Gerasim Stepanovich Lebedev and Bengali Theatre

In 1795, Gerasim Stepanovich Lebedev (or Herasim Lebedeff) a Russian musician and newly-turned linguistic translator, also known as the father of Bengali drama did something unique in Calcutta (Kolkata). Richard Paul Jodrell’s “The Disguise”, a comedy in three acts, was translated into Bengali for the first time and was performed on a proscenium stage–a novel innovation, as seen at Europe’s theatres of the time that came with scene settings and arches.

The plays that he staged at Doomtala Street in Calcutta with three women and ten male performers on November 25, 1795, and 21 March 1796 were resounding successes. It was under his patronage that the Bengali dramas were predominantly presented to a European audience played by a Bengali cast. This brought home to the imperialists the idea that calumny of the local language or culture was not well deserved. Lebedev was the first person to break the shackles of cultural imperialism extant in the discourse of Dramatics. Not only did he establish Bengali theatre but he also made an important contribution by translating English dramas to Bengali. The translation made the plays watchable to both the Europeans and people in Bengal. The popular discourse of the colonial legacy dominating literature on drama made it evident that it is their prerogative to guard the literacy and culture by labeling the ‘natives’ as illiterate, backward and unsophisticated who lacked adequate knowledge to comprehend aesthetics imbued in art or drama. This peculiar racial connotation of “othering” the indigenous culture attached to Dramatics and Literature was broken with Lebedev’s translations.

The popular notion of the colonial enclaves about the ‘native’ culture being regressive and backward was vehemently broken with the enactments of two popular dramas- “The Disguise” and “Love is the Best Doctor” translated and staged under Lebedev’s patronage. Lebedev himself wrote the music that acted as the accompaniment and was played on western instruments. Bharatchandra Ray, who had also composed Annadamangal in the early 1750s, wrote the verses. The stage was painted in typical ways and the presence of female actors was ground breaking. Though the first act in The Disguise was written in Bengali, later Lebedev revealed his intention on writing the third act scenes in English to capture the fervour of the multi-lingual town of Calcutta.

Lebedev’s contribution remains noteworthy in not only founding the first Bengali theatre but also going beyond the boundaries established by the dramatic debate of positivist enlightenment. In the field of Dramatics, his defiance set by the boundaries of the framework of Dramatics makes him a post-structural or postmodern thinker. On his return from Calcutta, Lebedev in A Grammar of the Pure and Mixed East Indian Dialects (1801) furnished a dialectical account of details of the composite language spoken in the streets of Calcutta at that time. Regarded as “Bazaar Hindustani” or even “Moors”/”Moorish” by scholars, this presented a mixed form of language that resulted due to the contact between European and Indian languages.

In his book, Lebedev proposed “dialogues for a variety of cordial exchanges on daily subjects such as children’s education, geography, buying, and selling, going for a walk or taking a trip.” Not only that, he held onto an ambition of presenting his plays in all the languages then spoken in Calcutta, to make for a truly people’s theatre.

Shatarupa Dey

Adjunct, Asia in Global Affairs