Staging agitation in a mediatized culture
- Part 3 -

Dr Nongthombam Premchand *

Rally for Inner Line Permit (ILP) by women activists of IMA Market at BT Road, Imphal :: 4th July 2012 :: Pix - Bunti Phurailatpam

Most of the breaches which trigger a social drama are consciously generated breaches well thought out and preplanned beforehand. Breaches which trigger big scale social dramas are regularly found to have been created by the state. There are also instances when a social drama is engulfing the society another breach is consciously generated obviously to overtake the earlier drama and create a confusion or to create more targets for the agitators so that the agitation fade into oblivion.

Staging an agitation is a conscious effort which needs some kind of preplanning. But, because of the recurrence of social dramas on similar theme of flagrant human right violations people already have a clear readymade narrative or script which they can stage. This means to say that people are ever ready to confront the authority at any time and place.

The language through which they are trying to communicate to the authority is also changing to match the changing vocabulary of the sate, the violent repressive measures the state has become used to of late. Even if a sudden breach has sparked a spontaneous crisis all of a sudden there comes a time when the actors, directors and script writers emerge and organize the performance consciously and professionally. So, if drama or dromenon in Greek is all about reenacting an act already done or prepared beforehand the social dramas happening in Manipur also have the already prepared flowchart on which the drama is enacted.

The crisis period which follows the breach is liminal phase which is dominated by fluidity, an overflow of powerful feelings and a near total bungling of norms and laws. It is a transitory period or some kind of 'in between' which is very creative and volatile but which the people have to pass through. It is a seclusion period during which people go through a dark phase of life like the sun or moon in eclipse to use Turner's beautiful analogy.

It is during this period that most dramatic, ritualistic or symbolic actions like self immolation, burning of effigies, protest rallies, women staging protest in nude, prayer to the ancestor deities for success of the agitation and to bring down the man in power, road blockades, etc. take place. Burning of effigies is a form of protest very strong and ritualistic in content. The presentation is made at a performance space chosen consciously like a market place or the crossroad.

The performance is staged when there are enough people around and more when there are media personnel gathered around with cameras and with the background of making the event propagated worldwide through global television news channels.

Before burning the protesters will shout slogans, the effigies are torched and the burning effigies are booted and thrashed with sticks. Some effigies are garlanded with used and discarded boots and slippers. Or some effigies representing a man in power are wrapped with women's wear called phanek giving a shameful representation of the man being represented by the effigy as a woman. So, symbols become powerful weapons and through interplay of these symbols the agitators find an outlet through which they release their anguish.

Human beings have the culture of enshrining effigies of leaders for their good service done to their country men. Effigies of leaders who were actually bad are booted and burnt. They take the man represented by the effigy to be a perpetrator or the main cause that makes the society ill. Burning the effigy means that the ritual act will be able to remove or eliminate the devil from the society and that after this act the society will have a healthy growth of life. Burning effigy is a ritualistic and shamanic action.

Liminal phase of social drama is a transitory period. But when it becomes elongated taking more time than a transitory period should take, then it may trigger many breaches and crises which may sweep the society with no resolution in sight in near future. Political crisis between Palestinians and Israel, pro-democracy movement in Burma, the case of Irish Republican Army are few examples.

In Manipur there have been cases of many social dramas which took place. But so far there has never been any case of proper redressive measures taken up and the people reintegrated to their normal way of life. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958) which denies the basic right to life continues to stalking normal existence of life in Manipur and protests against this act also continues unabated. With such kind of situation being experienced one can ponder whether Manipur is heading towards another Ireland or Israel-Palestine conflict or Burma kind of conflict.

Staging agitation needs a well thought out plan beforehand same as a drama is preconceived before staging. In 1989, when the pro-democracy student protestors in China staged the agitation they chose the most important historical place i.e. the Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Because the agitators knew it that it was a symbolic space, also a powerful space which could give a meaningful edge to their movement and also drew the attention of not simply the Chinese authority but also the attention of the international community.

During the time of the unification of Germany, of all the long length of the wall dividing the East and West Germany, the people assembled at the Brandenburg Gate and started demolishing the wall. When the anti-Vietnam war students' agitation was launched in1969 in US the students protested at the White House, Pentagon etc. The same was done by the pro democracy in Yangon and Mandalay in 8.8.88 in Myanmar. So staging an agitation is a conscious effort which needs some kind of preplanning.

In Manipur, when the women chose a space for nude protesting in 2004 they chose the western gate of Kangla. Kangla is always symbolic space because this is the seat of power for generations of kings of Manipur for 2000 years. Significantly again, Kangla was long occupied by the British soon after Manipur was defeated in 1891. After the Britishers left Kangla was again occupied by the Assam Rifles and the people had been demanding to remove Assam Rifles from Kangla. Kangla has always been a symbol of occupation and also of protest.

Let us come to some dramatic principles. In an aesthetic form of drama the stimulus comes from a fiction because the actor is impersonating a fictitious role. There is role playing. The actor represents the fictitious character on the stage. So this is the representational form of drama which Richard Schechener prefers to call Second Theatre.

The actor defines himself with the role. He is presenting the role on the idea that he himself is the role. But he cannot forget that he is playing the role and showing it to an audience. So, in this case he is more of showing the role than doing or being the role. The end result is there to be expected out of the performance but one may not expect to get it very soon. What is more important here is entertainment. What is emphasized here is the show and the actor has to entertain the audience. So 'it is more of showing than doing' to quote Schechner.

But in a real life situation like burning of effigy, self immolation, nude protest, protest rally, staging sit-in-protest etc. the actors are life actors in the sense that they are not representing any role but they themselves are the roles. It is more serious and ritualistic because as different from the aesthetic form of drama here we find more of doing than showing. The protestors are flexing their muscles in public. They expect an immediate end result through their performance.

But, inevitably a kind sense of performance is also involved. It is more when there are press and media personnel gathered around. The stimulus comes from the political context and not from a fiction. So this is why Michael Kirby calls it a 'non-matrixed performance' because there is no representation of a well portrayed character. The actor himself is the character, a candidate or an actant involved in a ritual performance. He is the 'life actor', to quote Schechner.

So, staging agitation is staging performance and this is the direct theatre or the first theatre ( Schechner:1993 ) which is not representational as it is found in the second theatre of aesthetic drama. It is always theatrical but more theatrical at a time when media has become a part of the consciousness of the people. A group of people can become possessed as it is in the case of Siri cult in South Canara.

In Manipur, when people are subjected to severe extremity they become poetry itself. They become symbols and metaphors in the poetry. They become actors with heightened feelings and emotions forgetting their selves. The ritual which was earlier significant in the world of a belief system of a community has found its own habitat in a new context of political struggle.

Concluded ....