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Foucault's Concept Of Power Play Analysis

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The Foucauldian concept of power-relation runs through a large number of Tendulkar’s plays. In Ghasiram Kotwal ‘Power’ seems to be functioning as a leit motif in the formation of human relationship, showing a sort of master-slave dialectics. But no such criticism has hitherto been done so penetratingly as to explore the underlying power structure in his theatre among his men and women. While judging these two plays from this perspective we may reasonably refer to the connection of Foucault in tracing the origin and direction of power: No one, strictly speaking, has an official right to power; and yet it is always exerted in a particular direction with some people on one side and some on the other. (qtd. in Barry Smart 73) Ghasiram Kotwal dramatises …show more content…

To explore the impact of power in these two plays the interlocking subjects of power-politics and sexual politics have been examined as a critique of Foucauldian and feminist discourse. Foucault considers power as ever-present. It is not necessarily repressive but inhibits all human relationships and is closely bound up with knowledge. In Discipline and Punish (1979), he develops a historical argument on this basis. What Foucault views regarding the socio-cultural-economic condition of the nineteenth century, society is hauntingly relevant in the present scenario of Indian culture. The panopticon4 of Foucault can be found operating to overpower the psychic world of the women characters of Tendukar arresting them in a claustrophobic situation, in a ‘wheel of fire’. Tendulkar shows how different agencies of the society are at work to subjugate human development. My work attempts to re-construct and de-construct Foucault’s concept of power, relating it to vision of Tendulkar’s …show more content…

Ghasiram comes to the city of Pune as an outsider. He is falsely accused of theft and mercilessly cornered by the Pune Brahmins. He swears revenge on the city. He uses Nana Phadnavis, the magistrate of the Peshwa, offering his young daughter Lalita Gauri. In return he is given the power of a kotwal and wasting no time Ghasiram almost pounces on his former tormentors, rendering them to the position of slaves to his power. In the name of eradicating immorality and lasciviousness, he himself indulges in the misuse of power. Ghashiram becomes a despotic ruler. Finally, his death sentence is signed by Nana as quickly as he was given the role of a kotwal. The ending of the play is marked by violence and disturbance. Nana considers Ghashiram to be a threat to the city and thinks that his death will restore peace in the city. Hence his

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