Walk out! Speak up!
- Independent Ink
- Oct 18
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 20
Feminist Street Theatre: Rhythms of Resistance. The sense of an urgent need for change is skilfully conveyed to the reader through photographs, quotations from plays, and narratives about performances. Meshing song, dialogue, movement and conflict into the dramatic form, the creators of feminist street theatre brought many a powerful message to people.
By Purnima Chakraborti
Book Review:
Walking Out, Speaking Up: Feminist Street Theatre in India
Deepti Priya Mehrotra
Zubaan Books, 2025
Walking Out, Speaking Up is such an apt title. It indicates the first and fundamental step towards addressing women’s problems. Deepti Priya Mehrotra’s book reaches back to my youth in the 1970s and 80s and travels with me right to the present carrying all the fears women of my generation lived with. The terrifying newspaper headlines which are seared in our memories are revisited.
Crimes against women are unbearably painful, and we tend to turn away from pain. Feminist street theatre confronted that which seemed almost impossible to confront: women’s suffering, a suffering often silenced by society. This book shows how women formed their own friendships and forged their own forms of protest.
Parivar ki Gaadi, 1986, by Sabla Sangh, in Nand Nagri and Seemapuri. Photos: Sheba Chhacchi.
Walking Out, Speaking Up takes the reader into the world of feminist street theatre. From the late 1970s onward, this theatre appropriated to itself the task of speaking out against a range of crimes pervading social existence in post-Independence India. Cases of bride burning, dowry deaths, sati and various forms of violence against women forced themselves into the public domain through this medium. Looking back over the years the writer sees feminist street theatre through the lens of social activism, informed by her own participation as an actor, as well as an awareness of deeply entrenched hatred against women.
The author’s intimate knowledge of the form and context of these theatrical performances, gives the book a richness, making it an engrossing, indeed magical read. Art, activism, socio-political reform, are carefully brought together in her writing. The sense of an urgent need for change is skilfully conveyed to the reader through photographs, quotations from plays, and narratives about performances. Meshing song, dialogue, movement and conflict into the dramatic form, the creators of feminist street theatre brought many a powerful message to people. As befitted an art form created to fulfil a great social need, performances were held in public places like parks and street corners, in colleges, at protests and as part of campaigns.
Om Swaha, Karol Bagh, Delhi, March 8, 1981. Photo: Sheba Chhacchi.
Ehsaas, Delhi University, 1979-80. Photo: Ehsaas group.
This very well written book is expertly structured and edited. Starting with Delhi, Walking Out, Speaking Up opens with the play Om Swaha, which was made in 1979 by Theatre Union and Stree Sangharsh, and performed through the 1980s.
Another major early play, dealt with in detail, is Ehsaas. Mehrotra describes the aesthetics, politics and contexts of feminist street theatre in these years. The book moves on to several other states, describing street plays, made and performed by women in diverse contexts, on topics including discrimination, child death and communal violence. Mehrotra captures how audience responses, especially working class responses, to these themes added wholeness to the performances.
Baara Gharachya Baara Jani, Women’s Centre and Forum Against Oppression of Women, Mumbai, 1985. Photo: Vibhuti Patel.
Though the eighties witnessed the height of popularity of feminist street theatre, the book goes on to record some remarkable street theatre by activists, directors and actors in the nineties as well. Some of this was produced in intensive regional workshops in northern, southern, western, eastern, and north-eastern regions of India. Indian feminist street theatre artistes also crossed borders to perform at the World Conference of Women (1995), Beijing.
Gumraah, by Mahila Manch and other groups, Kanpur, 1995. Photo: Alarippu.
Feminist street theatre faded out of prominence as other forms of media, including social media, increasingly started to occupy audiences. But several of the plays are being revisited, revived and made over by actors and activists in different contexts, as the questioning of social norms found in the plays remains relevant, even today. I followed up one of the references, and watched Mulgi Zali Ho online. It is powerful musical drama -- the two lead actors are great singers, and all the actors are very good. This Marathi play Mulgi Zali Ho was written in 1982 by Jyoti Mhapsekar and performed 1983 onwards by Stree Mukti Sanghatana.
Mulgi Zali Ho, 1984, by Stree Mukti Sanghatana, Mumbai. Photo: Stree Mukti Sanghatana.
Mulgi Zali Ho, in Adelaide, Australia, at Women’s Playwrights International Conference, 1994. Photo: Stree Mukti Sanghatana.
This book records a history that needed to be documented, a history of feminist street theatre and activism, spanning over half a century. It is a stupendous achievement in which the conviction and courage of the actors, directors and activists gets a well-deserved celebration. To me, it gives new depth to Mehrotra’s earlier books, throwing light on why she chose to write about what she chose to write about. Her commitment to feminism, art and politics are enfolded within personal experience and collective resistance. Such a work could only be conceived and produced as a labour of love.
Back cover detail from booklet Yadi Saans Lene ki Bhi Jagah Mile to Mein Naya Rachoongi Naya Gaaungi, Raipur, Chhatisgarh Mahila Jagriti Sanghatan, 1994.
Book Review:
Walking Out, Speaking Up: Feminist Street Theatre in India
Deepti Priya Mehrotra
Zubaan Books, 2025
How to buy the book:
These are the links for buying the book, both hard copy and ebook.
Also, Walking Out, Speaking Up: Feminist Street Theatre in India
Purnima Chakraborti retired as Associate Professor in the Department of English, Vidyasagar College, Kolkata. Earlier she taught in the Department of English, Scottish Church College, Kolkata, and in the Department of English, Wilson College, Mumbai. Her doctoral work was on the crime fiction of Ruth Rendell. She has written a number of articles on crime fiction in journals and books.