Intrusive Memories and Re-performance of Collective Trauma in Kanyadaan

The article focuses on the play Kanyadaan by Vijay Tendulkar to underline the transmission of cultural trauma to collective memory, which shapes the portrayal of an individual traumatic post-memory. Trauma becomes a performative act in Kanyadaan. The performative aspects of mourning the plights of the marginalized, caste and untouchability are equated with the performative quality of cultural trauma. Even though separated by space and privilege from the suffering of caste-based oppression, Arun Athavale, the Dalit anti-hero, holds on to the original trauma, which he (un)consciously reproduces and reconstructs. Jyoti, his wife, suffers the brunt as Arun avenges the history of injustices directed at Dalits, expunging Jyoti of her identity and blurring the traces of her elite upbringing. The cultural trauma suffered by the Dalits is performed at will by an individual, Arun. The article strives to state that the trauma of his forefathers is, in a way, what defines him.