Marginalisation, Gender and Social Freedom in Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps Around the Fire

Abstract

Mahesh Dattani holds a prominent position in contemporary Indian English drama due to his commitment to portraying social realities that are routinely suppressed, overlooked, or deemed uncomfortable within mainstream discourse. His play _Seven Steps Around the Fire_ examines the lives of hijras, a socially marginalized community whose existence has historically been marked by prejudice, silence, and misrepresentation. Through the inquiry into Kamala’s murder, Dattani foregrounds the convergence of gender discrimination, social exclusion, class stratification, political authority, and institutional violence. The play is especially noteworthy because it does not simply depict the hijra community as subjects of pity; instead, it interrogates the social structures that withhold from them dignity, liberty, education, employment, and acknowledgment. The figure of Uma Rao, an educated university researcher, offers a crucial vantage point through which the concealed realities of the hijra community are progressively disclosed. Her investigation brings her into contact with figures such as Anarkali, Champa, and Kamala, enabling the audience to engage with lives that dominant society seeks to render invisible. The play’s title alludes to the traditional Hindu matrimonial ritual of circumambulating the sacred fire seven times, thereby signifying union, social validation, and marital legitimacy. By juxtaposing this ritual with the proscribed relationship between Kamala and Subbu, Dattani accentuates the disjunction between cultural ideals and social practice. This article analyzes _Seven Steps Around the Fire_ through the lenses of gender, marginalization, liberty, social identity, power, silence, and cultural duplicity. It contends that Dattani employs theatre as a medium for interrogating conventional conceptions of gender and for revealing the constraints of a society that endorses diversity symbolically while denying liberty and dignity to marginalized individuals.