Safdar Hashmi was all of 34 years old when he died. He was performing a street play with his theatre troupe, Jana Natya Manch (Janam), in Jhandapur in Ghaziabad on January 1, 1989, when the performance was interrupted by local thugs.
The play was called Halla Bol, which is also the title of Sudhanva Deshpande’s book on Hashmi’s life. In the play, factory workers ask for an increase in their wages, from `562 to `1,050 per month. Female workers ask for a crèche on the factory premises so that their. . .