Demise of a scholar | Kannada play ‘Rakta Vilapa’ is predicated on the 2015 assassination of researcher M.M. Kalburgi

A scene from the play, ‘Rakta Vilapa’ by theatre group Samudaya.

On August 30, 2015, a younger man shot 76-year-old Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi point-blank on the doorstep of his residence in Dharwad, Karnataka. His demise was deeply mourned all through the nation and led to numerous acts of protest, together with the returning of awards by artists and writers, and their resignation from cultural our bodies such because the Sahitya Akademi. Whereas the case is ‘earlier than the legislation’, it has sparked numerous (conspiracy) theories and interpretations.

Over the previous few months, an novice theatre group known as Samudaya from Raichur has been staging Vikram Visaji’s 2020 play Rakta Vilapa (Blood Lament), based mostly on the occasions main as much as the assassination of Kalburgi. The play shouldn’t be eager on discovering the specifics of the homicide or figuring out the perpetrators. As an alternative, it affords a singular lens by which one can study the life and occasions of Kalburgi — an authority on Lingayat Research — and discover the broader themes surrounding mental freedom, misunderstanding and dogma.

(L to R) Journalist Gauri Lankesh, author Ok. Marulasiddappa, and actor Girish Karnad at a condolence assembly for slain scholar M.M. Kalburgi in Bengaluru, August 2015.
| Picture Credit score:
Ok. Murali Kumar

Analysing grief

The play, structured into 4 brief scenes, deliberately avoids naming its characters. The one direct references to Kalburgi come from the creator’s preface and refined allusions throughout the play. This method transforms the central occasion — the assassination — right into a metaphor that provokes us to consider what it means to be a scholar or mental in Twenty first-century India.

Directed by Ninasam alumnus Praveen Reddy, it has garnered enthusiastic applause from theatregoers in small cities, and shall be staged in Mysuru immediately, and in Bengaluru on October 9. The director, who additionally acts because the lead, recreates Kalburgi’s speech and mannerisms immaculately, evoking each reflection and a way of grief. He says: “After studying the play, I mirrored on how the anti-intellectual tendency is killing students similar to Govind Pansare and Kalburgi. What sort of a civilisation are we?”

Former Vice-Chancellor of Kannada College, M.M. Kalburgi.
| Picture Credit score:
V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Troubling ideologies

The play begins with a maniacal group singing a music about bloodshed, setting a grim tone. The primary scene introduces a researcher (Kalburgi) whose thesis encounters opposition from a younger man (the killer) — yet one more effective efficiency by Sagar Itekar. This confrontation highlights the conflict between scholarly views and reactionary ideologies, particularly these based mostly on faith. By dedicating the play to the Twelfth-century vachanakaras (Kannada poets) and Mahmud Gawan, who was executed whereas serving the Bahmani sultanate, the playwright connects Kalburgi’s demise with the cultural reminiscence of violence in historical past.

Though the scenes appear designed to defend Kalburgi, the play permits different characters to emerge. The younger man who kills the scholar shouldn’t be portrayed as a villain; he’s a confused youth, formed by modern ideologies, and is as a lot a troubled soul because the researcher. “You simply quarrelled over two phrases for the final 30 years…,” he says, referencing the talk over Veerashaiva versus Lingayat, which was central to Kalburgi’s later work.

Sagar Itekar (left) and Praveen Reddy in ‘Rakta Vilapa’.

Optimistic response

It took the director 4 years to convey the play to the stage. Aside from the issue of working with amateurs, he had apprehensions about bringing to life a textual content stuffed with concepts and dialogues and little spectacle or motion. However to his shock, the viewers response has been past his expectations. The troupe is now enthusiastic about taking their work to larger cities and cities and seeing how the audiences there react to it.

The author, a NIF translation fellow, teaches English literature at Tumkur College.