Theatre & Dramatic Performances Act, 1876
In December last year, Parliament passed the Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill, 2017 whereby various obsolete Laws were repealed, one of the significant act which was in law books since 1876 was also repealed which had given headache to the theatre artist for more than century. The Act was implemented by British Government to prohibit public dramatic performances, which are scandalous, defamatory, seditious or obscene. Modern Indian theatre was developed during the colonial era and in order to resist its use as an instrument of protest against colonial rule, the British Government had passed the said Act. In the year 1858-1860, Dinabandhu Mitra wrote a play Nil “Darpan “which brought anti-british subject matter to the general public depicting colonial planters ruthlessly oppressing poor peasants and Rev.James Long who translated the play in English was fined and imprisoned in the year 1861. In 1876, soon after Edward, the Prince of Wales, visited Calcutta, the Great National The...