Table Of ContentGlobalization, Nationalism and
the Text of Kichaka-Vadha
Globalization, Nationalism and
the Text of Kichaka-Vadha
The First English Translation of the
Marathi Anticolonial Classic, with a Historical
Analysis of Theatre in British India
Translated with an Introduction by
Rakesh H. Solomon
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2014
by ANTHEM PRESS
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Copyright © 2014 Rakesh H. Solomon introduction and translation.
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested.
ISBN-13: 978 1 78308 265 0 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1 78308 265 8 (Hbk)
Cover image: Untitled oleograph, c. 1895, by Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906)
This title is also available as an ebook.
To June
CoNTENTs
Preface ix
Part I. Globalization, Nationalism and Theatre in British India
The Historical Terrain of Kichaka-Vadha 3
Part II. Kichaka-Vadha, or The slaying of Kichaka
A Note on the Translation 45
List of Characters 47
Act One 49
Act Two 73
Act Three 101
Act Four 123
Act Five 143
Key Terms 159
Index 161
PREFACE
I wish to thank a number of libraries and state and national government archives
that extended many courtesies to me while I consulted materials at their collections
for this as well as other projects on theatre in colonial India. I am grateful, above
all, to the Maharashtra State Archives, Bombay, for access to Judicial Department
Records of the Bombay Presidency. I am very grateful as well to the Mumbai
Marathi Grantha Sangrahalaya, and particularly to reference librarian Krushnakant
Shinde, for access to Marathi playscripts and production photographs. For giving
me of their time and advice, I thank the respective heads of the following
institutions: Asiatic Society, Bombay; Asiatic Society, Calcutta; National Library,
Calcutta; and National Archives, New Delhi. I also thank the Oriental and India
Office Collections, British Library, London, for access to their materials. Finally,
I thank the librarians and staff of Interlibrary Loan at Wells Library, Indiana
University Bloomington, for their assistance with obtaining print and microfilm
material, including a copy of the original 1907 text of Kichaka-Vadha from which
this translation was made.
I owe a special debt to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the
American Institute for Indian Studies for two senior fellowships that provided very
generous support for year-long research stays in India. I also wish to register my
appreciation to Indiana University Bloomington for several substantial research
awards. From among these, I am especially grateful for two New Frontiers in the
Arts and Humanities Grants from the Indiana University Lilly Endowment as well
as awards from the College Arts and Humanities Institute, the Office of the Vice
President for Research, and the President’s Council on International Programs.
I also wish to thank the National Science Council of Taiwan and Frank
J. Hildy for their invitation to present my Indian theatre research at the weeklong
Symposium on Theatre Historiography at Taiwan National University in Taipei.
For generous fellowships that encouraged my Indian theatre work at the earliest
stage of my career, I wish to record my continued appreciation to the East-West
Center at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and to the University of California
at Davis.
Beyond institutions and agencies, I am obliged to the following friends for their
help. I am especially grateful to Marathi theatre aficionado Pramod Mhaiskar for
his generous and gracious assistance, despite his own professional obligations. For
their exertions in obtaining photographs and scripts, I thank Shweta and Prashant
Chavan in Mumbai and Nitin Madhukar Prabhune in Solapur.
My Indian theatre work has been sustained by both the extraordinary
professional generosity and the pioneering scholarship of Phillip Zarrilli, John
Emigh, Farley Richmond and Kathy Foley. For that, and for their support in
x Globalization, Nationalism and the Text of Kichaka-Vadha
myriad ways and over many years, I wish to record my profound gratitude. For
invitations to contribute essays on Indian theatre historiography, I thank Thomas
Postlewait and Steve Wilmer (Writing and Rewriting National Theatre Histories),
Christopher Balme (Theatre Research International), Ching-Hsi Perng (In Search of
the Historical Scene: Perspectives on Theatre Historiography), and Nandi Bhatia (Modern
Indian Theatre: Colonial Encounters and Contested Formations). I am also grateful to
several professional organizations for allowing me to refine my work through
public presentation and discussion. My greatest debt is to ASTR (American Society
for Theatre Research) for invitations to present at its annual plenary sessions in
New York City, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Durham and Philadelphia. While I
cannot list here all the societies that afforded me such occasions, I must mention
the following that offered me multiple opportunities: ATHE (Association for
Theatre in Higher Education), AAP (Association for Asian Performance), Annual
Conference on South Asia, MLA (Modern Language Association), and IFTR
(International Federation for Theatre Research).
Since I work as much in American theatre as I do in Indian theatre, I would be
remiss if I did not acknowledge at least some of my most important debts to my
Americanist colleagues. For their generosity and support at some crucial junctures,
I am especially grateful to Lincoln Konkle, David Crespy, and Matthew Roudané.
I also wish to thank them as well as Stephen Bottoms, John Clum, Jeanmarie
Higgins, Cecily Hill, Billy Middleton, Gerald Weales and William Demastes for
their generous assessments of my book Albee in Performance. For invitations to
write essays for their respective volumes, I thank Bruce Mann (Casebook on Edward
Albee) and Stephen Bottoms (Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee).
At Indiana University Bloomington, I thank the India Studies Program for the
interdisciplinary exchange it has fostered by regularly bringing together South
Asia experts from a range of fields in the US and abroad. For camaraderie beyond
my Department of Theatre and Drama, I am grateful to many colleagues in the
three academic units I am affiliated with: India Studies Program, Department of
Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies Program. It is a pleasure to recall
the friendship of several Indiana University colleagues, both past and present,
especially Susan and John Samuel, Pravina Shukla, Henry Glassie, Prema and Bill
Popkin, Marsha Minton, Steve Raymer, Barbara Skinner, Michael Dodson, Murray
McGibbon, Claire and Gerald Larson, and Mala and Kumble Subbaswamy.
During research and other travel over the last several years, I have incurred the
debt of many friends and relatives. So it is a very special pleasure to thank them
and to replay some fond memories, most particularly of the superb food and easy
laughter of June’s mother, Agnes, in her Calcutta home. For their hospitality and
enduring friendship, I thank Vinita and Amar Singh in Menlo Park, Shamim and
Kaiz Poonawala in Austin, Cellie and Ronnie and Molly and Ronald in Mangalore,
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin and Amisha and Gopal Shah in Dohad, Fatima Ghosh and
family in Calcutta, and Sumita and Vinod Mehta in New Delhi.
