EMERGING TRENDS IN INDIAN ENGLISH DRAMA

Abstract

India has the longest and the richest tradition in drama. During the age of the Vedic Aryans,
drama was performed in a simple way. Different episodes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharta, and
the Bhagavad-Gita were enacted out in front of people. It depicts different situations relating to men
good, bad and indifferent, and gives courage, amusement, happiness and advice to all of them. When
Britishers came in India, the crippled Indian drama regained its strength. In 1920, a new drama in
almost all the Indian languages came to the fore, it was a drama largely influenced by prevailing
movements like Marxism, Psychoanalysis, symliolism, and surrealism. Indian drama got a new
footing when kendriya Natak Sangeet Akadmi was started in January 1953 National school of drama
set up Sangeet Natak Akadami in 1959 was another development. The year 1972 was a landmark year
for Indian theatre. Badal Sircar, vijay tendulkar and girish karnad have contributed to the
modernization of the face of the Indian theatre, these play wrights have made bold innovations and
fruitful experiments in terms of both thematic concerns and technical virtuosities.