Imperialistic Representations and Spectatorial Reception in Shakespeare Wallah

Abstract

Recent scholarship has sought to revise critical claims regarding the universal and transcendental status accorded to Shakespeare in India through an examination of three important aspects pertaining to the construction and representation of the bard: first, situating the history of Shakespeare in the context of colonial power relations, scholars have shown us the reasons for the literary and cultural authority attached to Shakespeare. Alternatively, scholars have discussed the anti-colonial responses as seen, for instance, in the drama of Utpal Dutt, and in Bharatendu Harishchandra's Durlabh Bandhu (based on The Merchant of Venice), which exemplify the unique local appropriations of Shakespeare (Loomba, Gender; Jha; Trivedi; Bharucha; Singh; Green; Bhatia, "Codes of Empire"). Thirdly, critical work has focused on Shakespearean adaptations, which may or may not be oppositional but reflect the inevitable process of cultural hybridization that confounds claims regarding strict segregation of British and Indian cultural traditions. To this end, Ania Lomba's discussion of Kathakali Othello, Phillip Zarrilli's work on Kathakali King Lear, and Balwant Gargi's elaboration of King Lear as an Indian Maharaja remind us of the cultural flows and interactions resulting from Indian mediations of Shakespeare and demand that we understand that because of the historical interventions of British imperialism, both Western and Indian influences will exist on the global stage. Taken together, such scholarship has facilitated an academic mode of understanding the relationship between Shakespearean drama and Indian culture.