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By:

Shoma A. Chatterji

21 August 2024 at 10:49:40 am

The Pallbearer’s Tragedy

Three decades after its premiere, Rangakarmee’s Mayyat remains a searing theatrical indictment of caste. Rangakarmee is perhaps the only theatre group that has been producing and performing plays in Hindi in Kolkata for 50 years this year. Founded and headed by the late Usha Ganguly, it is still as active and dynamic in presenting Hindi plays mainly new and sometimes recreating for the new audience, old plays that are timeless in their content and their appeal. The amazing feature of Mayyat...

The Pallbearer’s Tragedy

Three decades after its premiere, Rangakarmee’s Mayyat remains a searing theatrical indictment of caste. Rangakarmee is perhaps the only theatre group that has been producing and performing plays in Hindi in Kolkata for 50 years this year. Founded and headed by the late Usha Ganguly, it is still as active and dynamic in presenting Hindi plays mainly new and sometimes recreating for the new audience, old plays that are timeless in their content and their appeal. The amazing feature of Mayyat is that it was first performed by Usha Ganguly and her troupe way back in 1997 and has already performed around 500 shows spanning 30 years and signifies the cross-generational reach and popularity of the play. We saw a group of absolutely new actors dedicated to Rangakarmee. Their performance defined the strict discipline, the constant workouts and rehearsals to keep mobile and flexible because the very big cast needed to be perfect in body, mind and spirit during each 45-minute performance. What does the word Maiyyat mean? It is said to have its roots in Arabic and literally, it translates as ‘dead body’ or ‘corpse.’ The play is rooted in the deep internalization among the low castes of their exploitation and torture by the Brahmins of their village. The Brahmins are proud in their gait, their body language and even in their pure form of dress with the holy thread of Brahminism proudly on display. The custom of the proud, arrogant and rude Brahmins is to choose at least one among the four untouchables to become the pall-bearer when someone of the upper-caste dies. Instead of feeling sad or insulted, the chosen untouchable feels blessed and proud for being allowed by this strange custom of becoming a fake “Brahmin” if even for one day. Lakku is one such untouchable who lives somewhere near Aurangabad and leads a miserable life of poverty with the burden of a mentally deranged, motherless son he takes care of. The pall is decorated heavily with flowers and instead of looking like a bourse, it is decorated with lots of flowers like a palanquin. Someone obviously among the Brahmins is dead and the other Brahmins draw lots to find out which untouchable will be chosen to offer his shoulder to the bourse. `When Lakku’s name comes up in the shuffling of the paper chips, he is thrilled that at least for one day, he will enjoy the ‘blessing’ of becoming a “Brahmin.” But forced to run through the village on an empty stomach and with a weak body, Lakku collapses and dies before the bourse can reach the crematorium. Now, the question is – who will carry his body and carry it to the cremation ground? The entire performance, with 23 theatre actors, originally scripted, designed and directed by Usha Ganguly, is now performed by a new young cast under the guidance, training and supervision of Amal Saha, Deepesh Rajak, and Anirudh Sarkar. It has been conceived and designed like a musical opera with every Brahmin member of the cast, including the young women, dressed traditionally in pristine white with lots of marigold garlands and a sandalwood tikka adorning their foreheads. Though there are dialogues in the performance, these are either among the leading and decisive members among the Brahmins or scoldings and threats from the Brahmins to the four members from the untouchable tribe, each one representing a different low caste. These four men, alongwith Lakku and his mentally retarded son, keep waiting eagerly in one corner of the proscenium for the results of the lots to be drawn. They hug each other for joy when their names are announced and Lakku specially is thrilled with the responsibility of being pallbearer and becoming a Brahmin for just one night. Whose corpse is being carried in the bourse is not important. What is important is who are the pall bearers? At least, the Brahmins are not. What one carries home after watching a performance-play like Mayyat is the marvellous synchronization of the entire female cast wandering right around the proscenium space singing songs in complete harmony with not a note of error and the Brahmin men discussing, arguing and quarrelling over not how the corpse will be cremated but which low-caste man will become the pallbearer for one night. The bottom-line is caste is a continuous, historical evil. But should it remain so? (The writer is a noted film scholar. Views personal.)

Hit and Run

Rahul Gandhi has turned the charge of alleged ‘vote theft’ into his newest political prop. In recent weeks the Congress Leader of Opposition has accused the Election Commission with increasing stridency of colluding with the interests of the ruling BJP, while alleging mass deletion of voters in Karnataka, and hinting at conspiracies in Maharashtra. His claims were delivered with righteous fury at a press conference, amplified through social media and then abandoned before it can be tested in Parliament or a court of law.


This is a consistent method in Gandhi’s playbook: make a spectacle, stoke suspicion, and slip away from responsibility. At his latest press conference, Gandhi promised more revelations in the coming months, speaking as though Indian democracy itself had been captured. Yet when asked whether he would take his allegations to the judiciary, he airily dismissed the suggestion as not his responsibility. Instead, he cast himself as merely a messenger passing along what citizens and even supposed insiders from the Election Commission had told him.


The Election Commission has not exactly stayed silent. It has issued detailed rebuttals to Gandhi, pointing out that voter rolls cannot be tampered with online and that past attempts at manipulation were caught and investigated by the authorities themselves. Far from shielding wrongdoers, the commission has acted against them. Last month it even challenged Gandhi to back his charges through a sworn affidavit or withdraw them altogether. He refused.


The implications of Rahul’s antics extend beyond India’s borders. To outside observers, the picture Gandhi paints is that of a democracy on life support, its elections rigged. Western governments and media outlets, eager to see evidence of democratic decline in India, seize upon such claims. The damage is not that the allegations are true but that they are incessantly repeated in Goebbelsian fashion by someone who aspires to lead the country. In the battle for perception, Gandhi is irresponsibly lending credibility to a false narrative that India’s electoral system is broken.


Most voters are unlikely to wade through affidavits or legal clarifications. What sticks is the accusation, not the rebuttal. A slogan repeated often enough can harden into belief. By refusing to pursue formal remedies, he shifts the burden of proof onto the EC, forcing it to disprove rumours rather than the accuser proving them.


Serious politicians test their claims in Parliament, in courts, or through evidence. Gandhi instead prefers to cultivate grievance without closure. India deserves a strong opposition is vital to any democracy, but it must be grounded in facts and a willingness to engage with the very institutions it claims to defend. Gandhi’s brand of politics, high on drama, low on responsibility, undermines that project.


He has become less a challenger to power than a provocateur thriving on distrust. His politics of evasion may earn headlines, but they corrode the democratic fabric he professes to champion. Far from saving democracy, he diminishes it daily.


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