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Abstract
Matrudevobhava” (mother is god) is considered central to any discussion on mothers or motherhood in India. Indian culture in its various avatars has glorified motherhood and mothers. Motherhood in India has been venerated since antiquity. The significance and centrality of Mother goddesses in Hinduism is well-known. Motherhood occupied the center stage and was integral to the nationalist discourses in the colonial phase. The image of the nation as mother is widely prevalent in the country’s cultural imaginary. Indian culture and thought have assigned great significance to the institution of motherhood. Motherhood is seen as the summum bonum of female existence in dominant discourses. While it is true that motherhood is privileged, it is important to understand whether motherhood per se is privileged or if certain conditions are prerequisite to respect and honour motherhood. An interrogation of motherhood as portrayed in various dominant cultural and religious myths, literature, cinema and other narrative forms, it is evident that maternity is indeed privileged and glorified but within the precincts of matrimony. Unmarried motherhood is still largely frowned upon even in the current millennium in the globalized India despite claims of having made progress in different domains.
This paper examines the implications of unmarried motherhood and its repercussions for a woman as depicted in Vijay Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session through the character of Leela Benare. The play Silence ! The Court Is In Session is an English translation (by Priya Adarkar) of the original in Marathi, Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe! in 1967. In this play as in most of his other plays, Tendulkar explores unconventional themes. And the spirit of questioning received notions is central to most of his plays. In his plays he examines the rapid changes that were taking place in the society of his times and yet how certain social and cultural mores remained the same. Silence! became the first Tendulkar's play to be part of the New Indian Drama movement of the nineteen sixties and the first significant modern Indian play in any language to focus on woman as protagonist and victim. This play became the center of a general controversy. Tendulkar had already been known as “the angry young man" of Marathi theatre and this play distinguished him as a rebel against the established values of an orthodox society.