Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) came into being in 1942 during the historic ‘Quit India’ movement. Initially, it was a group made up of socially conscious, progressive, cultural activists such as Bijon Bhattacharya, Ritwik Ghatak, Utpal Dutt, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and Salil Chowdhury. In 1943, at the All India People’s Theatre Conference in Mumbai, this group presented the idea of representing contemporary issues through the medium of theatre in order to raise the consciousness of people and involve them in the progressive movement. Thus, IPTA committees were formed in many parts of the country.

The formation of IPTA heralded a different kind of theatre, in which people’s socio-economic and political struggles were portrayed in a new and militant idiom. Some of the earliest plays staged by IPTA have acquired legendary status in modern Indian theatrical tradition. Amongst these, special mention must be made of the Bengali play Nabanna (Harvest), written by Bijon Bhattacharya and directed by Shombhu Mitra, which presented the stark realities of the Bengal famine of 1943. There were many more such plays in different Indian languages, such as Naba Jiboner Gaan (Song of a New Life) in Bengali, Desha Sathi (For the Nation) in Marathi, Prarambham (The Beginning) in Telugu, and Zubeida, directed by Balraj Sahni. IPTA soon became a great movement, which swept across many areas of India. The movement impacted not only theatre but also cinema and music in various Indian languages.

Some of the biggest names of the Indian cultural and artistic pantheon have been fellow travellers in their collective journey in IPTA. These include Amar Shaikh, Shombhu Mitra, Krishan Chander, Kaifi Azmi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Balraj Sahni, Mulk Raj Anand, Shailendra, Prem Dhawan, Ismat Chugtai, Dina Pathak, Pt. Ravi Shankar, A.K. Hangal, Habib Tanvir, Hemant Kumar, Salil Chaudhari, Harindranath Chattopadhyay, Utpal Dutt, Ritwik Ghatak, Sanjeev Kumar, Shaukat Kaifi, Basu Bhattacharya, M.S. Sathyu, Ramesh Talwar, Sulabha Arya, Shabana Azmi and Farooque Shaikh. The list is a virtual ‘Who’s Who’ of Indian art and culture.

The movement has seen many ups and downs over the years. In a process characteristic of groupings composed of such abundantly talented and creative personalities, many left the IPTA to launch their own groups. However, while there have been many ideological differences, most who have been involved with the IPTA have continued to carry a special imprint and in their own special way have upheld the legacy of the IPTA.

Ever since its inception, the IPTA has been at the forefront of the theatre movement in the country. Probably the best known unit of the IPTA today is in Mumbai, which has staged more than 100 plays in various Indian languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu, Kannada and Punjabi and in English. More importantly, units of the IPTA have continued to be founded all over the country and performances have been held in numerous cities and small towns. In 1984, the IPTA Bal Manch came into being to afford an opportunity to young artistes from different socio-economic backgrounds to perform plays and express their latent talent.

Besides theatre work, the IPTA has also been involved in a number of other activities. These include performances by the IPTA’s music choir, language classes, seminars on performing arts, workshops and theatre activities for children. In 1994, the postal department felicitated the IPTA’s contribution to Indian culture by releasing a commemorative stamp.

My association with the IPTA began in 1981 at Raipur (then in Madhya Pradesh, now the capital of Chhattisgarh). Prior to that, however, I had had an invigorating brush with the kind of theatre IPTA represented during my stay at Jabalpur in the late 1970s, when I became involved with Vivechana, a left-leaning group founded by the eminent Hindi satirist and thinker Hari Shankar Parsai and his friends. I was introduced into the group by Gyanranjan, the celebrated short story writer and editor of Pahal.

Vivechana was affiliated to IPTA. It worked in tandem with the Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA) unit in Jabalpur. Thus, although its artists were mainly young enthusiasts enthralled by theatre, they benefited continually from interactions with prominent Left-wing writers, academics and activists of the city and kept enriching themselves intellectually as well. Before a play was taken up, its script was read many times in the presence of friends and philosophers of the PWA and discussed threadbare. To some extent, this continued during rehearsals as well. Thus, Vivechana ensured that all aspects of production were imbued with an ideological component that was not, however, incorporated in a mechanical and dogmatic manner. Artistic and aesthetic excellence had to be combined with the message. In those days, Vivechana’s plays were mostly directed by Alakhnandan, a very colourful, creative and interesting theatre personality, who was a very sensitive poet as well.

Vivechana had, by then, many theatrical successes to its credit. It was not only the pioneer in Leftist theatre in Jabalpur but was earning fame on account of its artistic and creative achievements. It had performed in many festivals in Madhya Pradesh and in other states as well.

Although I had had some exposure to theatre during my school and university years, this was a totally new experience. The energy, zeal and camaraderie in the group were astonishing and exhilarating. One of my most cherished memories of those days is when we performed a play in front of thousands of industrial workers and their families at Amlai, an industrial township in Shahdol district. The labour union was the host and the atmosphere was simply electrifying.

In 1980, I got an opportunity to watch two productions of the IPTA, Mumbai. The group had come to perform during the national conference of the PWA in Jabalpur. Among the stalwarts, who attended that conference, was A.K. Hangal, an IPTA luminary. I remember the excitement his presence generated.

Due to my association with Vivechana, my involvement with the IPTA in Raipur followed naturally when I moved to that city. If I recall correctly, IPTA was then rehearsing its first play, Jaadu Ka Jangal, written by the well-known Hindi poet Rajesh Joshi. While the mechanics and dynamics of the group were essentially similar to those I had experienced with Vivechana, it was a relatively younger cast and the director, Rajkamal Naik, had just begun to make his presence felt in theatre. My first interaction with nukkad nataks also occurred with IPTA, Raipur.

Since then, my association with the IPTA has endured in spite of my movement from place to place due to the exigencies of work. That is one of the attractions of the IPTA experience; it has a pan-India presence and a change of city or town does not necessarily deprive you of the chance to be with fellow-minded theatre enthusiasts. I had the good fortune to be a part of the expansion process of the IPTA as well, because at some places such as Satna and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, IPTA units were not present when I got there. Therefore, I had a chance to contribute, along with other friends, to establishing IPTA units. Sadly, I must add that Delhi, where I live presently, does not seem to have an active IPTA unit and I have to miss out on the joys of day-to-day interactions with IPTA friends.

Looking back upon my IPTA years, I definitely feel that as a broad-based and powerful institution celebrating a theatre that strives to bring about societal change and a more egalitarian society, IPTA has, over the years, played a remarkable role in popularising, propagating and democratising the concept and practice of a more meaningful and socially aware theatre in India. It has afforded opportunities for theatre enthusiasts across the country to know and perform plays not only with high artistic ambition but with a definite socio-political and cultural worldview rooted in the ideal of the emancipation of humanity. Thus, in a country where the manifold wrongdoings of our politicians and cynically commercial mass media have sought to instil a sense of apathy among the masses and thereby depoliticise them, IPTA activities have endeavoured to rekindle and sharpen the people’s understanding of and involvement in political activism. Further, the IPTA has made an immense contribution to defining, inculcating and nurturing a different kind of theatre aesthetics.

The IPTA has also contributed to the growth of the progressive movement by attracting the younger generation and also by mobilising people from all strata of society. Equally important, perhaps, is the fact that while in bigger cities the market seems to dominate everything including culture, IPTA units in many many far-flung little-known places such as Ambikapur, Ashok Nagar, Nagaud and Dalli Rajhara have kept the flag of cultural protest flying. IPTA has brought people together and made them aware that they can and should act collectively. To me, that is the essence of my IPTA experience.