ABSTRACT

The year 1826 is significant in Assamese history because through the Treaty of Yandaboo, signed in this year, Assam came under British rule, facilitating Assam's contact with the Western world, even as it initiated a period of colonial domination. During the second half of the nineteenth century a section of Assamese youth went to Calcutta for higher studies and got acquainted with the world of Shakespearean plays and their Bengali adaptations. Shakespeare has been adapted, reconstructed and reinterpreted in Assamese drama. He has been assimilated within the sociocultural context of Assamese life from the nineteenth century onwards and continues to provide cultural resources to contemporary Assamese theatre practitioners and writers. Padum Barua depicted the social dynamics of an Assamese village through his film Gonga Silonir Pakhi. Contemporary film-makers of Assam have continued making films on the themes of identity politics and political issues.