Q1.
Pick an event from Chhatrapati Shivaji’s life and, with your classmates, stage it as a play.
Answer
Pick an event that has a decision in it, not just action — a scene works on stage when a character has to choose. Four events in this chapter carry that: the meeting with Afzal Khan at Pratapgad (1659), the night raid on Shaista Khan’s camp, the escape from Agra (1666), and the coronation at Raigad (1674).
What a good staging needs
- Accuracy on the facts the chapter gives — dates, names, places. Invent only the dialogue.
- A clear turning point the audience can feel.
- Few props. A basket, a shawl and two chairs are enough; the audience will supply the rest.
- A closing line that says why the event mattered, so the class learns history and not only a story.
Sample answer: ‘The Baskets of Agra’ — a four-scene play
| Scene | Where | What happens | The line that carries it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mughal court, Agra | Shivaji, persuaded by Jai Singh to come, is made to stand before Aurangzeb beside a Mughal general he had already defeated. | Shivaji: ‘I was invited as a king. I am being placed as a servant.’ |
| 2 | Outside the court | Incensed, he storms out. Aurangzeb orders him kept under house arrest. | Aurangzeb: ‘Let him keep his pride. He will not keep his freedom.’ |
| 3 | The house of detention | Shivaji begins sending baskets of fruits and sweets as gifts to holy men and Mughal generals. The guards open the first baskets, then the tenth, then stop bothering. | Guard: ‘Fruit again. Let it pass.’ |
| 4 | The gate, at dusk | Two large baskets go out. Shivaji and his son Sambhaji are inside them. Narrator closes the play. | Narrator: ‘Aurangzeb never captured him again. Eight years later he was crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad.’ |
Why this event is worth staging: it shows a habit of mind rather than a feat of strength. Shivaji did not break out — he studied the guards’ routine, made a search feel pointless by repeating it harmlessly for days, and then used the routine he had built. That is the same thinking as guerrilla warfare: work on the enemy’s expectations, not on his walls.
Tip: give one classmate the job of ‘fact-checker’. Before the performance, they read Pages 66–67 aloud and confirm every fact your script states — that Sambhaji escaped with him, that Jai Singh had persuaded him to go, that the year was 1666.