By Sujatha Fernandes
Theatre, music, song and humour have been used to raise political consciousness in countries where dictatorships censor most forms of political expression. In India, a society in which women are still heavily subordinated under forms of traditional male authority, cultural action has been used with great effect.
The Women's Liberation Organisation (Stri Mukti Sanghatan) in Bombay has produced a play called A Girl is Born, which presents the life of a woman in this society. The play portrays traditional stereotypes in a way that has both men and women laughing at themselves. It was first produced in 1983 and has continued since then with different actors in different cities.
The group is currently in Australia for the Australian Women Playwrights Conference and is performing around Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne.
The play goes through the traditional stages of the marriage ritual. In one scene a woman comes running into a room shouting "Sale, Sale". "A sari sale?", the chorus asks her. "No, A bridegroom sale."
In the scene that follows, the mother takes her daughter around the bazaar to find a husband. As the mother approaches each stall, she bargains for her daughter. "Does he have a master's degree? If he has a masters degree, I will give you 30 ounces of silver to take her." The grooms in turn are scornful: "She only has a BA. I will not take her unless you give me a house and 40 ounces of silver."
The bargaining continues when the groom is selected and the groom's party comes to the house to check out the bride. The whole routine is exaggerated with great effect.
The bride is on her best behaviour; this is the test for her. She serves food, bows a lot and sings to her groom, "I'll sit down, I'll do the children's homework, at parties I'll sing songs and I'll jump to each beck and call of my husband". The groom, barrages her with questions: "How much have you studied? Where are you working? Can I see your pay slip?"
The play seeks to raise awareness about the irrationality of sexism and the need to change sexist attitudes. But change does not come solely from the individual, and this is the strongest point of the play.
The bride, having suffered violence and abuse from her husband, is devastated. All the women form a ring around her, representing her shackles. They will not let her go free. As she runs frantically around the circle trying to break out, she shouts, "I will break the shackles". The other women chant, "How will you break them? If you break them, where will you go? How will you fight by yourself alone?"
Finally the bride stops running in circles and says, "I won't be alone". She grabs the hands of the other women and asks them to help her break the shackles. There is a recognition that even if she manages to run away from her husband or return to her mother, that is only a temporary solution. The importance of uniting with other women and fighting together is the perspective that emerges.
The women form a march and start to chant, "A job for every woman. A job for every woman." Amidst all the joy and exuberance at new-found solidarity, an old woman approaches from the audience. She expresses doubt about all of this newfangled feminism and poses the question: "If every woman has a job, who will stay home and look after the children?".
The answer she is given reflects a radical consciousness in regard to women's liberation: "Children are not the responsibility of women. They are the responsibility of the world." Women's freedom entails a new social order, and these women realise that the future of the world is tied up with their liberation.
A Girl is Born has been played thousands of times in schools, factories, villages, universities, slums and women's hostels. It has had phenomenal impact in educating people about the issues.