“Our ultimate goal is to overthrow the government.”
Peter Schumann, Bread & Puppet Theater, Vermont, USA

TWENTY-THREE years ago, on January 1, 1989, in the heart of the industrial township of Sahibabad (near Delhi), Safdar Hashmi, theatre activist and a founding member of Jana Natya Manch (Janam), was martyred.

Jana Natya Manch was founded in 1973 by a group of Delhi's radical theatre amateurs, who sought to take theatre to the people. It was inspired by the spirit of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). Its early plays, though initially designed for the proscenium, were performed on makeshift stages and chaupals in the big and small towns and villages of North India. It also experimented with street skits.

THE first of January is a very special day for the residents of Jhandapur. This is the day that they come out in large numbers, in a festive spirit, to remember and celebrate the legacy of Safdar Hashmi, the actor-playwright who was killed as a result of an attack on Jana Natya Manch on January 1, 1989. Also killed in that attack was Ram Bahadur, a Nepali migrant worker, who worked in a factory near-by.

sarkash

Safdar Hashmi was born to Haneef Hashmi and Qamar Azad on 12 April 1954 in Delhi. He spent his childhood in Aligarh and finished his schooling in Delhi. He did his M.A. in English literature from Delhi University. After short stints of teaching in the universities of Garhwal, Kashmir and Delhi he worked in the Press Institute of India and then joined as the Press Information Officer of the Govt.