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A Theatre of Protest Amidst Graves, Graffiti and Bullet Marks

A photo-feature on the theatre of protest that connects India and Palestine

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In 1989, Jan Natya Manch founder member, Safdar Hashmi, was killed while performing Halla Bol on a street of an industrial township, on the outskirts of Delhi. In 2011, Juliano Mer Khamis, founder member of Freedom Theatre, in Jenin Refugee Camp, Palestine, was killed outside the theatre by unknown, masked men.

A photo-feature on the theatre of protest that connects India and Palestine
Safdar Hashmi (L) and Juliano Mer Khamis (R)

Perhaps this is what made members of the Palestinian group identify with the Indian theatre group and make it want to know more about its street theatre. So the two groups are coming together to collaborate on a joint production in which both, Arabic and Hindi will be spoken. While actors from Palestine will soon come to India, Sudhanva Deshpande, actor-director-writer, with Jan Natya Manch, visited Palestine to conduct workshops and learn about the circumstances in which Freedom Theatre operates.

A photo-feature on the theatre of protest that connects India and Palestine
Students of The Freedom Theatre School perform a street play in Palestine, devised during a workshop with Sudhanva Deshpande

At one of Junoon’s Mumbai Local sessions, Deshpande shared his experience of seeing first-hand the tormented lives Palestinians live in refugee camps. Set up in 1948 by the UN for those who lost their homes in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the camps are far from being peaceful oases in a war-ravaged terrain.

A photo-feature on the theatre of protest that connects India and Palestine
Sanitation workers at Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem

Towers manned by Israeli soldiers, routinely fire tear-gas shells, loaded with chemicals, at the Palestinian refugees. Their water tanks are targets of shooting and the ovens, in which they bake large, round loaves of bread, are periodically broken. UN-established schools have bullet marks and the students studying here are so petrified of attacks that they have pleaded with the authorities to do away with windows,”
– Sudhanva Deshpande, Jan Natya Manch

“I saw a lady visiting six graves,” he recalls. “One of them was just about two-feet long.”

A photo-feature on the theatre of protest that connects India and Palestine
Deshpande saw this lady visiting six graves in Jenin refugee camp

Surprisingly, in all this bleakness, art and culture are thriving—art and culture of protest. Two lines from a poem by Taufique Ziad project the spirit of this culture. “Ferment rebellion in one’s children/ as yeast in the dough,” he urges.

A photo-feature on the theatre of protest that connects India and Palestine
Leila Khaled, the famed Palestinian fighter, on a mural in the Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem

In theatre, Juliano Mer Khamis and Zakaria Zubeida came together to start Freedom Theatre. Inspired by Juliano’s Israeli mother’s initiative, Care and Learning, set up to counter post-trauma stress in children, Freedom Theatre has staged adapted versions of Animal Farm and Alice in Wonderland as well as many original plays with political sub-texts.

A photo-feature on the theatre of protest that connects India and Palestine
Sudhanva Deshpande with Zakaria Zubeida in Zubeida’s jail

Zubeida, former military chief of the Al-Aqsa brigade that fought fiercely against Israel forces, renounced violence to co-found this theatre group. Ironically, he was thrown into an open jail after he accepted amnesty from the Israelis. “In his jail, he has a television (on which he had seen a documentary on Safdar Hashmi), a laptop, books, dumbbells etc; but no picture of his family,” narrates Deshpande.

A photo-feature on the theatre of protest that connects India and Palestine
Protest graffiti on a wall in Aida

Deshpande found it amazing that, though graves pock-mark the camps, no one here is despondent. “A spirit of hope is to be seen everywhere—in the lady at the graveyard, in children, in the graffiti on walls, and even in the body language of shop mannequins,” states Deshpande.

A photo-feature on the theatre of protest that connects India and Palestine
The key on structures reflects the hopes of older refugees sure of returning to the homes they lost

“The older families still carry the keys of the houses from which they were expelled, sure of going back there, someday. This is why you see the key symbol in many of the structures.”

The challenge before Jan Natya Manch now is in writing a play that will capture this spirit in its joint venture with Freedom Theatre. “How we translate the everyday events of their life into a quality play that both Palestinians and Indians will relate to is the big question before us,” says Deshpande.

(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)

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Topics:  Palestine   Theatre   Safdar Hashmi 

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