Protesting Female Feticide and Hope for a New Earth: A Study of A. Mangai’s Pacha mannu (The New Born)

The article explores the intersection of politics and performance in India as professed in the performance of A. Mangai’s Pacha mannu (The New Born, 1994), which interrogates the social construction of hierarchical power relationship and puts up gendered resistance to it in enacting alternate possibilities in the streets. Mangai’s theatre engages with issues related to gender inequality and gender-based oppressions women face since their very birth, specifically female infanticide and the preference for male child, and aims at raising consciousness among the common masses. Staged in makeshift stages or empty spaces, The New Born deals with everyday realities men and women experience, and through using songs, rituals, and local customs it strikes a common note among the audience.