Teaching English Drama in Indian Socio-Cultural Context.

India has the longest and the richest tradition in drama. During the age of the Vedic Aryans, drama was performed in a simple way. Different episodes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavad-Gita were enacted out in front of people. It depicts different situations relating to men good, bad and indifferent, and gives courage, amusement, happiness and advice to all of them. When Britishers came in India, the crippled Indian drama regained its strength. In 1920, a new drama in almost all the Indian languages came to the fore, it was a drama largely influenced by prevailing movements like Marxism, Psychoanalysis, symbolism, and surrealism. Indian drama got a new footing when Kendriya Natak Sangeet Akadami was started in January 1953 National school of drama set up Sangeet Natak Akadami in 1959 was another development. The year 1972 was a landmark year for Indian theatre. Badal Sircar, Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Karnad have contributed to the modernization of the face of the Indian theatre, these play wrights have made bold innovations and fruitful experiments in terms of both thematic concerns and technical virtuosities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]