Social Solidarity as Panacea in Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps Around the Fire

Abstract

Gender discrimination, Oppression, Marginalization are certain concepts derived out of social and cultural construct spanning through ages. In the Indian social and cultural construct, Patriarchal society prevails predominantly where a man is expected to be active, dominating, adventurous, rational and creative and a woman is considered to be passive, submitting, timid, emotional and conventional. This concept is seeded right from the childhood and sometimes even before that. In such a confined social setup, one can visualize how a third gender, Hijra is being treated and pushed to a heightened politics. Drama is an art which acts as a direct medium to communicate the harsh realities to the audience. In A Companion to Post-War British Theatre, Barnes approves, “The stage is the last remaining arena for the free assault of our society...the last playground of the emotions, last public place for a critical but humane judgement of a monstrous speculative society” (24). Accordingly, Mahesh Dattani, an uncompromising director, playwright, producer, founder of a theatre ‘Playpen’, employs various realistic theatrical forms to engage the spectator in identifying the emotions carried by the voiceless, marginalized and minority people in India, and stimulates them to understand real situation prevailing in the society. He optimizes to stage up the angst of voiceless society of India that will push the Indian society into the next level of social civilization. In Seven Steps Around the Fire, Dattani explores the misery of minority people (Hijra) against the irresistible forces of social apathy and ventures to highlight the physical and sexual abuse, violence and other discriminations which they face. Paying due attention to this play, the article attempts to study the emotional turbulences