Salil Sarkar speaks about the practice of perceiving only the theatre of Kolkata as Bengali Theatre. Realizing the complicated geo-political nuances, Sarkar delves deep into exploring the socio-economic and historical reasons. He points out Kolkata’s emergence as the centre of trade and commerce and growth of economy that gave birth to a prosperous class which demanded entertainment. Thus various art forms were born and patronized in and around Kolkata and a mainstream is born. Curiously this mainstream coincides with feudal notions of class, caste and religion and just like with everything else. But, with the progress of time, it is also becoming socially and historically irrelevant.
