Cultural Sustainability and Cultural Diversity: Habib Tanvir's Naya Theatre

Abstract

Cultural Sustainability is defined as the trait of vitality and endurance with which an individual lives, interacts with others in society and finds the meaning of his existence . It is not merely an act of preserving but ensuring that every human experience remains vibrant and adaptable for future generations to exist. Therefore cultural sustainability safeguards and promotes dynamic evolution of cultural values, practices and all those expressions that define communities. Habib Tanvir a renowned playwright , artist and dramatist from Chhattisgarh founded the Naya Theatre in 1959 which turned out to be a live exemplar of Cultural Sustainability resting upon the four pillars of validated indigenous performances, empowering the rural artists, cultural dialogues and relevance and authenticity of language. The paper analyzes these four pillars of Tanvir's endeavour for cultural sustainability and cultural values along with the elements of modern theatre that made Naya Theatre a unique emblem of cultural preservation.