ABSTRACT
The paper foregrounds disability cultural activism in India with the help of a few examples from contemporary performances. As examples of re-interpretation of disability texts, the first part of the paper demonstrates ways of re-reading the character of Sakuni as represented in Sarala Dasa’s version of Mahabharata and a performance of puppet theatre based upon traditional Togalu Gombeyaata. In the second part of the paper, the performance “Bhagavad Gita on Wheels” is studied with respect to its semiotics. This performance is characterized by a non-normative usage of wheelchairs and crutches. It is argued that the performance not only questions the conventional articulation of passive disabled bodies but also seeks to break out from ableist prescriptions of a dancing body. Finally the paper points out that since the act of translation is in itself not neutral, such subversive renditions of disability narratives become important grounds for initiating a dialogue towards desirable social transformations. At the theoretical level the paper revisits the tripartite division of Roman Jakobson’s concept of translation as “intra-lingual”, “interlingual” and “inter-semiotic” translations and argues that counter hegemonic inter-semiotic translations of texts are equally legitimate and also provide ample opportunity for cultural and temporal appropriation, thereby creating possibilities of renewal, redressal and revision.
