Balwant Gargi

Balwant Gargi (4 December 1916 – 22 April 2003) was an Indian Punjabi language dramatist, theatre director, novelist, and short story writer, and academic.

Early life

On 4 December 1916, in Canal House in Sehna, Barnala (Punjab), Balwant Gargi was born in a house near the Sirhind Canal, famous for being the spot where Razia Sultan was imprisoned. The second son in the family of Shiv Chand Garg, a head clerk in the Irrigation Department, he would go on create history in the world of Indian and Punjabi literature.

Gargi studied at Government College Lahore, and completed his M.A.(English) and M.A.(Political Science) from FC College in Lahore.Balwant Gargi dead
''The Tribune'', 23 April 2003. He also studied theatre with Norah Richards at her school in Kangra Valley, London, New Delhi and around the United States.

Gargi's first play, ''Loha kutt'' (English: ''Blacksmith'') in 1944 became controversial for its stark picture of the Punjab countryside. At that juncture, he focused on poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, and superstition marking rural life, which continued in ''Saelpathar'' (English: ''Petrified Stone'') in 1949, ''Navan mudh'' (English: ''New Beginning'') in 1950, and ''Ghugi'' (English: ''Dove'') in 1950. In the 1950 edition of Loha kutt, he resorted to drawing poetic and dramatic elements from J. M. Synge and Garcia Lorca. In subsequent works like ''Kanak di balli'' (English: ''Stalk of Wheat'') in 1968 and ''Dhuni di agg'' (English: ''Fire in the Furnace'') in 1977, these became his chief vehicles. For all the specificity of native locale, the former deflected as much towards Lorca's ''Blood Wedding'' as the latter reminded one of Yerma. In ''Mirza-Sahiban'' in 1976, customs and conventions came in for bitter censure. Gradually, Gargi's preoccupation with sex, violence, and death became almost an obsession. Antonin Artaud`s theatre of cruelty grew into his categorical imperative. This required his dramaturgy to proceed through mythopoeia, which turns explicit in his last plays.

In ''Saunkan'' (English: ''Rival Women'') in 1979, the paradigm of Yama-Yami, the Hindu god of death and his twin sister, becomes an occasion to glorify sexual union. Altogether dispensing with socio-political discourse, he turned to his new theme with a vengeance in ''Abhisarka'' (English: ''Lover'') in 1990. Gargi's penchant for the unexpected grew all-powerful.

For subject matter Gargi moved freely over social milieu, mythology, history, and folklore. For form and technique he relied as much upon Sanskrit classics as on Lorca's poetic drama, Brecht's epic theatre, or Artaud's theatre of cruelty. In the composition and performance of his dozen full-length plays and five collections of one-act drama, he traveled from the realistic to the mythopoeic mode.

In addition to this dramatic corpus, Gargi's short stories began to be published in English. A book, ''Folk Theatre of India'', published in New York City and two semi-autobiographical novels in English and Punjabi, ''The Naked Triangle'' (''Nangi Dhup'') and ''The Purple Moonlight (Kashni Vehra)'' brought him to the forefront of cosmopolitan attention.

Balwant Gargi was among the pioneers of playwriting in Punjabi and the production and telecast of his plays like ''Sanjha Chulha'' on Doordarshan received countrywide appreciation

Awards

Gargi was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award, the highest Indian literary award, in 1962 for his book ''Rang Manch''. This was followed by the Padma Shri (1972), and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in Punjabi Playwriting in 1998. Gargi is one of the few artists to win both the Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi awards.

Theatre and teaching

Balwant Gargi taught for two years (1966–67) at the University of Washington, where he met Jeanne Henry, who later became his wife. This period was the basis of his autobiography ''The Naked Triangle''.

Balwant Gargi was the founder-director of the Indian Theatre Department, Panjab University, Chandigarh. The open-air theatre at the department is named after him. His students include Anupam Kher, Kiron Kher, Satish Kaushik, Poonam Dhillon, and many other current Bollywood stars.

Over the years, Gargi lectured and taught as a distinguished visiting professor at Harvard University, Vassar College, Mount Holyoke College, Trinity College, the University of Hawai'i, Yale University, and many other renowned international institutions.

His children, Manu Gargi and Jannat Gargi, are settled in the United States. They are both producers of films in Los Angeles, Hollywood.

See also

* Chaman Lal Chaman

References

External links

Theatre Deptt., PU, Chandigarh

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gargi, Balwant
Indian male dramatists and playwrights
Indian theatre directors
Indian drama teachers
Punjabi-language writers
1916 births
2003 deaths
Government College University, Lahore alumni
Forman Christian College alumni
Dramatists and playwrights from Punjab, India
People from Bathinda
Harvard University staff
University of Washington faculty
Vassar College faculty
Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Punjabi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education
Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Indian male writers