Colonial Theatre Research Articles

Acoustic properties of two emblematic theaters in Algeria: The case of the National Theater of Algiers TNA and the Regional Theater of Bejaia TRB

In this paper, the acoustics of multi-purpose colonial theaters in Algeria, those of Algiers and Bejaia, are studied to evaluate their acoustic conditions (suitability for music and speech) in view of their architecture’s evolution. To do, acoustics measurements were performed inside them according to the ISO 3382-1 Standard in unoccupied conditions. The average values of acoustic parameters (EDT, T30, C80, and D50) are reported in frequency domain from 125 to 4 kHz. Furthermore, maps of spatial distribution of T30, C80 at the frequency of 1 kHz, and STI are reported. Results show that the Algiers theater is the more appropriate venue for multipurpose performances (with a fairly low RT of 1.5 s in average mid-frequencies), whereas the Bejaia theater is only suitable for musical performances (with a high RT of 2.5 s in average mid-frequencies).

Settler colonial violence in the American Southwest and German Southwest Africa

This article takes a comparative approach to settler colonial violence in the American Southwest and German Southwest Africa. The Anglo invasion of central Arizona in 1864 and the German conflict against the Herero in 1904 highlights the nature of frontier violence and identifies similarities and differences across two points in space and time that have seldom been compared by historians. Those writing of the US-Apache conflicts have failed to look to colonial theaters around the world, their transnational attention focusing instead on the borderlands of United States, Mexico, and independent Indians. Similarly, research on the violence in GSWA has not engaged systematically with international parallels and has instead focused on identifying possible links between GSWA and the Nazis and the Holocaust. This article seeks to address these shortcomings by analysing the comparative strands of settler colonial violence.

The Hierarchy on Its Side Becomes a Circle: The Directing Practices and Mentorship of Yvette Nolan

This article explores the directing practice of Algonquin and Irish theatre artist Yvette Nolan. Though Nolan is best known as a playwright, this article instead focuses on Nolan as “mentor to a generation of artists” and a significant contemporary theatre director whose interventions into inherited, colonial theatre practices warrant dissemination and discussion. The article explores her directing practice using three major themes: 1) values, process, and who is in the room; 2) food and joy and/as Ceremony; and, 3) vision and excellence. Working to situate hirself relationally as per Indigenous research practices, the non-Indigenous author uses original interviews, existing scholarship, and personal experiences collaborating with Nolan to inform this personal reflection on her practice.

From Komedie Stambul to Toneel: Theatre Arts Development in Batavia, 1891-1942

Performing arts became a popular entertainment form among groups in the colonial era. People who enjoy performing arts were always craving for something new, and in turn, performing troupes were trying to create new innovations for their performances. In the late 19th century, a theatre group Komedie Stamboel was established in Surabaya. This group soon became popular because their uniqueness: the hybridity of their dramaturgies and stories which combined the West and East aspects. Their popularity resulted in a tour across Java, one of tour destinations was Batavia. When they were in Batavia, many of Komedie Stamboel’s performances were influenced by Indische culture and Indo people. By implementing the historical method, this article find the role of the Indo people and the influence of the Indische culture in Batavia’s development of theatre arts. The increasing popularity of Komedie Stamboel resulted in imitators, both professional and amateur, with the majority of their performers consisted of Indo [hybrid] and Pribumi [local; indigenous]. Komedie Stamboel also developed into a theatrical genre known as komedie stambul. In the 20th century, a theatre form known as Toneel Melajoe emerged as a continuity of the Komedie Stambul with new additions. Other theatrical genre known as Indische Toneel, a colonial theatre created by playwrights of Dutch totok and Indo descent that often held in theatres in Batavia. They had komedie stambul influences and Indische culture references on them.

Negotiation and Alliance on Display: Nahuas and Franciscans in the Production of Early Colonial Theatre

In early colonial Mexico, theatrical representations were considered one of the most effective tools of evangelization. While traditional narratives of missionary work tend to underscore the control of the Franciscans over the Nahuas, and therefore over the production of cultural artifacts such as plays, power relations were not unilateral, as the Franciscans encountered linguistic and cultural barriers that required the collaboration of the Nahuas. This article provides an analysis of two early plays, La conquista de Rodas and La conquista de Jerusalén, in which it is possible to see a negotiated, but necessary, collaboration between Franciscans and Nahuas. It argues that such collaboration was possible due to a system of relations in which Franciscans and Nahuas were constantly negotiating and making concessions based on their political and social needs. It shows that they used these performances to display their own social and political messages.

A Mexican Princess in the Tagalog Sultan's court: Floripes of the Doce Pares and the Transpacific Efflorescence of Colonial Philippine Romance and Theater

A Mexican Princess in the Tagalog Sultan's court: Floripes of the Doce Pares and the Transpacific Efflorescence of Colonial Philippine Romance and Theater

German Colonial Wars and the Context of Military Violence by Susanne Kuss

Reviewed by: German Colonial Wars and the Context of Military Violence by Susanne Kuss Adam A. Blackler German Colonial Wars and the Context of Military Violence. By Susanne Kuss. Translated by Andrew Smith. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017. Pp. 1 + 386. Paper $45.00. ISBN 978-0674970632. Academic debates over alleged links between Germany's overseas empire and the Third Reich have dominated German colonial historiography since the early 2000s. Prominent historians such as Isabel Hull, Jürgen Zimmerer, and Benjamin Madley have drawn considerable interest to the field, suggesting in their respective studies that total warfare and systematic violence in the colonies acted as genocidal antecedents to the Nazis so-called "New Order" in Eastern Europe. While scholars have more recently started to turn their attention to other aspects of Germany's global empire, the "Windhoek to Auschwitz" thesis remains a powerful thematic undercurrent in the historical literature. Queries about German colonialism and its violent status relative to other contemporary colonial powers, in particular, continue to inspire curiosity, as well as direct much of the scholarly research on German imperialism. Susanne Kuss's German Colonial Wars and the Context of Military Violence is an important example of this historiographical reality. In contrast to advocates of the "continuity thesis," Kuss argues that German imperial violence emerged in relation to the particular sociopolitical and geographic circumstances in each respective [End Page 147] Kriegsschauplatz or theater of war (8). She supports this thesis with a detailed analysis of Germany's three best-known colonial wars, specifically the Boxer War in China, the Maji Maji War in German East Africa, and the Herero and Namaqua War in German Southwest Africa. Kuss devotes a chapter to each imperial theater and assesses how the individual campaigns altered the mental and psychological disposition of soldiers toward local populations (5). In this manner, her study demonstrates that extreme violence in the colonial sphere did not follow a premeditated strategy contrived in the metropole, but was instead the result of shifting war aims, poor planning, economic concerns, and racist fantasies that failed to materialize once German settlers and soldiers arrived overseas en masse (107–108). Kuss organizes her study into three parts: "Three Wars," "The Colonial Theater of War," and "Evaluation and Memory." Part 1 offers concise overviews of the three military campaigns in question. In this section, Kuss pays careful attention to the unique regional dynamics, such as the specific intentions colonial leaders had for each colony, which she contends made it impossible for German leaders to conduct imperial policy monolithically. The quality of this study rests on Kuss's ability to combine primary source-based research of China, German East Africa, and German Southwest Africa into one analytical narrative. She writes, for instance, that German soldiers in China unquestionably participated in violent expeditions against Chinese militias, but given Germany's general "irrelevance to the outcome of the [Boxer] war" due to its late arrival in Asia, boredom motivated troops to commit selective episodes of brutality "for enrichment" and to "vary an otherwise dull routine" (36). In sharp contrast, the wars in German East Africa and German Southwest Africa were more systematic in their conduct and orientation. Part 2 sharpens the analytical comparison of the Kriegsschauplätze and how distinct conditions in each location fashioned disparate occupational strategies, as well as mixed attitudes toward the use of extreme violence against colonized populations. As an example, Kuss reminds readers that African soldiers (askari) comprised a significant number of colonial forces in German East Africa (105). She explains that the askaris' knowledge of the region and terrain allowed German authorities to deploy their forces methodically against enemy settlements, supply lines, and Maji Maji guerillas. By way of contrast, Kuss shows that this approach was not possible in China due to the Germans' lack of "reliable familiarity with the Chinese population" and the "ethnic homogeneity" of the Shandong Province (161). She argues that imperial officers in German Southwest Africa, meanwhile, decided not to classify ethnic peoples hierarchically because the military had already defeated the two most powerful groups (Herero and Namaqua) at the turn of the twentieth century (164). Kuss also rightly emphasizes the importance of biological racism in...

Um teatro "não espetacular": para além da catarse colonial

Neste ensaio, pretende-se abordar o teatro “não espetacular” de Augusto Boal, compreendendo-o como uma potente forma de superação da catarse do teatro aristotélico, entendido por nós como um teatro colonial, já que, até hoje, a poética de Aristóteles é a base de um modo de produção de cinema e televisão comprometido com um modelo de colonização estética. Assim, partiremos da crítica boalina à poética aristotélica, para, então, compreender como a estética do Teatro do Oprimido se constitui ainda como uma poderosa ferramenta para a gestação de novas estéticas, provenientes dos espaços limítrofes nos quais as pessoas que antes eram espectadoras passivas assumem sua teatralidade, construindo realidade e questionando a relação das verdades prontas, das quais antes eram apenas receptoras.

From the Caribbean to Craignish: Imperial Authority and Piratical Voyages in the Early Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Commons

Whereas seventeenth-century piracy has been recognised as an integrated component of the developing European Atlantic world, eighteenth-century pirates have been marginalised as an isolated group with few ties to landed communities. Such evaluations have stressed the heightened extension of state authority to the colonial theatre in the eighteenth century and, by doing so, have overlooked how pirates continued to interact with colonial actors operating in contested and unclaimed regions throughout the Atlantic commons. It is imperative that the Atlantic commons is given full consideration in any discussion of Atlantic maritime activity as it was within these expanses that inter-imperial, inter-colonial, and cross-border colonial actors converged. This article utilises the piratical voyage captained by Howell Davies (and later Bartholomew Roberts) to demonstrate that it was within this commons that eighteenth-century piratical voyages were sustained and facilitated through the forced acquisition of supplies, through markets for plundered goods, and through the opportunities available for dispersing amongst landed communities at the end of expeditions. Continued connections between colonial denizens and pirates in the eighteenth century compels a reassessment of pirates’ isolation to instead place them within the wider population of coastal traders, sojourning mariners, and marginal colonial settlers who existed both within and outside of the imperial framework espoused by state and colonial centres. Ultimately, this questions the overall ability of European states to regulate maritime traffic when vessels sailed out of sight of established colonial ports, and beyond the practical reach of imperial authority.

Two women travellers across a contested landscape: Emily Georgiana Kemp and Yosano Akiko in Northeast China

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the travelogues that Emily Georgiana Kemp and Yosano Akiko wrote, less than two decades apart, on their journeys in Northeast China: The Face of Manchuria, Korea and Russian Turkestan (1911) and Travels in Manchuria and Mongolia (1928), respectively. Led by an interdisciplinary exploration of critical theory in cultural translation, visual studies, feminist geographies and postcolonial travel writing, it compares and contrasts the distinct ways in which Kemp and Yosano approach the ethics of the traveller/travellee encounter, the aestheticisation of cultural difference in the colonial theatre as well as the entangled relationship between the verbal and the visual representations of travel and place, and thereby bear witness to the storm of geopolitical change then sweeping the region. While noting significant differences between the circumstances of Kemp’s 1911 travelogue and Yosano’s 1928 account, the essay explores the ethical and affective implications of their shifting positionalities in this particularly contested contact zone.

“Damn him and the spikes”: Richard III, riot, and the formation of an Australian colonial theatre public

AbstractOn 26 December 1833, the first licensed theatre in New South Wales offered its first Shakespeare play—Colley Cibber’s adaptation of Richard III. The event entailed a riot and the lead actor being charged with assault for hurling an audience member from the stage. Using insights drawn from scholarship on the Covent Garden “Old Price Riots” in 1809, this essay investigates the Sydney Theatre Royal’s 1833 disturbance as an indicative phase in the development of a colonial theatre public. Thirty years after this troubled beginning, majestic theatre venues hosted international stars throughout Australia’s major cities. What constituted this rapid transformation? The press, satire, and travesty were instrumental through their vividly performative negotiation of the contradictions of this British penal colony’s love for Shakespeare. Of this phenomenon, Richard III, a drama of disrupted authority and (with Othello) the most popular play on the colonial Australian stage, proffers the ideal case study.

The “Contagious Stench” Of Idolatry: The Rhetoric of Disease and Sacrilegious Acts in Colonial New Spain

AbstractIn the colonial theater of New Spain, multiple actors utilized the rhetoric of disease to discuss and describe the ongoing discoveries of indigenous traditional religion, which they termed idolatry. Focusing primarily on Yucatán, this article closely analyzes these usages, arguing that the two primary modes of understanding the spread of illness in the early modern world, that of miasmic factors and that of contagion, provided rationalizations for the perseverance of idolatrous practices, informed the institutionalized prevention of these heretical acts, and ultimately provided models for their possible cure. As the definition of idolatry was expanded to include all religious crimes committed by New Spain's indigenous population, it was severed from the material aspect (idol worship) that had originally defined it. The result was the conceptual conflation of two of the defining characteristics of early colonial experience: epidemic disease and ongoing idolatries.

Performing History and Constructing ‘Culture’: Ronnie Govender's 1949 and the Romanticism of Historical Memory

Though both South Asian and South African literary and cultural studies boast deep critical traditions, rarely have critics specifically focused on dramatic literature and the performative acts of Indian South Africans. Theatre – as an aesthetic genre as well as a social institution – has been remarkably under-theorised within Indian Ocean communities, even though its power in Indian South African communities and within South African history and culture has been amply documented and analysed In theatre studies of South Asia, scholars have pushed new frontiers about the studies of colonial modern theatre as well as post-independence Indian theatres, inspired by a performance-studies turn, but the push to link theatre and performance studies with Indian Ocean, and migrant, contexts has yet to fully manifest within scholarly circles. Through an examination of Ronnie Govender's play 1949, this article argues that theatre as a medium offers the opportunity to create specific versions of history and community identity not visible in prose literature or the novel. These versions of history and community identity are analysed with reference to the broader history of South Africa as well as the manners in which Govender's history both incorporates particular aspects of earlier definitions of Indian identity in South Africa and innovates to create images of Indo-African shared spaces.

The Jamaican Theatre: Highlights of the Performing Arts in the Twentieth Century by Wycliffe Bennett, and Hazel Bennett

Reviewed by: The Jamaican Theatre: Highlights of the Performing Arts in the Twentieth Century by Wycliffe Bennett, and Hazel Bennett Nicosia Shakes (bio) Bennett, Wycliffe, and Hazel Bennett. The Jamaican Theatre: Highlights of the Performing Arts in the Twentieth Century. Kingston: U of the West Indies P, 2011. Since Errol Hill’s groundbreaking text, The Jamaican Stage 1655–1900: Profile of a Colonial Theatre (1992), there has been a serious need for a monograph that assesses Jamaican theater in the modern period. Wycliffe Bennett and Hazel Bennett’s The Jamaican Theatre: Highlights of the Performing Arts in the Twentieth Century is important because it goes a considerable way towards filling the dearth of information that exists on theater in that country. It outlines the development of Jamaican theater from the early-twentieth century to the present, highlighting various achievements, influences, important landmark institutions, and events as well as individuals and groups who have contributed to the national development of theater. The book is divided into eighteen chapters categorized into four “Acts” or sections. Act I: “Setting the Scene” provides a historiographical overview of Jamaican theater from the seventeenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Much of it focuses on business and management and less on technique and aesthetic influences on form. In the first chapter, the authors examine the development of theater juxtaposed with significant phases in Jamaican [End Page 1194] history. The various periods are delineated as such: the period up to the First World War (pre-1914), the period between the First and Second World Wars (1914–1945), the period between the Second World War and Independence (1945–1962), and the post-Independence period (post-1962). There is a brief discussion of the process of “creolization,” particularly as regards the blending of African and European cultures that impacted the formation of theatrical and other performance arts. Notably, the authors conduct a succinct analysis of the predominance of African culture and its denial and suppression during and after the period of slavery. Other chapters delve into the institutions and landmark productions that came to define and influence Jamaican theater in the pre-Independence era, as well as the importance of patronage. One chapter that stands out amongst the rest focuses on the significant production, Jamaica Triumphant, staged in 1937 under the direction of Father Daniel Lord. Jamaica Triumphant was a landmark historical pageant that told the story of the country’s history from the pre-Columbian Taino era up to the twentieth century. Featuring a cast of four hundred, and attended by twenty thousand people over the course of four performances, Jamaica Triumphant was the largest theatrical production in the country’s history, and one that harnessed the creative talents of many Jamaicans. According to Bennett and Bennett, “the production required overseas help in only two departments,” and “Many practitioners have dated their important beginnings in the theatre from this show” (45). This chapter also provides an important commentary regarding the formation of a national theater. It is one of the few instances in which Bennett and Bennett present a critical opinion on theater and society in Jamaica. The country does not currently have a national theater per se, and though the commentary is brief it is worth quoting: … a national theatre—that theatre that is most characteristic of a country at a particular time—will derive its shape and substance from psychological dispositions that predominate the national life. If men of vision as distinct from mere copyists take the lead, the national theatre may even go further and be somewhat ahead of current thinking. The national theatre will be among the first groups to perceive ultimate directions and help the society realize its ideal. (46) Act II: “The Jamaican Stage” covers the period after the Second World War to the formation of theater institutions in the latter part of the twentieth century. Here, the focus is on the development of a distinctly Jamaican theater industry. Most of the section is dedicated to the chapter on the annual national Pantomime, and the Pantomime Company, arguably one of the most well-known, well-patronized fixtures in the country’s theater scene. Chapter 8 chronicles the dramatic institutions developed at the...

Kolonialkriege und Raum

Abstract Any analysis of colonial wars involves not only an investigation of the causes of (usually extremely violent) actions from the perspective of the colonial Metropole, rather it requires us to relate military operations to the circumstances prevailing in each colonial theater of war. Undoubtedly there is a semantic link between the colonial theater of war and space. Nevertheless, studies of colonial wars tend to assume that colonial space had developed prior to the arrival of the colonial power, after which it remained unchanged. As a result, colonial military historians tend to restrict themselves to examining the events of these wars, whilst ignoring the influence of space on their conduct. Using the example of the German colonial wars, the article argues that space/environment represents more than just the backdrop for the military events playing out in it, but acts as an important factor conditioning the outcome of the conflict.

Quespillo et ses compagnons : la figure du gracioso dans le théâtre quechua colonial*

Personnage-type incontournable du théâtre du Siècle d’Or espagnol, le gracioso figure dans toutes les pièces connues du répertoire dramatique en langue quechua du Cuzco colonial. Écrits par des curés, ces drames étaient destinés à être représentés devant les élites indigènes, qui en étaient vraisemblablement les commanditaires. Cet article se propose de contribuer à la réflexion pluridisciplinaire sur les processus de reconstruction identitaire de la population autochtone à l’époque coloniale, en s’intéressant aux modalités de cette opération de transfert culturel et à ses acteurs qui, en s’appropriant la figure du gracioso, élaborèrent une image susceptible de faire sens dans l’univers symbolique andin.

Between ritual and theatre: political performance in Seleucid Babylonia

In Seleucid Babylonia, performance was politics. In this colonial state, the temple, theatre and ritual were established as a middle ground between the different populations. ‘Greek’ theatres were constructed to look like Babylonian temples, and both institutions served as loci of civil authority. Moreover, the staging of the Babylonian Akitu influenced the mise-en-scène of the Greek pompe at Daphne, and exposure to Greek drama shaped audience response to religious ceremonies. State rituals were more than occasions for kings to assert their legitimacy, they were also spaces in which the Babylonian priesthood, Greek politai and Babylonian citizens could debate Seleucid hegemony and imagine an alternative to the empire.

Beyond center and periphery: new currents in French and francophone Atlantic studies

This introductory essay explores recent shifts in perspective in the study of the French and francophone Atlantic world. It takes as a touchstone changes in the place of Louisiana and the French colonial period in American history and consciousness. The essay traces the evolution of both anglophone and francophone Atlantic historiography, elucidating the shift in meanings attributed to the relationship between France and its Atlantic colonies. It then explores the recent emergence of alternative interpretations grounded in a vision of a decentered Atlantic theater where local actors, locations, vectors and networks of power, knowledge, and resources interact with each other and with the metropolitan center. It suggests that this reframing has led to a renewed appreciation for earlier primary and secondary French colonial history writing which can now be seen as central texts for understanding Europe during the emergence of modernity. A similar transformation is traced in the localized histories of former French Atlantic colonies, from Quebec and West Africa to Haiti, and then continued in the emergence of new research efforts – concentrated in centers of French colonial influence and especially France's port cities – based on a direct confrontation with the role of the slave trade and the complex forms of exchange behind it. A discussion of recent approaches to French Atlantic science highlights the networks of actors and political and economic power that were often implicated in the establishment of matters of fact in the Atlantic colonial theater. The contrasting experiences of Jesuit, Franciscan, and Huguenot colonials point to a newly complex understanding of the New World religious and missionary experience. The essay then explores some of the ways that recent Atlantic scholarship has influenced the practice of French history, casting new light on such traditional topics as the Wars of Religion, education, and the Enlightenment. After brief summaries of the issue's articles, the essay then suggests that through this new understanding of the complex interaction of natives and colonizers, local, European, and native world views and alliance structures, and of indigenous and metropolitan knowledge and power, a coherent historical image of a francophone Atlantic world finally emerges.

Superior in his Profession: Essays in Memory of Harold Love. Ed. by MEREDITH SHERLOCK, BRIAN MCMULLIN and WALLACE KIRSOP

Few bibliographers deserved a festschrift more than Harold Love, and it is sad that this excellent volume has to be ‘in memoriam’. I met Harold Love only once, but was enthralled by his energy and the immense range of his knowledge of books, manuscripts, and the bibliographical world in general, and like everyone I owe him the debt incurred by his wonderful Scribal Publication in Seventeenth-Century England (1993). This collection begins not with the expected personal memoir — that comes later — but with the bibliography of his writings that demonstrates his range: seventeenth-century poetry and drama in profusion, but also Australian colonial theatre and opera, editorial principles and technique, and at least one libretto. Almost every article begins with a reminiscence of Harold and an acknowledgment of the writer's debt to him, whether as student, colleague, or friend. Love by name and Love by nature, as was evident in my one glimpse of him.

Book Reviews

85 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XXXIV, No.4, Summer 2011 Book Reviews Edited by Nadia Barsoum INDIA, PAKISTAN, BANGLADESH, TURKEY A HISTORY OF THE PAKISTAN ARMY, 3rd ed. By Brian Cloughley. Oxford University Press, 2006, 392pp. Provides a wide and in-depth analysis of the Pakistan Army from its beginning to its most current campaigns. INDIA, PAKISTAN, AND THE UNITED STATES. By Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli. New York, NY: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1997, 156pp. Discusses the past, present and possible future relations between these regions and the effects of the end of the Cold War on all of them. CONTESTED REPRESENTATION: PUNJABI WOMEN IN FEMINIST DEBATE IN PAKISTAN. By Tahmina Rashid. Oxford University Press, 2006, 403pp. Examines the legal rights, political representation and socio-economic status of women in Pakistan. ESSAYS IN INDIAN HISTORY: TOWARDS A MARXIST PERCEPTION. By Irfan Habib. London: Anthem Press, 2002, 426pp. Compilation of essays representing three decades of research and providing an interpretation of the main trends in Indian history from a Marxist historiography. AFGHANISTAN: A MODERN HISTORY. By Angelo Rasanayagam. London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. Angelo Rasanayagam has revised and updated his magisterial work, which is the first major history of modern Afghanistan. DHOW CULTURES OF THE INDIAN OCEAN: COSMOPOLITANISM, COMMERCE AND ISLAM by Abdul Sheriff, Columbia University Press, New York, 351pp. For centuries the dhow, a traditional Arab sailing vessel, operated according to the principles of free trade, carrying sailors, traders, passengers, and cargo to ports within Africa. Abdel Shariff unravels this rich and populous history, recasting the roots of Islam as they grew within the region, along with the thrilling story of the dhow. CONTRADICTORY LIVES: BAUL WOMEN IN INDIA AND BANGLADESH by Lisa I. Knight, Oxford University Press, New York, NY 2011, 217pp. In literature and popular imagination, the Bauls of India 86 and Bangladesh are characterizes musical mystics: orange-clad nomads of both Hindu and Muslim backgrounds. Knight examines the contradictory expectations regarding Baul Women: on the one hand, the ideal of a group unencumbered by societal restrains and concerns and, on the other the real constrains of feminine respectability that seemingly curtail women’s mobility and public performances. THEATRE IN COLONIAL INDIA: PLAY-HOUSE OF POWER edited by Lata Singh, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, India 2010, 354pp. This volume explores various aspects of colonial theatre in terms of its politics, its linkages with modernity, and as a domain for intersection of “high” and “low” cultures. The essays also emphasize the multifaceted relationship between gender and theatre. DEMOCRACY IN INDIA edited by Niraja Gopal Jayal, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, India 2010, 571pp. This volume situates India democracy in the context of the basic principles of democratic theory and discusses its relationship with civil society, cultural diversity and development. While identifying tensions between political and economic development, it looks at how democracy is experienced at the local level. It also examines the future of Indian democracy as a variety of political discourses. THE PERSIAN GULF AND PACIFIC ASIA: FROM INDIFERENCE TO INTERDEPENDENCE by Christopher Davidson, Columbia University Press, New York, 145pp. Davidson examines the Middle East rapidly changing economy, details the eastern and western factors that have brought Asia and the Gulf closer together. Although this relationship has yet to include military arrangements, evidence suggests that the two regions have bolstered other non economics ties. ATTATURK: AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY by M. Sukru Hanioglu, Princeton University Press, 2011, 273pp. Hanioglu provides the first in-depth look at the intellectual life of the Turkish Republic’s founder. In doing so, it frames him within the historical context of the turbulent age in which he lived, and explores the uneasy transition from the late ottoman imperial order to the modern Turkish state through his life and ideas. He shows how Attaturk drew on a unique mix of scientism, materialism, social Darwinism, positivism, and other theories to fashion a grand utopian framework on which to build his new nation. ...