Safdar Hashmi

Safdar Hashmi (April 12, 1954 – January 2, 1989) was a Communist playwright, actor, director, lyricist, and theorist, chiefly associated with Street theatre in India, and is still considered an important voice in political theatre in India . He was a founding member of Jana Natya Manch (People's Theatre Front; Janam for short) in 1973, which grew out of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). He was brutally murdered in Delhi while performing a street play, Halla Bol.

Biography

Early life and education

Safdar Hasmi was born on April 12, 1954 in Delhi to Haneef and Qamar Azad Hashmi. He spent early part of his life in Aligarh and Delhi, where he grew up in liberal Marxist environment, and went on to complete his schooling in Delhi.

He graduated from St Stephen's College Delhi in English Literature, and did M.A. English from Delhi University, it was here that he became a associated with the cultural unit of 'Student Federation of India', the youth wing of the CPI-M, and eventually with IPTA, with which he went on to work on several plays during and post his graduation years such as Kimlesh, presented at the Kisan Sabha (Peasant’s Union) All India conference, and Dekhte Lena .

Career and Activism

He co-founded Jana Natya Manch, People's Theatre Front or JANAM (Rebirth), as an acronym, in 1973, which grew out of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) and was associated with Communist Party of India (Marxist), with which he was actively involved in 1970s . When Indian Prime Minister, was blamed with rigging the elections , he produced a street play, 'Kursi, Kursi, Kursi' (Chair, Chair, Chair), wherein, when a king tries to leave his throne for an elected public representaive, the throne lifts along with him. The play was performed everyday for a week, at the Boat Club Lawns in New Delhi, then a hub of political activity, and proved to be a turning point for the group .

Till 1975, Janam performed open-air proscenium and street plays for mass audiences, then during the Emergency years (1975-77), he worked as a lecturer in English literature in universities in Garhwal, Kashmir and Delhi.

Post Emergency he returned to politicial activism, and in 1978 Janam took to street theatre in a big way, with Machine which was performed for a trade union meeting of over 200,000 workers on 20 November 1978 . This was followed by plays on the distress of small peasants (Gaon Se Shahar Tak), on clerical fascism (Hatyare & Apharan Bhaichare Ke), on unemployment (Teen Crore), on violence against women (Aurat) and on inflation (DTC ki Dhandhli). He also produced several documentaries and a TV serial for Doordarshan “Khilti Kaliyan” (Flowers in Bloom) on rural empowerment. He also wrote books for children and criticism of the Indian stage . He was the de-facto director of Janam, and till his death, 'Janam' gave about 4,000 performances of 24 street plays, performed mostly working-class neighborhoods, factories and workshops .

He was a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the largest communist party in India. In 1979, he married his comrade and theatre actress, Moloyshree. Later he worked in the Press Trust of India (PTI), Economic Times as a jounalist and then joined as the Press Information Officer of the Govt. of West Bengal in Delhi . In 1984, he gave up his job and devoted himself full-time to political activism .

Safdar’s output includes two proscenium plays – an adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s Enemies (1983), and Moteram ka Satyagraha (with Habib Tanvir, 1988) – many songs, a television series script, poems and plays for children, and documentary films. While committed to radical, popular, leftwing art, Safdar refrained from clichéd portrayals and was not afraid of formal experimentation.

On 1 January 1989, while performing a street play, Halla Bol (Attack!), during Ghaziabad municipal elections, at Sahibabad's Jhandapur village, (near Delhi), the Janam troupe was attacked by political hoodlums of Indian National Congress Party . Safdar succumbed to his injuries the following day. On January 4, 1989, two days after his death, his wife Moloyshree Hashmi, went to the same spot again, with the troupe of 'Jan Natya Manch' and defiantly completed the play .

Fourteen years after the incident, a Ghaziabad court convicted ten people , including Congress Party member Mukesh Sharma, for the murder .

Legacy

He has become a symbol of cultural resistance against authoritarianism for the Indian left. Janam continues its theatre work in Delhi. The writer Bhisham Sahni, along with many other artists, founded the 'Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust' (SAHMAT) in February 1989 , as an open platform for politically and socially conscious artistes. Safdar Hashmi's writings were later collected in The Right to Perform: Selected Writings of Safdar Hashmi (New Delhi, 1989).

Today, each year on January 1, the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Day, is observed as a 'Day of Resolve' by SAHMAT, and a day-long cultural congregation, 'Jashn-e-Daura', is organized in New Delhi . The day is also commemorated by 'Jan Natya Manch', the theatre group he co-founded in 1973, by organizing street plays at Jhandapur village, in Sahibabad, where he was killed . In 1998, 'Safdar Hashmi Natyasangham' was formed in Kozhikode, Kerala, which provides free training to economically backward students .

The 2008 film, Halla Bol, made by Rajkumar Santoshi, was inspired by his life, and also depicts a scene, where a street theatre activist is shown being beaten by political goons, but turns into a catalyst for public uprising in the film .

Master painter M F Husain joined the million-dollar club with his painting on Safdar Hashmi going under the hammer for over $1 million. An unidentified art collector went past the keenly fought bidding at an auction organised by Emami Chisel Art Auction House in Kolkata to bag 'Tribute to Hashmi' for $10.38 lakh (approx Rs 4.4 crore). Incidentally, this was the first painting of an Indian artist to cross the Rs ten lakh mark in 1987.

Further reading

• The Right to Perform: Selected Writings of Safdar Hashmi, Delhi, SAHMAT, 1989.
• Paanchwa Chiraag, Qamar Azad Hashmi,(Hindi). 1995.
• The Fifth Flame: The Story of Safdar Hashmi. Qamar Azad Hashmi. (Translation) Penguin Books, 1997. ISBN 0670875961.
• Plays, Applause, and Bullets: Safdar Hashmi's Street Theatre, Eugene van Erven, JSTOR, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Winter, 1989), pp. 32-47.

References

External links

• Official website of SAHMAT
• Official website of Jan Natya Manch, 'JANAM'
• a childrens' poem book "duniya sabki"(world is for all) by safdar hashmi in hindi
• Taking it to the Streets: The Activist Theatre of Ngugi WaThiong'o and Safdar Hashmi - Lopamudra Basu
• An Interview with Safdar Hashmi NY Times