Communal Divine and Communal Riots : Final Solutions
1. Prepared by Latta Baraiya
M.A. Semester 3
Communal Divine & Communal Riots : Final
Solution
Department of English MKBU
2. “Like religion, theater seems sometimes to be on
the way out,
but it keeps coming back in unexpected
disguises-
some horrible, some wonderful”
- Paul Woodruff
4. Play
● Play written by Mahesh Dattani
● Three act play
● Final Solutions has taken the issues of the
majority communities in different contexts and
situations.
● It talks of the problems of cultural hegemony, how
Hindus had to suffer at the hands of Muslim
majority like the characters of Hardika/Daksha in
Hussainabad. And how Muslims like Javed suffer
in the set up of the majority Hindu community.
5. Movie
● Directed by Mahesh Dattani
● adaptation is available on the Zee5 app
● Final Solution is a Hindi play starring Uttara
Baokar, Vipin Sharma, Samta Sagar, Lyra Dutt,
Srishti Shrivastava, Alok Kumar and Niketan
Sharma.
● When the little town of Amargaon is struck by a
communal clash, one family finds itself
sheltering two members of the opposing
community.
6. Historical Background
● The Partition of India was the division of British India in 1947
into two independent Dominions: India and Pakistan.
● Riot of 1985 (Rathyatra) in Ahmedabad,Gujarat.
● In the past fifty years, the state of Gujarat, and in particular,
the city of Ahmedabad, has been a center for religious
violence in India. In the 1969 riots in Ahmedabad, at least
twenty-five hundred people were killed (Srivastava 2002).
● This would become the inspiration for the riot that brings
Javed and Bobby to the Gandhi family in Final Solutions.
● The actual 1985 Rath Yatra riot broke out on June 20th:
7. Indian soldiers opened fire today to disperse
Moslems throwing rocks at a Hindu religious
procession in Ahmedabad, killing seven people
and wounding 20. As many as 30,000 Hindus
defied a ban on public assembly and paraded
through the streets. Moslems hurled bricks and
stones at them from housetops, and the Hindus
retaliated by setting fire to Moslem shops and
homes. The procession, called Rath Yatra, or
Parade of the Chariot, was held in honor of Lord
Jugannath [the deity Krishna].
- The New York Times 1985
10. Worshipping methods
ना हम मूर्ति पूजते हैं ना हम मूर्ति तोड़ते हैं ।
- Muslim community people ( in the play )
11. What is the situation today ?
● Hindu people provoked by leader
on the name of religion
● Muslim people provoked by the
name of minority
● Religion conversation
12.
13. Is there any solution ???
● Make people aware
● Education
● Knowledge
● People's own thinking
● Humanity
14. References
❏ Dattani, Mahesh, director. The Final Solution, ZEE
THEATRE,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qHexm9tjL4qifGLUjd1
44vGHhtkPWP36/view?usp=drivesdk . Accessed 15
Oct. 2021.
❏ Dattani, Mahesh. “The Final Solution” play.
❏ Srivastava, Sanjeev. “Analysis: Why is Gujarat So
Violent?” BBC News. September 25, 2002.
Accessed October 2011. URL:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1856049.stm
15. ❏ The New York Times. “7 Killed by Indian Army
During Banned Parade.” The New York Times.
June 21, 1985. Section A; Page 5, Column 6;
Foreign Desk.
❏ Woodruff, Paul. The Necessity of Theater: The
Art of Watching and Being Watched. New York
Oxford University Press, 2008.
