Collapse of Social Morality in Vijay Tendulkar’s Selected Plays: A Lyotardian Reading of Metanarrative Crisis

Abstract

This article examines the disintegration of social morality in three plays by Vijay Tendulkar (Silence! The Court is in Session (1967), Sakharam Binder (1972), and Ghashiram Kotwal (1972)) through the theoretical lens of Lyotard’s concept of the “incredulity toward metanarratives” (1984).  We argue that Tendulkar’s dramaturgy systematically dismantles the grand narratives of justice, marriage, and political legitimacy, exposing them as historically contingent language games that legitimate domination rather than universal ethical principles. Through close reading and the application of Lyotard’s notions of language games, paralogy, and terror, we demonstrate that the plays depict a postmodern condition in which moral authority fragments into localized, often violent mini‑narratives. The analysis draws on selected plays to show how Tendulkar anticipates Lyotard’s insight that the collapse of metanarratives does not liberate individuals but subjects them to competing, arbitrary claims. Our findings reveal that Tendulkar’s ethical vision lies not in proposing alternative moral systems but in exposing the terror that silences dissent and in affirming the dignity of those who struggle to speak their own truths. The article contributes to the scholarship on Indian drama by providing a systematic postmodern theoretical framework for understanding Tendulkar’s critique of morality.