Lions and Tigers

Tanika Gupta

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781786821850
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: History

Based on the true story of her great uncle and freedom fighter Dinesh Gupta, Lions and Tigers is Tanika Gupta's most personal play yet. It charts Dinesh Gupta's emotional and political awakening as this extraordinary 19 year old pits himself against the British Raj.

Characters

Dinesh Gupta	Ranges from 16 years to 19 years of age. Bengali revolutionary.
Badal Gupta	Young man. Ranges from 15 years of age to 18. Revolutionary.
Binoy Bose	Bengali young man. 21-year-old revolutionary. Medical student.
Kamala	Dinesh’s childhood friend and sister-in-law. Two years older.
Jyotish	Dinesh’s older brother. Lawyer.
Mahatma Gandhi	Known as ‘Bapuji’. Indian politician and spiritual leader. 61 years old.
Jawaharlal Nehru	Indian politician. 40 years old.
Subhash Bose	Known as ‘Netaji’. Indian politician. Early thirties.
Charles Tegart	Chief Commissioner of Police of Calcutta. Red-haired Irish man from Enniskillen. Early forties.
Bimala	Middle-aged Indian woman. Recruiter and Mastermind behind revolutionaries.
Swann	Chief Superintendent of Alipore Jail. Irish.

Other characters

Lord Birkenhead	Viceroy of India
Lord Irwin	Viceroy of India

An ensemble (men and women, Asian and European) playing an assortment of characters: Watchman, Colonel Davis, prison guards, other prisoners, Police, Bengal volunteers.

The play takes place over the period of 1927–1931 in India.

All the letters in this play are accurate copies of original correspondence by Dinesh Gupta who wrote 92 letters from prison over a six-month period. The letters by Nehru, Gandhi and Bose are also verbatim.

NB

Whenever we see DINESH he is moving or shifting from one foot to the other, restless and unable to settle like a teenager, full of boyish energy – jumping up, moving swiftly and laughing or eating with great gusto. Quick movements and quick temper and a big appetite.

Whenever we see MAHATMA GANDHI, he is sitting on the floor. He makes things, spins his spinning wheel, sews his clothes, always close to the earth and has slow, but deliberate movements. He is 61 years old but fit and thin. He has a power and control over the younger men in the play. He is always wearing homespun dhoti/loin cloth and he is often bare chested.

Whenever we see NEHRU, he is sitting on a chair or hovering uncertainly, indecisively between GANDHI and BOSE. He always has a pen and paper in his hands, writing things down or reading proposals and letters. He wears the Nehru jacket (simple, homespun) churidar (straight legged trousers) and cap on his head and he always looks smart.

Whenever we see BOSE, he is striding, standing, full of an angry manly energy. He declaims and seems full of passion but at times looks exhausted and overwrought. At the beginning of the play he is wearing bright-coloured ku...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Production Credits
• A Brief Timeline by Milli Bhatia
• Lions and Tigers
• Historical Notes on Characters
• Dinesh Gupta’s Letters