Together, together, how is it together? Who gives this support? Who believes this together? Who gets it together? I get just kick Whose kick? Aji everyone, the kick of the landlord, the kick of the mill owner, the kick of the ration seller, the kick of the milkman and the kick of the policeman! It got spoiled after being kicked, I forgot to tell, what’s wrong with me? I am a worker, a part of a machine, a useful thing, but a useless thing. I work for the machine, the owner of the machine and nothing after that. At least nothing for the owner. It is difficult if you ask for salary, it is difficult if you don’t ask. Ask for leave then retrenchment, ask for bonus then chutney.
These are the lines of the play ‘Machine’ which showed the path of popularity to street plays in the country. The play ‘Machine’ written by Safdar Hashmi, which was seen by one and a half lakh people in Delhi, was played thousands of times across the country. The peak of popularity is such that the pain of the laborers has not found such words before. Safdar Hashmi, the mastermind behind taking the play off the stage and taking it to the nook and corner of the public, has never happened before. Not even later. Safdar Hashmi lived only for 34 years, now it has been 34 years since his absence. Today, even after 34 years of Safdar Hashmi’s absence, street plays are recognized in the country because of someone, then they are Safdar Hashmi. Today is the birthday of the same Safdar Hashmi.
He is synonymous with street theatre, that is why his birthday is celebrated as Street Theater Day. Sudhanva Deshpande has written in detail about the life of Safdar Hashmi, born in Delhi on 12 April 1974, in his book ‘Halla Bol: Life and Death of Safdar Hashmi’. Rajkamal Prakashan has published a booklet ‘Safdar’ on his work and personality, in which Habib Tanveer, MK Raina, Prasanna have talked about Safdar’s work and there is also a compilation of Safdar’s articles and plays.
To know how Safdar became Safdar Hashmi of Street Play, one should know his childhood. According to Sudhanva Deshpande, Safdar was definitely born in Delhi but his father had settled in Aligarh in 1952 and his wife and children also moved to Aligarh in the winter of 1954-55. Safdar must have been around ten months old at that time. Literature dominated the house, which shaped the personality of little Safdar. After about ten years, in 1964, Safdar’s family again reached Delhi. Safdar took admission in the college in 1970. His father and brother wanted Safdar to study at Hindu College, but Safdar took admission in English Honors at St. Stephen’s College, considered elite. At that time, Safdar’s hand was tight in English, yet he got admission in St. Stephen’s because a member of the interview committee felt that this boy was intelligent and he was allowed to speak in Hindi.
Speaking in Hindi, Safdar was able to impress the interview committee. Safdar must have studied in Elite College but he did not like the pro-English environment. At the same time, he was attracted to a group of Naxalite students active in St. Stephen’s. One reason for this was also that like Safdar, he too did not have money to buy anything from the cafe. Safdar’s fascination with Naxalism ended within a few days. The reason for this was the fundamental difference in thinking. Nearly a decade later, as Sudhanva Deshpande writes, Safdar wrote in a letter to his close friend Prabhat Upreti:
There is no desire to kill “two-four bastards” with a stengun. I feel pity on those who do this, on those who think. He wants me to explain something to him, to open his eyes… (He) had erected a barricade of false bravery and greatness on the path of revolution. If you get inspired by them, you will be ruined.
This was the thought due to which Safdar tried to take the plays off the stage and take them to the public. It was this thought that made Safdar write:
Learn to read and write, you hard workers
Learn to read and write, you starving ones
identify a b c d
learn to read alif
A A E E K Weapon
Learn to fight by making.
The golden age of street plays in the country begins after the Emergency. Prior to this, in the year 1973, after breaking away from the Indian People’s Theater Association (IPTA), Safdar and some colleagues had formed Jan Natya Manch (Janam). After the Emergency, Janam started expanding itself. Before that, Safdar used to perform plays in public but on an open stage. Through street plays, he took his story off the stage and took it to the public. Square-intersection, street-neighborhood, slum-hut, in strike-movement, around factories or in colleges-universities standing in a circle among the public. Jaja called out at some square, ‘Come, come, watch the drama, watch the drama…’ Some poems and folk songs. In this way a wave of street plays arose and spread across the country.
The plays were never written for the labourers, for the toiling people, for the plays to be performed among them. Safdar himself completed this work along with Rakesh Saxena, a founding member of Janam. The early dramas were ‘Machine’ (1978) and ‘Aurat’ (1979). Machine was such a play which was staged in different languages across the country in different ways. In this drama, the issue of harassment of laborers was raised on the demand of canteen and cycle stand inside a factory. The basic tone of this play was about the mechanized society.
Then January 1, 1989 also came when Safdar Hashmi was attacked by supporters of a leader in Jhandapur, Sahibabad (Ghaziabad) during the staging of the play ‘Halla Bol’ in favor of the workers. Safdar died the next day. Two days later, on January 4, Safdar’s companion and wife Malayashree went to the same place and completed the unfinished play. This is a unique event in Indian art history in which dedication and loyalty towards art is visible.
There is a reference that there was no such announcement that Safdar’s birthday should be celebrated in the form of a street play on April 12. But it was love for Safdar that spontaneously his birthday was celebrated as National Street Play Day in the whole country. Many dormant groups became active due to the activities of Jan Natya Manch, especially Safdar Hashmi. His plays ‘Machine’, ‘Raja Ka Baja’, ‘Halla Bol’ and ‘Aurat’ continue to be staged.
On that day, on January 1, 1989, if the play had not been delayed, that is, it would have started an hour before the scheduled time, Safdar would not have been attacked. On that day, if Safdar had not come between them and the attackers to save the painters, then perhaps his life would have been saved, but Safdar had learned to fight, not run away. During the college days, he distanced himself from the Naxalite group because he talks about justice with the help of a gun, whereas Safdar was a person who talked about getting justice by awakening. Today, even though he is not there, he remains a symbol of the unity of workers and artists. They are symbols of public concern for art. For such a Safdar, these poetic lines of Bengali poet Purnendu Patria are perfect:
Cruelty is not a new word,
oppression and injustice
nothing new
new word and new thing
Safdar Hashmi
Meaning of Safdar Hashmi
have to wake up
Stay awake, wake up
The grief of this death
Can never be lowered from our shoulders
How foolish barbarism is
As though death is enough to wipe out
The heart of a vow
Assault is not a new word
Violence is not a new word
The new word is Safdar Hashmi
Safdar Hashmi means waking up
Staying awake
Awakening
(“A New Word: Safdar Hashmi”, Purnendu Pattrea, translated from the Bengali)
