Asian Theatre Journal, Volume 39, Number 2, Fall 2022, pp. 428-432, Published by University of Hawai’i Press
Dr. Chakrabarti reviews Ananda Lal’s Indian Drama in English: The Beginnings
Excerpt: Ananda Lal’s Indian Drama in English: The Beginnings fills a critical lacuna in the study of Indian theatre history while offering insights into the complexities and challenges of archiving book history in an Indian postcolonial context, as Lal notes the “absence of a culture of methodical library acquisition” (p. 9) in his introduction. Contrary to what a disorganized and sparsely recorded Indian theatre history had confirmed for so long, this meticulously researched anthology, [End Page 428] compiled, edited, and annotated by Lal, corrects some commonly held misconceptions, invalidating the erstwhile accepted theory that Indian theatre in English begins with the English translation of Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s Bengali play Ekei ki bale sabhyata? (1871). As such, it is a key volume for scholars of South Asian Drama. (link)…
