Q) Prisoner Miss Benare, pay the closest attention.

The crimes you have committed are

most terrible………behaviour puts you beyond mercy.

Kashikar, who is playing the role of an honourable judge in the mock trial that everyone in
the village hall announces this in order to tell Miss Benare that she has been charged as an
accused for this particular mock trial. Before this happening, each member in the hall were
discussing how they should enact some other play so that no boredom is caused and how the
play should be based on some kind of social reformation because that was the major agenda
for conducting the play in the first place, Hence, they all reach to a decision of making
Benare as the accused for Ponkshe and Rokde already somewhere knew of her pregnancy and
this mock trial just gives them a chance to confirm what their suspicions. Since Benare’s
character is framed to be very childish and mischievous by the author, Vijay Tendulkar,
Kashikar asks her to pay close attention to what crime she is accused with. He goes on to say
that the crimes she has done are of the most grave nature and there can be no forgiveness for
that for which amends must be made by her and also get rid of her mischief at that moment
and become serious. Furthermore, considering this play is set in 1967 which is a long time
back, social customs were meant to be of utmost importance in the society and marriage was
the very foundation of a society. Motherhood was meant to be sacred and pure for “a woman
is a wife for a moment but a mother forever.” He says that Benare had violated all these
social customs for she was an unmarried pregnant woman and was charged for
infanticide(only for the mock trial) and the court took serious action regarding such grave
crimes.

Q) Exactly. Fun. But Samant, “spreading enlightenment is one of the Prime Objectives
behind our………no cradle to rock!

These particular lines are spoken by Miss Leela Benare when she is in the emplty hall of the
village along with Samant while they both are waiting for the other members of the troop
who are probably late at that moment. She tells Samant that spreading awareness is one of
their major objectives behind their programme so that people of the village might be educated
and made aware of the important social issues. She says, Mr. Kashikar, the chairman would
not take up any kind of endeavour without having a prime objective behind it. Miss Benare
refers wife of Kashikar as the ‘Hand-That-Rocks-The-Cradle’ meaning the individual who
raises a child, shapes his or her personality and, as a result, the type of society the next
generation will develop. Furthermore she says, Mrs Kashikar is an excellent housewife but
she mockingly comments how it is of no use because her husband is always busy working
towards uplifting the masses and is too busy in his work due to which there is no ‘cradle’.

Q) Character sketch of Miss Benare.

Leela Benare, the play's protagonist, is an unmarried teacher in her early thirties who is a
member of the Living Courtroom's troupe. Benare had been having an affair with Professor
Damle, another cast member, but he ended it when she became pregnant. Benare was just
sacked from her job because her bosses considered unmarried parenthood evil and were
concerned that she would pass on her immorality to her students. Benare is pregnant and
unemployed right now, and she's determined to establish a life for herself and her unborn kid.
Ponkshe and Rokde, two of her courtroom partners, have declined her request to marry her
and assist her to raise her child. She is aware of the stigma that she and her child will face if
the child is born without a father, and she is concerned about how to proceed. During an
impromptu fake trial, Kashikar jokingly accuses Benare of infanticide, revealing the stress
she is facing in her personal life. During the trial, Benare's genuine problems are revealed,
and her apparent friends and colleagues use the occasion to disparage what they perceive to
be her loose, immoral, progressive lifestyle. Benare is completely emotionally damaged by
the end of the play, despite her castmates' best efforts to convince her that her prosecution
was actually a game.

Tendulkar has portrayed Benare's persona against a broad society where people still adhere
to age-old customs. She is a modern woman with a personality, unlike the others.
Regrettably, in our largely patriarchal culture, norms are skewed toward men. A woman
should not be unique, although a male can. According to society, women are held to different
standards and rules than men. As a result, in this drama, Vijay Tendulkar deftly portrays the
situation and fragility of an Indian woman.
Q) How does the trial of Miss Benare end up as a witch hunt?

Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar, a well-known Indian playwright, television writer, literary

essayist, journalist, and social critic, was born in Mumbai in 1928. Shantata! Court Chalu
Ahe is his most well-known play. Vijay Tendulkar wrote the drama silence! The Court is in
Session in 1963. "Shantata! Court Chalu Ahe" was the original title of the play written in
Marathi. In 1967, the play was first staged. The drama is said to be based on the playwright
Vijay Tendulkar's own experiences. The play's plot deals with the issues of female
discrimination and the Indian Judicial System.

The performance begins in a darkened room, and Benare's entrance on the stage hints that
something significant is about to happen. The play's flaws are mirrored in the entrance
through which she enters. The door struck her, and she was injured as a result. The bolt
caught her finger. In her teens, she was duped by her uncle. Benare was taken aback by the
first shock. "It is nothing," she responds when Samant asks about the door and how she was
injured. There is nothing. It's just something I've done before". Benare's statements show that
she has been injured numerous times and has become accustomed to it. Benare cannot handle
the cultural standards of society that attempt to bind her independence.

The story runs in three acts and each act is structured very well with the other. The simulated
games become a regular game in Act Three, with Benare as the trapped victim. The hunters
plan a coordinated attack on her and take pleasure in it. They use evidence to expose her
private life. She knows that the entire society is trying to get her since she has broken the
moral code. Benare finally breaks down and admits in her rambling soliloquy that she was
seduced first by her uncle and then by Professor Damle, an intellectual she idolized. Benare's
mental pain can be seen in the following lines:

“Storms raged one after another about my throat. And there was a wail like death in my
heart. But each time I shut my lips tight. I thought no one will understand. No one can
understand!”

The simulated games become a regular game in Act Three, with Benare She goes on to add
that she has her own will, which she may use to make decisions and take actions. Her
statements, however, are never heard by the rest of the group. The mock-judge renders the
final cruel decision that the kid will be killed in the womb. Others exclaim that it is merely a
"joke" and a "game" that Benare has taken more seriously until she collapses sobbing.
Male characters, and occasionally even female characters, torture Leela Benare on purpose.
She goes to extremes to escape the hands of her captors, including breaching cultural
standards by establishing a connection with a married man without marrying him. As a result,
she falls prey to society's merciless cultural standards. She is cast out and becomes the victim
of a nasty game devised by her co-actors. As a result, her co-stars blame her, prosecute her,
and subject her to excruciating mental anguish.

Tendulkar has portrayed Benare's persona against a broad society where people still adhere to
age-old customs. She is a modern woman with personality, unlike the others.

Regrettably, in our largely patriarchal culture, norms are skewed in favour of men. A woman
should not be unique, although a male can. According to society, women are held to different
standards and rules than men. As a result, in this drama, Vijay Tendulkar deftly portrays the
situation and fragility of an Indian woman.

Benare is seen as a woman of questionable character since she is loud and conventional. The
play's mock trial vividly depicts her transformation from a woman to an individual. Her co-
actors are entirely aware of the true story they will be enacting. Benare, on the other hand, is
unaware of this. However, none of them wish to handle Benare's condition humanely or treat
her with respect. This is because they are envious of Benare's professional achievement. Her
unusual behavior does not sit well with them. They come together against her and cause her
great pain by making her private affairs public.
Q) Comment on the issue of gender conflict in Silence.

Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar, a well-known Indian playwright, television writer, literary

essayist, journalist, and social critic, was born in Mumbai in 1928. Shantata! Court Chalu
Ahe is his most well-known play. Vijay Tendulkar wrote the drama silence! The Court is in
Session in 1963. "Shantata! Court Chalu Ahe" was the original title of the play written in
Marathi. In 1967, the play was first staged. The drama is said to be based on the playwright
Vijay Tendulkar's own experiences. The play's plot deals with the issues of female
discrimination and Indian judicial system.

The title "Silence! The Court is in Session" was chosen by Vijay Tendulkar to make a
striking statement about a culture where patriarchal bias makes justice unattainable. We learn
how Leela Benare became a victim of his male rivals' sadism in this play. She is a modern,
independent, free-thinking lady who enjoys life, but she falls in love with a man who cares
only about her body and is impregnated by him. Tendulkar exposes the hypocrisy of male
chauvinists with this most compelling drama. Miss Benare, despite the frustrated male
members' attempts to enslave women to demonstrate their authority in the social hierarchy,
battles valiantly against the oppressive power structure. The piece also depicts how the law
works to silence women's voices.

Despite the fact that the play was first performed in 1967, it is still relevant today. In the
society, little has changed. People continue to scrutinise and condemn a woman's character,
her behaviour, her appearance, and so on. There are a few persons who are making movies to
educate women and bring their difficulties to light.

Pink (courtroom drama film) is a good example, in which three women are taken to trial and
their character is called into question based on their behaviour and appearance. It's a striking
comment on the majority of India's feudal worldview, in which men and women are judged
by unequal standards. It's about three middle-class working females named Meenal, Falak,
and Andrea. They run into three gentlemen who invite them to dinner. When Rajveer tries to
molest and insult Meenal's modesty at the resort, she strikes him. The case pertains to a trial
in which the three women are subjected to several other questions based on their actions.

The three girls, like Benare in the fake trial, become victims at the hands of a culture that sets
norms for women. Rajveer is a representative of Indian society's feudal mentality, which
criticises women who speak freely. In the play's mock trial, Leela Benare experiences the
same thing. During her co-stars' dissect of her personal life, she keeps utterly mute. Even if
she tries to talk, they silence her because they believe she is an independent individual who
interacts freely with others regardless of gender. However, society criticises this free nature.
None of them are prepared to accept Benare's new world outlook.

In both circumstances, society holds the women responsible. What about the guys, though?
Leela Benare is first enticed by her maternal uncle in the drama. When she asks him to marry
her, he shies away from the responsibility, citing conventions as an excuse. Prof. Damle, a
university professor, solely recognises Benare for her sexual attractiveness, not for her
character or intelligence. When she begs him to marry her, he flees to safeguard his
reputation. Everyone understands that he is the root of her misery. Benare is the only one who
has to bear the brunt of the punishment. Tendulkar highlights the double standards of self-
centered male characters in this scene. He aims to demonstrate society that male characters
are only concerned with tradition when it benefits them.
Q Discuss the significance of the title ‘Silence! The court is in session.’
Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar, a well-known Indian playwright, television writer, literary
essayist, journalist, and social critic, was born in Mumbai in 1928. Shantata! Court Chalu
Ahe is his most well-known play. Vijay Tendulkar wrote the drama silence! The Court is in
Session in 1963. "Shantata! Court Chalu Ahe" was the original title of the play written in
Marathi. In 1967, the play was first staged. The drama is said to be based on the playwright
Vijay Tendulkar's own experiences. The play's plot deals with the issues of female
discrimination and the Indian Judicial System.

Silence! The Court is in Session is originally a Marathi play. So, the original title of the play
is “Shantata! Court Chalu Ahe.” The title indicates absolute authority of the judge in the court
where the judges pronounce such words to bring back manners or discipline of the people. It
is an effective play with a very impressive language and style. It is just another play
presenting the picture of Indian society. The play exposes the social hypocrisy and its
dubious double standards. The play is well constructed that presents the realistic picture of
current situation of India’s modern society.

Tendulkar chooses a term of the legal register as the title of his play to make a influential
command on society with a weighty patriarchal bias that makes justice unfeasible. A court is
supposed to be a seat of justice, significance and respectability. All through this play, He also
makes an assessment of the today’s court procedures, and finds out the problem o of the
court. The role of the judge in this play is itself – ironic a judge is normally free from
prejudice and unusual uttering. But here the case is just otherwise. The judgement itself
seems more ridiculous. Mr. Kashikar says to Benare: “The crime you have committed are
most dreadful. There is no pardon for them … no memento of your offense should remain for
next generations. Hence this court hereby sentences that you shall live. But the child in your
womb shall be smashed.” She is sensitively harassed but still starves to search for her
survival. She has an immense tolerance to endure. She is the picture of blamelessness and
sympathy. However, she is offended at every stage, she has not done harm to anyone. If she
did harm to anyone, it is her own self. The difficulty and plunder of a weak woman has been
best articulated in the play.

The play has double structures symbolizing two spheres of life: Public and Private. In
introducing such a form Tendulkar serves two purposes at a time. In this sphere of life all
middle-class people, regardless of sex and gender, are united to wear progressive face with a
common objective to spread enlightenment in opposition to imperialism. The play which is
woven in the name of playing a game for passing time and for grounding Samant in the court
proceedings before the enactment of the scheduled play seems to symbolize the private
sphere of life.

Satire’s best weapon is parody. Tendulkar uses it to construct a grotesque realism of Indian
criminal court. The bizarre elements are the queer comportments of the middle-class people
in the courtroom. Our attention is gravitated towards their connivance at the decency and
decorum of the court of law. The judge is found to always have an earpick in his ear, the
counsel to chew pan, the witness to smoke. In addition, everybody enters and exits the stage
in one’s accord. Through their acts of endless pan-chewing and the spitting of pan-juice every
now and then, through the judges acts of ear-picking and tooth-picking and his willing
conversion into a witness, and through the prosecutor’s switchover into the role of the
defense counsel and back again into that of prosecutor, Tendulkar focuses on the violation of
the propriety and the sanctity of the court. In the midst of the breach of the etiquette of the
court, the middle-class people, who are the colleagues of Benare, gang up against her to gag
the latter’s dissenting voice by the logic of law.

In the present play, we find how Benare becomes the victim of sadism of his male
counterparts. The audience is made to witness a mere enactment of what is a rehearsal of
sorts of a mock-trial to be staged later in the day. But what begins as a harmless game begins
to assume a grim aspect before long. When Benare wants to protest, she is ordered to be
silent because the court is in session. Again, when she keeps silent, she is ordered to break the
silence in the name of law and threatened with contempt of court. She is driven to despair and
attempts suicide. In such a grim scenario, every word of the title SILENCE THE COURT IS
IN SESSION assumes symbolic significance. The word "Silence' symbolizes the patriarchal
conspiracy to silence the voice of a woman in the name of social justice and ideology. And
therefore, the title is appropriate for the play.
Q In the guise of Ms. Benare, it’s womanhood that was put on trial.
Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar, a well-known Indian playwright, television writer, literary
essayist, journalist, and social critic, was born in Mumbai in 1928. Shantata! Court Chalu
Ahe is his most well-known play. Vijay Tendulkar wrote the drama silence! The Court is in
Session in 1963. "Shantata! Court Chalu Ahe" was the original title of the play written in
Marathi. In 1967, the play was first staged. The drama is said to be based on the playwright
Vijay Tendulkar's own experiences. The play's plot deals with the issues of female
discrimination and the Indian Judicial System.

Throughout history, the personality of woman has been damaged and distorted and her status
as a human being is ‘interiorized’ under the overwhelming male domination. This drama
provides a comprehensive review of the problems women confront in attaining full
recognition and enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedom. Women are
deprived not only of equality with men but also exploited by them as in the case of Benare,
the female protagonist of the play, Silence! The Court is in Session. This play is a reflection
of the violation of women’s rights and portrays the alienation of the woman and the haunting
question of the last destination of her life in the context of her relationship with men. Vijay
Tendulkar highlights and exposes the hypocrisy, selfishness, sham moral standards and the
sadism latent in the metropolitan middle-class men.

Leela Benare is young, single, unconventional, full of laughter, full of pride in her dedication
to and skill in teaching and always happy to attack hypocritical facades and watch them
crumble. In her view men aren’t superior beings by definition. They must prove themselves
so before they can command her respect. The man she has had a passionate relationship with
and whose child she is carrying is one of the few men she respected for his fine mind and
apparent integrity. However, she has now discovered his feet of clay. He does not have the
strength to stand by her and own his child. She has made a desperate bid to get one or other
of the unattached men in her group to marry her in order to give the coming child a name.
Predictably not one has agreed to her proposal. It is in this delicate state of body and mind
that she is trapped by her colleagues into being the accused in a mock trial.”

“During the session of the entire “mock-trial” Mrs. Kashikar never misses an opportunity to
insinuate her venomous comments directed at Benare as she is extremely envious of Benare’s
boundless independence. Herself, suffering from a persecution complex on account of her
barrenness, and her abject dependence on her husband. She is utterly spiteful of Benare. In
the closing act, Tendulkar gives Mrs. Kashikar ample opportunity to torture Benare with a
view to exposing a discontented woman’s irrepressible malevolence against a superior,
successful being. For instance, she stops Benare getting out of the torture “where do you
think you’re going? The door’s locked! Sit down! This is a fine instance where Tendulkar
satirizes, woman to woman relationship.” Mrs. Kashikar on the other hand is middle aged,
married housewife conventional and disapproving of “free women” like Benare. The most
important thing about her is that she is childless. She is as much keen as the men to draw
blood when Benare is put on trial. She has an obvious problem with Benare. She is the single
free woman, the working woman, the one who is vying for equality with men in their own
world. Her very 63 existence places a question mark against the emptiness of Mrs. Kashikar’s
life. That is why she offers her help with such alacrity when the men shy away from
physically forcing Benare into the dock. They are all middle class men who must not be seen
to harass a woman. Tearing her apart emotionally is perfectly permissible.

Pontificating about motherhood, marriage and morality, the judge commands the school
authorities to dismiss such an immoral woman. Benare loses her job, her only solace. She is
flabbergasted at her dismissal when she has been consistently an excellent teacher. The
dismissal of a perfect teacher is disheartening and she feels it to be an outrageous
infringement of her personality. She feels forbidden and her job as a teacher turns to be an
unrewarding work. The unkindest cut is yet to come. The child in the womb is to be
destroyed. This is like a never healing ulcer for her. Benare experiences an identity crisis in
her place as a teacher because of the discrimination against women. She is forbidden to do
what she likes and therefore feels she has no freedom in her work. She is unable to speak her
trouble out, for she is a woman who faces the reality of her life and the opposition of the
milieu in the true spirit of ideal Hindu womanhood where womanhood has degenerated to the
state of dogged subservience. Hence her life becomes chaotic. Tendulkar exposes the
hypocrisy of the urban middle class male chauvinists who have all ganged up against her, out
of sheer collective envy of her assertive confidence and uncompromising independence of
spirit. Women are enslaved to their patriarchy; they feel that chastity is more important than
life and that its loss brings an unbearable stigma worse than death. This concept of chastity
gets its indispensable support. If man is permitted for all kinds of enjoyment, then it is a great
injustice done to women in the name of values and culture. Women must eliminate these
patriarchal cultures and not give way to the oppressor to suppress and exclude them from
enjoyment
Q Discuss Ms Benare’s struggle to survive in rigid patriarchal society with
reference to the play Silence

OR
Q How does the play Silence sensitize us to Ms. Leela Benare’s insecure
position in this unfair society?
OR
Q Silence reflects the deep misogyny in Indian society. Comment.

Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar, a well-known Indian playwright, television writer, literary

essayist, journalist, and social critic, was born in Mumbai in 1928. Shantata! Court Chalu
Ahe is his most well-known play. Vijay Tendulkar wrote the drama silence! The Court is in
Session in 1963. "Shantata! Court Chalu Ahe" was the original title of the play written in
Marathi. In 1967, the play was first staged. The drama is said to be based on the playwright
Vijay Tendulkar's own experiences. The play's plot deals with the issues of female
discrimination and the Indian Judicial System.

In patriarchal culture, power is equated with aggression and masculinity; weakness with
compassion and femineity. Women are supposed to bear male oppression silently and
meekly. Where they fail to do so, they are branded as loud ‘hysterical, crazy and punished.
Naturally the politics for survival amidst the dominant male power for woman is a perennial,
open-ended problem for study. Since this question of subjugation of woman in patriarchal
power structure is crucial in modern culture, Indian as well as Western dramatists have used
the stage to expose gender discrimination in patriarchy and how women fight against this
injustice.

This voice of self-assertion, this voice of individuality endows Benare with the identity of a
new woman ‘emerging against the coercive attacks of patriarchy. As the play progresses, we
see, an actor Rawte is absent (Prof Damle who is to play the key role in the play is also
absent) and so Samant, the villager who has come to get acquainted with the group and to
show the hall where the performance will take place, is asked to play the part of intricacies of
the court-scene. To train Samant how to act the part of a witness the other members of the
group decide to arrange another mock court scene. In the disguise of the so-called ―game‖
which is meaningfully set in the form of a mock-trial, Miss Benare ‘s private life is exposed
and publicly dissected, revealing her illicit love affair with professor Damle, a married man
with a family, which has resulted in her pregnancy. Professor Damle is significantly absent at
the trial denoting his total withdrawal of responsibility, either social or moral, for the whole
situation into which he had landed Miss Benare

The play thus depicted the tragedy of an individual victimized by male dominated society.
The female protagonist becomes the victim of sadism of his male counterparts. Benare is
cross-examined in the mock court with full mockery. All the other characters like witnesses
Mr. Gopal Ponkshe, Mr. Karnik, Rokde, Samant, Counsel for the defence and counsel for the
crown Mr. Sukhatme and Judge, Mr. Kashikar and his wife Mrs. Kashikar all behave in a
way of mockery. Benare is summoned merely as a witness while she remains the prime
accused as the mother of an illegitimate child and having illicit relations with so many
persons. The frustrated male members of the society try to subjugate women to prove their
power and superiority in the social hierarchy. They praise motherhood with bombastic
phrases but try to destroy Benare ‘s infant in the womb. Benare is stigmatized and sacked
from her job. But Prof. Damle, the man responsible for her condition, escapes scot-free for he
is a male. And Sukhatme, the brief less barrister, puts the final nail in the coffin of
womanhood.

Thus, Benare who bubbles with over-confidence in the beginning turns into a victim of social
injustice at the end. She represents the working-class women who wants to lead a liberated
life. Though she is a victim of incest, it is not in the main focus as it is referred to by way of
reflection by Benare herself. She is robbed of her virginity when she hardly fourteen years
old. The focal point of the play is the violent response of the male dominated society to ore-
marital relationship and motherhood. The mock – trial holds a mirror to our social response to
such things. It is pre-eminently male biased. What is wrong, immoral for a woman is not so
far, a man. Benare is the accused and not Prof. Damle. Subha Tiwari in her article ―Silence!
The court is in Session. A strong social commentary‖ states ―The whole responsibility of
morally upright behaviour is bulldozed on women. Men are by nature considered to be wilful,
wild, childish, innocent and mischievous. Their sins are no sins at all. The society has a very
light parental and pampering sort of attitude when it comes to sexual offences of men. In case
of women the iron rod gets hot and hotter. No punishment is actually enough for such a
woman. There is no respite, no shade and no soothing cushion for a sinning woman. She must
be stained and abandoned. Her femininity, her needs, her very existence must be ignored or
rather destroyed. She must be cornered and brutally killed both in physical and psychological
senses. This play is about the pathetic position of women in the male dominated Indian
world. In the final verdict Benare is equated with ‗criminals and sinners ‘and the court orders
that she should live but the child in her womb should be destroyed.

The mock - trial holds a mirror to our social response to moral values. Sex is a private affair
in one ‘s life. But there certain social and moral values attached to it. In fact, pre-martial or
post-marital sexual relations are condemned in Indian society. The social rules in practice are
more- strict for women than for men.
Q “Na Stri Swatantryamarhati”. Enumerate the instances which illustrate
this attitude in the male characters from the play Silence! The Court is in
Session.
Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar, a well-known Indian playwright, television writer, literary
essayist, journalist, and social critic, was born in Mumbai in 1928. Shantata! Court Chalu
Ahe is his most well-known play. Vijay Tendulkar wrote the drama silence! The Court is in
Session in 1963. "Shantata! Court Chalu Ahe" was the original title of the play written in
Marathi. In 1967, the play was first staged. The drama is said to be based on the playwright
Vijay Tendulkar's own experiences. The play's plot deals with the issues of female
discrimination and the Indian Judicial System.

Vijay Tendulkar’s play Silence! The Court is in Session projects the dual perspectives in
dealing with the social issues particularly the women in general. The psyche of the society to
hush up things remains a dominant idea through out the play and the double standards while
dealing with woman issues offering a clichéd naïve assurance that it is after all a play, a
‘game’ largely calls for an analysis of the disturbing subtext. The attempt made here is to
look into those spaces in the play which generally goes unnoticed for want of merit from the
thematic perspective. The dramatist has carefully loaded the play within the play not in the
conventional sense but to explore the male psyche which denies freedom of choice for
women in matters of sex, motherhood, profession and creativity.

Leela Benare’s physical proximity with the on-stage characters such as Samant and Rokde
are vital. Men, in this play, find it difficult to share intimate spaces with women in public but
they desire close relation in private as it is the case with Prof Damle. The moment Benare
touches her own stomach there is a meaningful nervousness. She knew there was something
to hide. The room of the mock trial has a faulty bolt since it slips itself and it traps the
inmates. Benare tries many times to walk out but all ended up unsuccessfully. However,
towards the end she is successful in breaking the cage of patriarchy.

‘ Na Stri Swatantryamarhati.‘ Woman is not fit for independence. Benare is an educated

woman about thirty-four years old. Her life was not entirely smooth as she wanted it to be.
She was exploited by her maternal uncle and the entire family took opposition to her proposal
of marrying him. Despite this she pursued her studies and became a schoolteacher. Her liking
of Prof. Damle ended up in rocks as he exploited her sexually but when she got pregnant he
shied away from the alliance. As she puts it at the end, “I offered my body on the altar of my
worship. And my intellectual god took the offering-and went his way.” (75) She got
associated with an amateur dramatic alliance, whose prime purpose was to educate the public
with social and current issues. Benare was originally reluctant to perform the role of an
accused but this reluctance was ignored. The playwright endeavours to create a game-like
atmosphere. But soon the imaginary charges led to personal dilemmas. The play is long
drawn exposition of Benare’s true understanding of the society. Her words at the beginning
about herself are significant, “My life is my own-I haven’t sold it to anyone for a job! My
will is my own. My wishes are my own. No one can kill those-no one! I’ll do what I like with
myself and my life!” Benare is seen in a mood of gaiety, but she gets treated badly by her co-
artists. They venomously attack her under the guise of a ‘trial play’. The play thus moves
from the talkative and mirthful soul to a gloomy, shocked and shattered entity. She is
pregnant, she loses her job, and her character is exposed.

There are innumerable instances where the characters come with superfluous
philosophical treatises for supporting the cause of woman oppression which Benare scoffs at
as “straight out of a school composition book”. Sukhatme: Motherhood is pure. Moreover,
there is a great nobility in our concept of motherhood. We have acknowledged woman as the
mother of mankind. Our culture enjoins us to perpetual worship of her. Sukhatme speech as
the counsel for the prosecution is another example: Sukhatme: If it is encouraged, there will
be no such thing as the institution of marriage left. Immorality will flourish. Before our eyes,
our beautiful dream of society governed by tradition will crumble into dust. The accused has
plotted to dynamite the very roots of our tradition, our pride in ourselves, our culture and our
religion Woman bears the grave responsibility of building up the high values of society.

Towards the end the judgment seems absurd. Mr. Kashikar says: The crimes you have
committed are most terrible. There is no forgiveness for them. No memento of your sin
should remain for future generations. Therefore, this court hereby sentences that you shall
live. But the child in your womb shall be destroyed Her idea of rosy life was the one she
wrote in the school book: “The grass is green/The rose is red/The book is mine/Till I am
dead”

But every single book got torn one by one and she did not know where. But she is still there.
She is not dead. She has been betrayed by her co-artists and all of them a failure in the field
of art and science and more importantly in life. Her defeat in the battle is already destined.
Such frankness and openness as displayed by Benare will not be tolerated in a male
dominated society. The value systems dominate the woman both at the psychic level and at
the social level. Benares is juxtaposed with Mrs. Kashikar so as to make the divide clear.
Benares has violated the social taboo. Mrs. Kashikar is middle aged, married, a house wife
but childless. Mrs. Kashikar has damaging view against Benare. She does not hesitate to say
that these young unmarried girls get everything without marrying. She shows her doubt, how
can Benare remain unmarried till the age of thirty-four? The last speech of Ms. Benare was
skilfully constructed by Tendulkar. The speech made by Benare to signify the suppressed
conscience of women remains one of the charming utterances in the play: It echoes the irony,
sorrow lampoon present in Indian society. Benare says, But I was ignorant instead; I threw
myself off a parapet of our house-to embrace death. But I didn’t die. My body didn’t die I felt
as its feelings were dead – out they had not died either the.
Q What changes do we come across in Ms. Benare as the trial progresses?
OR
Q Bring out contradictions in the character of Ms. Benare

Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar, a well-known Indian playwright, television writer, literary

essayist, journalist, and social critic, was born in Mumbai in 1928. Shantata! Court Chalu
Ahe is his most well-known play. Vijay Tendulkar wrote the drama silence! The Court is in
Session in 1963. "Shantata! Court Chalu Ahe" was the original title of the play written in
Marathi. In 1967, the play was first staged. The drama is said to be based on the playwright
Vijay Tendulkar's own experiences. The play's plot deals with the issues of female
discrimination and the Indian Judicial System.

In Silence! the Court is in Session, the lively school teacher Leela Benare who loves to recite
fanciful poetry and participate in community theatre, realises that staging of the play-
rehearsal as a mock-trial is in fact aimed at humiliating her. Leela Benare possesses her own
guilt and in her advance proclamation of her exceptional reservoir of talent and strength, is
her unconscious effort to rationalize her conduct that is not to be supported by social codes.
To share her loneliness and guilt, she inevitably needs the support for Samant. Her
confession, “I feel scared when I am alone” is an unconscious projection of her own guilt that
is to be exposed in the play. In contrast, of her nervousness, through her sudden access of
energy, clapping of hands and singing of songs, she intends to project and reveal the mystery
that has been suppressed by her. Tendulkar following the tradition of naturalism accepts that
the fantasies associated with forgotten past now and then shoot up in the present and they
subsequently control and guide human energy and mechanism of behaviour. The primitive
instinctual urges that provide all the psychic energy of the individual are kept out of
consciousness by the mechanism of repression, ‘not because they lack significance but
because they may be so significant as to constitute what is felt as a threat to the ego.
In view of the fact that Benare is snared by the highbrows of cultured society, she is
surprisingly ignorant towards the way of the world, which is disguised in good faces. She
encounters to hold the swirling darkness. Her entire life is translated into an ever-increasing
entanglement,” says Kanade Ponkshe, in spite of the best resistance of Miss Benare, reveals
the whole truth of her effort to get married. She was pregnant and she wanted to give birth to
the child. It was only out of social cowardice that was not able to reveal the identity of the
father of the child. Moreover, she was also conscious about the plight of the illegitimate
child. Hence, in wider perspective of social consideration, she conceived the plan to give
name and dignity to unborn baby. It is an irony that Ponkshe realizes the gravity of the
situation but he was not ready to accept the proposal because it would have been a violation
of male dominated social values in which there had been no compromise of woman between
her pure virginity and marital life. Miss Benare had no intension of the betrayal of Ponkshe
and therefore she confessed that the child in her womb was of Professor Damle. At the end
Miss Benare makes a confession of her relationship with her uncle. But it was not meant for
guilt. It was motivated by her zest of life and she got love and contentment out of it. It is true
that the relationship was governed and guided by innocent fascination, a state of life when
she was ignorant about the crude ways of the world. Like other protagonists of Tendulkar,
Benare is tormented and humiliated but instead of adopting the strategy of withdrawal, she
seeks confirmation and assimilation. She owns the identity of her child with the exceptional
strength of spirit and intends to preserve the sublimity of motherhood. The play reveals the
perplexing contradictions within human nature. The play shows how individual is
disempowered, made subject, reduced to the role of a spectator by the logic of certain events
and social grouping. The play is a portraiture of the indomitably and grit of the human spirit.
Miss Benare is in a state of nature as solitary, poor hasty, brutish and short. Tendulkar’s
dramatizes the shift in paradigm as a post partition society where the women are forced to
step out into the public sphere and the contradictions and pit falls that awaited them. Benare
as the early representative of that positions is more defensive and more pleading. She seeks
break out the stereotype, but ultimately accepts social norms
Summary
The Sonar Moti Tenement (Bombay) Progressive Association is gathering to put American
President Lyndon B. Johnson on mock trial for his role in the proliferation of atomic
weaponry. The SMTPA is composed of socially committed activists who try to raise
awareness of issues of significance affecting members of their Indian community that might
be overlooked in favor of more pressing concerns. As various members of the association
arrive, important information about their backgrounds, present circumstances, and
interrelationships are conveyed: there is Mr. Kashikar, a social worker, and his wife, who is
doting but unable to give him children; the pretentious actor, Karnik; the lawyer, Sukhatme;
the science student, Ponkshe; the vibrant and free teacher, Benare; and the ward of the
Kashikars and errand-boy of the troupe, Balu Rodke. Two members of the group, Professor
Damle and Mr. Rawte, are not able to make it to the performance. Samant, a local village
man, is there to help them into the hall they’ll be using for their evening show.
Performance time is still a few hours away, so those who have made it decide to pass the time
through improvisation; this is also done to help Samant, who has to help fill in tonight,
understand a courtroom’s proceedings. Though the roles that most of them are slated to play
remain essentially unchanged, there will be one very great change: a new defendant will be
put on trial. Since Benare happens to have left the room at this time, the others decide she
will be placed on trial. When she returns and discovers what is taking place, she suggests
thievery as a replacement for the crime they have chosen for her: infanticide. The crime was
not chosen randomly: the vivacious, early-30s woman is routinely criticized behind her back
for her “unconventional” lifestyle. Soon enough, it becomes pointedly apparent that there
may be little about this trial of Benare that is purely random.

The very purpose of the SMTPA is indicative of the collective opinion the members hold of
themselves. They have ordained themselves as an entity charged with educating the more
ignorant members of the community; more than just educating them, they see themselves as
guiding them to a more elevated understanding of social causes. In reality, they seem more
interested in being judgmental of others than in bringing them up to equal standing.

When Balu Rokde offers the enticing information that, in reality, he did once see Benare
inside the home of Professor Damle, the "mock" part of the trial begins to blend with real life.
Samant fabricates a theory to explain what Rokde actually witnessed that day: Benare was
having an affair with Damle and wound up pregnant, a scenario which, of course, would
naturally end with the infanticide with which she is charged. The only problem is that
Benare’s response to Samant’s entirely constructed fiction is too emotionally overwrought to
be acting: in fact, Samant has, entirely by accident, hit upon a real-life truth.

At that point, when it seems that an unexpected and ugly truth has inserted itself too deeply
into the proceedings to turn back, the mock trial takes on an increasingly dramatic tone.
When Benare attempts to flee the room, she finds it has been locked from the outside,
trapping her in the role of criminal defendant. The trial continues with testimony from two of
the men that Benare pleaded with them to marry her and help protect the child from being
raised illegitimately, but that both men rejected her.

Sukhatme takes on the role of the prosecutor in the mock trial—he was the one who
suggested that Benare be put on trial in the first place. He goes overboard in painting Benare
as the very embodiment of the corruption of the institution of motherhood. Presiding over the
trial is the status-conscious Mr. Kashikar, who, in addition to being judge, breaks with
precedent, tradition, and convention by temporarily putting aside his judicial robes and taking
the stand as a witness. He explains he feels free of duty and impartiality to the extent that he
castigates all adult unmarried girls as a “sinful canker on the body of society” before
providing yet more damning evidence about Benare.

The prosecution having rested, the trial is turned over to the defence to call witnesses. There
is just one problem: all three witnesses who could possibly be called to refute any of the
allegations being made against Benare just so happen not to be present. The prosecuting
attorney goes on to give his closing argument and then, at the judge’s request, goes on to
present closing arguments for the defence. Judge Kashikar inquires if Benare has anything at
all to say in her defence.

There is an imagined scene (the lights change and the others freeze in place) in which Benare
proceeds to give a long, passionate speech. She details how she never quite fit into society
and how she once tried to end her life but did not succeed, consequently having a greater
appreciation for life. Her failed love affair with Damle meant she was once again in trouble,
but she would raise the child anyway. She laments how people cannot mind their own
business and stay out of others’ private lives, and she resents that even though she’s given her
all to her job, the administration wants to remove her for being an unwedded mother. At the
conclusion of his emotionally intense monologue, the action of the play resumes as normal.
Kashikar reiterates how grave her crime is for society as a whole, and he delivers a guilty
verdict as well as punishment: the illegitimate foetus growing inside Benare is to be aborted.
Benare collapses to the floor.

Suddenly, the drama is broken by the sound of the locked door opened by the villagers who
have come to the mock trial of President Johnson. As if coming out of a dream state, the
actors on stage slowly remove the trappings of their “characters” and become their real selves
again. As Benare remains unmoving on the floor, they try to persuade her that it was all
nothing but a game and not to take it seriously, but she remains lifeless. The others leave her
there as they wander off to prepare for the scheduled performance. Finally, the only thing left
on stage is her body crumpled on the floor, along with a little stuffed bird from Samant.
Themes
The Power of the Patriarchy
The play is all about male domination. Benare is put on trial for being an unmarried single
woman in her thirties. It is disguised as a trial about a criminal violation of the sanctity of
motherhood, but make no mistake: Benare is guilty because she is a single, unmarried
pregnant woman, and that makes her dangerous to men who live for the institution of
marriage to codify their dominance over women. That the man who fathered the illegitimate
child growing inside her escapes being put on trial and garnering punishment is merely the
cherry topping the patriarchal sundae.
The Failure of the Justice System
The play is about a mock trial. Actually, it is about a mock trial: the actual mock trial is
scheduled to take place later, and what is witnessed on stage is a quickly slapped-together
improvisation. So, right from the start, the judicial system is being mercilessly satirized. The
mocking of the inherent systemic unfairness of the Indian court system continues on unabated
as it inexorably moves toward its centrepiece: a judge who takes the witness stand and a
single lawyer representing both the prosecution and the defence.
Seeming and Being
To Benare, the mock trial is a personal attack against her morality and independence. To the
others, it is merely a game. To Karnik, a minor character, the idea of the trial as a game
simply means nothing more than a chance to perform; he has no real interest in attacking
Benare for her behaviour. For the prosecuting attorney Sukhatme, the insistence that the trial
is not really an assault upon the woman, but rather upon the fictional crimes of the character
she is playing, is much more complex. The entire conceit of the mock trial of a fictional
defendant being a façade that obscures the truth parallels the aforementioned theme of
"respect for motherhood" really being a façade for protecting male dominance.
The Bystander Effect
Samant seems like a generally nice man: humble, a little naive, friendly, and undesirous of
lying or being intentionally cruel. Throughout the first part of Benare's trial, he hangs back
and observes with almost childlike wonder. As things become more intense, he seems a little
flummoxed, especially more so than others. However, when he is asked to take the stand and
to, for all intents and purposes, spin a convincing and damning lie about Benare, he might
start off nervous but soon warms to his task and delivers searing "testimony." This is an
example of a version of the bystander effect, according to which otherwise nice and normal
people are reluctant to intervene when something terrible befalls someone else in their view.
It melds with a sort of group-think bullying, which is why Samant goes along with the others'
cruelty and cannot help himself from adding his own contributions.
India After Independence
Though the text does not really mention anything specific about the time and place, hints of
India's post-independence world seep in. Perhaps the most conspicuous way in which the
current moment manifests itself is in the debate over Benare's behaviour as a "modern"
woman. She is everything traditionalists fear: independent, smart, bold, sexual, witty, and
iconoclastic. Since child marriage is outlawed (Kashikar rues) and other norms governing
women's behavior have somewhat loosened in the 1960s, someone like Benare can generally
live as she pleases. However, the text implies that she cannot live this way without facing
severe backlash from her contemporaries who are less likely to embrace this new,
"permissive," putatively morally bankrupt society.
The Failings of the Middle Class
Tendulkar harshly satirizes the middle class, the members of which feel that they are superior
to those below them and see their purpose in life as a didactic one: to minister to inferior
people through their theatre performances dealing with issues of "social significance." These
social workers, students, actors, lawyers, and professors are hollow and hypocritical; they are
unhappy with their own lives and channel that unhappiness into persecuting others. They are
carping and conniving, petty and vicious; Tendulkar has no sympathy for their limited
worldviews and selfishness.
Hypocrisy
Most of Benare's persecutors are complete hypocrites, ignoring their own shortcomings in
their tendentious pursuit of bettering society through oppressing its supposed malefactors.
The manifestations of their hypocrisy are all unique to their persons, but they have in
common the inability to let Benare live as she pleases, working zealously to condemn her for
not adhering to patriarchal dictates of behavior, thought, and sentiment.