July 27, 1998

A play centered on Godse turns into a battle over beliefs.

By Smruti Koppikar

When Nathuram Godse screams "national need", the phrase has a sinister ring to it. But as the controversial Marathi play Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy (I Am Nathuram Godse Speaking) opened to packed halls in Mumbai on July 10, there was resounding applause when the protagonist thundered that assassinating Mahatma Gandhi was a national need. Half a century after Gandhi's murder sent a shocked nation into collective trauma, Godse, the villain, has been turned into a hero, albeit on stage. The turnaround has sparked off what could be the most explosive controversy over Gandhi in recent times.

For playwright Pradeep Dalvi, Godse is God. No wonder then that six shows later, there already was talk of banning it. Angry protests by Congressmen in both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha over two days kept the Shiv Sena-BJP Government in Maharashtra on edge. As Usha Mehta, veteran Gandhian and president of Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahlaya, dashed off an emotional letter to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, urging him to "take necessary steps before it's too late", the demand for a ban gained momentum. Though the state government was initially disinclined to ban the play, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi -- pressured by the disruptions in Parliament, Home Minister L.K. Advani's stand and the Congress protests in front of Culture Minister Pramod Navalkar's office in Mumbai -- did a review.

That director Vinay Apte is part of the cultural think tank of the BJP's state unit has tangled the issue further. "It's an ideological thing ... they want to do their propaganda," says Tushar Gandhi, the Mahatma's great-grandson and Samajwadi Party member. Producer Uday Dhurat says he received threats over the phone to withdraw the production but he is "determined not to give in". Audience support may have given him the necessary encouragement. The shows are sell-outs, people clap spontaneously as the stage Godse, Sharad Ponkshe, questions fundamental principles of Gandhism, and requests for more shows are pouring in from other cities in the state.

One argument against the ban is that in its Gujarati version, it completed nearly 80 shows without attracting criticism. "It's only when they did 60 shows without problems that I decided to go ahead with mine," says Dhurat. But the controversy once started simply snowballed. The Script Scrutiny Committee of the Censor Board has also given the green signal to Dalvi's manuscript earlier this year after forcing a few cuts. "We only approved it ... now how can we ban it?" asks a senior minister. That the approval came during the Sena-BJP regime has raised eyebrows.

Dalvi didn't help matters when he declared in an interview that he would consider the play successful when viewers "destroy Gandhi statues at every chowk and break all signboards carrying Gandhi's name". He later claimed innocence, but the damage was done.

The play has sparked off a debate on artistic licence and freedom of expression. "If they can allow such things, why deny M.F. Husain his rights?" asks Mehta. In the cesspool of ideological and political battles, the theatrical aspect of the play has been sidelined. "No matter how good the production is, should we support a rabid communal propaganda?" asks historian Nalini Pandit, "It's not even factually correct and that's very worrying."

In the play, the assassination is termed "Gandhi vadh". The term vadh in Marathi and Hindi doesn't only mean murder, at times it implies the victory of good over evil. That's why the charge of political and ideological propaganda. The script has Godse saying that Gandhi didn't utter the words He Ram when he fell as commonly believed. He says Gandhi only said "huh". All this has provided Vyalar Ravi and Ajit Jogi, Congress MPs who led the protest in Parliament, with enough ammunition.

Significantly, the play marks a sharp turn in Gandhi-inspired theatre. About five years ago, the successful Gujarati play Gandhi Viruddh Gandhi -- later adapted into Hindi, Marathi and English -- portrayed Gandhi as a failed father. Then the curtain went up on Gandhi-Ambedkar that challenged the Mahatma's concern for Dalits. "He was being steadily stripped of his halo ... the Godse play is the next big but abominable effort in that direction," says a prominent theatre critic. Ironically, Gandhians don't favour a ban. They say it's better to protest in the Gandhian tradition against the play wherever and whenever it is staged. They are wise: controversy almost always raises curiosity value.

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