International Journal of Social Science Research (IJSSR)

From Colonial Wounds to Global Displacement: A Postcolonial Reading of “Imaan Imaan Paani”

ABSTRACT Imaan Imaan Paani (We are Drowning), a politically-charged Assamese play written and directed by Dr. Mrinal Jyoti Goswami, emerges as a powerful postcolonial narrative that stages the lingering trauma of colonization and its transformation into contemporary forms of displacement and cultural erasure. Drawing from the surrealist motifs of Salvador Dalí and the existential angst of Edvard Munch, the play invokes a non-linear, symbolic theatrical language to explore themes such as collective memory, state violence, environmental degradation and forced migration. This paper attempts a postcolonial reading of Imaan Imaan Paani, situating its aesthetic choices within broader theoretical frameworks offered by scholars such as Edward Said, Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak. It interrogates how the fragmented identities, loss of indigenous time-space structures, and metaphoric cycles of destruction presented in the play resonate with the postcolonial condition in the global South. By examining performative elements— like the interplay of puppets, clocks, children’s rhymes and bodily protests— this study argues that the play transcends regional boundaries to offer a trenchant critique of both colonial residues and neoliberal violence. Ultimately, the work asserts theatre’s potential to reclaim silenced histories and envision acts of resistance and renewal. KEYWORDS Post-colonialism, displacement, memory, performance, violence, migration, Assam, global South, theatre