Performative Care as Emerging Social Action: Marginal Community Theatre Practices in India

Through critical analysis of marginal community theatre practices in the contemporary Indian context, the objective of this essay is to understand performative care as an emerging form of social action. As case studies, the essay focuses on three instances of community theatre practice by marginal communities: Badungduppa, Buddhan Theatre, and Anyadesh. Globally, while the introduction of neoliberal economic policies had already innately weakened spontaneous forms of public assembly and action, new forms of majoritarian governance backed by aggressive corporate, capitalist interests have also actively resisted any such attempts in the last decade. Shrinking spaces of public assembly and action have particularly posed a tremendous existential challenge to the marginal/vulnerable communities. Under such conditions, in the Indian context, since the 1980s, theatre has emerged as a potential medium of social action across such communities. Analysing the mentioned three marginal community theatre practices in India, the objective of this essay is to find out the reason why theatre, or to use a broader term, performance, has become a significant site of assembly and medium of social action. It tries to understand how, through performance, marginal communities have made available to their members provisions of care, thereby making sustenance possible under conditions of political and economic precarity.