Urdu does not possess anything like a sustained tradition of translating, adapting, or staging Shakespeare. Many professional theatre companies, some big and nationally acclaimed and some small but locally popular, operated and did lucrative business throughout the undivided subcontinent. The term is also used to describe a style, a set practice, based on a specific body of dramaturgic and performance conventions which were developed and perfected by these companies. As recent historical and literary scholarship shows, the iconicity of Shakespeare, which was a central component of English studies in India since the 19th century, was a colonial construct. The genesis of Parsi theatre, like that of the modern Indian stage in general, is closely bound with the British presence and cultural influence in India. Ten years later, a wealthy businessman, Jagannath Shankarsheth, who had received his higher education in England, initiated a campaign for a new theatre.