Abstract:
In the history of Sri Lankan Theatre, there are several personalities who carry out the
aesthetic initiations in various ways, theoretically and conceptually through theatre
performance activities. Prof K Kanapathipillai is the one who has created turning points
and new conceptual platforms in Tamil Drama Theatre. Even though he was living in the
era of colonial rule and under the education system of colonial era, he took the lead in
decolonization writings through local culture and language during that time. His dramatic
scripts and one of the collections of articles named "Eelaththu Vaazvum Valamum" among
art theatrical practices are significant. He has also connected himself with the people of
different statuses in the society and given his writings using the field approach with the
understanding of those people's attitudes. Hence, he has depicted about the expressions on
human, life and social consciousness of a passage of time, by including their life
manifestations, cultural components, and slangs in spoken language, behaviour patterns,
statuses and relationships in his dramatic scripts. The purpose of this study is to disclose
the decolonization thoughts of Prof K Kanapathipillai in his dramatic and theatrical
scripts. The problem of the study is the non-disclosure of decolonization strategies used in
the dramatic writings of Prof K Kanapathipillai. The hypothesis of this study is that the
decolonization strategies have been dealt with Tamil cultural life. Data collection: The
main sources of this study are the drama scripts, scripts connected to the theatrical and art
related writings by Prof K Kanapathipillai. The books, literature, researches, essays as
well as the websites published on this subject are being used as the secondary data of this
study. The research methodology: The descriptive research methodology along with the
qualitative research technique has been used in this study. In addition, historical
methodology and comparative methodology have also been used in this study.
