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Shanta Gandhi

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Shanta Gandhi
Born(1917-12-20)20 December 1917
Nashik
Died6 May 2002(2002-05-06)(aged 84)
Mumbai
NationalityIndian
Occupation(s)Dancer, theatre director, playwright
Known forJasma Odan(play)
Spouse
​
​
(m.1938;div.1946)​
RelativesDina Pathak(sister)

Shanta Kalidas Gandhi(20 December 1917 – 6 May 2002) was an Indian theatre director, dancer and playwright who was closely associated withIPTA,the cultural wing of theCommunist Party of India.She studied withIndira Gandhiat a residential school in the early 1930s, and remained close to the prime minister in later life. She received many government awards and sinecures under theIndira Gandhiadministration, including thePadma Shri(1984) and being made chairperson of theNational School of Drama(1982–84).

She was the sister of actressDina Pathak(née Gandhi) and Tarla Gandhi, also a stage performer.

Background

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She was a founder-member of the central ballet troupe of theIndian People's Theatre Association(IPTA), and toured the country widely through the 1950s. As a playwright she is remembered as an early pioneer in reviving ancient Indian drama especiallySanskrit dramaand folk theatre to modernIndian theatreand amongst her most noted plays areRazia Sultan[1]andJasma Odanbased on a Gujarati legend on the practice ofsuttee,her own production of the play in GujaratiBhavaistyle, became a landmark in contemporaryIndian theatre,[2]and along with 'Maina Gurjari' by her sisterDeena Gandhi(laterPathak), it is one of the most popularBhavaistoday.[3]

She was a founder-member ofAvehi,an education resource centre established in 1981, and also remained Chairperson ofNational School of Drama,1982–1984.[4]She was awarded thePadma Shriin 1984 byGovernment of Indiaand the 2001Sangeet Natak Akademi AwardinDirection,given bySangeet Natak Akademi,India's National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama.[5]

Early life and education

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She joined Pupil's Own School, an experimental residential school inPunein 1932, where she became friends with classmateIndira Nehru.[6]She later moved to Bombay, when her engineer father found her becoming too involved in the left-wing student movement in the 1930s and sent her to England to study medicine.[citation needed]In London she stayed at a Fairfax Road boarding house across the hallway from Indira.Feroze Gandhilived nearby, and the three of them would go out on the town together.[7]When Indira and Feroze secretly became engaged in 1936, Shanta was the only other person to know about it.[8]Soon she started frequentingIndia House,meeting up withKrishna Menonand his young 'Free India' associates, and even joined a dance troupe to raise funds for theSpanish Civil War.But before long her father called her back, as theWorld War IIin Europe was starting, thus ending a possible medical career.

Career

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She joinedUday Shankar's 'Uday Shankar India Cultural Centre', at Simtola, 3 km fromAlmora,in Uttarakhand, and studiedBharata Muni'sNatyasastrafrom one of the teachers. She stayed there till it closed down in 1942.[9]Soon after, she became a full-time member of the Little Ballet Troupe, the dance wing of theIndian People's Theatre Associationin Bombay (now Mumbai), here along with her young sistersDina PathaknéeGandhi (1922–2002) and Tarla Gandhi. The ballet troupe createdIndia, Immortal,Man and Machineand the numerous legendary ballets that travelled India in 1950s with Ravi Shankar, Shanti Bardhan and many other performers and artists who later became famous on their own in modern Indian dance theatre and music. The sisters were also involved several years in the revival ofGujarati theatrein Bombay.[10]

In 1952, she started working with a group of children in the village Nikora, on the banks of theNarmada River,inSouth Gujaratwith an informal curriculum. Later, an experimental school attached to the B.M. Institute of Child Psychology and Development,Ahmedabad,adopted this format and in the 1970s at the Bal Bhavan, Delhi took it as well, eventual Avehi was formed in 1981 and in 1990 when AVEHI took up the programme, and named it ABACUS with Shanta Gandhi as Director.[11]

In 1958, Shanta Gandhi was called to Delhi as Asian Theatre Institute was being set up, she joined a Professor of Ancient Indian Drama, in the following year when it merged with theNational School of Drama,she continued teaching and in the coming years revived ancient Indian plays starting withSanskrit dramamasters,Kalidasa,Bhasa,VishakhadattaandBhavabhuti.She was first to revive 4th century BC, Sanskrit playwright,Bhasa's through her productions ofMadhyamavyayoga(1966) (The Middle One) andUrubhanga(The Broken Thigh), a decade beforePannikarandRatan Thiyambegan working with them.[12]She later directedVishakhadatta'sMudrarakshasa,Virkam Varman'sBhagavadajjukam(1967) all in Hindi.[12]In 1967, she wroteJasma OdaninGujaratibased on a folk tale, subsequently she translated it in Malavi Hindi with Dr. Shyam Parmar, the result was her most noted production of theBhavai-based musicalJasma Odhanin 1968, withNSD Repertory Companyfeaturing actors likeManohar SinghandUttara Baokar.She also did the design for the play, and it resurrected theBhavaifolk theatre from Gujarat. Jasma Odhan remains an integral part of Bhavai repertoire to date[13]and ran successfully in cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Delhi for many years[14]and was also performed in London, Poland and GDR.[15]It was later revived byNadira Babbar's group Ek jute, which is now performing it for several years now.[16]She also wrote historical play,Razia Sultanwhich was quite popular[1]and usedNautankifolk theatre style fromUttar Pradeshchoreographing her production,Amar Singh Rathor,which she also wrote. She revived interest inJaishankar Prasad's plays, which though appreciated for literary content were deemed un-stagable by scholars, by successfully staging his 1928 historical playSkanda Gupta,with little changes to the original script.[17]She remained its Chairperson, 1982–1984. She also remained Director, Bal Bhavan, Delhi and National Children's Museum.

Literary career

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Apart from plays, she wrote a short story collectionUgata Chhod(1951) and a novelAvinash(1952) in Gujarati. HerGujaratan ne Pagale Pagale(1948) includes sketches of ancient and modern women.[18]

Personal life

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She was married to Marxist historianVictor Kiernanin 1938 in Bombay (now Mumbai), but the couple divorced in 1946 before Kiernan left India.[19]

Further reading

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  • Baumer, Rachel Van M.; James R. Brandon (1993)."A Sanskrit Play in Performance: The Vision of Vasavadatta, by Shanta Gandhi".Sanskrit drama in performance.Vol. 2. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. pp. 110–140.ISBN81-208-0772-3.

Works

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  • Ekalavya.Publisher Bhartiya Sahakari Prakashan Society, 1964.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ab"Profile:" I Was Recognised For My Genius "".The Outlook. 18 December 1996.
  2. ^"Shanta Gandhi dead".The Hindu.10 May 2002. Archived fromthe originalon 6 November 2012.
  3. ^"From Gujarat with grace".The Tribune.11 June 2006.
  4. ^NSD chairpersonArchived6 December 2010 at theWayback MachineNational School of Dramawebsite.
  5. ^"SNA: List of Akademi Awardees".Sangeet Natak AkademiOfficial website. Archived fromthe originalon 17 February 2012.
  6. ^Frank, p. 76
  7. ^Frank, p. 118
  8. ^Frank, p. 130
  9. ^Sinha, p. 145-6
  10. ^Veteran actress Dina Pathak passes awayArchived12 July 2004 at theWayback MachineIndian Express,12 October 2002.
  11. ^About usArchived28 July 2010 at theWayback MachineAvehi-Abacus.
  12. ^abDharwadker, p. 167
  13. ^Subramanyam, p. 24
  14. ^Brandon, p. 83
  15. ^National School of Drama, New Delhi: Fifty yearsArchived17 April 2009 at theWayback Machineeducation.nic.in.
  16. ^"Stagecraft".The Times of India.10 July 2003.
  17. ^"Re-discovering Dhruvaswamini".The Hindu.29 October 2009.
  18. ^Chaudhari, Raghuveer;Dalal, Anila,eds. (2005). "લેખિકા-પરિચય" [Introduction of Women Writers].વીસમી સદીનું ગુજરાતી નારીલેખન[20 Century Women's Writings in Gujarati] (in Gujarati) (1st ed.). New Delhi:Sahitya Akademi.p. 353.ISBN8126020350.OCLC70200087.
  19. ^"Victor Kiernan: Marxist historian, writer and linguist."The Independent.20 February 2009.

References

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