Akshara Theatre brings alive the making of Mahatma through “Barrister At Law”, the landmark work of Khwaja Ahmed Abbas

Last week I sat in the Akshara Theatre and watched “Barrister At Law”, a play written by Khwaja Ahmed Abbas and directed by Gopal Sharman, founder of Akshara. It was almost 40 years ago when Abbas, journalist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, producer and short story writer met a young man who was showing his landmark play “The Ramayana” in New York. Abbas had written a play on Gandhi’s formative years in South Africa where he was struggling against racial oppression and discrimination, (much the same as he would do in India 20 years later). At the time Abbas had not seen “The Ramayana” (he was to see it later, at the Tata Theatre in Bombay). But he asked Gopal with the confidence of a senior artist, “One day I want you to stage this play. Only you can do it. And if it needs to be edited, I will trust only you to do it.” Abbas died in 1987, 20 years after their meeting; it was four decades after the meeting in New York that Gopal Sharman and Jalabala Vaidya redeemed the promise they had made to Abbas.
The play opens with Jalabala narrating the story of how it all happened and what turned a timid barrister from Gujarat via London into a man of steel. Her beautifully modulated voice was a treat for the ears. She spoke with the wisdom and experience of a lifetime of theatre. Speaking to the audience, she took them on a journey to Durban, Natal, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Transvaal, all sites of Gandhi’s struggle which transformed him from an elite lawyer to a leader of the dispossessed, and ultimately to a Mahatma.
In the Akshara Theatre I sat with two young friends who had worked with me on K A Abbas for the last three years, during which time we brought him out of oblivion into the consciousness of India of the 21 Century. In this process Gopal, Jalabala and their daughter Anasuya walked with us throughout. This entire year they brought out what I can best call Gandhi Nama – including “Truth & Dare”, a play based on Gandhi’s childhood experiences, “Gandhi’s Freedom”, a re-enactment of his last two days, “Bapu & I” – children’s expressions on the Mahatma, film screenings, discussions and much more. This production of “Barrister At Law” is culmination of that process.
They had performed it a few weeks earlier at Nehru Park for the African Summit. That I understand was a superb ambience. Here in their intimate theatre, where each wooden seat had been handcrafted by Gopal himself, it was a different ambience. The simplicity of the production was in keeping with the subject on hand. The characters: Gandhi himself, beautifully played by Vijay S Kumar; the ship’s captain played with great finesse by Sudhir Tandon; all competently assisted by actors who walked easily into multiple roles. The physical roll-out of the scenery-backdrop was from old proscenium style theatre, which was just the right touch.
The play begins with a projection of the folded hands of Godse who is paying homage to the leader, when suddenly the hands part to reveal the pistol. Intense is the sound of three bullets which rises to a crescendo with the words of the dying Gandhi, Hey Ram. We then follow the man in South Africa. Gandhi, on the train to Pretoria in a first class compartment is reading a book. The book is Leo Tolstoy's “The Kingdom of God Is Within You”. He is accosted by a white passenger who addresses him as ‘Sami’ and sniggers that the nigger can read English. Gandhi gently informs him that he has studied in England at the Inner Temple and he has a first class ticket all the way from Durban to Pretoria. The entire class of whites is outraged. They will not tolerate a coloured man travelling in places clearly marked, ‘for the whites only’. An argument ensues between the railway guard and Gandhi which ends with Gandhi being thrown out of the train along with his luggage and his book “The Kingdom of God Is Within You”. That is the defining moment for a man who must now chose his path; will he return to India or will he stay and fight the battle for the oppressed coloured races of South Africa? He decides to stay.
We witness his struggle, internal and external. We see him with Kasturba, subjecting her to his self-evolved principles, such as cleaning the chamber pot of an untouchable visitor. She agrees under protest and Gandhi is torn between his principles and his wife’s intense pain at performing an act forbidden by her faith.
Gandhi’s 21 years in South Africa unfold in scene after scene which is recounted by Jalabala in her inimitable manner while a small cast enacts them with stark simplicity. At the end we find him with his family on a ship going home. They are now deck passengers, the hurdle of caste/class has finally been crossed. Next to them are ‘poor, ordinary’ Indians – Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, from South and North India. All barriers have been breached. The Captain offers to transfer them to first class ‘more suitable for a Barrister at Law’. Gandhi declines. “I used to be a barrister at law but now I choose to be an ‘advocate’ of my people and their cause.” And so ends the play with the voice of history which calls him a ‘weapon less warrior, a Barrister at Law who chose to be an advocate of his people’.
Akshara’s play needs to be seen everywhere in the world in which we struggle every day with the scourge of violence in every sphere of life. Gopal Sharman’s original plan was just that. When we met two years ago, he was talking of a huge production and walk through sets. Akshara needs support to mount this play on that scale. It has all the ingredients of an epic production.
To begin with the state should support its viewing across all educational institutions. The spirit of the play is best conveyed in this theatrical concept created with love and insight by this wonderful team.
(The author chairs the Khwaja Ahmed Abbas Memorial Trust and is former Member of the erstwhile Planning Commission of India)