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Alkazi Theatre Archives

Print & Theatre

Contextualising Theatre and Cultural Policy in India (1960s-70s) Through Newspaper Clippings and Magazine Articles

Post independence, theatre in India grappled with the question of an ‘Indian’ identity with the establishment of institutions like the National School of Drama, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Lalit Kala Academy, Sahitya Akademi, to name a few, in the 1950s. The Sangeet Natak Akademi Drama Seminar of 1956, presented its analysis and recommendations to the government on the factors hindering the growth of drama, assistance required from the state, training, preservation, promotion and study of folk forms, drama and education, festivals and competitions and publications. The discussions ranged from respectability and the amateur/ professional nature of theatre to the appeal for drama schools at the national and local levels.

A two day seminar organized by the Shriram Centre for Art and Culture, Delhi in May 1978 discussed the issue of the need for a ‘national theatre’. Shanta Serbjeeet Singh writes in Economic Times in June 1978, ‘The Multiplicity of languages and creative forms in India is in itself a strong vindication of the need for a national theatre, set up in New Delhi, with the single aim of bringing before the public eye the best and most meaningful theatrical writing and expression from the regions’.

Contextualising Theatre and Cultural Policy in India (1960s-70s) Through Newspaper Clippings and Magazine Articles

Images courtesy: Alkazi Theatre Archives/ Anand Gupt Collection