[PhillipHer]

An article by Padmanabha: Draupadi

Draupadi is a play performed in connection with the theatre festival yesterday.

Draupadi, unlike sita is not silent. She is not docile like Damayanti, and not sacrificing like Savithri. When she was asked to ensconce on Duryodanan’s thigh in the Assembly, she asked, “What legal right Yudhishtira has in staking me? He has already lost himself. He had no right to claim any thing as his own.” When her humiliation, barred all limits, Draupadi lifts her both arms in prayer and lets go her dress. She appeals to Krishna to save her modesty. Krishna provides unending swirl of cloth. Miraculous!!


Now let us come to reality. Every other day we come across abuse against women. And no savior like Krishna comes to save her modesty. Kanhailal, a playwright from Manipur conceived Mahaswetha Devi’s “Drapudi” and has successfully related it to the contemporary plight of women. Here Draupadi represents the marginalized people of rural India constantly oppressed by the muscle power of the rulers. She voices against the atrocities against women. Dopadi (Draupadi) and her husband Dulna, set out to fight for their community, namely Santhals. The police search them for the killing of the master. The couple goes under cover. Finally Dulna was killed by the police and Dopadi, falls in the trap, of the police. Unlike Draupadi in the epic Dopadi is not infinitely clad. No savior like the Lord reaches in time. She claims her body as her own, and, more importantly, claims control over the symbolic potential of her body. She makes it mean what she wants it to mean, turning male lust on its head and making the obscure object of desire/violence into a potentially disruptive object of horror. But she demands her right over her own ‘body language’, in the face of the most grueling odds. She strips her clothes, screams her protest out to the men who are her rapists. She subverts the system of oppression with the very thing that is its primary object, turns her ostensible weakness into her source of power.
“You may remember a similar incident occurred in Manipur in 2004. A group of Manipuri women stripped naked in front of the Western Gate of Kangla, where the 9 Sector Assam Rifles and 17 Sector Assam Rifles are housed. The 17 Assam Rifles personnel had picked up old Thangjam Manorama from her house and shot her dead on July 11. The possibility of rape was acknowledged. The district administration of the two districts of Imphal acted swiftly and imposed an indefinite curfew. The women folk started gathering in front of the Western Gate of Kangla and stripped off their clothing and raised slogans to lodge their protest. They also challenged the security personnel to come out and outrage their modesty, if they wished. Policemen who rushed to the site found themselves in an awkward position. “Our sons and daughters are being trampled, tortured, raped and killed by the security personnel”-they shouted” Heisnam Kanhailal, the director recollected and added, “I do not know how many of them have heard of Mahaswetha Devi and her work Draupadi” and continued:

“I was in Delhi then. A friend of mine informed me, how the climax of the play became a reality” “After the performance many women came to the green room, and prostrated before us. Still others wept. The shock of this protest affected both the violators of Draupadi and the audience, alike” he said.
Draupadi’s nakedness on stage had the same impact as in the text. The audience remained spell bound, at this gesture of Dopadi.
Dopadi’s scream would definitely haunt us. If it could create an attitudinal change in men and inculcate respect for women, it is the success of Draupadi.