CONTOURS OF OUR COMPOSITE CULTURE him. I saw before me a carelessly dressed person, his shorts coming down to his knees, a pair of old chappals on his feet, chewing tobacco. Surely, I said to myself, this could not be P.C. Joshi, whose name was on everyone's lips. But when he put his hand on my shoulder with a loving glint in his eyes and a radiant smile on his lips, my doubts were dispelled. The Hindustani Drama Group, of which I too soon became an active member, would stage plays in different localities in Bombay, sometimes on an improvised stage, at others, in the streets itself. Communal tension was mounting in those days, and I remember, on two occasions, stones were hurled from dark street corners at the performers. This was not a new thing for the IPTA artists, I was told. Such occurrences were quite frequent, but the IPTA artists, with their deep sense of dedication to a cause, faced them dauntlessly. I am dilating on the IPTA, a brain-child of P.C. Joshi, not only because it was a unique contribution made by him, but also because it embodied some of the most essential features of our cultural heritage. IPTA had broken out of the stuffy theatre-halls and gone straight to the people. It spoke in the language of the people. While it drew heavily on the traditional folk-forms, be it 'Nautanki' or 'Pavda', popular among the people of the area, its performances had a contemporary thrust, it tackled issues that faced society and was forward-looking and highly innovative. And above all, it was inspired by an ideology that breathed of freedom, of secular values, of equality and social justice. And its platform was shared by all linguistic and cultural groups from all parts of the country on terms of complete equality and mutual respect. The concept of the IPTA corresponded very well with the kind of society we live in. We are a multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-racial society. We all live in an environment where many languages are spoken, people with different faiths and beliefs live side by side and interact with one another. Such is the character of our society and it has been so for centuries. Over the centuries people have evolved, to a large extent, a community of outlook and a set of common values, common languages and even customs, which have continued to exercise a pervasive influence over our lives. But time and again in our history, and more so during the last few decades, deliberate efforts have been made to whip up differences and create rifts among the people and sow the seeds of hatred and mistrust among them. With the result that to-day, the atmosphere is charged with divisive attitudes.