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Although the issues related to sexuality are of prime importance in the contemporary world, in the Indian society they are closeted and ignored even today. Several social injunctions are conceptualized against men with alternative sexualities. To avoid social stigma, men refrain from coming out of the closet and accepting their natural sexual identity and orientation. However, there are certain playwrights who have addressed this otherwise taboo subject of sexuality on the Indian Stage. Mahesh Dattani is one amongst them. His plays firmly assert that gender and sexuality are concepts that are not confined to one’s biological orientation, but rather go beyond it. They are conditioned by socio-cultural norms and hegemonic practices. He elucidates how the socio-cultural determinants of gender and sexuality contradict one’s own individual instincts, sexual preferences and lived experiences. With reference to his famous play Do the Needful, this paper gives a brief account of the condition of Indian theatre pre- and post-colonization and projects the camouflaging techniques adopted by the discursive identities of gay people, for example, in order to conspicuously feature as straight and normal. It outlines the social constructions associated with gays in India and how these formations compel Indian men to internalize and succumb to the conventional norms of heterosexuality as the only acceptable norms.

Undoubtedly, Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved is a work of fiction whose main function is not only to depict a story of slavery and emancipation, but also to produce a universal insight, a possible philosophical overview, and promote an aesthetic taste for receiving culture, language, and history from a different point of view, perhaps a “New Consciousness.” While analyzing the text Beloved, we understand how the language game itself is responsible for creating a decoded sense of “Signification” based on its usage of “rhetorical tropes”— an idea that has been minutely illustrated by Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his theory of “Signifyin(g) Monkey”—a theory of “Signification” indigenous to Black American literature. This paper demonstrates an intersectional application of Black American “Aesthetics” and “New Consciousness” to Toni Morrison’s Beloved. At the same time, the paper also demonstrates the possible application of Black American “Aesthetics’’ and the idea of “New Consciousness” beyond the Black American canon, taking several references from postcolonial literary criticism, theory, and the very concept of “Third World Consciousness.” With the help of the “Compare and Contrast” research technique, the paper explores the possible applications of Black American “Aesthetics’’ and “New Consciousness” as reflected in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epic Mahabharata has been adapted into varied genres--theatre, dance, movie, fiction, and television serial. This paper shall focus on two televised versions--one directed by B. R. Chopra and the other by Siddharth Tewary. Interestingly, both are simultaneously available and comparable through the research-friendly digital archive of YouTube and Disney+ Hotstar. The scene of "Draupadi's disrobing" in the "Game of Dice" episode is the climactic scene of the epic that signals the inevitability of the war of Kurukshetra. Using digital apps, and a close examination of the visual medium this paper shall attempt a comparison of the damning and shaming of Draupadi and her subsequent defiance in the face of male arrogance in the "Game of Dice" episode as presented by B. R. Chopra in 1988 and later by Siddharth Tewary in 2013. It shall identify points of similarity and departure to comment on the diverse messaging strategies employed by the respective directors and argue whether they hammer in different messages. If the message is the same, which director is more potent in establishing it? The paper shall also showcase the power and potential of the visual medium in demonstrating the toxicity of the male gaze in action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has over the years earned the reputation of being the first country in the world to impart sex education. However, in the present time when the whole world is gradually becoming aware of and open towards the idea of alternate sexuality, in India, still people with discursive sexualities are treated with contempt and derogatory comments. This paper analyzes the condition of alternate sexuality in pre-colonial India and elucidates how the Victorian notion of culture and civilization has hampered the growth of discursive identities in India. With reference to Mahesh Dattani's famous play On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, it delves deep into the historicity and dynamics of gay personalities in India and outlines the different camouflaging techniques adopted by them in order to conspicuously mingle with the largely heterosexual Indian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mahesh Dattani is one of the leading Indian dramatists who responded to the problems of sexuality on the canvass of Indian theatre. He examined various facets of subjugation and marginalization rampant in Indian society. His plays focus on the sub-urban Hindu family and its trifle with gender and alternate sexuality. His plots revolve around the damaging implications of patriarchal constructs and his characters strive for liberty and self-satisfaction beneath hegemonic masculinity, compulsive heteronormativity and prejudiced cultural domain. Regarding his famous play Dance Like a Man, this paper critically examines the existing socio-cultural domain which practices politics of exclusion of androgynous identities behind the façade of peacefully cohabiting heterosexual Indian family and shows how Dattani, has remarkably countered the presentation of the polarized association of gender roles with conventional practice through performance of his protagonist. Set against the backdrop of patriarchal mindset, this paper delineates that the victim of patriarchal norms is not a woman but a man, who has traits of androgyny. It gives a brief account to highlight the significance of androgyny and portrays how androgyny is directly proportional to creativity. It elucidates how androgynous men undergo searing experiences of stigma and social untouchability in a traditional setup and how patriarchal norms reinforce dominant powers of society to stunt the growth of their personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]