Democracy in progress

The tenets of Democracy which privileges freedom of thought, expression, secularism, justice and the rights of minority are under threat at this moment. This is the result of the failures of the democratic process. However the tendency of the leaders who have won elections with hugely popular mandates in countries which exercise electoral democracy and a few dictators who have inherited a dictatorial form of government ( in guise of some form of democracy) , is always to consolidate their power by evoking special powers of repression of opposition voices, any form of dissent , which is directed against any part of the system which they are aligned to and to constantly make the minority ‘other’ which includes religious, ethnic, intellectual and cultural minority the fodder for a mass orgy of hatred and possible annihilation reminiscent of the ways of the Nazi.

There is no panacea for this problem except perhaps to constantly remind ourselves that democracy is always a flawed form of govt which should only become more liberal and never descend into dictatorship or totalitarianism. In this it is a work in progress and as strange as it may sound, it does require of every individual who desires a democratic form of government to be more informed, critical and articulate about rights, dissent, vision , identity , etc and walk the talk.

Arts & Performance , particularly theatre , performance and arts theory philosophies, methods and performance art has been pro – democracy and pro liberal, constantly taking a critical look at the functioning of the society and politics, to find ways to free the space. Indeed the artists have usually been the first in the lie to protest the abuse of power and injustices caused to the human race and have almost always had to pay a heavy price for this position.

In keeping with our traditional duties as artist and artist and humans, we have invariably also been involved with the process of keeping the fires of democracy burning through our productions , workshops, publications and projects. We have been so far largely been focused on human rights, freedom of expression and touched upon the questions of gender and sexuality and it’s relationship to democracy as a whole.

We are continuously raises critical questions about the state of democracy through its programs and projects which includes theatre and other artistic languages to engage the society in dialogues and create perspectives which works towards strengthening democracy