Projection of Post-Independence Political Disillusionment in Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq

Abstract

Thefluctuatingpolitical conflicts between Sultan Tughlaq and his courtiers have been depictedone after the another in Girish Karnad’splayTughlaq. There is obviously, murder, intrigue, killing and suffering but they all are creative. The intensity of Sultan’s power changes with variation in political circumstances.The determinant factors such as power and intellectuality, cultural values and norms, economy and social practices impact on the balance of power. The power is not in hierarchy, but in horizontal relationship that the research finds. Besides, this thesis findsthat both politics and religion are ideological constructs based on false assumption of conspiracy and rebel. After analyzing the play through the theoretical perspective of New Historicism, thisresearch entitled“Projection of Post-Independence Political Disillusionment in Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq”comesto the conclusion that Karnad dramatizes the psychological trauma of Sultan and internal conflict within Royal Palace between the two ideologies i.e. religion and politics where there is challenge to sustain ancestral power to rule.Moreover,Karnad draws on14 th century pre-independence India in order to criticize and draw the parallel line in the post–colonialperiod.