Performing Citizenship: politics, tactics and adivasi rights

Funded by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), this project translates scholarly research into a performance-installation project co-written with Dakxin Bajrange, a Chhara playwright and artistic director of Budhan Theatre, a street theatre company based in the city of Ahmedbad, India. Together, we conducted interviews in his community, which were then transformed into a site-specific documentary or testimonial theatre script modelled around the motif of the ‘guided tour’, wherein audience members are led on a walking tour of Chharanagar where they encounter various staged testimonies. This research assesses the possibilities (and challenges) of collaboration in a post-colonial, trans-cultural exchange; the development of innovative research practices in human geography; and the potential of performance to expand the terrain of public debate in Ahmedabad.