TO THE WORKPLACE A DRAMAON THE FIRST WOMEN'S COMMUNE OF KERALA IN 1948

To the Workplaceis the first feminist play in Malayalam, written and staged in Thrissur in 1948, bythe Antharjana Samajam, a commune of Malayali Brahmin women, founded in 1931, to reform the Namboothiri community by preventing crude practices like polygamy, the marriage of young maidens to old men and enforced widowhood.

The play is a unique attempt made by the female commune of Antharjanams that started functioning in Palghat district to subvert the stereotypes created by their male counterparts. Based on the real life experiences of an orphaned inmate, Kavungara Bahragavi, whose uncle decides to sell her off to a cruel Namboothiri, but is rescued by the members of the commune, the play also propagates the idea of financial independence through spinning and weaving, as an alternative to matrimony for Antharjanams.

Two factors that make the play really unique are with regard to its staging and directing, solely done by women, and the fact that such an initiative evolved in Kerala in 1948, much before similar attempts took shape in the developed countries, drawing attention to the radical nature of Kerala modernity.