DIRECTOR’S VISION

“The majority never has right on its side”

Ibsen wrote An Enemy of the People in 1882, setting it in a small town in Norway.

I have chosen to adapt his play to a small town in British India, in the 1880s. The main themes of the play - the manipulative power of the media, the insidious nature of the repression of new ideas in modern society, the price of truth – seem to me as relevant in British India as they were in 19^th century Norway, or, indeed, 21^st century Britain.

The play demonstrates the axiom that new ideas are like acts of terrorism.
Change in society is often prompted by, and usually starts off as, a minority view. This has been the fate (and continues to be the fate) of all freedom fighters and revolutionaries. Branded as “terrorists” – like Gandhi and Nelson Mandela once were – these individuals have to be not only enormously courageous but also enormously stubborn, to the point where they become anti-social.

When Dr. Somnath talks of starting “a revolution against the lie that the majority has the monopoly of the truth”, he could as well be Gandhi opposing Britain’s assumed monopoly of political morality. For Gandhi to oppose the idea that the British had a God-given right to rule, was no less insurrectionary than for Somnath to say the water was polluted.

The theme of polluted water in Ibsen’s play, provides an additional motive for adapting the play to India: where water is not only one of the main ingredients of life, but also at the centre of belief and ritual. Its pollution – which forms the main plot of the play – seemed to me also to suggest a metaphor for modernity: how an established, custom-bound society feels itself being “polluted” by new ideas.

The ambivalence of colonial life is reflected in Claudia Mayer’s set and costume design: where British pinstripe and herringbone, worsted and wool, seek to contain the riotous colours of Indian saris, achkans (coats) and shawls.

JATINDER VERMA – Director

Tara Arts

An Enemy of the People

Synopsis

A town in north India in the 1880’s becomes an experiment by the British administration in Indian civic rule. The town’s Tank (large well) is a famous pilgrimage site and therefore a source of its wealth. Dr Somnath, medical officer of the town, discovers the Tank’s holy water is polluted. He attempts to safeguard the health of the local citizens and pilgrims alike by proposing a radical solution. But his brother, Prem Somnath, the British appointed mayor of the town, is opposed to the idea.

The local press and small business interests initially support the Doctor in his fight with his brother – until the Mayor reminds them of the consequences of following the Doctor’s recommendations. The pilgrims who flock to the town are essential to the economy of the town, It becomes clear that Doctor Somnath’s challenge is not only to the notion of holy water but also to the vested local financial and political interests – the mayor, the businessmen, the press.

PRODUCTION NOTE

All the characters in the play employ the honorific “ji” in addressing each other: for example, “Dr. Somnath-ji”. The use of the honorific is a distinctive characteristic of all Indian languages; reflecting the hierarchic nature of Indian society.

Jatinder Verma

ABOUT TARA

30 Years of Connecting Cultures

Founded in 1977, Tara Arts was the first Asian-led theatre company in Britain.

Tara’s mission is to make connections between cultures through theatre. The company tours vibrant adaptations of European and Asian classics, develops new writing and brings the great stories of the world to children in junior schools.

Throughout the 1980s the company developed its distinctive, ‘Binglish’ style of theatre, drawing on an eclectic mix of traditional Asian performance techniques and applying them to the European cannon. This exploration culminated in Tartuffe (1990), The Little Clay Cart (1991) and Cyrano(1995), co-productions with the National Theatre.

The 1990s saw the company embark on a major project, developing a trilogy of plays which examined migration and transformation in the 20th century. Journey to the West (2002) looked at the experience of forced migration through the eyes of those who had lived it, and gave audiences at each of the day-long events an unforgettable experience.

Based in South London, and touring annually to England, Scotland and Wales, the company’s tours have also taken it as far afield as the Netherlands, Ireland, France, Belgium, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Australia.

ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE

19th Century Norway and India

Both Norway and India experienced, in the 19th century, the emergence of nationalist movements against colonial rule: Norway against the Swedes and India against the British. It is not until 1905 that Norway emerges as an independent nation, while it takes India forty more years.

In both countries, the emergence of nationalist movements was inextricably linked with questions of public health, as much as social and political reform. Both colonies were the sites of battles between tradition and modern advances in scientific knowledge.

Gandhi, on graduating as a Barrister in London.

In Norway, doctors had to battle hard to have modern methods accepted. For example, Michael Krohn, a district physician in Ytre Nordhordland from 1855 onwards, had to fight against local witchcraft and the indifference of local politicians to introduce effective health education.

In India, even after the cholera germs had been identified, the colonial administration had to be extremely careful to, for example, stop the carriage of often polluted holy water from sacred river to family home. And although the spread of plague required strict quarantine measures, these often flew in the face of vast population movements associated with pilgrimages.

An Indian doctor inoculates
against plague in Bombay

Yet in both countries, individuals emerged prepared to brave both local sentiments as well as inimical political conditions. Individuals like Dr Hansen in Norway, who discovered the cause of leprosy in 1873. And Raja Ram Mohun Roy in India, whose progressive views on public health and social reform - including polygamy and infanticide - make him an early prototype for Dr. Somnath (Ibsen’s Dr. Stockmann). Not to mention the extraordinary figure of Gandhi, whose championing of public health issues was on a par with his fight for independence from Britain.

Statue of Raja Ram Mohun Roy, who died in Bristol in 1833

Gerhard Hansen