Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 95

Theatre of Witness
and Resistance
Devika Ranjan
Devika Ranjan is a first-generation Indian-American. Born in Nashik, Maharashtra and raised all
over the United States, Devika found her roots in her family as they moved from the mountains, to
the prairies, to the shining sea. Her first forays on stage were jugalbandis, entwined performances
of Bollywood dance and classic American musical theatre to interpret her identities and cultural
crossings. Devika studies Culture and Politics at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service
with a self-designed concentration in “Human Rights in Crisis”; during her undergraduate years,
she has conducted research on the India-Pakistan and Israel-Palestine borders to understand the
nuances of human rights in these zones of exception. She performed in Amrika Chalo (Destination:
USA) and Generation (Wh)Y: Global Voices on Stage as part of The Lab’s Myriad Voices Festival.
After translating in a medical clinic for refugees in Germany and conducting theatre workshops for
women displaced by border violence in Jammu and Kashmir, Devika’s interest in expression and
displacement has led her to an interdisciplinary focus on theatre and international migration. In the
fall of 2017, Devika plans to read Refugee and Forced Migration Studies at Oxford University as a
Marshall Scholar. She will then continue to study theater in the UK.
When I facilitated a theatre workshop in Manguchak, a village on the India–
Pakistan border, I was surprised that the �� female participants did not
know each other’s names. Despite living in a tiny village, the women were
mostly confined to their homes by their overwhelming work and family
expectations. Prior to the workshop, they had only interacted with each
other through the flea-like gossip that jumped from house to house.
So we begun, as many theatre workshops do, with name games. As we
gathered daily under the shady canopy of a jaamun tree, our only respite
from the sweltering mid-afternoon heat, name games transformed into
intimate discussions. Friendships were forged and secrets revealed under
a confidentiality pact. Despite the previous gossip, they protected each
other—empathizing with each other’s stories as their own.
Women on the India-Pakistan border do not only
perform “every day” duties—childcare, cooking, cleaning,
maintaining the house and the property—but also endure
the random and often fatal cross-border shellings that
pockmark the region. The women also toil in the fields to
94
doi: ��.�����/aia.�.�.��