I have found that Indian productions and interpretation of Shakespeare engage in such mimicry, simultaneously asserting and
disrupting colonial authority. Infusing the English texts with Indian concerns both challenges colonial authority and
articulates post¬colonial realities. Indian appropriations of Shakespeare's drama are not new, post-colonial phenomena.
During the colonial period, the plays were often used to explore cultural and political tensions. Today, Shakespeare's
plays serve as vehicles to investigate the realities of post-colonial existence. Shakespeare productions, particularly
those staged in English, best represent the multiple, ambiguous, hybrid, and hyphenated realities and identities of post-
1947 India. The cross-culturation that marks this growing genre situates Western, canonical texts within the dual
institutions of Indian theater and literary criticism. Shakespeare has, in effect, become an Indian commodity.