Conscience on Stage: Revising Jatra in Bengal as a Tool for Representation, Restoration, and Revolution

Abstract

Invoking the Conscience: Revising Jatra in Bengal as a tool for Representation, Restoration, and Revolution, draws from the evolution of the Bengali performance form Jatra from a religious celebration to a secular and provocative form of theatre both socially and politically charged to support grassroots engagement. In the nineteenth century, Jatra contributed to India’s emerging independence movement, and the form became a significant voice for social concerns in the twentieth century. This dissertation examines one of the most distinctive features of Jatra, the anthropomorphizing of the “conscience,” commonly known as the bibek. This is a character type that can interrupt the action to grant expression to various characters’ perspectives through song and provide larger ethical commentary on the action of the drama as it corresponds to relevant local issues. By employing the postcolonial notion of hybridity, I investigate what the presence or the absence of this character type allows us to understand about contemporary Jatra from within its colonial roots.