Tughlaq as Contemporary Play

Tughlaq is not about historical character alone. The so-called ‘mad’ Tughlaq comes fully alive on the stage with all his plus and minus points, with his ideals and shortcomings and his dreams and day dreams.
However, it has been regarded as a political allegory or a contemporary play about a contemporary situation.
Though Karnad himself had not intended, it was struck by the parallelism between reign of Tughlaq and contemporary Indian history. Karnad himself said: “What struck me absolutely about Tughlaq’s history was that it was contemporary . The fact that here was the most idealistic,the most intelligent king ever to come on the throne of Delhi and one of the greatest failures also.And within a span of twenty years this tremendously capable man had gone to pieces.This seemed to be both due to his idealism as well as the shortcoming within him, such as his impatience, his cruelty,his feeling that he had the only correct answer.And I felt in early sixties India had also come very far in the same direction-the twenty-year period seemed to me very much a striking parallel.”(Introduction p.VII) At every step the play Tughlaq reflects the chaos, disillusionment and corruption that followed The Nehru era. Tughlaq also shows the happenings in India. tughlaq ruled in the 14th century and Nehru in the 1950s and 1960s.The play shows the shattering of ideals after the death of Nehru and the frustration and corruption that followed. Though the writer had not intended to be a contemporary situation but a serious study of the play exposes a strong parallelism. The reign of Tughlaq and the rapid disintegration of his personality attract a modern reader for Nehru too passed through such phases and brought about frustration and corruption through the nation. ‘Tughlaq’the character is used by the author to reveal what is happening today. He thinks that whatever he is doing ,is right and he is doing