Ghashiram Kotwal transcends time and space

TENDULKAR’s Ghashiram Kotwal is a deadly combination of topical¬ity and timelessness. Every time I watch the play, I discover a new take on fascism and power play. At other times, I find that certain innocuous, routine events bring Ghashiram back to me. For theatre buffs, Ghashiram is a milestone. I was too young to understand most of the play’s minutiae the first time I saw it. I remember being vaguely aware of the controversy over the play - its alleged anti-Brahmin stand and the ‘inaccurate’ portrayal of the Maratha statesman, Nana Phadnavis and the ado about Ghashiram’s performances abroad.

I had just climbed another step up the journalistic ladder and was almost convinced, obviously for wrong reasons, that I had a more clear ‘understanding’ of the world around me than other mortals. Ghashiram came as a jolt. Its effect was magnetic. The human wall of Puneri Brahmins swinging and swirling to folk music - dashavtaar, abhanga, kirtan, lavni. Gouri bole Nana nache was such a gripping episode that on many occasions I thought I could see Ghashiram staring at me, directly.

The story is set against the backdrop of late 18th century Pune. The play, I realised, went beyond the prose, the verse, the music and the dance. It commented on the socio-political situation we live in. Ghashiram Kotwal is the story of a Brahmin from Kannauj, Ghasiram Savaldas, who moved to Pune with his wife and young daughter, looking for a better life. He has a run-in with the vicious and powerful Brahmin lobby of Pune and plots revenge. Ghashiram returns to the city and manages to wrangle the post of the kotwal _police chief _by using his daughter as bait for Nana.

After my first date with Ghashiram, I grabbed a few more opportunities to watch the play. I kept looking for comments and reviews on the play. Today, Ghashiram’s audio track is an invaluable part of my music collection. Every time I watch the play, I feel that Ghashiram's appeal is beyond time and space. The play makes a mockery of our belief that we are an egalitarian and accommodating people.

Ghashiram may have a historical backdrop but it presents a contemporary political parable. In a brief note to the play, Tendulkar says that Ghashirams are created by socio-political circumstances and these are beyond time and space. He further points out that he never intended to comment on the ethics of Nana or the Peshwas or even Ghashiram, and that the nub of his story lies elsewhere. This ‘elsewhere’ is in fact a global phenomenon, critic Shanta Gokhale had once written. Tendulkar in an interview once said that contemporary political circumstances, especially the emergence of the Shiv Sena, inspired him to write the play. He said he was actually examining the kind of situations that created men like Ghashiram at different points in history.

Watching Ghashiram in its current context is a learning experience. Today’s Ghashiram could be an international terrorist, a saheb or a bhau. The play tells us that debauchery and power go hand in hand and that despots are always cowards. They create their Ghashirams, feed them as long as it is convenient, and then destroy them ruthlessly.

There is a dilapidated double-storeyed structure in Pune that identifies itself with Ghashiram. There was Kotwal Chawadi, the administrative headquarters of the police chief, right in the heart of the city, till the early 90s. This was demolished by the PMC to widen the busy junction. This other structure near the Armed Forces Medical Stores Depot, at the end of Coyaji Road, is believed to be Ghashiram’s residential mansion.

While working for a now-defunct Marathi channel, I had shot a tele-feature at this crumbling mansion. A typically blue Archaeological Survey of India plaque says that the structure was already in ruins when the British occupied it in 1818. A major portion of the structure was dismantled, a godown built on the site. This was later converted into a workshop. The plaque makes a reference to the killing of Telangi Brahmins that finally proved to be Ghashiram’s undoing. This structure is perhaps the only surviving witness to the life and times of Ghashiram.

(First published in The Maharashtra Herald on July 21, 2005)