Safdar Hashmi

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Safdar Hashmi (b. April 12, 1954 in Delhi - January 2, 1989, Delhi) was a Communist playwright, actor, director, lyricist, and theorist, chiefly associated with Street theatre in India. He was a founding member of Jana Natya Manch (People's Theatre Front; Janam for short) in 1973, which grew out of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). He was brutally murdered in Delhi while performing a street play, Halla Bol.

Initially performing open-air proscenium plays for mass audiences, Janam took to street theatre in 1978 with Machine, which was written collaboratively, with Safdar making a large contribution. His contribution grew in later plays, though none is attributable entirely to him. He was the de-facto director of Janam. Till his death, Janam gave about 4,000 performances of 24 street plays. He was a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the largest communist party in India. In 1979, he married his comrade and actress, Moloyashree.

Safdar’s output includes two proscenium plays – an adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s Enemies (1983), and Moteram ka Satyagraha (with Habib Tanvir, 1988) – many songs, a television series script, poems and plays for children, and documentary films. While committed to radical, popular, leftwing art, Safdar refrained from clichéd portrayals and was not afraid of formal experimentation.

Janam was attacked by political hoodlums while performing Halla Bol (Attack!) at Sahibabdad, an industrial area near Delhi on 1 January 1989. Safdar succumbed to his injuries the following day. He has became a symbol of cultural resistance against authoritarianism. Janam continues its theatre work in Delhi. The noted writer Bhisham Sahni founded the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) after his death as an open platform for politically and socially conscious artistes. Safdar Hashmi's writings were collected in The Right to Perform: Selected Writings of Safdar Hashmi (New Delhi, 1989) after his death.