GANDHIAN TOUCH TO THE INDIAN DRAMA BHARATI SARABHI ‘THE WELL OF THE PEOPLE’

Abstract

In Indian English writing, Drama is sparsely cultivated field. Consciously or
unconsciously the fear of women intruding into the boundaries of writing plays might have
triggered the men writes not to encourage women venturing into the dramatic creation. It is
almost impossible to trace out the women dramatists from Sophocles to Shakespeare as there
is no mention of them in literary history. There arouse a women dramatist, Aphra Behn, a
friend of John Dryden who earned her livelihood by writing plays. She challenged the
dominant literary men and dared to write and establish herself as no other woman could do
ever before. She became the mother of all women writers around the world. Virginia Woolf
hails from contribution of Aphra Behn, and pays tribute to her in the essay "A Room of One's
Own". She acknowledges that all women ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra
Behn, for it is she who earned them the right to speak their minds. Though there are less
number of women Dramatists, but still one can find some silver lining in the clouded
atmosphere of Indian English Drama. The foremost playwright is Bharati Sarabhai followed
by Mrinalini Sarabhai, Swarna Kumari Devi, Ghosal, Smt. K.B. Thakur, Shanta Rama Rao
and few others. Bharati Sarabhai is the first, most distinguished woman dramatist, who gave a
Gandhian touch to Indian English drama. Her first play, The Well of the People