Tughlaq By Girish Karnad Text • Best Pick

The text is a searing psycho-political drama based on the life of the 14th-century Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughlaq. However, to read the Tughlaq text is to read an allegory of post-Independence India. Karnad famously used the historical canvas of Tughlaq’s reign (1325-1351)—known for his visionary but disastrous administrative decisions—to critique the failed idealism of Nehruvian India.

(Enter TUGHLAQ, fleeing)