Sunday Reading : Girish Karnad

Here is my task on Sunday Reading ;Girish Karnad given by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir. Click here to view about this task.


Short Introduction about Girish Karnad :

Girish Raghunath Karnad was an indian actor, film director, Kannada write. He is the recipient of Jnanpith Award for Kannada, the highest literary honour conferred in India.For four decades Karnad has been composing plays, Often using history and mythology to tackle contemporary issues. He is also active in the world of Indian Cinema working as an actor, director,and Screenwriter, earning numerous awards along the way. He was conferred Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the government of India.

Girish Karnad was born in Matheran, Maharashtra, into a Konkani-speaking family. His initial schooling was in Marathi. As a youngster, Karnad was an ardent admire of Yakshagana and the theatre in his village.

He earned his Bachelors of Arts degree from Karnataka University, Dharwad in 1958. Upon graduation, Karnad went to England and studied at Lincoln and Magdalen colleges in Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, earning his Master of Arts degree in philosophy, political science and economics. Karnad was a Visiting Professor and Fulbright Scholar in Residence at the University of Chicago.

Girish Karnad passed away on June 10th 2019. He was 81, and suffering from illness for the past few days.

• Remembering Girish Karnad : Looking at the noted playwright's politics of protest through his works Tughlaq, Taledanda : 

Girish Karnad represents an era of liberal imagination synchronous with the twilight of liberal and socialist practices in society politics. His successes were many and multi-faceted in several spheres of cultures: cinema, acting , direction, cultural imagination and , towards the end of his life,politics of protest. Because of Karnad's timing and placing, Tughlaq became a metaphor for the ambivalence and contradictions of the Nehruvian socialist democratic utopia. By historical accident,  Teledana too became an allegory for the angst of post-Indira Gandhi India.


By HS Shivaprakash

'A thousand lamps of civilization die out'- this is a quote from the Bengali poem  On 31st January 1948 by Bishnu Dey. Written after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

Why do I begin tribute to Girish Karnad with these lines? When Dey wrote this poem,there was still hope that at least a hundred lamps of civilization would be reignited in post-independence India. But we are now living through the painful twilight of modernity and postmodernity governed by market-driven neocolonialism,, which is far unsettling and devastating than the previous avatars of colonialism.

• Neocapitalism and Karnad :

The historically unprecedented upsurge of neocapitalist marked is hounded by its dark and sinister antagonist-religious fundamentalism-across the world.In the past,at such moments of churning, the indomitable force of artistic imagination used to point the way forward. But today,art too has become captive of the market economy. This is the historical context in which the widely celebrated and highly exported Indian playwright Karnad passed away. Amid the deluge of condolences and commiserations,many recounted how in the past decade, the award-wining Kannada writer had been actively campaigning against the re-upsurge of  religious chauvinism. He actively protested human rights violations. Sure , Karnad deserve appreciation for speaking out boldly against forces of religious fundamentalism. It must have taken a lot courage for him to speak and stand up against the impending chaos in explicit postures and statements. However, the artist speaks more through his works than through words and actions.

Karnad's statements in the media and posturing apart, how did he,an artist, respond to the process of barbarisation being carried out in the name of civilization? Let try to address this question in the light of his celebrated play Tughlaq.

     Tughlaq : 

It was Karnad's second play, Tughlaq (1964), which established him nationally and internationally when he was only 26. The Kannada play first produced by professor  B Chandrashekhar in Kannada was masterfully translated later into Hindustani by BV  Karanth . Though the Kannada production made quite an impact locality. It was only when Karanth's translation was picked up for production by the doyen of modern Indian theater. Ebrahim Alkazi,that it gained international recognition. Alkazi produced the play for the National school of drama and it was staged at the purana Kilauea, with legendary actor manoher Singh playing the lead.The play depicted Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the 14th-century  sultan of Delhi, as a great visionary and a great flop. Each time as he tried to push forward his utopian vision,more head rolled and more heads rolled and more blood flowed. Somehow because of karnad's  timing and placing. Tughlaq became a metaphor for the ambivalences and contradictions of the Nehruvian socialist Democratic utopia.

Bangalore, Nov 9 : It seems actor and playwright Girish Karnad is miffed with the entire literary world. After attacking Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul, Karnad has trained his gun on another Nobel  Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore.

 Karnad said all the plays written by Tagore till 11947 are second- grade.

" Tagore is a great poet, but his plays are unbearable,"  added Karnad. 

Karnad's Plays Translated in English: 

1.  Tughlaq,      Oxford university press.
2. Hayavadana, Oxford university press.
3. Yayati , Oxford university press.
4. Nagamandala : play with cobra, Oxford university press.
5. Fire and the Rain, Oxford university press,1998.
6. Bali :  The sacrifice, Oxford university press.
7. Tale Danda,Oxford university press.
8. Wedding Album , Oxford university press,2006.
9.  Boiled Beans on Toast, Oxford university press. 2014.
10. Crossing to Talikota, Oxford university press,2019.

 The Dream of Tipu Sultan:

Tipu Sultan kanda kanasu or The Dream of Tipu Sultan was written in 1997 and since then it has been performed many times by different groups around the world. Though the eyes of an Indian court historian and a British Oriental scholar, karnad traverses the historic moments and the last days of Tipu Sultan- the Ruler mysore in the play.

           Taledanda  : 

Written in 1990, the Kannada play explores the rise of the protest and reform moment, Lingaytism , in 12th century Kannada. The literature was recognised by the scholars and karnad was awarded the Karnataka sahitya Academy Award(1993) and the Sahitya Academy Award(1994) , in Kannada language for the play. He also received Jnanpath Award for the same in 1998.

Some view about Karnad  In newspapers:

• શ્યામ બેનેગલ 'મંથન' હોય કે નિશાંત' એક રીતે જોઇએ તો એ બોક્સ ઓફિસ ના સુપરસ્ટાર ની આખી સ્ટાર સીસ્ટમ ને તોડી નાખનારી એક કા્ંતિ જ હતી! એ દેશવ્યાપી ક્રાંતિ ના પ્રાદેશીક કક્શાએ અગ્રણી મશાલચીઓમા ગિરીશ કનાૅડને ઘણા ઉપરના સ્થાને મુકવા પડે એવું એમનું પ્રદાન હતું.

• નખશીખ હિન્દુસ્તાની કલાકાર એવા આ નાટ્યકારની શરૂઆત તો અંગ્રેજી નાટકોથી જ થઈ હતી. 'ધ મદ્રાસ પ્લેયસૅ' તેમનુ પહેલું નાટક અને આવતા મહિને જુલાઈમાં ' કો્સિંગ ટુ તલીકોટ' પુસ્તક આવશે . વિદેશી કલાજગત સાથે આટલી ઘનિષ્ઠતા હોવા છતાં એમનામાથી ભારતીય પણુ ગયુ નહિ.

• કન્નડ નાટકો માટે પાંચ દાયકા એમણે ખંતપુવૅકની સકિ્યતા દાખવી હતી.એમણે ઘણા અંગ્રેજી નાટકોનું ભાષાંતર કર્યુ છે તો પણ અંગ્રેજી ભાષા સહિત દેશની લગભગ  સમગ્ર પ્રાદેશીક ભાષામાં રૂપાંતર થયું છે.

      #ફિલ્મની ચિલમ #

એ આત્મકથાથી ઓડિયો બુક માટે કલામ સાહેબનો અવાજ ગિરીશ કનાૅડે આપેલો છે! આપણી સંસ્કૃતિ જો દુશ્મન દેશના સૈનિકોના શબને પણ સન્માનપૂર્વક અંતીમ વિધિ કરીને મોતનો મલાજો પાળવાનું શીખવતી હોય, તો આ તો આપણા જ સવોૅચ્ચ નાગરિક સન્માન એવા પદ્મભૂષણના ખિતાબથી વિભૂષિત કલાકાર હતા. તેમના વિચારો અને વાણી વિશેનું વિવેચન ભવિષ્યમાં થવાનું જ છે.

તેમણે અરૂંધતી નાગને આપેલા એક પુલંબ ઇન્ટરવ્યુમાં કહેલું કે "હું કોઈ પ્લે લખું તો મારી એવી ઈચ્છા ખરી કે 200 વર્ષ પછી પણ લોકો એ વાંચે, લોકો વાંચશે કે નહીં એ જોવા હું તો હાજર નહીં હોઉં"...પણ આપણે સૌ જાણીએ છીએ કે જ્યાં સુધી માનવી ને યુવાની ટકાવવાની ઘેલછા હશે, ત્યાં સુધી ' યયાતિ' કે પછી'તુઘલક ' જેવી તેમની રચનાઓ વંચાવાની પણ છે અને ભજવાવાની પણ છે.

Grish karnad such a great Indian playwright. He was achieved many awards.

Thank you......