ABSTRACT
A distinctive British Asian theatre that defined its own image and identity along with that of the African and Caribbean diaspora began to take shape in the mid-1970s and established itself in all its variety in the 1980s and 1990s. The killing led to the mobilization of South Asian youths in defence and welfare organizations and, as part of that response, to the formation of Tara Arts, an English-language company that was a voice of and for Asians in Britain. It was first commissioned by the Hawth, Crawley, as part of a three-year programme supported by the Arts Council of England to encourage new British-Asian theatre and to develop audiences for it. The production was privately financed, but the company quickly established itself around a core of artists and gained public subsidy and awards as it pursued its aims of supporting new writing, promoting intercultural theatre education, and offering professional training.
