“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragmentsby domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tirelessstriving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream ofreason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Wherethe mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action“ Intothat heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.” - These are the thoughtsof Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore about our country - India. These thoughtsshould turn into a way of life of every true citizen of the country.Unfortunately, very rarely do we observe such a message attempting to inculcatevalues of patriotism and nationalism to the people through tiatr.
The reason for not having many tiatrs dealing with the themeof patriotism lies in the fact that the script writers of tiatrs came basicallyfrom the Christian community of Goa which was ruled by the dictatorial regimeof Portuguese for about 450 years. The Portuguese regime tried not to impartany information about the history of India to them through education orotherwise. Therefore Goans, particularly those from Christian community, couldnot get any knowledge of the history of our country “ India. On the contrary,Portuguese rulers encouraged teaching and learning of history of Portugal.Accordingly the artistes, who subsequently became script writers of tiatrs, didnot have any background of Indian history to project it through their tiatrs.They had a vast knowledge of the history of Portugal, but they dared not tohighlight it in their tiatrs, because they knew very well that it was not thehistory of their motherland.
Another reason for not having tiatrs on patriotism was thatprior to 1961, i.e. before the Liberation of Goa, it was a serious crime in Goato even utter few words in favour of India. Portuguese rulers mercilesslyprosecuted those who even just showed signs of being pro-India. There being afear of persecution tiatr artistes never took the risk of writing plays on thetheme of patriotism.
It was for this reason that when we go through the historyof tiatr, we do not come across tiatrs based on patriotism and nationalism. Ourartistes have projected practically each and every issue; be it social,religious or political that exists in our society through their tiatrs.Moreover, the theme of patriotism has not been touched by most of the writersand directors of tiatr. In the late 1960s we come across a tiatr entitled‘Jawan’ written and directed by late Prem Kumar. ‘Jawan’ portrays the lives ofour soldiers in the army who sacrifice a lot for the security of our nation.For me, ‘Jawan’ was most probably the first tiatr on patriotism. In themid-1970s I wrote and directed another play called “Ixtt”. The play was basedon the friendship of two officers in the military who fight against each otherfor personal reasons, becomes bitter enemies of each other but ultimately bothcollectively offer supreme sacrifices in order to protect the country fromforeign invasion. Besides these two, I have not come across any tiatrs whichpromote patriotism and nationalism.
There is an urgent need for promoting patriotism andnationalism through tiatr. When I was the president of Tiatr Academy Goa (TAG)we even formulated schemes through which TAG provided financial assistance towriters and directors to produce tiatrs and musical programmes on patriotism,nationalism and communal harmony.
There is no doubt that tiatr is the most popular dramaticform of Goa because it is patronised by a very huge section of Goan society.Therefore, in my opinion tiatr can be the most effective source of attemptingto create feelings and raise emotions of patriotism, nationalism and communalharmony among its audience.
Tomazinho Cardozo is the former president of the TiatrAcademy of Goa
