Exploration of history in The Dreams of Tipu Sultan

Girish Karnad employs the narrative from Indian history in The Dreams of Tipu Sultan (2004) to confront British colonialism in its crucial early stages. National history, both pre-modern and modern is a principal mode of retrospective representation. The nation’s history signifies the oral and written records the authenticity of which is documented and can be verified. This retrospective method adopted by Karnad facilitates in evaluating the relevance of the nation’s remote past in the present situation. In the present paper, an attempt is being made to comprehend the cultural vitality of The Dreams of Tipu Sultan which is the result of its multifold engagement with history and politics. Here, Karnad rewrites the narrative of Tipu Sultan in the collective memory of its audience by creating a complex ideological and intertextual web. In this play he pitches a consolidated nation with technological superiority and ideological clarity against a country divided against itself in the face of disintegration of the Mughal Empire.