Islam in Performance Contemporary Plays from South Asia

Islam in Performance brings together six contemporary plays from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan that highlight the political performance of Islam in South Asia, especially since the 1947 partition of the subcontinent.

The plays invite comparison with one another, engaging with the issue from perspectives of the three countries concerned: Hindutva politics in India othering the Muslim population for electoral gains, radical Islamization of Pakistan paralyzing political governance and encouraging jihadi violence, and the ever-increasing Islamist threat to Bangladesh's founding secular ethos. Finally, this anthology focuses on the suffering such exclusionary politics of religious nationalism has piled upon minorities across the region. Widely performed but largely unpublished, the plays with their geographic and stylistic range provide a good spectrum of some of the best writing in contemporary South Asian drama.

The editor's scholarly introduction offers a framework for studying the plays as both texts and performance pieces.

Introduction: Performing Islam in South Asia

Plays from Bangladesh
Payer Awaj Pawa Jai/At the Sound of Marching Feet by Syed Shamsul Haq (translated by the author)
Araj Charitamrita/Life of Araj by Masum Reza (translated by Bina Biswas and Sayantan Gupta)

Plays from India
The Djinns of Eidgah by Abhishek Majumdar
Bahut Dur Tak Raat Hogi/The Far-Reaching Night by Zahida Zaidi (translated by Ameena Kazi Ansari)

Plays from Pakistan
Hum Rokaen Gae/We Shall Resist by Anwer Jafri (translated by Sheema Kermani)
Dekh Tamasha Chalta Ban/Watch the Show and Move on by Shahid Nadeem (translated by Shuby Abidi)

Notes on Contributors

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