Editorial

This issue of the Indian Theatre Journal (ITJ) looks ahead to the conclusion of a ten-year journey and closing a phase of sustained engagement with Indian theatre studies, intercultural performance and critical scholarship. Over the years, ITJ has fostered rigorous debates and nurtured scholarship on diverse cultural forms across South Asia, while connecting them with global performance discourses. Continuing this legacy, the journal will be relaunched with an expanded scope. The current issue features a range of contributions that reflect ITJ ’s intellectual breadth. Three interviews with Anamika Haksar, Rajasree Warrier and Deepthi Omcherry Bhalla highlight the ways in which artists negotiate history, pedagogy and culture through perseverance and confidence in their creative choices. An essay on Theyyam explores how the ritual’s performative intensity is inseparable from the lived oppression of its subaltern performers, while Mythili Anoop’s study of Mohiniyattam examines negotiations of tradition, innovation and cultural memory. Further, Muhammad’s analysis of Hindustani music foregrounds the discourse of the singing body, gender and cultural mediation. The issue concludes with Asish Goswamy’s obituary of Ratan Thiyam, commemorating his revolutionary contributions to Indian stagecraft.