{"product_id":"poetics-plays-performances-the-politics-of-modern-indian-theatre-by-vasudha-dalmia","title":"'Poetics, Plays \u0026 Performances: The Politics of Modern Indian Theatre' by Vasudha Dalmia","description":"\u003ch4 data-start=\"111\" data-end=\"764\"\u003eVasudha Dalmia reads modern Indian theatre as a contested machinery for producing culture, language and national identity.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"111\" data-end=\"764\"\u003eBeginning with the nineteenth-century emergence of modern Hindi drama, she traces how theatre became entangled with colonial modernity, religious reform, nationalism and the effort to establish Hindi as the language of a newly imagined public. The stage here is formed by decisions about vocabulary, dramatic form, audience and performance tradition are also decisions about who can represent India, and which version of India is being made visible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"766\" data-end=\"1485\"\u003eThe book is particularly interested in the modern theatre’s recurrent turn toward Sanskrit drama, devotional traditions, folk performance and regional forms. Dalmia resists treating this as the uncomplicated recovery of an authentic past. These traditions were selected, translated and reorganised by urban intellectuals working within modern institutions; “the folk” could function as a living practice, a national resource, or a convenient emblem of cultural legitimacy. Her discussion moves from Bharatendu Harishchandra and the formation of Hindi theatre through twentieth-century encounters with Brecht, political performance and the search for an indigenous theatrical idiom. \u003cspan class=\"\" data-state=\"closed\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1487\" data-end=\"1886\"\u003eDense but unusually alert to performance as a political act, this is for readers interested in theatre history, Hindi literary culture, postcolonial modernity and the unstable border between cultural preservation and cultural invention. It is also a useful corrective to accounts of modernism that continue to behave as though Europe invented history and everyone else merely received the paperwork.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col gap-4 grow\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"500ebdf6-b544-4a29-8207-1fabafb0476b\" data-turn-start-message=\"true\" dir=\"auto\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-5-6-thinking\" class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 text-start break-words whitespace-normal outline-none keyboard-focused:focus-ring [.text-message+\u0026amp;]:mt-1\" tabindex=\"0\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert wrap-break-word w-full light markdown-new-styling\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col gap-4 grow\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"500ebdf6-b544-4a29-8207-1fabafb0476b\" data-turn-start-message=\"true\" dir=\"auto\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-5-6-thinking\" class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 text-start break-words whitespace-normal outline-none keyboard-focused:focus-ring [.text-message+\u0026amp;]:mt-1\" tabindex=\"0\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert wrap-break-word w-full light markdown-new-styling\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"25\" data-end=\"333\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\" class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFirst edition, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2006. Hardcover. No number line, so first printing cannot be confirmed. Dust jacket present in a clear protective sleeve, with visible rubbing and light edge wear. Interior pages appear clean and securely bound, with mild age-toning and no visible markings.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchor\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"bower studio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45837645807699,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/0268\/2707\/files\/Yourparagraphtext-2026-07-18T100836.244.png?v=1784333462","url":"https:\/\/bowerbooks.com\/products\/poetics-plays-performances-the-politics-of-modern-indian-theatre-by-vasudha-dalmia","provider":"bower books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}