Book Description

A volume of three street plays from the women s movement, written in the 1980s and widely performed as part of the cultural activism of the time. Giving Away the Girl and The Monkey Dance are both anti-dowry plays. Why All This Bloodshed is a play written in the wake of the widely-debated Shah Bano case in India in the mid-80s, centring around a Muslim woman s right to maintenance. All the plays remain remarkably relevant, opening up key issues of the movement in a complex and nuanced manner, facilitating debate rather than offering simplistic solutions. Brought together for the first time with an introductory essay by the playwright and a note by filmmaker and activist Madhusree Dutt, who directed these plays, the book provides invaluable documentation of a significant period in the history of women s activism in India. These plays have been translated from the Bengali by Sarmistha Dutta Gupta and Paramita Banerjee. Malini Bhattacharya is Professor of English and Director, School of Women s Studies, at Jadavpur University. She is also a cultural critic and a former Member of Parliament. Madhusree Dutt is a feminist activist and filmmaker, associated with the legal aid cultural centre, Majlis.Sarmistha Dutta Gupta is an editor, translator and activist who has also acted in these plays. Paramita Banerjee is a Calcutta-based translator engaged in theatre research, especially on women s issues.