Imokanta’s Shumang Lila of Manipur : Theatre in Practice and Theory
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YENNING
Shumang Lila of Manipur : Theatre in Practice and Theory, written and published by Ksh Imokanta Singh in December 2025, makes a significant contribution to the study of Manipuri theatre and performance traditions. Running to 392 pages, the volume is an ambitious attempt to document, interpret, and theorise Shumang Lila, the celebrated courtyard theatre tradition of Manipur.
Drawing upon the author’s MPhil. and PhD research conducted at Jawaharlal Nehru University, the book combines historical inquiry, sociological analysis, performance studies, and cultural criticism to examine the evolution of Shumang Lila from its ritual foundations to its contemporary manifestations.
The book consists of six substantive chapters, along with an introduction and a conclusion. It explores the relationship between theatre and society, the transition from oral to written traditions, the sociology of performance, audience engagement, women’s participation in theatre, and the institution of the Nupi Shabi, or male-female impersonator. Throughout, Singh treats Shumang Lila not merely as an artistic form but as a social institution deeply embedded in the cultural and political life of Manipuri society.
An important aspect of the volume is the author’s candid acknowledgement that the book is largely based on a doctoral thesis completed in 2007 and only lightly updated for publication. Singh openly notes that the manuscript remained unpublished for nearly eighteen years while he pursued a career in the civil service. This admission helps readers understand both the strengths and the limitations of the work. On the one hand, the book preserves a substantial body of field research and scholarly reflection that might otherwise have remained inaccessible.
On the other hand, it inevitably bears traces of the intellectual context in which it was originally written.
One of the book’s greatest strengths lies in its interdisciplinary approach. Singh brings together sociology, anthropology, semiotics, cultural studies, and performance theory in a manner that is both accessible and intellectually ambitious. The work engages with a range of influential thinkers, including Raymond Williams, Victor Turner, Richard Schechner, Erving Goffman, and Antonio Gramsci. These theoretical perspectives are employed not as abstract frameworks imposed from outside but as tools for understanding the lived realities of performers, audiences, and cultural institutions in Manipur.
Particularly noteworthy is Singh’s extensive fieldwork. His long association with the Sanaleipak Nachom Artistes troupe between 2000 and 2007 provides the book with a rich ethnographic foundation. Interviews, observa- tions, personal interactions, and life histories give the study a depth that would have been difficult to achieve through textual sources alone. The author’s familiarity with performers and theatre practitioners enables him to illuminate dimensions of Shumang Lila that are often overlooked in purely literary or historical accounts.
The historical chapters are among the volume’s strongest sections. Singh traces the development of Shumang Lila through distinct phases and situates these transformations within broader changes in Manipuri society. His discussion of the transition from oral performance traditions to scripted drama is particularly valuable. The identification of the emergence of scripted plays in 1950 as a turning point in the development of modern Shumang Lila provides a useful framework for understanding subsequent developments.
Equally impressive is the author’s treatment of the ritual foundations of the theatre form. The analysis of Lai Haraoba and the Tangkhul Nurabi tradition demonstrates how ritual performance, humour, inversion, and social commentary contributed to the emergence of secular theatrical expression. Singh successfully shows that the boundaries between ritual, performance, and everyday life are often fluid rather than fixed. In doing so, he challenges simplistic distinctions between sacred and secular cultural forms.
The book is also valuable for its examination of the social and political functions of theatre. Singh argues persuasively that Shumang Lila has historically served as a site of negotiation, critique, and social reflection. Rather than portraying theatre as passive entertainment, he presents it as an arena in which questions of identity, power, morality, and social change are debated and contested.
His use of Gramsci’s concept of hegemony is particularly effective in explaining how popular theatre can simultaneously reproduce dominant values and create spaces for resistance and critique.
Another important contribution is the discussion of performers’ social status. Singh documents the historical stigmatisation of Shumang Lila artistes and analyses how social attitudes towards performers have changed over time. His exploration of occupational prestige, public respectability, and cultural recognition adds an important sociological dimension to the study of theatre.
The chapters dealing with gender are among the most compelling in the book. Singh’s examination of women’s Shumang Lila offers valuable insights into the challenges female performers face in a patriarchal social environment. He demonstrates how women artists often confronted suspicion, social disapproval, and economic insecurity despite their important contributions to cultural life. The discussion is enriched by detailed life histories, particularly Ibema Leima’s, whose experiences illuminate the personal sacrifices often demanded of women pursuing careers in theatre.
Similarly, the chapter on Nupi Shabi addresses one of the most distinctive features of Manipuri theatre. Singh approaches the subject with sensitivity and nuance. He distinguishes between theatrical female impersonation and personal sexual identity, thereby avoiding simplistic assumptions about gender and sexuality. His concept of “performance sexuality” provides a useful framework for understanding how gender identities may be constructed, enacted, and negotiated within theatrical settings. The chapter offers valuable ethnographic material on a subject that has received comparatively little scholarly attention.
The book’s discussion of aesthetics and semiotics further demonstrates the author’s analytical range. Singh explores how meaning is generated through gesture, costume, music, space, and symbolic representation. His analysis of the minimalistic staging conventions of Shumang Lila highlights the sophistication of a performance tradition that relies heavily on the imagination and interpretive participation of its audience. The examination of technological change, including the use of microphones, recorded music, and modern production techniques, also provides useful insights into the ongoing transformation of the theatre form.
The book is also significant as an act of cultural documentation. Much of the existing scholarship on Shumang Lila is scattered across journal articles, unpublished theses, memoirs, and local publications that are often difficult to access. By bringing together historical materials, field observations, interviews, and theoretical reflections within a single volume, Singh has created a valuable repository of knowledge for future researchers.
The work preserves the memories, experiences, and interpretations of artists and cultural practitioners, many of whom are no longer alive. In this sense, the volume serves not only as an academic study but also as an important archival resource for the cultural history of Manipur and the wider field of theatre studies.
Despite these strengths, the book is not without limitations. The most significant concern arises from its origins as a doctoral dissertation completed nearly two decades ago.
Although some updates have been incorporated, much of the theoretical discussion remains rooted in the scholarly debates of the early 2000s. Important developments in performance studies, gender studies, and cultural theory over the past eighteen years receive limited attention. Consequently, the book reads at times more like a preserved doctoral thesis than a fully revised contemporary monograph.
A related issue is the heavy reliance on Western theoretical frameworks. The engagement with thinkers such as Williams, Turner, Schechner, and Goffman is often productive, but the discussion would have benefited from greater engagement with Indian performance traditions and indigenous theoretical resources. Classical Indian aesthetic theories, particularly those relating to rasa, abhinaya, and performance, receive comparatively limited attention despite their relevance to the subject.
The organisation of the book also reflects its thesis origins. Several themes and examples reappear across multiple chapters, resulting in some repetition. Certain plays are discussed repeatedly from different analytical perspectives, which occasionally interrupts the flow of the argument. While these repetitions are understandable in a dissertation structured around multiple research questions, a more extensive revision for publication might have reduced redundancy and strengthened the text’s overall coherence.
There are also places where the author could have engaged more critically with changing social realities. Since Shumang Lila has undergone considerable transformation in recent years through digital media, changing audience expectations, and new forms of cultural production, readers may wish for a more sustained discussion of developments after the original completion of the research.
These criticisms, however, should not overshadow the book’s considerable achievements. The volume remains one of the most comprehensive sociological studies of Shumang Lila currently available. It combines historical depth, ethnographic richness, theoretical ambition, and cultural sensitivity in a manner rarely found in studies of regional theatre traditions. More importantly, it preserves a substantial body of knowledge that might otherwise have remained confined to an unpublished dissertation.
In conclusion, Shumang Lila of Manipur : Theatre in Practice and Theory is an important and valuable contribution to the study of Manipuri culture, theatre, and society. Although the work would have benefited from more extensive revision and engagement with recent scholarship, its strengths far outweigh its limitations. Scholars of performance studies, sociology, anthropology, cultural history, and North East India studies will find much of value in its pages. The book stands as a significant documentation of a unique theatrical tradition and as a testament to the enduring relationship between performance and society in Manipur.
Shumang Lila of Manipur : Theatre in Practice and Theory, written and published by Ksh Imokanta Singh in December 2025, makes a significant contribution to the study of Manipuri theatre and performance traditions. Running to 392 pages, the volume is an ambitious attempt to document, interpret, and theorise Shumang Lila, the celebrated courtyard theatre tradition of Manipur.
Drawing upon the author’s MPhil. and PhD research conducted at Jawaharlal Nehru University, the book combines historical inquiry, sociological analysis, performance studies, and cultural criticism to examine the evolution of Shumang Lila from its ritual foundations to its contemporary manifestations.
The book consists of six substantive chapters, along with an introduction and a conclusion. It explores the relationship between theatre and society, the transition from oral to written traditions, the sociology of performance, audience engagement, women’s participation in theatre, and the institution of the Nupi Shabi, or male-female impersonator. Throughout, Singh treats Shumang Lila not merely as an artistic form but as a social institution deeply embedded in the cultural and political life of Manipuri society.
An important aspect of the volume is the author’s candid acknowledgement that the book is largely based on a doctoral thesis completed in 2007 and only lightly updated for publication. Singh openly notes that the manuscript remained unpublished for nearly eighteen years while he pursued a career in the civil service. This admission helps readers understand both the strengths and the limitations of the work. On the one hand, the book preserves a substantial body of field research and scholarly reflection that might otherwise have remained inaccessible.
On the other hand, it inevitably bears traces of the intellectual context in which it was originally written.
One of the book’s greatest strengths lies in its interdisciplinary approach. Singh brings together sociology, anthropology, semiotics, cultural studies, and performance theory in a manner that is both accessible and intellectually ambitious. The work engages with a range of influential thinkers, including Raymond Williams, Victor Turner, Richard Schechner, Erving Goffman, and Antonio Gramsci. These theoretical perspectives are employed not as abstract frameworks imposed from outside but as tools for understanding the lived realities of performers, audiences, and cultural institutions in Manipur.
Particularly noteworthy is Singh’s extensive fieldwork. His long association with the Sanaleipak Nachom Artistes troupe between 2000 and 2007 provides the book with a rich ethnographic foundation. Interviews, observa- tions, personal interactions, and life histories give the study a depth that would have been difficult to achieve through textual sources alone. The author’s familiarity with performers and theatre practitioners enables him to illuminate dimensions of Shumang Lila that are often overlooked in purely literary or historical accounts.
The historical chapters are among the volume’s strongest sections. Singh traces the development of Shumang Lila through distinct phases and situates these transformations within broader changes in Manipuri society. His discussion of the transition from oral performance traditions to scripted drama is particularly valuable. The identification of the emergence of scripted plays in 1950 as a turning point in the development of modern Shumang Lila provides a useful framework for understanding subsequent developments.
Equally impressive is the author’s treatment of the ritual foundations of the theatre form. The analysis of Lai Haraoba and the Tangkhul Nurabi tradition demonstrates how ritual performance, humour, inversion, and social commentary contributed to the emergence of secular theatrical expression. Singh successfully shows that the boundaries between ritual, performance, and everyday life are often fluid rather than fixed. In doing so, he challenges simplistic distinctions between sacred and secular cultural forms.
The book is also valuable for its examination of the social and political functions of theatre. Singh argues persuasively that Shumang Lila has historically served as a site of negotiation, critique, and social reflection. Rather than portraying theatre as passive entertainment, he presents it as an arena in which questions of identity, power, morality, and social change are debated and contested.
His use of Gramsci’s concept of hegemony is particularly effective in explaining how popular theatre can simultaneously reproduce dominant values and create spaces for resistance and critique.
Another important contribution is the discussion of performers’ social status. Singh documents the historical stigmatisation of Shumang Lila artistes and analyses how social attitudes towards performers have changed over time. His exploration of occupational prestige, public respectability, and cultural recognition adds an important sociological dimension to the study of theatre.
The chapters dealing with gender are among the most compelling in the book. Singh’s examination of women’s Shumang Lila offers valuable insights into the challenges female performers face in a patriarchal social environment. He demonstrates how women artists often confronted suspicion, social disapproval, and economic insecurity despite their important contributions to cultural life. The discussion is enriched by detailed life histories, particularly Ibema Leima’s, whose experiences illuminate the personal sacrifices often demanded of women pursuing careers in theatre.
Similarly, the chapter on Nupi Shabi addresses one of the most distinctive features of Manipuri theatre. Singh approaches the subject with sensitivity and nuance. He distinguishes between theatrical female impersonation and personal sexual identity, thereby avoiding simplistic assumptions about gender and sexuality. His concept of “performance sexuality” provides a useful framework for understanding how gender identities may be constructed, enacted, and negotiated within theatrical settings. The chapter offers valuable ethnographic material on a subject that has received comparatively little scholarly attention.
The book’s discussion of aesthetics and semiotics further demonstrates the author’s analytical range. Singh explores how meaning is generated through gesture, costume, music, space, and symbolic representation. His analysis of the minimalistic staging conventions of Shumang Lila highlights the sophistication of a performance tradition that relies heavily on the imagination and interpretive participation of its audience. The examination of technological change, including the use of microphones, recorded music, and modern production techniques, also provides useful insights into the ongoing transformation of the theatre form.
The book is also significant as an act of cultural documentation. Much of the existing scholarship on Shumang Lila is scattered across journal articles, unpublished theses, memoirs, and local publications that are often difficult to access. By bringing together historical materials, field observations, interviews, and theoretical reflections within a single volume, Singh has created a valuable repository of knowledge for future researchers.
The work preserves the memories, experiences, and interpretations of artists and cultural practitioners, many of whom are no longer alive. In this sense, the volume serves not only as an academic study but also as an important archival resource for the cultural history of Manipur and the wider field of theatre studies.
Despite these strengths, the book is not without limitations. The most significant concern arises from its origins as a doctoral dissertation completed nearly two decades ago.
Although some updates have been incorporated, much of the theoretical discussion remains rooted in the scholarly debates of the early 2000s. Important developments in performance studies, gender studies, and cultural theory over the past eighteen years receive limited attention. Consequently, the book reads at times more like a preserved doctoral thesis than a fully revised contemporary monograph.
A related issue is the heavy reliance on Western theoretical frameworks. The engagement with thinkers such as Williams, Turner, Schechner, and Goffman is often productive, but the discussion would have benefited from greater engagement with Indian performance traditions and indigenous theoretical resources. Classical Indian aesthetic theories, particularly those relating to rasa, abhinaya, and performance, receive comparatively limited attention despite their relevance to the subject.
The organisation of the book also reflects its thesis origins. Several themes and examples reappear across multiple chapters, resulting in some repetition. Certain plays are discussed repeatedly from different analytical perspectives, which occasionally interrupts the flow of the argument. While these repetitions are understandable in a dissertation structured around multiple research questions, a more extensive revision for publication might have reduced redundancy and strengthened the text’s overall coherence.
There are also places where the author could have engaged more critically with changing social realities. Since Shumang Lila has undergone considerable transformation in recent years through digital media, changing audience expectations, and new forms of cultural production, readers may wish for a more sustained discussion of developments after the original completion of the research.
These criticisms, however, should not overshadow the book’s considerable achievements. The volume remains one of the most comprehensive sociological studies of Shumang Lila currently available. It combines historical depth, ethnographic richness, theoretical ambition, and cultural sensitivity in a manner rarely found in studies of regional theatre traditions. More importantly, it preserves a substantial body of knowledge that might otherwise have remained confined to an unpublished dissertation.
In conclusion, Shumang Lila of Manipur : Theatre in Practice and Theory is an important and valuable contribution to the study of Manipuri culture, theatre, and society. Although the work would have benefited from more extensive revision and engagement with recent scholarship, its strengths far outweigh its limitations. Scholars of performance studies, sociology, anthropology, cultural history, and North East India studies will find much of value in its pages. The book stands as a significant documentation of a unique theatrical tradition and as a testament to the enduring relationship between performance and society in Manipur.