SOCIO-POLITICAL IDEOLOGY IN VIJAY TENDULKAR’S PLAY KANYADAAN

Abstract

“Kanyadaan” is perhaps the most controversial play written by Vijay Tendulkar. It happens to be the last major play of Tendulkar that was staged. It dwells on an extremely sensitive social, political issue, mainly, the conflict between upper caste and Dalits, a phenomenon still prevalent in several parts of India. Despite sixty five years of independence Dalits continue to suffer at the hands of the upper caste. Tendulkar in this play presents entirely different aspect that the suffering of an upper caste woman and her family in the hands of a Dalith educated young man. Vijay Tendulkar dwells deep into this social evil and presents it as it is. This method of his is truly characteristic of a genuine playwright whose foremost concern is to open his reader-audience’s eyes to a social problem. This paper aims to highlight the issue of Dalit’s psyche in the post independent India as revealed in Tendulkar’s play. They are not ready to mix up with the majority sections of the society. They want to maintain their Identity of Dalit. The genuine concern of the higher class people appears to them merely hypocrisy as they cannot forget their intolerable past. The suppression of them in the past by the “savarna” haunts them and this reality is presented through the male protagonist in the play. Tendulkar has raised the question that if this is the reality then how can the gap between the upper caste and the lower caste be bridged. The ideology of few people to mix up with them will never be the solution so the situation requires new ways to overcome the gap between the upper class and lower class.