Making a Language One’s Own That is Not One’s Own: Mahesh Dattani’s Tryst with English

Abstract

Mahesh Dattani is credited with giving visibility to ‘invisible issues’, long hidden in closet and
tabooed. However more commendable is his achievement in negotiating with the language for
expressing his creativity. There is no hesitation in admitting that despite prevalence of rich regional
theatre, writing in English rather theatre in English remained marginalized till very recently.
Writing in English undoubtedly gave wide audience and readership but also made one susceptible
to questions on one’s identity. English, after all, is a colonial language and synonymous with
Western civilization. It was tool to control, manipulate and efface the culture of the colonized; a
fear and apprehension expressed eloquently by Ngugi wa Thiong’O. Thus anything remotely
connected to colonizers was met with resistance. Colonial and postcolonial India addressed this
problem by returning to their roots to assert their ‘Indianness’. In drama it manifested in the birth
of ‘theatre of roots’ in a big way. English as the ‘Other’ evoked ambivalent response from writers
of all genres. It is against such strident posturing that Mahesh Dattani need to be understood for a
proper appraisal. His chosen language was English and sprinkling with cultural nuances aptly