ABSTRACT
This chapter comments on some of the major plays of Girish Karnad, along with discussing Masti’s unique play Kākanakoṭe, Fortress of Kaka, at some length. It points out how the modernists’ works tend not only to be rather terse but derive from a somewhat limited vision of the Indian society/reality.
In addition to presenting a socio-political perspective of the freedom struggle in which M. K. Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and others figure, the chapter also characterises the so-called Nehruvian era as simply a response to the Gandhian, even as it points out the great sagacity of Nehru.
The chapter ends with a question: Why a great national narrative did not emerge from the Indian national struggle – being of truly epic dimensions, comparable to the great European movements and revolutions. There have only been local narratives.
