Aurat [Woman]

These are three photographs from a performance at Kusumpur Pahadi, a slum in south Delhi, next door to the posh Vasant Vihar. In this picture, the worker Woman falls at the feet of the factory owner (Soman), begging not to be retrenched from her job, while other workers (l to r, Sudhanva Deshpande, Brijesh, Vijay Kalia) look on. Moloyashree Hashmi, then 45, plays the Woman. Photographer unknown. Over the years, the play was translated and performed by several groups across the country and became a landmark play of the women’s movement in the country.