Abstract:
The play Andher Nagari by Bhāratendu Harishchandra has acquired a special place in
the modern Hindi theatre for its satire, social relevance, humor, drama, and politics.
However, the pedagogical potentials of this play in the field of visual and performing
arts education are yet to be explored. This paper attempts to present Andher Nagari as
a source to develop creative and critical abilities, ethical reasoning, communication,
collaboration, performance skills, and experiential learning of the visual and performing
arts. The research problem of the paper is the lack of attention to classical Hindi dramatic
texts as resources for experiential learning in the visual and performing arts education
domain. The objectives of the paper include examining the pedagogical potentials of
this play’s dramatic features for learners, theatre workshops, role-play activities, scriptreading
practices, and performance. The paper employs a qualitative, descriptive, and
interpretive research design that utilizes secondary sources of information. The primary
source of this study is the dramatic text of Andher Nagari , while the other sources include
scholarly articles, research papers, and publications on Hindi theatre and pedagogy. The
findings of the paper demonstrate that this play can be fruitfully used in the educational
process to promote experiential learning of dramatic arts. The study concludes that
Andher Nagari can be employed as a pedagogical tool in the visual and performing arts
education to enhance interdisciplinary learning, learner agency, cultural awareness, and
critical thinking.
