PALAKKAD: The KPCC's cultural wing Samskara Sahithi here will stage a play that recreates the first historic satyagraha by Mahatma Gandhi held at Chambaran in Bihar in 1917 for the cause of indigo farmers. This is in support of the raging protests by farmers for farmland and reasonable support price for their produce across the country. Sahithi has taken the initiative when neither the AICC plenary session held in February to ratify Rahul Gandhi's election as the party president nor any KPCC forums had thought of observing the centenary of the struggle by the Indian National Congress and Gandhiji.
With the Congress extending its support for the Kizhattoor farmers's struggle for protecting their paddy field, the Samskara Sahithi here will make a political campaign through the play. "The play with over one-hour duration has a total of 28 actors, including four females and children. The play scripted by writer Dr K.V. Manoj will be first staged at Chembai Music College on April 7," said Boban Mattumantha, director of the play and functionary of Sahithi.
The play depicts the visit of Gandhi to Chambaran where the farmers were fighting famine due to the British diktat that food crops could be grown only in one-fourth of an acre and that the rest should be reserved for indigo due to the high demand for it in Europe. The success of the Chambaran struggle elevated Gandhiji to a national leader. The play will be later staged in association with Vayala Vasudevan Pillai Foundation in Thrissur, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer Foundation in Kozhikode and Samskara Sahithi at Ponnani. In Palakkad, several farmers' organisations have come forward to stage the play.
