Maulikraj Shrimali

Northwestern University, Whistle Blower Theater Group (USA/India)

Maulikraj Shrimali (he/him) is a playwright, director, researcher and anti-caste artist-activist from Gujarat, India. He is a third year PhD student in the Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. He has founded the ‘Whistle Blower Theater Group’, an Anti-caste theater company that uses a variety of theatrical techniques to explore social and political issues in India. He has written, directed, and performed plays that deal with issues including caste and gender inequality, communal violence, as well as rights of tribal communities for land, water, forests, and identity. He is also co-founder-president of a student group called “Ambedkar-DuBois Society”. He is primarily interested in the theater practices and pedagogical approaches used by the caste-oppressed people of South Asia. After coming to the USA, he started exploring his body as a site of performance, and developed few durational performances. To deepen his awareness of the worldwide oppressed performance movement, he is examining anti-caste and anti-racism performances, diaspora theater community and protest arts. He has been awarded a Mellon Cluster Fellowship to study Comparative Race and Diaspora Studies. Recently, he is the recipient of the Robert S and Gertrude B. Breen award for his creative performance practice by Northwestern University. He was awarded the prestigious “Rising Star fellowship” of Bard College NY to conduct ‘Anti Caste Theater Workshops’ across the United States.