Journal of European Studies

Shakespeare Round the Globe: The Bard on the South Asian Stage Before 1947
Kaleem Raza Khan

Introduction Urdu language as well as literature is heavily influenced by Persian (Farsi) and Arabic. Since Farsi and Arabic have qasida, rubaai, masnavi, tale, ghazal and other genres, Urdu also has them. Urdu did not inherit drama from these two languages because this vital literary genre was non-existent there. Like doha and geet Urdu got drama from Hindi. Even though the roots of Urdu drama lie in the ancient Sanskrit drama, Muslims never took interest in the theatre until the later half of the nineteenth century. The reason, according to many Indian drama critics, was that drama in India was a part of Hindu religion, and Muslims regarded it as a form of Hindu worship or an activity that had religious significance. Ram Lila, which is the story of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Ravana, is still staged every year all over India. Natak Mandlis were mobile drama companies that used to move from one place to another to show religious plays depicting the adventures and deeds of gods and goddesses and lives of pious kings and princes and chaste wives. Traditional plays were religious in character. There was no novelty in the story except the unique qualities of the direction, production and individual performance of actors. Some Parsis* introduced variety in the Indian stage plays by translating ancient Iranian legends into Urdu and presenting them on the stage. Due to their novelty and secular character these stage plays were well-received by the multitudes in some urban centres, especially Bombay (now Mumbai) which became the centre of
*

Eds note: Descendants of Zoroastrian immigrants from Persia settled in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent.

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Urdu stage plays and played a tremendous role in the development of Urdu drama. Thus the founders of Urdu drama were Parsis and Marathas. Modern Urdu stage drama that emerged in the nineteenth century is the result of the influence of the West, especially English drama. Most, if not all, early Urdu plays have English elements in them: stage directions, scenes, act and scene divisions, etc. Even those plays whose plots were not borrowed from English and were the result of the creative thinking of Urdu writers used English techniques. In the beginning there were no theatre buildings: planks and benches were used as the stage. On both sides actors used to sit, wait for their turn and make up their faces as well as dress. In front of the stage sofas, chairs and easy chairs were set. Sometimes audience used to bring their own chairs with them. In the hot and humid season people used to bring fans with them. The usual timing used to be from five to six p.m. There was no need for stage lighting. There was no music and if someone wanted to reward an actor, he used to make a sign and the actor used to go to fetch that reward in the middle of his act. In the beginning only men used to frequent such theatres. Later, women also began to enjoy theatres. In a few years the Urdu theatre was totally transformed into an advanced institution. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (CD version): "Productions by Parsi theatrical companies were large-budgeted affairs. Plays opened with the actors in full makeup and costume, their hands folded and eyes closed, singing a prayer song in praise of some deity, and generally ended in a tableau. Sometimes at curtain call the director rearranged the tableau in a split second and offered a variant. Actors were required to know singing, dancing, music,
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acrobatics, and fencing and to possess strong voices and good physical bearing. In improvised auditoriums with bad acoustics and packed with more than 2,000 people, actors' voices reached the farthest spectator. Plays began at 10 o'clock and lasted until dawn, moving from comedy to tragedy, from pathos to farce, from songs to the rattle of swords, all interspersed with moral lessons and rhyming epigrams. The droll humour and realism of the comic interludes remain unsurpassed in contemporary Urdu drama."1 Rehmani (1957), Nami (1964) and others have roughly classified early Urdu drama into four broad categories: (i) Ancient Sanskrit and Persian myths and legends (ii) Hindi, Marathi, Gujerati and Bengali plays and tales (iii) Original plays written by Urdu writers (original means not derived) (iv) Plays of various European dramatists translated into Urdu. These included Goldsmith, Sheridan, Alexander Dumas, Schiller, Maetterlinck, Ibsen, and George Bernard Shaw. But Shakespeare was the most important of them all.2 The aim of this paper is to make a brief survey of Shakespeare's plays that were produced on the stage in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent before 1947. Shakespeare in the subcontinent A few of Shakespeare's plays were introduced in Urdu translations in eighteenth century India but they were not staged. They were
1 2

Encyclopaedia Britannica (Student and Home Edition, 2009) DVD edition. Ishrat Rehmani, Urdu Drama: Tarikh-o-Tanqeed (Lahore: Urdu Markaz, 1957) and Abdul Aleem Nami, Urdu Theatre, 4 Volumes (Karachi: Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e-Urdu, 1962).

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written to be read. The most well known of them were the ones translated by John Gilchrist of Fort Williams College, Calcutta. He translated Hamlet and King Henry VIII into plain Urdu prose and the excerpts from them were made part of the general Urdu syllabus. The stage production of Shakespeare's plays, whether originally in English, in Urdu translations or as Urdu adaptations began roughly after 1850. Original English plays staged in India In eighteenth century India, in cantonment areas especially, some English military officers used to stage plays in the open or at their own residences for private entertainment. Besides English plays by other British dramatists, the following plays of Shakespeare were produced by amateur Englishmen and Englishwomen in India: King Richard III (1808) Merchant of Venice (1809, 1813, 1827, 1846) Taming of the Shrew (1809, 1813, 1824, 1847) Henry IV (1823) The Bombay Theatre first produced English plays in 1853 and then it started staging Marathi, Gujrati and Urdu plays as well. At the time when all drama companies in Bombay were staging Persian plays (of course translated in Urdu), a group of Parsi young men decided to stage Shakespeare's plays. They included: Pestanji Kanga, Bahramji Pestanji Collector, and Bahramji Katrak. They invited matriculates and those who were studying in the intermediate classes to form a club in 1861 that was known as Alphinston Dramatic Club. European, and especially Shakespeare's plays were produced by the club. Kanwarji Nazir produced Othello in which Ardsher Oonwala was given the role of Othello, Ardsher Jamshedji performed Desdemona, Jehangirji Neemuch Wala was Iago and Nasrwanji Nauroz, Emilia. It goes without saying that, as in the Elizabethan
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era in England, all the female roles in the Indian theatre in the early years were performed by boys. These amateur students presented Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew. These plays became so popular that they were staged repeatedly. Whether these plays were produced by Englishmen or Indians, the costumes, settings, names of characters and places were all original. Nothing was changed. Literal translations in Urdu The second category includes those plays of Shakespeare which were literally translated into Urdu with the original acts and scene divisions, with original European names of characters and places. They were not translated for the purpose of production on the stage, rather as an intellectual exercise. The translators wanted to introduce Shakespeare to those who did not know English or whose proficiency in English was not good enough for making them appreciate the greatest poet and dramatist of all times in the world. Most of these translations were not staged because the audience did not have any literary taste. The language in most of these translations was simple prose. Jawala Prashad translated Merchant of Venice as Venice ka Sodagar in 1887. It is not clear from any written record whether this was staged or not but the translator left everything intact. There is another literal translation of Merchant of Venice which is known as Tajir-e-Venice. It was translated by Nazar Muhammad Fateh Ali who also provided footnotes for the readers. Abdul Lateef's translation of Midsummer Night's Dream; Tafazzul Hussain's Julius Caesar and Lala Seetaram's King Lear are literal. Seetaram's King Lear is titled as Urdu Tarjumae King Lear. Muhammad Shah's translations of The Winter's Tale and Richard III are also literal. Some translators gave Urdu titles to their works. For example, A.B.
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Lateef translated Romeo and Juliet as Junoon-e-Vafa (Madness of Fidelity); Mehar Hasan translated the same play as Bazm-e-Fani (Mortal Gathering) which was modified by other writers for presentation on stage. Pandit Narain Prashad Betab rendered As You Like It as Jo Aap Pasand Karen and King Richard III as King Richard Soyem. Betab produced Comedy of Errors as Gorakhdhanda in Karachi, Quetta, Peshawer and Lahore. Tafazzul Hussain translated Henry V into Urdu Taskheer-e-France (Victory over France). Muhammad Suleman changed Love's Labour's Lost into Yaron Ki Mehnat Barbad and Saeedul Haque Ashiq's translation of Twelfth Night is known in Urdu as Khushanjaam (Happy Ending). All of these plays whether with the original English titles or Urdu titles used original names, settings and scene sequences. The efforts of these translators have been summed up by Pandit Betaab in the introduction to his translation of As You Like It. He said: "The great genius Shakespeare's priceless jewels and precious stones are hidden in caskets that have English locks. We try to unlock them with the key of Urdu and present them to the jewellers of speech for their perusal. Even if this task is beyond our capabilities, we do try." Adaptations and borrowings Dr Abdul Aleem Nami has mentioned the names of 19 professional dramatic companies that were producing Gujrati, Urdu and English plays in Bombay in 1861. One of them was Shakespeare's Natak Mandli. Their function was to attract as many people as possible. They were producing traditional Indian and Iranian tales modified for stage but most of these stage plays had little literary merit because they were popular among uneducated and illiterate masses having no literary taste. Since these plays were commercial in nature the needs of the audience were more important than anything else. Failure of one play meant bankruptcy of the company. The
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directors of these companies had employed Urdu speaking munshis (clerks) whose job was to translate one scene a day and then the directors used to modify this scene according to the tastes of the local audience. They did not care much about the original plays. For example, with the help of Agha Hashr Kashmiri, Ardsher Dadabhoy Thonthi had merged two of Shakespeare's plays into one which was produced under the name of Seid-e-Havas (Prison of Greed). This play was a blend of King John and Richard III and it became one of Hashr's most popular plays. Most of the translators of Shakespeare were not proficient in English and they had no ability to translate the real Shakespearean spirit in Urdu. They just took the plot and changed it freely to suit the tastes of the audience who, in most cases, were uneducated. Some of these works cannot be regarded as translations because they are totally distorted and grotesque mutilations of Shakespeare's original plays. Later writers and poets translated Shakespeare and with more literary merit. As already pointed out, most of the so-called translations from Shakespeare are actually Urdu adaptations. In some cases, almost everything has been modified except the main plot. For instance, characters' names and therefore their religion, culture, clothes and sensibility as well. In some plays even the plot has been altered. Ehsan's Romeo and Juliet (Bazm-e-Fani) has a happy ending because people demanded that. In Ahmed Hussain Khan's Othello, Othello is turned into Jaffer; Iago becomes Sadiq, Desdemona is Nargis, and the Duke of Venice, Firozshah. The Urdu version of Hamlet too ends on a happy note. Hamlet who is named Jehangir marries Mehrbano (Ophelia) and Jehangir ascends the throne. In most adaptations songs have been inserted. For example the Urdu Romeo and Juliet had 38 songs, Hamlet, King Lear and Othello also had no less than 30 songs each. Comic characters without any link with the main plot have been introduced, famous
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couplets by well-known contemporary poets have been used in dialogues which are in rhymed verses. For example, in one translation Hamlet recites this famous couplet: maut maa~gu~ to rahe aarzuue xaab mujhe Duubne jaau~ to darya mile paayaab mujhe. (When I want to die even sleep becomes a dream for me When I go to drown myself I find the river only a foot deep.) In the comic parts of these plays language is often vulgar, the reason may be the lower class audience. In some plays even queens and princesses speak the language that was commonly used by the street prostitutes. Nami says: "Out of Shakespeare's 37 plays, 22 had 59 Urdu translations."3 He further states that more than a hundred different translations were adapted for the Indian stage. Nasarwanji Aram is considered the first one to translate Shakespeare into Urdu. He translated Merchant of Venice and the Urdu name of his play was Javanbakht (Eternally Lucky). Aram was neither a native speaker of Urdu nor was he a poet. His translation lacked imagination and depth. His contribution to the theatre was the popularization of stage plays in India. Ehsan Lakhnavi adapted many of Shakespeare's plays for Urdu audience. He also made a number of changes in them. He too altered the endings and characters, but he is credited with introducing Shakespeare in India. He was a good poet, therefore the standard of his verse dialogues is higher than those of his contemporaries. He also used prose dialogues and gave them a literary touch. His famous plays include Hamlet (Khun-e-Nahaq or Mar-e-Asteen) (Unjust Killing or The Snake in the Sleeve) 1898,
3

Nami, Urdu Theatre, 313-319.

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Romeo and Juliet (Bazm-e-Fani or Gulnar) 1898, Merchant of Venice (Dilfarosh) (Heart Seller) 1900, Comedy of Errors (Bhool Bhulaiyan) (Labyrinth) 1901 and Othello 1904. His main contribution was the introduction of plain standard Urdu prose Other famous adaptations of Shakespeare were Karimuddin Karim's Khudadad or Dad-e-Darya (God Gifted or Rivers Redress) which was derived from Pericles in 1891. It is interesting to note that Imtiaz Ali Taj in the introduction to this play did not mention at all that the plot had been borrowed from Shakespeare. Titus Andronicus was translated into Urdu as Junoon-e-Vafa by Bhai Nosherwan Rustamji Wachha. It was designed for presentation on the Indian stage by Thakur Narain Misra and Jehangirji. The names of characters and places were also changed. V.K. Naik's Shakespearean Theatrical Company of Bombay; Agha Hashr Kashmiri's Indian Shakespearean Theatrical Company of Lahore and Globe Theatre of the Punjab, Lahore were dedicated to Shakespeares plays. Even the other plays that they produced were modelled on Shakespeare. Agha Hashr Kashmiri translated many of Shakespeare's plays into Urdu and produced them on the stage. His adaptations became highly popular, especially Shaheed-e-Naz (Martyr of Pride) which was adapted from Measure for Measure. Khaab-e-Hasti (Dream of Life) has been drawn from Macbeth but except for a few elements both the plays are considerably different from each other. He translated King Lear as Safed Khoon (White Blood) and changed it into a play with a happy ending. He changed the names of characters: Lear becomes Khaqan who has three daughters, Mahpara, Dilara and Zara. The language is fluent and the royal court looks like a Mughal court with all the decorum. World view of the Indian audience has also been taken into consideration. For example:
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Come not between the dragon and his wrath (I.1.122) is translated as dekho kamaane kasheeda ke saamne na aao.4 (See, do not come before the drawn bow) A stretched bow with an arrow has replaced the dragon which would be alien to the discourse of the Indian audience. Priests are turned into fakirs, or qazis. Doctors become vaids or tabeebs and monastries become khanqaahs. Conclusion Though based mainly in Bombay and Calcutta, the Parsi dramatic companies toured the subcontinent with huge staffs, sets, and a troupe of players. They produced Shakespeare's plays that were translated and adapted in Urdu. They also staged other plays but they copied the Shakespearean style. These mobile theatres introduced Shakespeare all over the sub-continent. The result was that by the end of the nineteenth century, Urdu drama was largely modelled on Shakespeare, at least in design if not in the depth of human psychology, poetic diction or nature. Owners of drama companies forced writers to copy the styles of those who had translated Shakespeare. In addition, drama in regional languages was also influenced by this trend. Nevertheless, these plays retained the tradition of having a large number of songs: choral, duets and solos, which made them unique in character and when people gradually lost interest in the stage plays during the 1930s because of the arrival of cinema, the same traditions were carried over to films.

Muhammad Shafi, Agha Hashr Kashmiri aur unke Dramo ka Tanqeedi Mutaala (Delhi: Educational Publishing House, 1988).

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