Play-writing in the Backdrop of Sikh Genocide

I was looking for play scripts in Punjabi (as a fun activity to act out) and I found this huge collection of Punjabi plays at https://gursharansinghtrust.org/playcat/punjabi. Gursharan Singh believed in the importance of the common people in the villages having access to theatre. At the time the culture was that rural people shouldn’t get access to theatre, because the actors believed that the world of theatre was above the understanding of those living in the villages of Punjab. He wrote 200 plays, and started an important movement for Punjab. The plays he wrote are on important social issues at the time and reflected what was happening for Sikhs through the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. It might on the surface seem something entertaining or trivial, but what he did was deeply important. In reading Dr. Van Der Kolk’s Book, The Body Keeps the Score, he has a chapter on theatre, because of the importance of theatre in helping communities come together and in helping people heal from trauma. It is an evidence-based intervention, and is even used for youth in detention in the United States as a way of helping them learn new skills like expressing emotion. I can imagine what role it must have played for people to have this available to them during the turbulence of these times and the trauma of 1984, and its aftermath. His plays included topics like women’s rights, the police atrocities, and murders of the young Sikhs. This is definitely a type of brave humanitarian work, to not only bring awareness in the forms of these plays in the streets, but also to validate the lived experience of the people and to inspire them to keep going. It is so interesting learning about people like him, there is a great bio on the website to check out that explains even more about the context of his writing. I hope that this inspires and excites someone to pursue their own passion.