Table Of ContentThe Performance of Nationalism
Imagine the patriotic camaraderie of national day parades. How crucial is
performance for the sustenance of the nation? The Performance of Nationalism
considers the formation of the Indian and Pakistani nation, in the wake of the
most violent chapter of its history: the partition of the subcontinent. In the
process, Jisha Menon offers a fresh analysis of nationalism from the perspective
of performance. Menon recovers the manifold valences of “mimesis”: as
aesthetic representation, as the constitution of a community of witnesses, and
as the mimetic relationality that underlies the encounter between India and
Pakistan. The particular performances considered here range from Wagah border
ceremonies, to the partition theatre of Asghar Wajahat, Kirti Jain, M.K. Raina,
and the cinema of Ritwik Ghatak and M.S. Sathyu. By pointing to the tropes of
twins, doubles, and doppelgängers that suffuse these performances, this study
troubles the idea of two insular nation-states of India and Pakistan. In the
process, Menon recovers mimetic modes of thinking that unsettle the reii ed
categories of identity politics.
jisha menon is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at
Stanford University.
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN MODERN THEATRE
Series editor
David B radby , Royal Holloway, University of London
Advisory board
Martin Banham, University of Leeds
Jacky B ratton , R oyal Holloway, University of London
Tracy D avis , Northwestern University
Sir Richard E yre
Michael Robinson, U niversity of East Anglia
Sheila Stowell, U niversity of Birmingham
Volumes for Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre explore the political, social,
and cultural functions of theatre while also paying careful attention to detailed
performance analysis. The focus of the series is on political approaches to the
modern theatre with attention also being paid to theatres of earlier periods
and their inl uence on contemporary drama. Topics in the series are chosen
to investigate this relationship and include both playwrights (their aims and
intentions set against the effects of their work) and process (with emphasis
on rehearsal and production methods, the political structure within theatre
companies, and their choice of audiences or performance venues). Further topics
will include devised theatre, agitprop, community theatre, para-theatre and
performance art. In all cases the series will be alive to the special cultural and
political factors operating in the theatres examined.
Books published
Maria D iCenzo , The Politics of Alternative Theatre in Britain, 1968–1990: The
Case of 7:84 (Scotland)
Jo Riley , Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance
Jonathan K alb , The Theatre of Heiner Müller
Richard Boon and J ane P lastow, eds. Theatre Matters: Performance and Culture
on the World Stage
Claude S chumacher , ed. Staging the Holocaust: The Shoah in Drama and
Performance
Philip R oberts , The Royal Court Theatre and the Modern Stage
Nicholas G rene , The Politics of Irish Drama: Plays in Context from Boucicault
to Friel
Anatoly S meliansky , The Russian Theatre after Stalin
Clive Barker and M aggie B. Gale , eds. B ritish Theatre between the Wars,
1918–1939
Michael P atterson , Strategies of Political Theatre: Post-War British Playwrights
Elaine A ston , Feminist Views on the English Stage: Women Playwrights,
1990–2000
Gabriele G riffin , Contemporary Black and Asian Women Playwrights in
Britain
Loren K ruger , Post-Imperial Brecht: Politics and Performance, East and South
David Barnett , R ainer Werner Fassbinder and the German Theatre
Mary Luckhurst , Dramaturgy: A Revolution in Theatre
Scott B oltwood , Brian Friel, Ireland, and The North
Gerwin S trobl , The Swastika and the Stage: German Theatre and Society,
1933–1945
Gene A. Plunka, Holocaust Drama: The Theater of Atrocity
Nadine Holdsworth , J oan Littlewood’s Theatre
William Storm , Irony and the Modern Theatre
Janelle Reinelt and Gerald Hewitt , The Political Theatre of David Edgar:
Negotiation and Retrieval
Jisha M enon , The Performance of Nationalism: India, Pakistan, and the
Memory of Partition
The Performance of Nationalism
India, Pakistan, and the Memory of Partition
J isha Menon
cambridge university press
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Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, C ambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press,
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www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: w ww.cambridge.org/9781107000100
© Jisha Menon 2 013
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2 013
Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Books Group
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Menon, Jisha, 1972–
The performance of nationalism : India, Pakistan, and the memory of
Partition / Jisha Menon.
pages cm. – (Cambridge studies in modern theatre)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-107-00010-0
1. Indic drama–20th century–History and criticism. 2. Nationalism
in literature. 3. Partition, Territorial, in literature. 4. Motion
pictures, Indic. 5. Nationalism in motion pictures. 6. India–History–
Partition, 1947–Inl uence. 7. India–In literature. 8. Pakistan–In
literature. 9. India–In motion pictures. 10. Pakistan–In motion
pictures. I. Title.
pk5421.m46 2012
891’.1–dc23
2012033994
ISBN 978-1-107-00010-0 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to
in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such
websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents
List of illustrations page viii
Acknowledgments x
1 Introduction 1
2 Bordering on drama: the performance of politics and the
politics of performance 2 2
3 Ghatak’s cinema and the discoherence of the Bengal
Partition 5 4
4 The poetics and politics of accommodation 8 6
5 Somatic texts and the gender of partition 1 19
6 Kashmir: hospitality and the “uni nished business”
of partition 1 54
7 Afterword 1 85
Notes 1 89
Bibliography 2 28
Index 2 57
vii
Illustrations
2.1 A Pakistan Ranger and an Indian Border Security Force
soldier marching during the Wagah border ceremony.
Photo: AP/Aman Sharma. page 45
2.2 Soldiers glare at each other at the Wagah border. Photo: AP/
Vincent Thian. 4 8
3.1 Neeta prepares to leave home. M eghe Dhaka Tara by Ritwik
Ghatak. Courtesy National Film Archives of India. 6 7
3.2 M imetic doubles: Bhrigu and Anasuya rel ect the relationship
between person and place. Komal Gandhar by Ritwik Ghatak.
Courtesy National Film Archives of India. 7 5
3.3 Kinship in crisis. S ubarnarekha by Ritwik Ghatak. Courtesy
National Film Archives of India. 8 2
4.1 A mina turns back to look at her beloved who vanishes from
the mirror. Garm Hawa by M.S. Sathyu. 9 9
4.2 M ai turns to the call of “Daadima,”or grandmother. J innay
Lahore Nahin Vekhya by Sheema Kirmani. Photographer:
S. Thyagarajan, Theatre Archives: Natarang Pratishthan. 1 12
5.1 S aadia hides under the string-bed. Aur Kitne Tukde by
Kirti Jain. Photographer: S. Thyagarajan, Theatre Archives:
Natarang Pratishthan. 1 30
viii
List of illustrations
5.2 A scene of forcible recovery. Aur Kitne Tukde by Kirti Jain.
Photographer: S. Thyagarajan, Theatre Archives: Natarang
Pratishthan. 1 37
5.3 Harnam Kaur – the failed martyr. A ur Kitne Tukde by
Kirti Jain. Photographer: S. Thyagarajan, Theatre Archives:
Natarang Pratishthan. 1 43
6.1 Bhand performer as Shiva in Shikargah . Photographer: Anant
Raina. 1 60
6.2 Interchangeable roles of Mashkara and Badshah, the jester and
the king. Badshah Pather by M.K. Raina. Photographer: Jisha
Menon. 1 79
6.3 Mad Badshah on the heath. Photographer: Jisha Menon. 1 81
ix
