dramatic action of about
ninety minutes. The first act is of twenty two pages and about thirty minutes of
dramatic action. The second act of twenty-eight pages and about forty minutes of the
action on the stage. The last third act occupies eighteen pages and the remaining
dramatic action of about twenty minutes.
The first two acts of this play have presented two different versions of the
suicide committed by Sitanath. The first act presents the introduction to the play

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within a play structure. The political context is very much import through the broad
framework in which the references are there in the conversation among Sharadindu
the professor, his wife Vasanti, the budding story-writer and the housewife and the
common family friend Vasu (Vasudeo) who too is a professor in the same college.
The framework shows that Vasanti has been stuck in her creative activity of writing a
short story on same topical event. In their conversation, it emerges that the news item
about the suicide committed by Sitanath is a potential topic for writing a short story.
Vasanti remembers to have met the couple Sitanath and Kanak in the botanical
garden. She remembers to have shared some snacks with the other family from
Bhavanipur. This incident is the starting point of the next part of the action. The first
eleven pages and about fifteen minutes of conversation first between Sharad and
Vasanti and then among the three including Vasu is the main framework as these
persons really act in the play to present the dramatic action. The remaining eleven
pages of the first act and the remaining span of dramatic action in it is given to the
dramatic presentation of Vasanti’s version of the incident of Sitanath’s suicide. His
wife Kanak leaves him alone as it is not possible for him to give her a roof of her own
on her head. He has lost the amount he has saved. He has to keep her father’s
presence a secret from her.
The second act presents the dramatized action through Sitanath and Kanak.
Sharadindu’s version pf the story shows Sitanath to be a pedophile and his victim is
Parvati in Chambalgarh. The likelihood of the exposure of reality drives Sharadindu’s
protagonist Sitanath to commit suicide. The third act of the play offers critical
comments on the comparative merits of these two versions of the short story based on
the real life incident of Sitanath’s suicide. Death as choiced and forced is what makes
an independent unit of the other history (Baki Itihas) of the world. From the times of
Alexander the great to the days of Hitler and Mussolini and the two days of August,
1945 –of bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki tell the story of Baki Itihas. The third
act resolves the climatic struggle between the two opposing views on the history of
human life.
4.3.12. The Setting:
The play is written for proscenium theatre. It is in three acts and opens in a
drawing room of the Sharad’s house on second floor of a three storey house in
Bhavanipur. The events in the middle class family have been depicted in the play.
The location does not change throughout the events in the play. The beginning of first

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and the end of third acts are the real incidents in the life of Sharad and Vasnati and
the remaining is the imagination of Sharad and Vasanti. Sircar used the technique of
play within a play.
The setting in the first act is that of a house of Sharadindu Nag, Professor of
English, on the second floor of an old three storied building in the narrow lane in
Bhavanipur, Kolkata. The drawing room, indicates, the kitchen behind and the
entrance on side displaying the outer door and a bed room on the other side. The
curtain is generally open quad, the bottles, utensils are spread out along with the items
generally noticed. Three chairs, a small table, a plastic cover on the table are seen at
the entrance of the kitchen. Two easy-chairs, a writing table and a chair, a bookshelf,
books, a flowerpot, Mysore woodworks are noticed in the setting at the beginning of
the play. The same setting is used in the first act even when Sitanath-Kanak-Nikhil
episodes are presented. This is to show how there is almost the uniform, almost
stereotyped setting in the play. The first episode is the initial conversation among
Sharadindu, Vasanti and Vasu about the writing of the story related to the suicide, its
background and causation. Then Vasanti’s version as well as Sharadindu’s version of
the story and the disclosure of the reality itself are the next two episodes and that
conclude the play highlighting the other history.
4.3.13. The Technical Effects:
The sound effects are the opening of the doors, the sound of the cups and
saucers, the sound made while drinking tea are some of the sounds that provide the
background to the dramatic action presented. Similarly, in the three versions of the
story of a suicide also have ample opportunities of the use of various sounds quite
matching to the action being presented. The background sound effects are matched by
the setting as in the sounds which lead the spectators to various sounds for which the
provision is made and which are quite sufficient sounds are used. Yet these sounds
convey the faith which has shown that the dramatic action is interrelated. The ‘fade
in’ and the ‘fade out’ of the lights on the stage is presented through the switch on or
off action. The scene is indicated through the light effects. It is a simple device which
is used to bring out the transition in the action and the movement from the first
framework set of characters. The stage is quite effectively used using the levels on the
stage. Sometimes it becomes a literary “debate” between the characters belonging to
different sets such as Sitanath and Sharadindu who occupy the stage as the “debaters”
in the battle of wits.

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4.3.14. The Management of the Temporal and the Spatial Dimensions:
Sircar is a dramatic artist who presents his plays on the proscenium on the
traditional stage, but his plays can also be performed in the open, on the corner of a
street. The real time is the time taken for the presentation of the dramatic action of the
play. The job prospects of Sharadindu, the cordial relations between Sharadindu’s
wife Vasanti and his friend professor Vasudeo and between Kanak, Sitanath’s wife
and Vijay take the spectator back and ultimately to Chambalgarh episode, the
childhood, youth and married life of Kanak and Sitanath as well as Vasanti and
Sharadindu that expand the dramatic time span to more than thirty to forty years of
dramatic narration. Ultimately, right from the historical battles of Alexander the
Great, Genghis Khan, Hitler to the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki expand
the dramatic time to about three thousand years. Similarly the Botanical Gardens,
Bhavanipur, Kolkata, Bengal, India and the entire global is what occupies the spatial
dimension of the play. The history is not only of the Great Heroes and big events like
the wars but alsothe other history of that of the common persons, who spend their
existence ordinarily.

4.4. Tringsha Shatabdi-1966 (Thirtieth Century)

Sircar’s Tringsha Shatabdi written in 1966 is anti-war documentary play in a
narrative style and presents some of the most horrific war catastrophes of the world,
which gives the heavy dose of information and the reality of the Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, war torn cities of Japan. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki shook
the entire human race and is an incident that will remain imprint in our memory
forever. The consequences were beyond human comprehension and left the century
stunned. The documentary of Hirishima, Nagasakhi and Bikini and Ferdinand Gigon’s
Formula for Death—E= MC2: The Atom Bombs and After shook and affected him
profoundly, hence he took the subject to write the play.
It was an inhuman and unforgivable act, as claimed by the chief protagonist of
the play, Sharad Chowdhury, who wants mankind to take full responsibility for it.
Sharad as a narrator questions historical figures like Major Ferebee (who piloted the
aircraft that dropped atom bomb on Hiroshima), and Major Claude Eatherly (who
piloted another nuclear bomb-carrying aircraft to Nagasaki). Both the majors appear
to be repentant, in the play, for what they did. The narrator also interrogates scientist

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Einstein, who is credited with inventing the theory behind nuclear weapon. It also
presents the experiences of the victims of the misery. The play also raises questions
about the righteousness of the ongoing wars in different countries in the name of
democracy, peace and preemptive attack on declared terrorist states. Here Sircar tries
to present the political scenario that is the weaker are victimized by the powerful
century.
4.4.1. The Thematic Networks:
4.4.1.1. Socio-political Realism:
Sircar depicted the exploitation of the powerless in many ways focusing
making people aware of the contemporary situation. The stories of the oppressed of
the World War are the instances of countless exploitation of the innocents. As a
strong believer of Christianity, Sircar wants to take the responsibility of the whole.
The play depicts not only the human relations, their predicaments but also the socio
political realism. It attempts to explain model, and prescribe political relations. It
takes as its assumption that power is the primary end of political action, whether in
the domestic or international arena.
On the international stage, nations are seen as the primary agents that
maximize their power only to pursue the power. Here in the World War II, the nations
involved in it were all great powers all they wanted to set supremacy on the world. It
was the most widespread war in history which directly involved more than 100
million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire
economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war efforts, erasing the
distinction between civilian and military resources; it resulted in an estimated 50
million to 85 million fatalities. It made World War II the deadliest conflict in human
history. Hence, it expresses that society consists of only human being but it is the
product of civilization, which includes social, political, and economical aspects as
wisely said by Karl Marx in his Grundrisse,
Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of
interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand.
(Marx265)

The story of the play directs it towards the socio-political realism as well as
the marxism. It portrays how the powerless people are oppressed by the powerful to
set the supremacy and it also presents how the advancement in all the aspects of
technology is forcing all for the agony.

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 The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of
production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws
all, even the most barbarians, nations into civilization. The cheap prices of
its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all
Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians' intensely obstinate
hatred of foreigners to capitulate. (Marx 249)

4.4.1.2. Absurdism:
The theme, characters and the language of play lead it towards absurdism
which refers to the conflict between the human tendency to pursue essential value and
meaning in life and the human inability to find any. In this context the universe and
the human mind do not each separately cause the absurd, but rather, the absurd arises
by the contradictory nature of the two existing simultaneously. As Sadhan remarks:
“Perhaps the basic question is this: when one cannot find the meaning of life, then
whose the responsibility of living is?” (Sircar 332-334)
The First World War from 1914 to1918 began with an incident like the murder
of a royal dignitary and millions lost lives, and properties and suffered wounds. The
talks of peace were given as sermons of conduct but preparations of war continued
and the war of ideologies of Democracy and Fascism or Nazism erupted in September
1939. Again millions lost lives, millions were wounded and found life more miserable
than instant death on the battleground. The end of the World War II was the most
horrible outbreak of violence. Two atom-bombs were dropped on the cities of
Hiroshima and of Nagasaki in the month of August in 1945. The play Tringsha
Shatabdi (Thirtieth Century) makes use of dropping of these two atom bombs on the
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki an event that will have ramifications on the life in
these which were turned into centers of nuclear destruction. These are known as
MDW –Mass Destruction Weapons. War and stupidity of war, violence and its effects
are portrayed in a dramatic manner in this play
The bombs dropped on the cities of Japan took a heavy toll of lives and caused
a huge man made destruction. The ill-effects of violence and its off spring war have
provided the main thematic strand to the network of themes in this play. The play
dramatically presents the horrible destructive consequences of the terrible war by
offering a documentary of violent deeds and their causes. The dramatist has used a
novel device to record the reactions of the agents of destruction and of those who
suffered from the catastrophe. The major theme of the play is thus the destructiveness
of violence and war and the incident chosen for the treatment of the theme is the

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bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Sixth and Eight of August in 1945. Even
after twenty-years of the terrible act, its resultant consequences were painfully
suffered by the unfortunate victims. The incident of 1945 has become a reminder of
the human degradation through violent means of war-mongering. The protagonist of
the play, as a social scientist, analyses the incident through his questioning and has re-
stated the War Trial of the makers of war and uses the suffering victims as his main
witness to prove the crime of the criminals.
Humanitarianism is the theme that is quite prominent in the play because the
principles of love, compassion and liberty are those which need to be established in
order to encounter the negative forces of violence, hatred, dictatorship and
materialism. Life, both in the twentieth and thirtieth centuries, is portrayed in the play.
The environment is hostile and uncompromising but the struggle for existence and the
search of identity continues uninterruptedly and relentlessly, Universal experience is
depicted through the thematic network of this play. The evolutionary principle
advocates the perfectibility of man but the social, political and economic forces like
dictatorship and the theories of material military power encourage conflicts which
need to be avoided. Exploitation leads to violence and that leads to war-mongering.
“This is what man has made of man.” This aping of the wild beasts should be curbed
prevented and totally stopped. This is the thematic network of the play.
4.4.2. The Story:
This is one of Sircar's early plays written for proscenium in 1966. A time
when the echoes of the war and the staggering destructive power of atom bombs were
still in evidence, leaving a scar on the psyche of the generations that survived and
succeeded the war. Sharad, who is wheelchair bound while his mind appears to have
left the confines of sanity. He seems to talking with the people of the thirtieth century,
and from his side of the conversation, he appears to be defending the people of the
twentieth century and their actions with respect to the war.
Listen Thirtieth Century. Listen. Listen me. I am speaking from
twentieth century. Human being of Thirtieth century listen to me.
Listen to twentieth century. (Sircar 299)
As the play progressed, his wife Vani feels that the clue to his insanity appears
to lie with his physicist friend Sadhan. Five years ago, Sadhan and a perfectly sane
Sharad had a life-altering discussion that seems to have since wrecked Sharad. From
here on, the play unravels the causes that led to Sharad's current state. Sharad and

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Sadhan investigate the lives of the people who were directly and indirectly affected by
the bombings. They conduct a mock trial of various historical characters like Thomas
Ferebee, Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Mrs. Eatherly, Claude Robert Eatherly, Dr.
Michihiko Hachiya, Sanjiro Masooda, and Albert Einstein. Their answers provide
damning facts and perspectives to the bombings. They first called the spirit of Thomas
Ferebee, the bombardier and he is asked various questions.
Later on he reported that how he had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and
how the four point seven square miles area had been collapsed and thousands of lives
destroyed in a second. When he was cross-examined by Sharad he discloses:
SHARAD : How many times on Japan was bombed before
‘Tinian’ airport?
FEREBEE : Around fifteen thousand times.
SHARAD : How much ton bomb will have been dropped in
these fifteen thousand campaigns?
FEREBEE : Approximately one million tons. (Sircar 328)
Ferebee’s every statement revealed the destruction made by the sovereign. His
statement suggests that a planned power game is played on the cosmic level to set the
supremacy by the powerful countries. Sharad then called up the spirits of Leonard
Cheshire, the pilot and the wife of Major Claude Eatherly, Dr. Osada, and Dr.
Michihiko Hachiya, Masooda, and Albert Einstein respectively. Their testimonies
present the truth lies in the cosmic havoc. The most distressing and horrifying
illustration was given by Dr. Osada and Dr. Michihiko Hachiya.
Dr. Osada narrates some articles on the Experience of Hiroshima that was
written by students of the eight to eleven years old in 1951. He also discloses that
according to the American Government only eighty thousand people were died when
the bomb was dropped but overall two hundred forty-seven thousand people were
died including those who were wounded and died later. Dr. Michihiko Hachiya
discusses the effects of radioactive rays on the people, the symptoms of Atomic
diseases and how the people died. After the testimonies of Aneman and Masooda,
Sharad called the spirit of Professor Albert Einstein.
In August 1939, prominent physicists Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner drafted
the Einstein–Szilard letter, which warned of the potential development of "extremely
powerful bombs of a new type". It urged the United States to take steps to acquire
stockpiles of uranium ore and accelerate the research of Enrico Fermi and others into
nuclear chain reactions. They had it signed by Albert Einstein and delivered to

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After this Roosevelt started a project that is the
Manhattan Project. It was a research and development project that produced the first
atomic bombs during World War II. It was led by the United States with the support
of the United Kingdom and Canada. The project expenditure through 1 October 1945
was $1.845 billion. After ten years of hard work the bomb was invented. The
scientists knew the capability of the bomb, so they draft the letter to the President to
convince him for not using atomic weapons against the opposing military alliances.
It was suggested to call the representative of the two opposing military party
on the uninhabited island of the Pacific Ocean to present the demolition capacity of
atomic bomb by blasting it, so opposing military party will be compelled to stop the
war. The scientists like Leo Szilard and James Franck tried hard to convince the
President Truman, but in vain. While Germany surrendered a few weeks after Truman
assumed the Presidency, the war with Japan was expected to last another year or
more. Truman approved the use of atomic weapons against Japan, intending to force
Japan's surrender and spare American lives in an invasion. The political and cultural
impacts of the development of nuclear weapons were profound and far-reaching.
In the end, his trial of the various characters leaves Sharad disturbed and guilt
conscious. Sadhan, however, defends their helplessness by denying the responsibility
of the things that are not in common man’s control. The constant battering of his
psyche by the untold number of facts and feelings that he has experienced through the
eyes of the characters finally drives him insane. The play end with Sharad defending
his century and his people in a mumbling, incoherent, yet touching fashion.
4.4.3. The Conflict:
As conflict is the essential element of the play, the conflict presented in the
play in two ways first the conflict between the characters Sharad- Vani, Sharad-
Sadhan and the conflict between the countries involved in the World War II, and
secondly the intrapersonal conflict of the characters, which are presented in a very
effective way.
The million horrors of war and its undeniable consequences hover over long.
Sircar represents in this play the power struggle at cosmic level. It expresses how
everybody has in his mind the demon that is responsible for violence, destruction, and
wars. The exploitation of the many powerless people is portrayed in mainly two
stories supplemented with other small stories.

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4.4.4. The Symbol:
The title of the play symbolizes the cruelty of the Twentieth Century and
Sircar’s future optimistic approach towards the Thirtieth Century. The mock trial of
the spirits is the symbol of conflict in the mind of the character Sharad Chaudhari,
who is very sensitive towards the human degradation and the responsibility towards
future generations. The insanity of the central character Sharad symbolizes the reality
of the life of common man, who does not know where he is and where is he going
towards, having no control and feels helpless.
4.4.5. Realistic Presentation of the Contemporary Age:
The nature of the issues of present time is mainly marxist. That nation which
controls the instruments of production desires to control other nations. The marxist
issues are politico-economic in nature. The unequal distribution of the material wealth
and professions and physical power as well as the control over the arms enable a
power to dominate the other nations. The capitalist nation comes in clash with the
nations which have other ideologies to pursue. The allies like Britain, France,
America and Russia came together to fight jointly the Fascist and Nazist ideologies.
Italy and Japan presented the Fascist ideology while Germany under Hitler pursued
Nazism. These ideologies came in conflict and a six-year long Second World War
was fought killing and wounding million of individuals. The end came only after the
dropping of the two atom bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This
is central event that is tackled in particular to fix the responsibility of violence not
only on the agents but also on all the members of mankind and even the members of
the audience in front of the stage. The social changes, the philosophical twists, the
Cultural Revolution, the political upheavals and the economic dominance are
protested in Thringsha Shatabdi.
4.4.6. The Language:
The language of play is simple and appropriate to the scenario. The dialogues
are short and clear, except the dialogue of Osada, Dr. Michihiko Hachiya and Inman
Cawaguchi. There is proper use of verbal and non-verbal language in the play. The
narrations of the spirits about the war catastrophe can be experienced and visualized.
The use of phrases, the repetition of words, and pauses in communication are
appropriate. There is proper use of narrative and heart rendering language throughout
the play.

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 Sharad is talking to the people of the Thirtieth Century as a representative
sensitive individual against war-mongering from the Twentieth Century, “Listen
Thirtieth Century. Listen. Listen to me. I am speaking from Twentieth Century.”
(Sircar 299) It can be noticed that the language used is simple, clear, lucid, straight
forward and direct but quite meaningful, charged with irony, sarcasm and satire. The
war – mongering is targeted. Violence is affected through the butts and guns of words.
Major Thomas Ferebee accepts that the bomb dropped on Hiroshima to kill and
destroy thousands of men and on area of about five square miles has been totally
destroyed.
Sharad : How many times Japan was bombed
before Tinian airport?
Ferebee : Around fifteen thousand times.
Ferebee : How much ton bomb will have dropped
in those fifteen thousand canings?
Ferebee : Approximately one million tons. (Sircar
328)
This conversation brings out the clarity and brevity of the language used in the
trial. Questions are directly asked without any ambiguity in the matter of fact style.
Answers too are given in the same manner. This stylistic feature is quite suitable to
the dramatic presentation of Sircar’s plays. These plays deal with the issues which
have universality, contemporaneity and dignity. The tone of the language is
epigrammatic. The use of irony is often made as noticed in the attempt to elicit the
factual information that about one million tons of bombing ammunition was dropped
on the Japenese soil through the fifteen thousand campaigns.
The most destructive war in the history of the world has been the World War
II that lasted from 1st September 1939 to 10th August 1945 for a period of six years. It
is the war that involved men and soldiers from all the continents of the world and
more than hundred million people were directly and indirectly involved in the war and
about thirty countries sent men on the battlefields across the seas. About 70 percent of
these were the sufferers. That is why Karl Marx remarked that the bourgeois society
attempts to dominate other groups to follow its image and this has been the conduct of
the Capitalist America during the last century and even in the present times. “Sadhan
therefore remarks: Perhaps the basic question is this: When cannot find the meaning
of life, then whose the responsibility of living is?” (Sircar 307) This is the
philosophical riddle that the philosopher, the social scientist and the scientist such as

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the physicist like Sadhan tries to find out. Major Ferebee, the pilot of the plane that
dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima remarks: “According to military point of view,
most results have been achieved with the minimum amount of loss. The evidence is
that after a few days of Hiroshima fight was stopped and Japan accepted ultimatum”.
(Sircar 320) This is how Major Ferebee comments on the successful outcome of the
most heinous crime he himself had committed. Sharad Chaudhary is a middle class
man and professionally a Professor of Literature introduces the situation, “I am Sharat
Chaudhary. I am from Twentieth Century. I am a Prisoner. You have brought me in
the dock. I am accused of the Twentieth Century. I am Twentieth Century. Listen
Thirtieth Century, I am innocent. My century is innocent. My disabled, this perverse
and sickening century is innocent.” (Sircar 334). This is quite appropriate to the
situation and the temperament of the character who speaks a particular moment.
4.4.7. The Dramatic Narration:
The first fifteen or twenty minutes of the dramatic narration of the play
Tringsha Shatabdi are devoted to present the background information about Sharad,
Vani –his wife and his friend – Sadhan, the scientist. Then the trail is also introduced
indicating the purpose behind conducting the trail after one thousand years after the
criminal act and to fix the responsibility on the perpetrators and even the onlookers –
the members of humanity now and of the past and if the future too. The actual trial is
conducted. The trial takes most of the time of the performance. The span of about
thirty three to thirty five minutes and about seventy percent of dramatic action is taken
by the trial. The first witness Lt Colonel of the plane which dropped the bomb on
Hiroshima is called first to depose. The longest time is taken by the first witness. He
takes about twenty percent of the total dramatic narration. Except two other witnesses
the remaining four witnesses cover the period of about thirty-five percent of the time
of the entire dramatic action. This narration is dramatic and that captures the
audience. The dramatic narration presents two histories – personal and global. It is the
factual historical documentary evidence that is poured in and is compiled to arrive at
the two plots. The dramatic narration follows the plan already presented at the outset
of the play.
4.4.8. The Innovative Devices and Experimentation in Dramatic Techniques:
Sircar experimented with many devices through his plays. He uses the play
within a play a dramatic device to write Tringsha Shatabdi. The story can be also
called a ‘Chinese Box’ because it reveals many true stories of the World War Second.

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The technique of flashback is used to reveal the reason of Sharad’s madness; and also
it is used to present many stories in the life of the minor characters. In this play he
uses the history to present the degradation of human values; he portrays the
destructions due the World War II and gave evidences through the mock trial of
spirits of people involved. Planchette is used to call the spirits; it shows the use of
supernatural elements in the play. Another device is the collage of events or the small
stories in the war and aftermath.
Sadhan, a physicist working for five years in Paris, has come back and come
to know that his friend Sharad is about to hold the trial. Why is Sarat bothering so
much about all this? This is his natural question. Sharad puts a counter question to
him, “Tell me one thing America drops an atom bomb on Hiroshima in Japan –don’t
you and I have any responsibility in this? But then every American need not to be
held guilty for the crime committed by some Americans only”. Can one say for sure
that no one in our country would ever commit the same crime?” another counter
question is put up by Sharad, “So are you saying that its mankind that is responsible”
asks Sadhan. The answer is yes”. (Sircar 301). In the end too Sharad insists: “Who
says I am not responsible? I am responsible for two reasons. One – both I the driver
belong to the human race. Two – we were both born in the same, century, this, the
twentieth century” (Sircar 333). The Bhadralok – middle –class mentality is asserted
in the end. “I, Sharad Chaudhary, am here, I, Sharad Chaudhary, will answer for my
time, for my century. Today! Tomorrow! Always!” Addressing members of the
audience directly, he asks, “And you – what have you decided to do? You? What
about you?” (Sircar 334)
This is how the innovative experimental device of audience participation in
the dramatic action at the beginning and at the end of the play, is used by the
experimentalist Sircar. The play is at once a proscenium and also a street play. It was
performed first in what is called, Aaganmanch (outdoor or yard Stage) in the year
1966 on 5th August. It is a play within a play. The trial is the courtroom drama. The
American pilot, the Japanese victims are in one sense individuals and persons that
represent symbolically the groups of the agents of the criminal act of bombing and the
victims of the same crime. The heinous character of the terrible crime is emphasized
through the symbolic use of presentation of the characters in the play. This too is an
experimental innovation. The mass movements are used but not to a very large extent.
The protagonist, Sharad Chaudhary, the gentleman called Bhadralok acts as the

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presenter of the action and the standpoint which has the humanitarian touch and as the
coordinator of the actions. He himself states that he is jury and he is the judge of this
trail which is conducted by him. He presents, coordinates and comments on the action
and the trial and as such he acts like the chorus in this play. This is another
characteristic innovative device used in this play. The structural design of the play has
the design of the “Chinese Box” in which the larger box contains smaller another
smaller, third smaller, fourth smaller, fifth smaller, sixth smaller and the seventh
smallest box. Here the box brings out the eight witnesses three Americans, one British
and four Japanese and as such this Chinese box has in all eight boxes. The visual and
aural effects contribute to the innovative experimentation.
4.4.9. The Plot Construction:
Tringsha Shatabdi is a one act play and as such it has its unique single straight
forward action. The drama is unfolded through some main episodes like Sharad
Chaudhary’s introduction that presents the backgrounds of the dramatic action. Then
his wife Vani enters with a shopping bag rather tired and worried. She informs Sharad
about his friend Sadhan’s return from Paris after five years. Much water has flown
through the bridge during the span of five years but Sharad’s mission has remained
the same. He wants to ascertain the responsibility of the terrible loss of lives and
properties after the two bombs were dropped in August 1945 on the two major cities
of Japan – Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then Sadhan and Sharad have arguments
presented on the significance of the trial of the event that took place in the twentieth
century about one thousand years after its occurrence in the thirtieth century. The trial
is conducted through calling each witness, identifying his role as an agent or as a
victim and then the interrogation session is conducted. This is followed up by the
judgement passed on the criminal act of the past, avoiding to accept the responsibility
by the perpetrators and also by the members of the entire humanity –past, present and
future including of the trail with the personal and domestic life of the presenter and
the global tragedy are the two strands of the lot which are artistically linked together
in Thirtieth Century.
4.4.10. The Characterization:
The characters of the play can be divided human and non-human being or
spiritual beings. Human beings are Sharad, Sadhan, Vani, and the spiritual beings are
the spirits of Thomas Ferebee, Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Mrs. Eatherly, Claude
Robert Eatherly, Dr. Michihiko Hachiya, Inman Cawaguchi, Sanjiro Masooda, and

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Albert Einstein. Sircar’s choice of characters from Ferebee, Mrs. Eatherly, and
Leonard Cheshire to Albert Einstein is a masterpiece in the understanding of
humanity, and of course, of drama. The portrayal of the protagonist Sharad Chaudhari
is done very carefully; it presents the sensitivity of playwright himself towards the
global situation of human degradation.
Sharad Chaudhari, a professor of literature is middle class man and very
sensitive towards the contemporary situation. His statements in the opening scene as
he tried to communicate with the people of thirtieth century:
I am Sharad Chaudhuri. I am from Twentieth century. I am
prisoner. You have brought me in the dock. I am accused of the
twentieth century. I am twentieth century. Listen Thirtieth century.
I am innocent. My century is innocent. My disabled, this perverse
and sickening century is innocent. (Sircar 299-334)
The study of above stated lines suggest that the protagonist is contemplative
and insightful. He thinks about the future generations and their allegations against the
twentieth century. Though he is seen insane yet, he is ethically and morally strong
character. He becomes depressed after the trial of the spirits of people directly and
indirectly concerned with the Second World War. He himself considers responsible
for the destruction of the Twentieth Century and feels that though he has no idea that
the Thirtieth Century will be there on earth or not yet he has to take the responsibility
of the whatever happening in this century.
The wife of Sharad, Vani is very loving and supportive towards him. Though
she is modern woman, even in Sharad’s madness she is with him. She too is
contemplative and alert about the present condition and the state of Sharad. Her five
years of anguish can be studied in her conversation with Sadhan.
VANI: No, no. I am not telling history of my pain. I just want to
explain you…. No one else. See this. I don’t let him go anywhere. He
will not survive if he will go outside. I handle everything alone and will
handle as long as possible. (Sircar 299-334)
Her agony can be studied in the above stated lines. She is worried about
Sharad’s condition and wanted to know the reason of his madness from Sadhan to
handle the situation. Sadhan, a physicist and a close friend of Sharad is another live
character in the play. He lives in Paris, the capital of France. Usually he comes to
meet Sharad as he comes back to India to meet his mother. He is not only a physicist

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but also a good philosopher. He is also conscious and contemplative about the
contemporary situation. He is well aware of the contemporary situation of world.
He is a counterpart of the protagonist, as he was with Sharad when he took the
trial of the spirits. Both Sharad and Sadhan were stunned, when they came to know
the overall scenario of Second World War. Though it was not easy going experience
for Sadhan, yet he was seen practical, adaptable and hence normal.
Other supporting characters in the play are the spirits of the people, some of
those who affected or were directly involved in the bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and the remaining are the spirits of those who got affected by the bombings.
Due to the inner conflict, Claude Robert Eatherly, goes insane and even it provoked
him for suicide. On the other hand, Major Ferebee feels bombing was necessary to
end the war. Other spirits express their experiences of the bomb blasts.
Thingsha Shatabdi projects the trial of the people of the Twentieth Century.
This is a trial in which eight witnesses are called to give their reactions or their
evidence about the dropping of the bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Sharad conducts the trial to find out the consequences of the terrible
violence of the use of atomic weapons in the Second World War –the most horrible
war that has claimed the highest toll of lives and properties. The tragic and horrible
effects of this horrible violence are presented through the depositions made by those
who painfully experienced the horrible sufferings of this inhuman violence. The
violence has encompassed the entire humanity, countries that took part in the war and
countries which did not participate but suffered the consequences gave the evidence
of the man-made tragedy and catastrophe. The violent incidents of bombings have
brought out the eight witnesses coming forward to present their reactions. Sadhan, a
scientist living in Paris, and Sharad the protagonist did hold a heated conversation
about this inhuman man-made disaster. This prompts the protagonist to hold the trial.
These characters then listen to the evidence put in by the partcipants in the criminal
act. The two American pilots and a British citizen are the characters who present the
side of those peace-loving people who did not want to pursue the project that had the
potential of bringing in havoc to the entire humanity. Policy makers generally turn
deaf ears to the wise counsel of those the humanitarian thinkers. The same has
happened in the case of the warning given through a letter written by Einstein and
fellow scientists who requested the then President of America to stop the project of
devastation. This wise counsel proved to be a failure. The other witnesses are

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Japanese. The Americans, the British and the Japanese make up the group of eight
witnesses in this trial. This play is a documentary. It puts the record of what happened
then and what people suffered then and what consequences have been retained for
centuries together as the marks that have not been and will never be erased. These
eleven characters gets exposed through the thoughts, words and actions.
4.4.11. The Dramatic Structural Patterns:
The play Tringsha Shatabdi is one act play, with a proper beginning, middle
and end. In fact this is play within a play, as Sircar interwoven mainly two stories; one
is the story of the protagonist and his madness, and the other is about the Second
World War. It is a multi-layer play as there are many small stories in a narrative form.
It shows how every action of each character is the result of the experiences in their
earlier life. It opens with a climactic scene of Sharad’s madness and his efforts of
communicating with the thirtieth century generation, which got disturb by Vani, who
brought the news of Sadhan’s arrival. But Sharad does not want to meet anyone;
these instances show Sharad’s insanity the consequence of his contemplativeness over
the statements of the spirits of people involved in the Second World War. The play
becomes multilayer when Sadhan reveals Vani the truth behind the Sharad’s Madness
and his narrations leads to the climax. Sircar used the technique of flashback here
with every story told by the seen and unseen characters. The trial of the spirits taken
by Sharad and Sadhan discloses the truth of war. The climax of the second story of
the Second World War is portrayed by statements of Major Ferebee of how they
dropped the bomb and his opinion:
According to Military point of view, most results have been
achieved with the minimum amount of loss. The evidence is that
after a few days of Hiroshima fight was stopped and Japan
accepted the ultimatum. (Sircar 329)
The falling action of the second story starts with the testimonies of Mrs.
Etherly, and Cheshire. The tension of the after war effects is created with multiple
scenes in the play. The experiences of the war torn people are portrayed in a very
effective way. The protagonist’s pensiveness on the demolition of Second World
War made him insane and this is the climax of the first story.
The structural pattern of the play Trighsha Shatabdi is that of documentary.
The play is structured in the form of a trial. Witnesses are called, they depose the
testimonies and answer the questions asked. The interrogation goes on transparently.

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The harsh realities of the nuclear bombing of Japan are presented in an account which
has the format of a court trial. The play is located in time by what the protagonist
Sharad tells through his direct address to the members of the audience.
4.4.12. The Setting:
The play Tringsha Shatabdi opens in the drawing room, and the location
remains the same throughout the play. The play is in narrative style, it focuses not
only the experiences of the people in the war, but also the reality of the war, with the
evidences. The multi-layered text, replete with the smallest factual detail and
imagined emotional content, is sensible in its approach and leaves one wondering. It
is not an easy task to take the mighty topic of the bombing and reducing a
disconnected reader to a state of guilt, but Sircar does it in an effective way. There is
fluent change in the scene with the whirring of airplane.
The play opens in a house of Sharad, a professor of literature and who is very
sensitive individual towards the socio-political situation in the world around. The
same room is the battlefield of arguments. Sadhan and Sharad argue about the
responsibility to be taken by the entire humanity about the twentieth century, event of
the most destructive and heinous nature which is the bombing of two atom bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The same drawing room then is transferred into a court-
room as the play is documentary, a factual record and an informative account of war
crime by those actually involved in acts like the bombing and those who were sadly
affected by the terrible effects of the war. It is a play that has been performed in
August, 1966 as Aanganmanch (Outdoor, exterior, out yard stage) play. The reality of
the war –during its action and afterwards the effects of the tragedy and the heinous
nature as a crime – is presented through the setting and the location used for the play.
4.4.13. The Technical Effects:
The use of the stage arrangement is suitable both to the proscenium play as
well as the open air stage or street play performance. The same set of drawing room
of a middle-class family serves to the discussion between husband and the wife,
Sharad and Vani, the spot that helps the volley of arguments between Sharad and the
physicist friend of his Sadhan and the court room with the witness box used for
interrogating the eight witnesses. The sound effects are provided such as the various
sounds like whirring of the planes, flying in the air and the knocking on the door, the
various sounds that come from outside and from the background score to indicate the
entry and exit of the witnesses and the counsel, the jury and the judge roles performed

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by the protagonist, commentator Sharad Chaudhary, who is the representative of the
Twentieth Century addressing Thirtieth Century people. The score thus marks the
shift in the dramatic action that is presented in about an hour through the technical
effects supplied and produced by the lighting effects, the musical score and the stage
arrangement. The spotlight is focused on the protagonist throughout. It is also used to
record the reactions as the documentary evidence in the presentation of the theme of
the denunciation of war and the practice of non-violence that advocates the ancient
Indian dictum of “Live and let Live” and “Peaceful co-existence with respect to every
nation’s sovereignty.”
4.4.14. The Temporal and Spatial Aspects of Dramatic Action:
The play covers a span of more than one thousand years. The bombing on the
two cities in Japan –Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place in August 1945. The play
was written and produced in 1966 twenty-one year after that catastrophe that
compelled the end of the Second World War. The individual of twentieth century,
Sharad Chaudhary is sensitive and a representative of the century to which he
belongs. The sweep of the dramatic creativity has enabled Sircar to project the
conditions of the Thirtieth Century. The people of the Thirtieth Century are addressed
by the representative of Twentieth Century individual –the protagonist, Sharad. This
leap of one thousand years from Twentieth to Thirtieth century shows how the time –
dimension is treated most imaginatively by the dramatist. This imaginative flight is
noticed on the axis of space too. The location changes from India to Japan and to the
entire Universe. American pilot, the British representative, Einstein the American
humanitarian Scientist and the Japanese victims, scholars and doctors appear to
depose their testimonies. These aspects of time and space management are quite
revolutionary and challenging. Thousand years of time span and the entire globe as
the locations of the dramatic action have made this play a cosmic drama, a timeless
work of art and a universal dramatic presentation.

4.5. Pagala Ghoda -1967 (The Mad Horse)

Sircar’s The Mad Horse speaks of human values, sense of commitment, pain,
agony, ecstasy and turmoil faced by all people. It is a brilliantly written play with a
very simple premise of four men from different walks of life chatting at a funeral of a
young girl. The play depicts the eccentricities of human mind and how we often

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ignore, neglect or even push away true love. In The Mad Horse the women characters
portrayed by Sircar are the Girl, Malati, Mili and Laxmi. They are jilted by their
lover, and hence they commit suicide.
The play was first acted by Abhiyan, Delhi in 1969. Later on it was presented
by Theatre Unit, Mumbai and Anamika Theatre, Calcutta. It was acted first in Bengal
in 1971 by Bahurupi group. This play is presented in many Indian languages. The
Mad Horse is a story of one night that unfolds the history of ten years long period.
This is two act play written for proscenium. The protagonist of the play is a girl who
is dead; there are other characters in the play named Kartik, Shashi, Satu, Himadri,
Malati, Laxmi and Mili.
The play exposes the discrimination against woman in a patriarchal society.
Sircar also deconstructs the myth of romantic love. The play portrays the Indian
womanhood. The play is based upon the mythic models from the Ramayana and the
Puranas. The whole image of the Indian woman has been personified by the character
sketches of Sita and Savitri. Following the pattern of these ethical models, a woman
can be justified as the earth mother, a silent sufferer.
4.5.1. The Thematic Networks:
4.5.1.1. Mental Reality:
The Mad Horse (Pagala Ghoda) is a play which Sircar wrote in January 1967,
almost towards the end of his stay in Nigeria in connection with an engineering
assignment he had accepted. It is a story of mainly frustrations, break ups and
rejections in love. Love is sweet but love is an adventure. Only those who are ready
take risk have the temperamental to be lovers. Love is like “the Mad Horse” –Pagala
Ghoda –of the rhyme for young children. It is a phrase that occurs in the poem in
Bengali. Love is like the uncontrollable Pagala Ghoda –the mad horse. The mad horse
of intense and sincere love gets wild and cannot be kept under control because of the
storm of desires and the sudden gust of passion. Love is sweet, love is innocent, love
is pure but in order to gain the sweet, innocent and pure gift in life, it is essential to
come forward, to be bold, to be adventurous, to be ready to take risks, to be willing to
neglect, what will the society say and also to be desirous of the breaking off the old
ties. The play projects the theme of love, inevitability, its basis in the mutual trust
between the lover and the beloved. The love is extending oneself, expanding one’s
mental horizon, strengthening the bonds of emotional, physical and mental intimacy.
It is something fixed, certain and eternal.

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4.5.1.2. Social Reality:
Like many of his plays, this play The Mad Horse is a play that projects the life
of the middle class men and women in the contemporary times. The dramatist in
particular deals with the second half of the twentieth century. It is the post-war world.
It is the world that is suffered violence of the history of the world. The middle class
men and women cannot enjoy the luxuries of life as the upper class people can do and
they need not suffer the pangs of bitterness and sorrows of the life of lower classes.
The middle class people are morally conscious and are more or less bound to the
traditional average customs and moral values. They have tasted the fruit of the tree of
knowledge. This makes them conscious of the occurrence of the violation of morals,
which is like the bounding and binding line for them. They do not desire to cross the
boundaries and therefore maintain the “Status Quo” situation in their lives. They are
trapped in the social conventions for which they are even willing to make a sacrifice
of what they aspire for. They adjust, they accommodate, they reject, they mold
themselves and even sometimes bend, and succumb to the pressures of the other
classes –in particular –that is why they accept the norms and standard set by the
middle class to which they belong.
The contemporary situation in various domains such as social, cultural,
political and economic is very realistically presented by Sircar in this play. The
rejection of the beloved by the four males is grounded in various social
considerations. These are the oath of friendship or rather the ego of the male to accept
his own drawback in the case of Shashi and Malati. The feeling of what will the
society, the others say, think and feel about one’s decision to agree with the female in
the case of Satu and Laxmi. The hesitation to make a decision, the half-heartedness is
the case of Kartik and the Girl. The rift is considered as uncompromising in the case
of Himadri and Mili. These are some of the grounds on which the decision of
rejecting the intense love offered by the beloved is made by the hesitant, half-hearted,
timid lovers. The inner working of the minds of men is presented in Freudian and
Jungian terms laying bare the individual and the collective consciousness. The
cultural malaise of the absurd decision making is visible in the choices made by the
four males: Shashi, Himadri, Satu and Kartik to reject the love offered by Malati,
Mili, Laxmi, and the Girl. The males lack the courage which the female have in
abundance. The males are reluctant to take any risk considering the acceptance of the
beloved as an adventure. This is how the difference between the bold, determined,

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intensely loving “girls” and the weak, half-hearted and timid “boys’ in this play
Pagala Ghoda. Reason is defeated by the craziness, the madness, the stupidity and the
foolishness generated by irrationality. The absurdity of life is characterized by the
struggle for existence in the hostile surroundings and imposing environment. The
social background of the four males and females presents a highly realistic picture of
the contemporary times. A postman, a teacher, a compounder and a contractor are the
male figures presented by Shashi, Himadri, Kartik and Satu and Malati, Mili, Laxmi
are the housewife, the wealthy businessman’s daughter and a woman who has to sell
herself as a sex-worker are the women presented. The middle-class, rather lower
middle-class of the citizens of a metropolitan centre is presented with its
contradictions and conflicts. The portrayal of the present day realism naturally leads
to the marxist propaganda which is invariably one of the thematic strands of the plays
of Sircar. The exploitation of the marginalized including the women is made on the
basis of class, gender, race, religion, caste, ideology and alienation –those the
exploitation is on account of gender, class and the criterion of control, “What man has
made of his own life” –is noticed in the play because here the four males make
decision which prove to be detrimental to themselves and are the grounds for
committing suicide. These individuals are moving backwards and forwards in order to
find out what they are? And what is there identity? It is what they desire to know and
tread along to find out the answer to this queries. The presentation of life in Bengal
has assumed global dimension and universe proportions in the thematic network of
this play.
4.5.1.3. Absurdism:
The theme, the technique, and the language of The Mad Horse link it with
absurd drama. The protagonist, the dead Girl searches for the true love and find her
true love after her death. Kartik loves the Girl, since her childhood. But he was not
able to tell her about his love for her from seven years. Once, the Girl went to him to
take venin, but he refused to give it to her. He asks her for time of seven days to
convince to live and she dies. At the end, the story of the Girl’s death resolve.
If a woman is demanding, it is understood that she has to be disappointed. This
social and intellectual marginalization of women is intensely expressed in--
“Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female—
whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the
male” (Beauvoir 47)

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 Sircar has authentically and sensibly given the voice to these women who are
continuously giving fight for their own way of living life.
“To be nobody-but-myself—in a world which is doing its best,
night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the
hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop
fighting.” (Cummings 13)
At one level the play is also about the residue of the middle class to have
failed to adjust and align and ceases to aspire amongst the intellectually alive urban
middle class. Pagla Ghoda is about the guilt of men in personal and social relations
with a continuation of the conventional mode of living.
Instead of that in Sircar’s many plays a belief emerges again and again: trust
on life. He himself was sincere person. He believed that man has got only one life. A
haze is there around man. He just has to walk in front, to be won. There are sorrow
and happiness too. In profound darkness of despair is hope. The search of death is
fruitless. It is to deny the existence of life. Sircar believed that, “Everything is
possible when you are alive.”
4.5.2. The Story:
The play opens with four men chatting about the secret of the death of girl in
funeral home besides the graveyard, came for the funeral of young girl, because of
inducement of liquor. Kartik, Shashi, Satu and Himadri were busy chatting and
playing cards. The dead girl appears on the scene, while the four were talking about
the secret of her death:
GIRL : (While laughing) Who am I? What am I? What is my
story? Don’t you know? (Sircar 29)
Here the three men start to discuss about the story of the girl’s death. While
the discussion was going on directed them towards their own past, the girls, Malati,
Laxmi and Mili to whom Shashi, Satu and Himadri had abandoned respectively hence
they had committed suicide. There was a tragic end of their life because of the male-
chauvinism. The dead girl’s unquenchable spirit forced each one of them to think
about their past life:
GIRL : Not feet…not feet...head… the head is paining. And will
not it? Not knowing how much you are filled inside. You
guys never let it free, you keep a record of everything so
what will happen? Yes there is something in your mind?
Now it’s disturbing you. You do not understand, but…

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 SHASHI: (Clearly, however the same as himself) Malati!
GIRL : Malati? Don’t know, when did Malati died and became
ghost. Likewise, the same that was burnt to ashes in fire
flames just like me. (Sircar 38)
This is how the girl compelled to Shashi, Satu, Himadri and Kartik to think
about their past. They keep themselves entertained through stories about the girl and
the women to whom they loved and lost in their own manner:
HIMADRI : Funny story? In crematorium? (And laughs)
SATU : Funny story instills in the crematorium only. To
listen ghost story pudding hot bed room is
required. Well, I do not mean heat envelope.
(He laughs out loudly)
KARTIK : You spoke very true. Funny story instills in the
crematorium, suppose a love story.
HIMADRI : Love! (And laughs) (Sircar 42)
Shashi uncovered his love story as he lost in his past. He seems regretful, when
he asked his friends Kartik, Satu, and Himadri a question what they would have done
if their close friend wanted to marry the girl to whom they love, and the friend is
unaware of the situation. He (Shashi) abandoned Malati against her wishes for the sake
of his close friend Pradip, in spite of knowing that he was brutal and selfish. After their
marriage Pradip beat Malati with hot knife, as he came to know that she is in love with
Shashi. Malati came to meet and show Shashi the cruelty of his friend, though Shashi
had no courage to accept her. Hence, Malati commits suicide within a year of
marriage. Shashi feels guilty after that, as he considers himself responsible for her
death.
The second act comes out with the past of Himadri, Satu, and finally Kartik.
Himadri is teacher; he was doing a job of a personal teacher of the brother of Mrs. Mili
in her house. Mili and Shashi were in love with each other. Himadri, having middle
class background, failed to understand and accept Mili’s, high class social behavior
and left the job as well as Mili. Hence in a state of shock Mili commits suicide.
Sircar envisages that the acting of the girls: Malati, Laxmi and Mili will be
done by one girl, the purpose behind this is that the status of women was to deepen in
which they are abandoned by their lovers. Thinking of his brother, Shashi abandoned
Malati; Himadri rejected Mili because his inability to adopt her, and due to the fear of
society Satu gave up Laxmi - all these incidents raising the same result that is the
voiceless condition of the women.

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 “Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none
is so degrading, so shocking or so brutal as his abuse of the better
half of humanity; the female sex.” (Gandhi 292)
4.5.3. The Conflict:
The conflict is an essential element of drama. It can be between two or more
characters, or even the intrapersonal conflict of the characters. In this play there is
conflict between the characters Shashi and Malati, Himadri and Mili, Satu and Laxmi,
Kartik and the Girl, and finally intrapersonal conflict of each character.
4.5.4. The Symbol:
The four men have gathered to cremate the dead body of a girl who is not
directly related to any of them. The fact that the men have gathered there only to
enjoy some free drinks this points out their heartlessness. Each of them has a story
buried in their past which is revealed in the process of the play.
The Girl in Pagla Ghoda symbolizes the eternal exploitation of women in
male-dominated society. The word girl is a common noun used by Sircar in a
collective sense. She is the representative of all women in the societies who are
tortured, humiliated, persecuted and tormented. Sircar beautifully crafted the anguish
in the characters that has strong social moorings. While the play at one level speaks
on psychological and social problems with the images of a badly bruised Malati or a
crying Laxmi, it also speaks of the four men and their deep relationship with the
women.
The crematorium symbolizes burning the corpse. Sircar uses it in a very
appropriate way that it presents the inner conflict and agony of the characters.
Typically, it is heard that the death is related to tranquility but in The Mad Horse the
characters speaks about their incomplete love stories. Pagla Ghoda cleverly uses
contemporary situations and social problems to life in death attitude of modern life.
The title of the playreflects the situation of the characters as their minds are unstable.
4.5.5. The Presentation of Contemporary Reality:
The greatest and the most difficult fight that a man is required to face is with
one’s own self. This is what is shown in the treatment given by the four lovers to their
female counterparts. Each one of the four lovers has rejected his love on account of
the fact that the lover could not see things, life and the world from the viewpoint of
his beloved. Each failed to understand her predicament and this is because each male
lover is more concerned with one’s own ego, one’s own reputation thinking about

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“What the society will say.” This self-centeredness is the feature of the
contemporaneity of the play Pagala Ghoda. The rich and poor divide, the class
conflict, the proletariat and the bourgeois clash is the economic situation that prevails
in the present times. This is presented through the love story of Himadri and Miss
Mili Roy who are separated by wealth. Mili’s willingness to forgo her economic
status does not prevent her suicide. The barrier of the ego and the obstacle of
friendship have caused the separation between Malati and Shashi. This is the social
background of the world of today. Satu’s dilemma has caused on account of his
obsession with “what the society will say” which has presented his moral and cultural
problems. This self-centeredness, the alienation, this estrangement, the rootlessness
and the hopelessness noticed in Kartik’s decision of postponement reveals the
contemporary world and its ideology through the presentation of political, economic,
social, cultural, moral, philosophical and sociological problems.
4.5.6. The Language:
The young nameless girl’s dead body is brought to the cremation. She is being
cremated now when the four young men are playing cards and chatting while drinking
from the bottles they have procured. Their conversation resolves around the mystery
of the young nameless girl’s death –her suicide, its cause and her identity. Then all of
a sudden the girl’s spirit emerges in a visible shape: Girl (While laughing): Who am
I? What am I? What is my story? Don’t you know? (Sircar 29) The repetition in
search of identity of expression like “who”, “what”, “I”, and such terms is a
remarkable feature of the use of language in the play. The simplicity and lucid clarity
of the use of language are other remarkable features of Sircar’s style.
Himadri : Funny story? In crematorium. (And laughs)
Satu : Funny story instils in the crematorium only. To listen
ghost story pudding hot bed room is required. (He laughs
out loudly). (Sircar 42)
Himadri finds it strange to think funny stories or the stories of love against the
backdrop of the crematorium. It may appear paradoxical but this contrast is in itself
quite meaningful. The brutal, inhuman treatment given to women by their male
counterparts is exposed through such a language that is characteristic to the person
who is speaking.
“Malati: NO, no, no, no.” “Why….why did you tell? Why….why did you
come? Why not” (Sircar 48-49) Malati’s repeated use of “no” and “why” is suitable to

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her character. This shows her insistence to accept her, her urgency, her sincerity and
her boundless love. This is the way in which the use of appropriate language is
handled by Sircar –the language that suggests more that appeals intensely, that
provokes thoughts.
The language is simple and clear. The use of verbal and non-verbal language
of the play is appropriate for the middle class people. It carries the tension which
presents the mental disturbance and irritation of the characters. The dialogues are
short and crisp. The repetition of words and phrases carries the disturbance in their
life.
In Pagala Ghoda you don’t have a play about men do to men,
which is vintage Sircar, but what men do to women. Thus it has a
unique place in Sircar’s oeuvre. (Prasad 75)
Pagala Ghoda is a play that shows how men intensively treat women across
all the layers of the social strata. The play reveals the double standards that have
prevailed. The play gives an important progressive message through the use of its
dialogue.” Malati asks: You reject me for this –for Pradip?” (Sircar 49) “Miss Mili
Roy makes her point. God promise I will never touch a drink again.” (Sircar 91)
“Laxmi says brokenly: Why did rescue me, Babuji? You should have left me there to
die.” (Sircar 106)
Malati then kills herself; Miss Mili Roy drives too fast under the influence of
drinks and crashes into a tree. Laxmi is sent away by Satu and he then sees her the
next time when she became a corps by killing herself. Kartik finds the young girl who
desires an immediate response and does not wait for seven days and consumes poison.
The remarks above showcase the use of dialogue. The responses are too quite
appropriate. “Just because you will lose face with him? She (Malati) goads. Shashi
responds; “Not with Pradip, Malati but for myself. I will lose respect for myself. If I
lose to myself like this and marry you. Niether I will be able to keep myself happy
and nor I will be able to make you happy.” (Sircar 49) This is how he rejects her in
order to protect his self-esteem in his own eyes. “Why bother getting married when I
can get the benefits without it?” asks the contractor rough and tough Satu who rescues
Laxmi but hesitates to accept her thinking “What people will say” (Sircar 105) The
dialogue is pliant that is elastic to suit the purpose of what the man or the woman
desires to convey, the attitude, the feelings, the character, the situation, the moment,
the life and the perspective.

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4.5.7. The Dramatic Narration:
The dramatic narration has covered the span of eighty pages and about one
hundred minutes. The dramatic action is narrated in the chronological order though
sometimes the reflections of psyche of these various characters are noticed in the
narrative portion of the play Pagala Ghoda. Each of the male lovers is prompted to
narrate the way their love affairs bloomed and how ultimately that unique love-affair
ended. After the introductory background the four male lovers one by one come to the
forefront and gave the account of their love-affair with their beloved.
Shashi is the postman who gives the account of his love-affair with the
beautiful young girl Malati. Shashi’s love-affair is obstructed by his false notion of
self-esteem. His friend Pradip is about to marry Malati. Pradip is conservative and he
is the reason because of whom the lovers are separated. Each one of lovers has to
make his deposition one by one and so it is the turn of the teacher –Himadri. The class
distinctions are found to be unsurpassable by the young lover though his rich beloved
Mili is willing to get adjusted. The third pair remains separated because Satu is
always conscious of the charged circumstances and does not accepts Laxmi. The last
pair is of Kartik and the young nameless woman. She finally reveals her interest in
Kartik but Kartik takes time to disclose his consent.
4.5.8. The Innovative Devices and Dramatic Experimentation:
Sircar contributed some innovative techniques to the dramatic art through The
Mad Horse. There are five characters physically present in the play. Four men, Kartik,
Shashi, Satu and Himadri and a nameless girl, who has the capability to exchange the
places with the other three female characters in the play as it was imagined by Sircar.
He represents the condition of women in the patriarchal society. The sameness about
worthless individuals is the life of men, as they behave in the same way in the
condition. Another device in the play is the juxtaposition of many events. Here he
weaves together four stories to create a collage, the stories of the four male characters.
It is a complex psychological play which includes a plenty of issues.
Four out of three women are presented through one person is the innovative
device used in Pagala Ghoda. The four male persons of which one is of the ideal
type. They have come together as the three are sent to enjoy liquor, while attending
the cremation of a young nameless girl. The innovation is that the girl who is burning
on the pyre appears as a living person –a spirit and instigates the males to come out
and confess how they have treated their beloved in the recent past. The confessional

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narration is another innovative experiment used by Sircar in Pagala Ghoda. The
presentation of play in the place like crematorium, the appearance of the spirit of the
dead nameless girl and the confession of four love stories are the three innovative
devices which characterize the experimental nature of his dramatic presentation. The
use of the song of the children concerning Pagala Ghoda is quite symbolic and
charged with compressed meaning. “Connect mango leaf with mango leaf… one –two
–three and so on... the mad horse… the uncontrollable one… is galloping forward.
Oh! Woman stand on the roadside, the horse being whipped is rushing forward…the
mad horse –Pagala Ghoda.” (Sircar 35) This rhyme is used symbolically to suggest
that the uncontrollable passionate desires of love do not get tamed and claim the
lovers themselves if they do not move away from the approach of madness of strong
intensity of love. The play Pagala Ghoda can be staged as a proscenium play or also
as an open air show. The setting of the funeral house remains same for the duration of
the two acts or the entire play. The characters are pairs (joda) of lovers –in all, four
pairs of lovers are presented. The male lovers are separately presented as individuals
but all the four female beloveds are presented through one girl or rather the spirit of
the young nameless girl who appears differently as Malati first, then as Mili and
thirdly as Laxmi, and finally as the young nameless girl herself. In addition to these
the similarity of movements is like the presentation of mass drill like movements
presented through the movements of the four friends gathered in the funeral house to
attend the funeral of the young nameless girl. The symbolic use of the song on the
mad horse (Pagala Ghoda), the bottle, the musical effects and even the howling of the
dog near the funeral house too has the innovative feature of the experimental device.
The nameless girl acts as the prompter as well as commentator of the confessions of
the four male lovers. These are the characteristic experimental and innovative
dramatic devices.
4.5.9. The Plot Construction:
The plot of the play is presentation of the dramatic action in a serial sequence
which has the cause and effect relationship among the incidents of the dramatic action
presented. The death of a young nameless girl is the starting point of the dramatic
action in the play. The dead girl’s spirit is involved and that spirit instigates each of
the male lovers to give their confession and these four confessional accounts form
four units of the dramatic action. The interlinking of these confessional love stories is
the way in which the plot of this play is interwoven. The plot-construction of the play

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is the interconnected links that knit the dramatic action in a single sequence as is
noticed in the development of the plot of this play.
4.5.10. The characterization:
There are four male characters and four female characters. In the opening scene,
four middle-aged men, Himadri, a school teacher, Kartik, a compounder, Satu, a
contractor, and Shashi, a postman were seen talking about the death of the girl,
nameless character, who perform the roles of other three female characters in the play.
The other three characters are Malati, Mili, and Laxmi. Sircar wants the role of all the
four female characters should be played by the Girl, who is dead. The namelessness of
this character indicates that all women are essentially born for suffering like ‘Seeta’
and ‘Savitri’.
Shashi is a middle class ‘Bhadralok’ –gentleman who is an ordinary postman.
Malati and Shashi are in love. She does not want to marry Pradip but desires to marry
Shashi her lover. She is ready to sacrifice anything and everything for the sake of her
love. But she has to marry Pradip. She is almost forced to get married. Pradip abuses
her, beats her, and maltreats her. She does not want to go to him but is pushed towards
Pradip by Shashi. His self-love, his false sense of dignity, his hollow ego, his wrong
notions of friendship and brotherhood make Shashi reject Malati. His self-esteem does
not allow him to accept Malati. Shashi’s timidity and irrationality is in sharp contrast
with Malati’s bold adventurism and rational sanity.
Himadri the teacher and Mili the girl from a wealthy, progressive family fall in
love. Mili enjoys her life of luxuries, playing tennis, swimming in the pool and
partying, going to picnics and driving rashly. Mili is habituated to drinking to which
Himadri objects. She is even ready to give up drinking for the sake of her love –
Himadri, her brother’s tutor. There is an unsurpassable rift between their classes-
lower and upper. She tries to adjust with his demands as she is deeply drowned in the
vast pool of love. Yet Himadri is not confident and unable to decide what to do. She is
ready mentally, practically and physically too to bridge the gap and reach the lowest
depths of the class structure in order to rise up in the social ladder, along with her
lover Himadri. He does not come out of the rift and rejects her offer. His weakness,
his half-hearted confusion, and treatment lead Mili to take her own life. Under the
influence of a heavy dose of drinks, she dashed her car against a tree that caused the
loss of her life. The class conflict is shown here as the unbridgeable one while in

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Shashi-Malati’s case, the self-esteem, moral ego, the barriers of friendship and
brotherhood have seperated the two lovers.
Lachmi (Laxmi) has been rescued being pushed into prostitution by Satu, a
contractor. He gets whatever he wants through cash payment. He is adored by
Lachmi. He is scared by “What will the people say?” complex and rejects her and her
love. Her question “Why did you rescue me, Babuji? You should have left me there to
die” (Sircar 106) remains answerless on account of Satu’s lack of courage in spite of
his bravado.
Kartik, the compounder, he is like the man in the story which he has told to his
friends. He adores a girl from a distance. He has seen her development from girlhood
to womanhood but has not declared his love for her. She has never realized that
somebody is in love with her. She therefore finds her life to be empty and decides to
end it. Even then he does not declare his love for her. All the four males are conscious
of the guilt and that they committed against these four women –those who have
shown sparks of courage, confidence, boldness, rationality and wisdom but have
ended themselves as they never got the desired positive response in love.
4.5.11. The Structural Patterns:
The setting of drama is a funeral home besides the graveyard. The event
happens in the house. The play has two acts. The location does not change throughout
the play. The burning pyre and the four men from different backgrounds, chatting
about the secret of the death of the girl for whose funeral they came is the opening
scene. The discussion about the secret of the girl’s death directed them towards their
own past. The span of the play is just that of one night but the play unfolds the story
of ten years long. A mystery shrouds her death but when they start to excavate the
truth behind her death skeletons from their own cupboards start piling on them and
then the play becomes a magically layered narrative and an interesting modern fable.
It uncovers the past of Shashi, Satu, Himadri, and Kartik eventually.
Pagala Ghoda is a play of two acts. The play is more of narration than actions.
The four men who have gathered at the funeral house narrate their stories of love, life
and death. They survive through the ordeal of love but are shaken and shattered while
their female counterparts have ended their lives. The play moves around the stories
told by the four friends. That is the major dramatic action and its presentation forms
the design of the structural patterns of this play. It all begins with the drinking spree
and the playing of the card game by these four males who have come together in the

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cremation ground to cremate the dead body of a young nameless girl who has
committed suicide by consuming some poison. The mystery of the death of this girl
continues to haunt all the four of them and therefore her spirit begins to hover on the
funeral house where they are drinking liquor and playing cards. Each one of the
players is then incited to tell his story, in particular, the story of his love.
The period of dramatic action is about the hundred minutes out of which ten
minutes are devoted to the exposition of the dramatic situation. This presents the
background of the fact why these four persons have come together at the funeral
house. The attraction of the bottle of wine free of charge has prompted three of them –
Shashi, Satu and Kartik. Himadri does not drink as he follows his ideals till now. The
next tewnty minutes of the dramatic presentation of one hour and forty minutes is
given to the dramatized narration of the love story of Shashi and Malati. The first part
has thus the introductory background of the past and also of the present in the first ten
pages of the text or ten minutes out of the entire dramatic presentation of one hundred
minutes. This is then followed by the narration which has frequent dramatic
interruption and the continuation of the narration after the break. The first love story
between Shashi and Malati is narrated in the twenty minutes or the next thirty pages.
The next part is the beginning of the second love story of Himadri and Mili which
covers the dramatic action of the first act of the dramatic action. There are about
twenty minutes taken for this part and so about fifty minutes are devoted to the first
act play. This is the dramatic structure of the first act.
The second act occupies fifty minutes. The first act and the second act are
interconnected with continuation of the presentation of the dramatic action through
the narration of three more love stories the half-finished love story of Himadri and
Mili is completed in the second act. There are three love stories which narrated in the
second act which too has about forty pages of these the first thirty pages tell the
stories of Himadri and Mili as well as Satu and Laxmi. Himadri finds that the
difference between his lower middle class and her upper class of wealthy dignified
people is almost unbridgeable. He cannot overcome the obstacles in the way of the
union and the fulfillment of their love affair. Mili is ready to adjust, accommodate and
surrender whatever is required. She is ready to cross the barrier and is willing to
surrender to the lower status of his class. Mili is willing to give up her drinking for the
sake of her love for Himadri, the young tutor of her brother. Satu and Laxmi’s love
story is quite unusual. Satu, the contractor, is a free bird who is smart in the way of

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the world and enjoys whatever he desires. Laxmi almost worships him as her savior.
Satu does not want to take risk of accepting her thinking unnecessarily of “What the
society will say, think or call him if he accepts her as his beloved or even as his maid-
servant”. The most delicate is the love affair of Kartik and the girl who is burning on
the pyre. Their love remains unspoken. He watched the nameless girl’s growth for
seven years and then asked just seven days to declare the truth. She did not wait and
consumed poison and is now brought to be cremated. The stories take about fifteen
(Himadri-Mili), fifteen (Satu-Laxmi) and twenty (Kartik-nameless girl) minutes and
about thirteen to fourteen pages to present the dramatic action of fifty minutes and
fourty pages.
4.5.12. The Setting:
Pagala Ghoda is considered a progressive feminist play. It is a play that
presents the dramatic narration from the perspective of the four female beloveds –
Malati, Mili, Lachmi and the young nameless girl. The young nameless girl’s spirit
appears and plays the roles of the other three women. Men prove to be more
calculating. They do not take any risk. They are constrained by serial conventions and
moral standards. They refuse to follow what their hearts desire. They make a sacrifice
of the women but do not take any risk so that they do not lose their reputation and
cause scandals. Women on the other hand are shown to be courageous, bold,
confident, morally willing to take risk to pursue their heart’s desires, their love, and
their target. This difference between a male and a female is presented against a quite
appropriate background of location. The crematorium is the location of action. The
entire action takes place of about one hundred minutes (eighty pages) when the pyre is
burning and a dead body is being cremated. The dead body is that of a young,
nameless girl who has nobody to attend her funeral. Malik Babu has sent four young
men promising them to give drinks free of charge to drink in the funeral house while
the body is being cremated. This location is weird but weirder are the tales of love and
rejection of love by these four men. The females are bold to express, to demand love
and when jilted they end their lives on account of the barrenness of their life without
love. The funeral house is the place that prompts these males to offer four different
tales of love and dishonor through different socio-economic sections of society. Men
are same in spite of the differences in their background and education and women too
are same in their sincerity and intensity of love. Love is the noblest virtue for women
but men considered reputation more valuable than the immortality of love.

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4.5.13. The Technical Effects:
The stage arrangement is that of the funeral house near the graveyard –the
crematorium. The dead body of the young, nameless girl is burning and the four
young men in the funeral house nearby are chatting, playing cards and drinking. This
is according to Satu the perfect situation to tell the stories of love. Love, life and death
are so closely bound that at the location of death it is natural to think of how love
makes life better to bring death closer. The fire is burning, the pyre is lit. The funeral
house is in darkness and the lamp is burning. They think of the torch and match sticks
too. This is how the stage arrangement is quite suitable to listen to the four
confessions by the four male lovers. Though the play is on what the women expect,
what they get, what they do after rejection of their love and how they accepted death
because of frustration. The confessional stories are narrated dramatically as prompted
by the spirit of the young nameless girl. The lighting effects are noticed in the
flickering of the fire on the burning pyre, the lamp, the darkness around. The deadly
weirdness, the terrible silence and the horrible fear have enveloped the entire
environment. The lighting effects are made effective by the switching on and off the
buttons of the lighting arrangements in the proscenium stage or the performance of
the play in open air theatre or can be done in the light, so the light effects can be
effectively shown. The sound effects are the different sound produced by the pouring
of drinks, clinking, falling, the sounds of laughter, even smiles, and the other sounds
made or heard create the weird atmosphere that prompts the narration of love stories.
These technical effects have contributed to the creation of the total dramatic impact.
4.5.14. The Temporal and Spatial Management:
Four pairs of lovers belonging to different social layers and economic classes
are presented in the play. The night on which the young, nameless girl is being
cremated is the duration of action. The running of dramatic narration and the
presentation of dramatic action is for about hundred minutes but the time that is
covered is the time span of at least ten years and more. The love affair which is
dramatically presented in the end is that of Kartik and the young nameless girl. Kartik
has watched her growth from girlhood to womanhood for a long span of seven years.
At the end of this the girl came to Kartik to take poison and revealed her agony of not
getting true love. He appealed her not to kill herself and told some one will come to
love her. When she asked who will accept her. Kartik demanded a span of seven days
before he would give his response. She could not wait and has consumed poison. The

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span of more than seven years is taken by this love story. The other three tales of love
have spanned the period of ten and more years. The space management is noticed in
which the postman, the tutor and the contractor have participated with Malati, Mili
and Laxmi. The location of their love stories are mentioned and described. The verbal
portraits are sketched in which it is shown that Satu the contractor is always on the
road and Laxmi too has to spend her life outdoors. Mili’s world is rich, luxurious
world of the games of playing tennis, round of swimming, partys, outings and drinks.
These spaces along with the crematorium are presented in the play. The multiplicity
of temporal and spatial dimensions has become a remarkable feature of Sircar’s
dramatic artistry.
4.6 Shesh Nei: 1970 (There’s No End)
There’s No End is a psychological play which explores the element of
possessiveness present in personal relationships. The play moves around its central
character Sumanta Sanyal, a world- renowned poet. Before the eyes of the entire
world, Sumanta is famous and successful but internally he is an escapist. During the
course of the play, Sumanta’s personal relationships are publicly exposed and
scrutinized in a mock court. Interestingly the court is a creation of Sumanta’s
imagination. The man who summons Sumanta to the court and later on acts as counsel
for the prosecution is actually Sumanta's conscience which keeps pricking him from
time to time. The protagonist, Sumant in Ant Nahin, is interpreted as an existential
character living in an absurd world. Interplay of perceptions fluctuating as Sumanta,
the protagonist is haunted with the feeling of isolation, guilt and futility of human
existence. Though he has reached the summit of glory as a poet, he finds his journey
tortuous with no end in sight.
4.6.1. The Thematic Networks:
4.6.1.1. Existentialism:
Sircar, as a believer of existentialism, portrayed existential philosophy and
absurdism through his many plays. Existentialism is centred upon the analysis of
human existence and of the way they find themselves existing in the world. The
concept is that human’s existance first and then each individual expends a lifetime
changing their nature. Basically, it is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the
meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. The belief is
that people are searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they
make choices based on their experiences, beliefs, and outlook. And personal choices

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become unique without the necessity of an objective form of truth. As in the play
There’s No End the portrayal of Sumanta Sanyal presents his adoptions of
circumstances, choices of his careers, his friendship with Sumati and Prashant
represents the existential philosophy. Sumanta held himself responsible for the
sufferings of his mother Mrinalini, school friend Manika, communist friend Prashant,
Sumati, professor, manager, and the nameless and faceless people around him. The
imaginary trial in the reverie of Sumanta shows his search of his own self. An
existentialist believes that a person should be forced to choose and be responsible
without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or traditions. Human life is in no way complete
and fully satisfying because of suffering and losses that occur when considering the
lack of perfection, power, and control one has over their life. Even though they do
agree that life is not optimally satisfying, it nonetheless has meaning. Existentialism is
the search and journey for true self and true personal meaning in life.
Most importantly, it is the arbitrary act that existentialism finds most
objectionable that is, when someone or society tries to impose or demand that their
beliefs, values, or rules be faithfully accepted and obeyed. Existentialists believe that
this tendency destroy individualism and makes a person become whatever the people
in power desire. Thus they are dehumanized and reduced to being an object.
Existentialism then stresses that a person's judgment is the determining factor for what
is to be believed rather than by arbitrary religious or secular world values.
4.6.1.2. Abusrdism:
The play also presents abusrdism. This philosophy states that human existence
as well as their efforts are meaningless in meaningless universe. It is the human
tendency to search the meaning of their existence in the universe, which results in two
assumptions. One is the meaninglessness of life and the other is meaning of life with a
purpose established by the God. The second conclusion is also contradictory in terms
of God’s existence. If the God has been born, has grown up then what is the purpose
of human existence. Sumanta tries to find the meaning of his existence when his
mother, friends, and nameless and faceless people inquire what he had done for them.
4.6.1.3 Other Themes:
On one hand, Baki Itihas, Tringsha Shatabdi and Shesh Nei form a trilogy on
the Hiroshima day 6th August 1945 and its aftermath and on the other hand, it deals
with the history of the contemporary times. Shesh Nei as a play moves ahead of
Sircar’s characteristic third theatre existential play Evam Indrajit. The betrayal, its

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consequent effects and the resultant punishment are the main objects of the play. Like
Indrajit, Sumanta Sanyal is a creative writer, a poet, in chasing the career of the
creative artist. He has not come up to the expectations of the members of his family,
his friends and well-wishers, the women in his life, his close and distant relatives and
his colleagues. He has left the political party to which he belonged for some time. He
refuses a lucrative materialistic offer of the money bag and the stable job. He refuses
to marry the first two women those who came into his life, and those who are ready to
make a sacrifice whatever they have. He does not fulfill the expectations of his family
members and relatives. Betrayal guilt conscienceness, the crime and punishment
cycle, the struggle for existence, the contemporary political and economic crisis, the
cultural divide and social dichotomy are the major themes treated in this play. Siracr
touches the very core of the alienation, hopelessness, rootlessness of the young
generation trapped in the hostile circumstances.
4.6.2. The Story:
Sumanta Sanyal is to be felicitated with the award of the great poet of Bengal.
He is accompanied by Sumati Mitra, his friend who hold a conversation about
Sumanta. He had chosen the career of a poet giving up his job as an executive in an
industrial company. Sumanta, as an intelligent young man, was considered to be a
man of high prospects, his friends, his colleagues, his professor and his supervisor all
felt that he would reach the summit in whatever career he would choose. His
professor desired that Sumanta would pursue the career as a researcher. His
supervisor in the company thought he would prove to be a good executive. The
communist party leader Prashant wanted Sumanta to pursue the career in the party.
Contrary to these expectations of his bright successful career, Sumanta Sanyal had
chosen the career of a poet. His friends and supervisors felt betrayed on account of
this unexpected choice he had made. His mother Mrinalini Sanyal, his school –days
girl-friend Monika, his friend Sunmati Mitra, his professor Mukhopadhyaya, his
supervisor Srivastava and the communist party leader Prashant come forward as
witnesses and deposed their testimonies against Sumanta. They blame him for their
betrayal by him. There are others too who blame him as their sorrows and sufferings
were not expressed by Sumanta, the poet though that was what they had expected by
him. This is how the mock trial in the court has put together these deposition to
forward the existentialist and absurd lesson – ‘There’s No End’.

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4.6.3. The Conflict:
The play deals with external and intrapersonal conflicts of human beings and
their existence. Sircar depicted the social, interpersonal and the intrapersonal conflict
faced by the human beings. The imaginary trial in the mind of Sumanta presents these
conflicts. The conflicts presented in the play are the conflicts between mother and
son, two friends, teacher and student, boss and subordinate and their intrapersonal
conflicts. There is contemporariness in these conflicts presented in the play.
4.6.4. The Symbol:
The title of the play There’s No End itself symbolizes that there is no end of
human expectations. The trial in the play symbolizes the conflicts between the people
or characters and the intrapersonal conflict of human being. The facelessness and the
namelessness of the characters suggest the commonness and meaninglessness of
human existence.
4.6.5. The Realistic Presentation of the Contemporary Life:
Life is not quite satisfactory but to keep going is expected by one and all in
this life. Life is to be lived thuogh the environment is hostile, uncompromising,
negative and frustrating. This is the realistic presentation of the existentialist world of
the contemporary times. The uncertainty of life has highlighted the absurdity of life
which too is presented in the entire life span of a creative artist. The social reality is
brought out through the dramatic action of the play in which the successful creative
artist, an honoured poet is put up as an accused of various betrayals. This is how the
social life of the present day world is presented through the mock-trail of the artist.
Complexities of life are displayed in this play. The various economic and political
situations have been referred and these have created the effects of the realistic and
dramatic presentation of the life as it is the crisis in the economic spheres and the
political upheavals that have exerted a tremendous impact on the life in the present
times. The cultural diversity, the multi-culturalism, the leftist politics and its conflict
with the capitalist system have been put up in this play. The realistic presentation of
the various aspects of the present-day world and the social, cultural, political and
economic background of the same has become a remarkable feature of Shesh Nei.
4.6.6. The Language:
The language of the play is simple and clear. The dialogues are short; they
carry the tension in the mind of the characters. The repetition of words and phrases
indicate the intensity of their tension and also the outburst of their emotions. There is

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proper use of verbal as well as non-verbal language. Shesh Nei is the title which itself
is highly meaningful. The effective use of language is noticed even in the title.
Mrinalini Sanyal is Sumanta Sanyal’s mother. She tells in her deposition that her son
is intelligent but has no knowledge of worldly affairs. She therefore protected him
from any deception. She apparently uses language which presents her as a person who
knows her task well and who carries out her responsibility seriously. She is of course
seen in her true colours as the language which she uses expresses her to be an over
protective woman. She guarded Sumanta but for the sake of her own self interest and
not for his benefit as much. Monika Bose who was betrayed by Sumanta in love,
speaks with great restraint and does not exhibit her plight melodramatically. But the
language, she uses shows how this woman is slighted unjustly by the protagonist. The
common people and their expectations are expressed through their dialogues and the
reality of the present day social life is exposed through the appropriate use of
language. The scholarly talk of the professor and the business like speeches of the
manager Srivastava display the different ways in which the language of the play is
employed. The tragic note in Monika’s use of language is remarkable. The use of
language is made in search of the mission of life and for the presentation of dramatic
action quite appropriately and effectively.
Sumanta Sanyal is awarded the title of the great poet of Bengal which has
brought national fame and glory to Bengali Literature. This is stated through the use
of dialogue –impressive and effective:
People : He is coming; he is coming, he coming!........
-Glory! Glory! Glory! We are honored!
-Oh, the poet of National fame!
-Oh, the shining star in the firmament of Bengali
Literature.(Sircar 322)
This is how Sumanta is welcomed and felicitated by his admirers. Sumanta the
poet and the his friend Sumati remember the day on which Sumanta decided to give
up his career as an executive and to become a creative artist:
Sumanta : The day I first realized that this was it. For me
this was the truth.
This writing. Do you remember that day?
Sumati : I do. (Sircar 323)

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 This according toSumanta was the end of the journey in search of the mission
of his life. He felt that was not the case at all and that “Keep Walking on on the
endless road” is what downs as the “Truth of Life”:
Sumanta : Now…… I don’t know …..but the next line seems to be
yet I think the road in front stretches endless. (Sircar 324)
The final truth comes out when Sumanta comes to understand.
Sumanta : There is no accused, I am the accused. You…you…all of
you are accused. We are all accused.
The Man: We are all accused.
The Jury (together): We are all accused. (Sircar360)
The use of dialogue has appropriate twists, turns and variations as demanded
by the characters or the situation presented.
4.6.7. The Dramatic Narration:
Sircar has written and presented his plays with an impulse to work for change,
for the betterment of the world, the improvement of life. He questions the status-
queries and criticizes the complacent of middle-class with their self-interests. He has
clearly recognized the history of injustice in the world and has assumed the sense of
guilt and responsibility. In his plays and other writings and his interviews, Sircar has
repeatedly asserted that despite the lack of hope and the loss of belief, one must keep
on moving, rolling that boulder up the hill like Sisiphus, and walking the unending
road on which Indrajit and Sumnata have continued to walk. He wants to bring out the
message of “keep trying”. The experience of the Second World War in Eupore made
him realize the unpredictability and absurdity of the life and of death in war.
Ferdinand Gigon’s book Formula for Death, e=mc2 was worked into a play Tringsha
Shatabdi. The significance of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima changed his perspective
on death, life and on the way of life. Tringsha Shatabdi, Baki Itihas, and Shesh Nei,
(Thirtieth Century, That Other History and There’s No End) present his mature
Nuclear Criticism on the Memory of Hiroshima Day. The dramatic narration of Shesh
Nei (There’s No End) revolves around the protagonist and day which he was about to
be awarded as the great poet of Bengal, he has to face the trial as an accused. His
mother, his beloved, his friend are the three female witnesses and his party leader, his
teacher, and his boss are the male witnesses and there are some nameless and faceless
witnesses who accuse him of guilt. The narration finally emphasizes the fact that all
the citizens of the present day world are guilty. There is skillful artistic dramatic
narration in the play.

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4.6.8. The Innovative Devices and Experimentation:
There are many innovative devices in the play. The trial is used to present the
conflict in the mind of the character –Sumanta. There are some nameless and faceless
characters to represent the common people. The interchange of the roles in the ending
of the play is another innovative device used by Sircar. The play is written for the
proscenium theatre but the same can be presented in the open air theatre, on the street
corner as a Jatra play. It has all the features of the Third Theatre. Structurally the
conversation between Sumanta and Sumati acts as an exposition, an introduction to
the dramatic action. Then the dramatic action become rising action as one by one the
witnesses appear the falling action, the resolution is offered to the dramatic problem.
This is an innovative experiment as the dramatic action after exposition, is presented
through device as noticed in the use of mock trial presentation in this court room
drama. The person who is being honoured for his creative contribution is accused for
the betrayal all around him and for not coming up to the expectations of his well-
wishers and others. The first six witnesses present the span of Sumanta’s career
almost from his childhood, his school life, his college days, his getting M. Sc. degree
in Chemistry, his joining in the company first as a chemist and then working as an
executive. His betrayal, his accusation, his self-defense all finally take on the global
proportions. History is reinterpreted against the backdrop of the Hiroshima Day. This
is another innovative device. The stage representation for different purposes, the
spectator participation, the street play pattern, the typed characters, and the symbolism
of global dimensions are the innovative devices in this highly experimental play Shesh
Nei.
4.6.9. The Plot Construction:
The play starts with the glorification of the protagonist Sumant. The
commotion of a crowd of people wants to congratulate him on his achievement as he
was awarded as a great poet of Bengal. Because of his achievement the Indian
literature is honored. People felicitate him:

PEOPLE : He is coming; he is coming, he coming!...........

-Glory! Glory! Gory! We are honoured!
-Oh, the poet of National fame!
-Oh. The shining star in the firmament of Bengali literature!
(Sircar 321-322)

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 Through these conversations it seems that the protagonist is on the height of
fame and recognition. As the play progresses, Sumanta reminds Sumati of his poem
‘It looks like I have traversed an endless road’ and said that this poem haunted him till
now. :
SUMANTA : The day I first realized that this was it. For me
this was the truth, This writing. Do you
remember that day?
SUMATI : I do.
SUMANTA : But then I thought I was at journey’s end, I had
arrived at some fixed point.
SUMATI : And now?
SUMANTA : Now… I don’t know…but the next line seems
to be ‘yet I think the road in front stretches
endless. (Sircar 323-324)
Then he said that he wants some rest. So Sumati left him behind for rest. He
lost in his reverie. In his reverie, one man takes him to the court for trial. Here
playwright has used the device of a mock court in which Sumant is cross-examined as
an accused by those who had at one time or another played an important role in
shaping his world outlook and career. Through the interplay of contradictory
perceptions of the accused and the witnesses, many social and political issues are
examined. The issues raised are concerned with Communist and trade union
movements. The question of loyalty and commitment in human relationship is
analyzed against the backdrop of existential philosophy.
The first witness to make her appearance is Mrinalini Sanyal, the mother of
Sumanta Sanyal. She complains that her son has broken off his relationships with her.
She is very possessive about her son and likes to keep him tied to her pallu. In this
atmosphere, Sumanta feels like a caged animal, which has no identity of his own.
When she comes to know about her son’s affair with a girl called Monika, she goes
mad. She goes to the extent of getting Monika expelled from the school by telling a
string of lies to the headmistress regarding Monika’s character. Sumanta, unable to
stand the injustice done by his mother, breaks off all his relations with her. Mrinalini
portrays Sumant as intelligent, lonely and unacquainted about the world:
MRINALINI: He was very good in his studies, very intelligent. But
he had no ideas of the outside world. Didn’t know good from bad. I
had to guard him all the time and protects him. (Sircar 331)

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 Mrinalini’s testimony shows that Sumanta is scholar and detached. So she had
guarded and protected him by motherly love. But the cross-examination reveals that
in the name of protection she built a wall, shut the whole world out and made him
stunted and weakling.
The second witness to make her appearance is Monika Bose. After her
expulsion from the school she could not complete her studies for lack of money.
Being a proud woman she had denied any sort of monetary help from Sumanta. Now
she works as an attendant in a nursery school. She accuses Sumanta of being a
spineless man who had put up a mere pretense of loving her, but had never actually
loved her. Her marital life is under a lot of strain. Now she lives alone with her two
sons and does not use her husband’s surname. Whereas, Manika, his school-days
girlfriend portrays him as intelligent, selfish and swindler.
The third woman in his life is a political activist whose statement projects him
as timid and ideologically unstable. The third female witness is Sumati Mitra. She is
the female counterpart of Sumanta, his mirror image. She makes him confront all his
failed relationships, one by one. Prashant Das, the whole-time politician, blames
Sumanta for being a renegade, as he quit politics; at one point of time inspired by
Communism, Sumant came in contact with Prashant, a committed Communist Party
cadre. In this movement he met his companion Sumati and finally deserted this
movement.
Professor Amiya Kumar Mukhopadhayay blames Sumanta for not doing
research. His professor is disappointed with him. He declares in the court that Sumant
was a brilliant student who could have contributed a lot to the field of science if he
had continued his research work but lured by high salary he joined a corporate world
enjoying high life style.N. C. Srivastava, Branch Manager of S. K. Industries Ltd.,
blames him for his inability to adjust himself to the network environment and soon he
was disgusted with the vulgar materialism of corporate culture. He decided to remain
in isolation and compose poems.
Apart from all of them, some nameless, faceless men also turn up and blame
Sumanta, for not writing about their plight. Curiously, the judge is absent throughout
the entire hearing. Thus, the play ends, highlighting the dilemma of the modern man
caught in a vortex of relationships which threaten to tear him apart. Sircar points out
the futility of pointing fingers at others. All men born on this earth are equally guilty

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of the sorry mess of things around them; it is absurd to discriminate on the basis of
caste, class and gender.
The character of Sumant is motivated by antagonistically contradictory
impulses which are personified by three different characters that also appear as
witnesses. After the living witnesses complete their statements in the court which has
no judge to preside, ghosts crowd it, forcing the accused and the witnesses to hear
them as well as those who are marginalized by a cruel society. Sumant stands, as an
accused as there is no judge to deliver judgment. The line between the accused and
the accuser dissolves. The impression the production leaves behind is one of
bitterness and a perpetually agonized vision of humanity devoid of ideology or
conviction.
Sircar’s There’s No End is like his Evam Indrajit. The protagonist of the play,
Sumanta, a Bengali young intellectual like Indrajit, faces the same problem. Sumanta
is more progressive than Indrajit. He loves Manika when he is a student but he does
not marry her. Then, he discontinues his studies and plunges into the struggle
organized by communist party. The railway strike of 1949 fails and he becomes
disillusioned and leaves communist party. Then, he resumes his studies and completes
M.Sc. Instead of doing research in Chemistry, he joins as a research assistant in S.K.
Industries and becomes a junior executive on promotion. He dislikes the duties of the
post and loses the job by deliberately committing a mistake. He and Sumati become
friends. Presently, he is a writer of good reputation. One day, he is arrested and taken
to court. His mother, his lover, his leader of the Party, his professor and his employer
accuse him of betraying them. Five more witnesses find fault with his not writing
about the poor people, workers, and the victims of communal riots and world wars.
The trial finally proves that every human being is a culprit. All human beings have
brought about this crisis and all of them suffer in one way or another. Therefore, they
all can resolve it collectively.
SUMANTA : There is no accused. I am the accused.
You…you …all of you are accused. We
are all the accused.
THE MAN : We are all accused.
THE JURY : (together) We are all the accused. (Sircar
396)
The play thus shows that we can overcome alienation only through unification
characterized by collective awareness and endeavor.

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4.6.10. The Characters:
There are eight characters in the play. The protagonist of the play is Sumanta
Sanyal. He is celebrated Bengali writer. Sumati is his friend; Mrunalini is his mother;
Monika is his school friend; a political activist, Prashant is his friend; professor
Amiya Kumar Mukhopadhyay is his teacher, and then there is N. C. Srivastava,
branch Manager of the company where Sumanta worked. The characters in the play
include a nameless man and there are many other nameless and faceless characters, in
addition to this crowd of nameless figures are the eight characters of which the
various relationships of the protagonist of the play are presented
Mrinalini Sanyal is his mother who laments her son’s betrayal of the dreams
she cherished as the mother of an intelligent, efficient well-educated and well-
qualified son –Sumanta. Sumati and Prashant present the close relations between
friends. It is again noticed that Sumati as well as Prashant entertained bright hopes of
brilliant future and career for Sumanta but he, in his disillusionment, has disappointed
them. Even his professor and his boss characterized by professor Amiya Kumar
Mukhopadhyay and N. C. Sristava, branch manager of the company find themselves
at the failure of Sumanta’s rising to the expected hights of material glory and
authority. These characters comment to present the protagonist from seven different
angles. The centre is approached from seven different perspectives. A man is known
by the company he keeps and the relationship he develops those around him. Shesh
Nei uses this mode of characterization.
4.6.11. The Structure:
The play is written for the proscenium theatre in one act. There are no scenes,
there is only conversion of scene by changing the setting of drawing to court. It opens
in a drawing room, and the location does not change throughout the play. The trial is
the evocation of Sumanta. This is a play for the proscenium theatre. The play has no
divisions. It is a single act play but of full length. The setting is a drawing room as
presented on the stage arrangement for a play by Henrik Ibsen or George Bernard
Shaw. The same location of the dramatic action of the play remains unchanged
throughout the entire action of the play. The dramatic action presented through the
mock trial in the court in which Sumanta is accused of betrayal. His mother says that
he has betrayed her though her responsibility guarded him and protected him.
Monika Bose, his beloved, accuses him deserting her because of his
selfishness and lack of courage. The party leader accuses of betrayal. His boss and his

141
teacher blame him for not coming up to their expectations. Even some nameless and
faceless persons accuse him of not expressing their sorrows through his poems. The
mock trial has provided the structural design to the play. After the initial interaction
between Sumanta and Sumati, the trial takes place which has a panel of juries but no
judge, and all witnesses depose their testimonies and the single accused Sumanta
stresses that like him all the others too are accused of the same guilt and all have no
sense of responsibility.
4.6.12. The Setting:
The drawing room is the setting used in this play throughout its dramatic
action of about ninety minutes. There is only a low coffee table and a high desk, and
no other furniture. This drawing room is later on converted into a court room with two
docks, a high-backed chair, wigs, gavel, and law books. Many witnesses have come
forward to depose one after another. The entire life span of Sumanta is unfolded
dramatically through the mock trial. The device of mock trial asserts the fact that
Sumanta is highly talented, intelligent, promising man but who has betrayed all
around him. He did not come up to the expectations of his beloved, his teacher who
wanted him to become a researcher and his employer who had seen an efficient
executive in Sumanta. Sumanta’s choice of the career of a poet, a creative artist, an
exponent of the realities of the contemporary world made him give up his promising
career as an executive. There is no judge for the trial as the presiding officer and
therefore no judgment is passed as such on the accused –Sumanta. In his own way,
Sumanta shows that everybody is equally guilty like him. Escapism has become the
watchword of the present times in which existence itself is threatening by the hostile,
uncompromising environment and hopeless absurdity and uncertainty of life as a
whole. The mock trial is therefore of a single person but of the entire humanity. This
is possible on account of the flexible setting which remains unchanged but can be
converted from a drawing room into a court for a mock trial.
4.6.13. Technical Effects:
The drawing room turns into a court room for the mock trial of the honoured
poet Sumanta Sanyal. This transformation of the stage arrangement is full of effects
produced by the technical support given to the dramatic action throughout the
presentation of the one-act play. It has apparently no scene-wise or act-wise divisions
but the first act of exposition, the second act of the six witnesses and the third act of
the commoners accusing Sumanta and his self-defence display how the technical

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effects of the play have emerged through the dramatic use of the stage arrangement of
the play. The witnesses coming forward one after another from mother to manager
and the mock trial with the panel of juries, the accused, his self-defense and his
encompassing all the others as accused like him have formed the dramatic action
through the suitable crafted and used stage arrangement. There is very little of
property used which itself lends a technical effect to the dramatic presentation of
action in Shesh Nei. Light and music effects too have been used as and when the
witnesses come forward to depose. Each entry is signaled by the use of lighting
effects. There is the background musical score which heightens the presentation of the
action most dramatically and most evocatively in the play. The musical effects match
the pitch of the action and it appropriately brings out the evocative content of the
action as well as the language in the play.
4.6.14. Temporal and Spatial Management:
Sumanta Sanyal, the protagonist of the play has become a great poet of
Bengal. He found himself in court in his revire. He is blamed by the people around
him his mopther, his friends, his teacher, his superviser and many other nameless and
faceless people. He found that his journey from school to college and college to the
world is like a whirlpool of meaninglessness. Hence he felt that he will have to walk
endlessly on this journey of his life as there’s no end to this journey. The entire life
story is revealed in the dramatic action of the play. This is how the temporal
dimension of the play covers a period of more than half a century of Sumanta’s career
and points forward to the endlessness of life’s journey. On the spatial axis, it is found
that his home, his school, his college, his party office, his company, his research in the
laboratory and his poet’s den are the locales which have been dramatically presented
through the dramatic action of this play. This is how the entire globe becomes the
spatial dimension of the 1970 play Shesh Nei.

4.7 Conclusion:
To sum up, it can be stated that Sircar has started experimenting with the play
Evam Indrajit. Sircar has experimented with the structure of the play Evam Indrajit,
his earliest and most popular play. He has experimented with the theme and structure
of the play Baki Itihas and Tringsha Shatabdi, setting of the play The Mad Horse and
There’s No End. These five play are called as Calcutta Quartet.

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