1. People in this play

 

Akhilesh “Akki” Singh

Akki’s the pampered only son of a Rajput, dominant-caste land-owning (zamindar) family. While he grew up shuttling between Patna and New Delhi, home was always the zamindar ki haveli. Akki has two sisters and a younger brother, but he knows that he will take on the responsibility of the family, the business and the family lands one day. For now, he is enjoying studying Management & Economics at this British university. Akki’s family has a conservative outlook, steeped in the mainstream patriarchal norms of Bihar, which Akki has never questioned. He revels in the respect and adoration he gets as the zamindar’s son and heir, both from his extended family and all the people in his district.

 

Hari Ramakrishnan

Hari is from New Delhi and is doing an MA in Big Data Studies. His career goal is a tenured chair at a university, teaching and researching. Hari is a proud Brahmin (although he prefers to call himself Hindu Indian) and believes in the superiority of his religious beliefs. He visits the local temple in the university town as often as he can. He has also made a small temple on a table in a corner of his room to seek blessings every morning. He loves the comforts and clarity his traditions provide but equally enjoys the freedoms he experiences in the university, now that he is no longer constantly under his parents’ eyes. Hari’s favourite pastime is debating and he is a member of the same student association as Sam (see below). He frequently participates in campus discussions around life in India, which he defends to the best of his ability.

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Latha “LG” Guruswamy

LG is a second-generation non-resident Indian (NRI). Both her parents are doctors who had migrated from India after gaining their medical degrees. LG’s father, Keval, is from a Brahmin family of temple priests in Andhra Pradesh. Keval met LG’s mother, Shalini Gupta, in medical school. Shalini’s family was in the cloth retail business in Uttar Pradesh for some generations, and she was the pampered ‘rebel’. Their inter-caste marriage had been accepted on both sides despite the north-south divide: for the Guptas, having a Brahmin son in law raised their status even more. And they lavished a generous dowry on their daughter that was well received in the temple priest’s household. The Guruswamys live in a sprawling detached house in a small town close to the university. LG has been friends with Sam and Lisa (see below) since high school. She is studying law but also belongs to a sociology study group. She is in a live-in relationship with Zara, a journalism student at the university she met in the study group. Her parents are unaware that she is queer. They are focused on scouting around for a suitable wife for her brother, their beloved son.

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Lisa Holmes

Lisa is studying sociology. She is Black British. Her grandparents came to Britain from the Caribbean on the Windrush. Lisa grew up in a single parent household, with her mother working two low-wage jobs to keep the family together. Lisa is well clued into the social pressures and concerns that come with her  background. This includes the British colonial racial oppression of the Caribbean’s Black people and her own Black working-class and gendered experiences. She is determined to fulfil her grandmother’s dream of having an academic in the family. She has been in a steady relationship with Sam since high school. They live together in rented student accommodation. Lisa loves gospel singing and is part of her local church choir.

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Manu Mathuru

Manu is originally from Madhya Pradesh, his father is a clerk in a state government department and his mother is a housewife. He came to this university on a scholarship four years ago for his MA in Anthropology. He stayed on to do his Doctorate in Development Studies as he won another grant for it. He did his Bachelor’s from Hindu College in New Delhi, having gained admission on an OBC reserved seat (although his school-leaving exam marks would have easily gained him a general seat). Manu enjoys debating and that’s how he met up with Hari on campus. They hold opposing views on many subjects, but their mutual respect and “common” Delhi background has resulted in an unlikely friendship. [OBC: Other Backward Class]

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​Samir “Sam” Kulkarni

Sam is a second-generation Indian British with a liberal upbringing, doing his MA in Management Science and Engineering. Sam’s father is a wealthy corporate and his mother is a society lady, on the board of many charities. Both had been born in Uganda and came to the UK when all South Asians were forced to leave that country. In Uganda, the Brahmin caste status of both families along with their business interests had enabled a privileged life in households employing several local Ugandan Africans as domestic servants. Sam has bolstered his limited first-hand exposure to India with reading, watching films/documentaries. He loves discussing many aspects of the country with his cousins in India. Lately he has joined a few WhatsApp discussion groups, which he thinks helps him understand current affairs quickly, although sometimes the messages in a couple of them directly contradict each other.

​The setting

In a space in the university town of Bristol, UK. The six friends are chilling out on a lazy Friday evening. Manu is checking his newsfeed on his mobile, while the rest are having a friendly banter.

 

2. Script for Manu

 

Manu [looking frustrated and angry at the same time]: What the … I just don’t get what people are thinking at times!

 

Latha “LG” [in a concerned voice]: Why? What’s up?

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Manu: It’s this story I’m following from back home. The Kausalya-Shankar murder case? Don’t know if you guys are clued into it ...

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Sam: Yea, I remember ... ... ... ... ... the latest?

 

Manu: It's yet another case of caste-based violence! A young Dalit man was killed in broad daylight just because he happened to marry a Thevar girl ... I mean young woman. Thevars are a very powerful community in Tamil Nadu even though not much high up the caste system. ... A few months after their marriage, they were attacked in the market in the middle of the day, and Shankar was murdered.

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Lisa [exclaiming]: Seriously?

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Manu: Both of them were brutally hacked with knives. And guess what was the twist in the tale? Kausalya’s parents confessed that they had killed Shankar, in order to reclaim their “honour” in the community. Can you believe that?

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Lisa:

Akki: Hang on ... ... ... ... ... certainty Manu?

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Manu: This phone [shaking his phone] tells me that even though Kausalya’s parents had confessed, the local High Court has just acquitted them for lack of evidence. And we all know how that can happen when the issue is about inter-caste marriage. Even though there’s no law against such marriages,  dominant caste folks often vehemently oppose them. Why? Because the idea of ‘caste purity’ runs deep, it’s so normalised amongst them, and what mixing of blood could do to sully that purity.

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Lisa:

Hari:

Lisa:

Hari: 

Akki: 

Latha “LG”:

Hari:

Latha “LG”:

Lisa:

Hari:

Latha “LG”:

Lisa:

Sam: Guys, Lisa’s ... ... ... ... ... violence?

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Manu: Add to that the violence from the justice system? They’ve let Kausalya’s parents go free despite their confession. That was Shankar’s family’s last hope for justice … our courts aren’t immune from caste violence either. Anyone here read the book Caste Pride by Manoj Mitta – it’s all about this, the legal history of caste.

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Hari: Really? ... ... ... ... ...  for a change.

Akki:

Latha “LG”:

Hari: 

Lisa: 

Akki:

Lisa: 

Sam: 

Lisa:

Hari:

Sam:

Akki: 

Lisa: Actually BLM ... ... ... ... ... than Whites!

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Manu: Ha, it’s similar in India …  remember during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the lines of migrant labourers walking even the national highways. I’ll never forget that. They were mostly Dalits and Adivasis who’d lost their jobs, many lost their place to stay … they had a really tough time. I wonder how many got vaccinated in the first tranche of vaccinations?

 

Latha “LG”:

Akki:

Sam:

Latha “LG”:

Lisa:

Akki:

Hari: Oooh, I remember ... ... ... ... ...  her complexion!

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Manu: Err, it certainly is all over the place. Remember Amar Chitra Kathas, they’re still very popular comics, and lots are on Hindu mythologies … and all of them show “good” people as light coloured, while the demons, the “Rakshas”, are dark-skinned and for some reason I still can’t get, the gods are blue.

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Lisa: 

Akki:

Latha “LG”:

Lisa:

Akki:

Sam:

Latha “LG”:

Hari: 

Sam: 

Akki:

Latha “LG”:

Lisa: 

Latha “LG”: Couldn’t agree ... ... ... ... ... system going.

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Manu: Yep! Has been declared again and again by anti-caste activists and thinkers, Dr Ambedkar, Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule, Begum Rokeya – it all starts with the liberation of women, celebrating inter-caste marriage because gender and caste discrimination go hand in hand.

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Latha “LG”:

Akki:

Hari:

Latha “LG”: ... hai na?

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END