Based on incidents of caste violence, the play Romeo Ravidas and Juliet Devi throws light on the fissures of society | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Based on incidents of caste violence, the play Romeo Ravidas and Juliet Devi throws light on the fissures of society | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Written by Dipanita Nath |Updated: September 10, 2019 6:45:32 am

Based on incidents of caste violence, the play Romeo Ravidas and Juliet Devi throws light on the fissures of society

The title of the play that recalls William Shakespeare’s classic, Romeo and Juliet, is Sharmistha Saha’s off-handed salute to the media that highlights Dalit issues only when there is an inter-caste romance, marriage or death.

A scene from the play Romeo Ravidas and Juliet Devi.

Sharmistha Saha was going through the newspaper in March, when she came across a report about a Dalit man, Pradip Kalubhai Rathod, who was killed for riding a horse. The incident took place in Timbi, a village in Gujarat. “Even in the context of mob lynching becoming almost normalised in our country, I found it bizarre that a man could die for riding a horse. In what way is this even logical? I began to search online for other such incidents. What I found was that, throughout India, it is common practice to bar Dalits from owning horses, wearing sunglasses or keeping a moustache,” she says.