Gender Discrimination in the Select Plays of Mahesh Dattani

Abstract

Mahesh Dattani is one of the most famous modern playwrights in Indian writing in English. Many of his plays deal with the complicated dynamics of the modern urban family. Most probably his themes are on homo sexuality, gender discrimination, communalism and child sex abuse. Dattani is one of the playwrights who challenged the construction of Indian as they have been presented in the modern English theatre. This is a modest attempt to the gender based injustice and how the male given preference over the female in an Indian family. Tara deals with the emotional separation of two conjoined twins (at the hip) and the manipulation of their mother and grandfather to favor the boy child. This play also deals with the issues of class and community and traditional values. In Seven Steps around the Fire Uma is the protagonist of the play and wife of Suresh, the superintendent of police. Here Uma is a sociology student who prepares her thesis on gender studies. This proposed paper aims at the investigation of a hijra (Transgender) case to find out the real culprit who killed Kamla.