무용역사기록학회

The essay starts with a reference to the rhetoric of nationalism around a recent event when Draupadi, an adaptation of the translation of Mahasweta Devi’s short story by the same name was staged as a play, by the students of an Indian University. The subsequent hate campaign and politicisation of a class presentation in the University shook many people in gender and feminist studies. The reading of the play as anti-national and not recognising its importance within the discourses within studies on gender, civil rights or English literature was seen as an extension of the political propaganda in the society. In light of such complete marginalisation of issues of violence on women, this paper tries to bring together different ways in which the woman named Draupadi becomes represented in performances around her in India - travelling across time and geopolitical spaces–where again Draupadi surfaces as a character depicting strong resistance against army atrocities. In its non-linear narrative, it attempts to see Draupadi’s travel through time and space of performative representations as choices of reflections put forward by performers–thus giving her a specific role as the representative of women as vulnerable subjects in Indian society. The paper draws on examples from dance and theatre that are directly based on the story of Draupadi, a central female figure in the Indian epic. It also draws on the story “Draupadi” written by Mahasweta Devi (translated by Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak) and its theatrical rendition. Finally, it looks at a real life situation in Manipur, and its possible connection to the theatrical representation it came to resemble. This paper is written to reflect upon the position of women in the context of national honour and hegemonic structure of patriarchy, taking the story of Draupadi and its after-Life.