(A play from the early life of
Mahatma Gandhi By K A Abbas and Pragji Dossa .
Pages 137 . Published first in
1977 by Orient Paperbacks New Delhi)
The Book comprises of a four Act
play very well written jointly by two giants namely *K A Abbas ( 1914-1987 )and
Gujrati playwright Pragji Dossa (1907-1997 ).
The scenes created and the
dialogues written for these scenes are crisp and depict some historical events
in south Africa that made
young Gandhi a champion of Human Dignity and Liberty
.Perhaps it was south Africa
only where Gandhi ji began his fight against Oppression and discrimination.
The play begins with the journey
of young Mohan Das karam Chand Gandhi to Durban where he gets his first brush
with Racial discrimination when a custom officer calls him “ O You Blackie . “
Young Gandhi was actually thrown out of the first class Compartment of a train
In south africa .
The playwrights have created some
wonderful court scenes with Gandhi ji in focus. Some scenes have been created
to show Gandhi ji’s meeting with Asians and poor negroes or his visit to Johannesburg slums and
New Castles mines to meet poor workers. The reader also comes across some
historical characters like General Smuts And General Botha in some scenes apart
from the then leaders of Asian community in south Africa like Haji Habib, Pilai
,Naidoo , Kachhalia , Yusuf Ismail Miyan ,Mir Alam, Ratansay Sodha , Daud Mohd
Parsi , Mr. Angalia ,Sorabjit Adjanta and so many names .
One also comes across some
powerful Scenes showing Gandhi ji inside Natal
prison .Scenes showing Gandhi ji’s public meeting in Mumbai with Tilak ,
Gokhale and Badar Ud Din Tyabji on dais have been superbly created .
.The scenes , the dialogues and
the historical events depicted in this play create a Grand impact on the mind
of the reader . And I am sure that the play shall be a grand success should
some skilled theatre group try performing it on stage. This invaluable script
written by two masters should not be allowed to go waste.
( Autar Mota 15.12.2013 )..
• *K
A Abbas was the great Grand son of well known urdu poet Altaf Hussain Hali .
Hali was a student of Ghalib. Abbas was also connected with IPTA apart from
being a successful film director, novelist, screenwriter, and a journalist in
the Urdu, Hindi and English languages. He also wrote stories /script for some
successful movies like Neecha Nagar , Jagte Raho, Dr Kotnis ki Amar Kahaani ,Dharti Ke Lal,
Awara, Saat Hindustani , Naya Sansar , Awaara, Shri 420, Mera Naam Joker, Bobby
and Henna.
• *Pragji
Jamanadas Dossa was a celebrated Gujrati author, journalist, playwright, film
writer, TV writer; radio plays writer, musician, singer and also a sports-man.
He is referred to as a bridge between new and old theatre .He also taught
theatre and wrote history of Indian Theatre apart from editing some theatre
Magazines . 
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
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