A Mumbai-based scholar will stage a play on Sheth Hutheesing’s widow.
A businesswoman par excellence, a strongly religious person who interacted with the British and a lady more determined than ever to accomplish what her husband dreamt of. Yes, she was none other than Shethani Harkunvar, who built the city’s oldest derasar — Hutheesing Derasar — in the year 1848.
And, to spread awareness about this determined Jain woman, a Mumbai-based Jain philosopher, Bipin Doshi, is planning to stage a play on her, for which research work is on in full swing. Following a play on one such strong woman from Gujarat, Kasturba, which won accolades all over, Harkunvar is another woman also from the state and especially Ahmedabad, on whom a play is being scripted. To propagate the Jain values and important events in Jainism, Doshi has planned to promote them by dramatising popular Jain characters.
“Before this, I have staged and directed plays on Jain male characters, but never on Jain women. While I was going through some of the women characters for my upcoming play, I found Shethani Harkunvar a rather interesting character and decided to stage a play on her,” said Doshi. Considering that the woman, who lost her husband early, was religiously strong, and even interacted with the British on business matters, the play on her was finalised.
Research work has been going on for the past 1.5 years and will be completed in the next three months. “A play on her life requires a lot of research, which we are obtaining from various sources. Also, I have interacted with Umang Hutheesing, the scion of the family, for the same,” said Doshi. Realising that books and materials do not help in promoting Jainism the right way, Doshi has found a novel way of staging plays on Jain characters.
A physician to boot, a Jain scholar himself and a director by profession, Doshi has staged plays like — Mirchand Gandhi, Bhama Shah, Moti Shah, renowned businessman from Khambhat, who established Jain temples in Mumbai 200 years back. The play after Shethani Harkunvar is likely to be premiered in Ahmedabad in the next six months. Shows would be staged in various derasars across the country and within the Jain community. Not only in India, but the play on Harkunvar would be taken abroad, too. That is wherever the Jain community exists.
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