An Understanding of How Gender Ideology Shapes Human Identity in the Selected Plays of Mahesh Dattani

Abstract

In Indian theatre, dramatists like Tagore, Tendulkar, Karnad and Dattani have made literary endeavours to explore how pernicious has been the effect of gender conditioning on the human psyche. The contemporary playwright, Mahesh Dattani has attempted to reveal with great sensitivity the impact that gender stereotypes tend to have not only on the psyche of a man or a woman but also that of Eunuchs to exemplify how gender, which is nothing but a social construct could mar human life and cripple individuals in the process. His plays thus provide a realistic depiction of the struggles of such individuals who struggle to register their will and voice, in their endeavour of self-preservation and survival. However, human sensibility and human resistance are above any gender-centric approach. The present paper aims to examine selected plays of Dattani to highlight the sublimity of human will that strives to overcome the oppressive systems of gender ideologies.