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Theatre & National Identity in Colonial India: Formation of a Community through Cultural Practice. By Sharmistha Saha. Delhi: Aakar Books, 2018. Pp. 255 + 12 illus. Rs. 695/$89.99 Hb; $69.99 Ebook.
Sharmistha Saha's study of the curious place of the theatre in the turbulent formation of a national identity in colonial India is full of remarkable historical details and vignettes. We learn how the ‘discovery’ and translation of Sanskrit dramatic texts into English in the eighteenth century dovetailed with the administrative project of restoring to the colonial subjects their supposedly authentic, lost past. We follow the correspondences of colonial officials about their pursuits of theatrical entertainment in Bombay and Calcutta, and the scandals and excesses that accompanied these. We encounter the writings of well-known nationalist figures reflecting on the significance of the theatre, what they felt it should or should not be as a bearer of an emerging national sentiment. Reading the book against the backdrop of contemporary Indian revisionist cultural politics, the study reveals that today's nationalist narrative of a supposedly stable and authentic Indian theatre and culture is deeply...