Datta Bhagat

{{Short description|Indian writer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}

{{Use Indian English|date=April 2017}}

Dattatraya (alias Datta) Ganpat Bhagat (born 13 June 1945 in Waghi village of Nanded district, Maharashtra) is an Indian Marathi playwright, Ambedkarite thinker and one of the leaders of the Dalit theater movement in Marathi. He is a professor of Marathi at the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.{{Cite web|url=https://www.forwardpress.in/2017/08/dalit-rangmanch-aur-ambedkar/|title = दलित रंगमंच और आंबेडकर|date = 15 August 2017}}

His play Avart (whirlpool) was critically acclaimed for its use of the traditional forms of dindi and tamasha to reflect on Dalit oppression against the background of a pilgrimage to Pandharpur.{{cite journal|author=Joya John |title=Plays of Datta Bhagat |journal=Muse India |issue=21 |date=September 2008 |url=http://www.museindia.com/showfocus10.asp?id=1030 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104135355/http://museindia.com/showfocus10.asp?id=1030 |archivedate=2010-01-04 }}

His long plays like "Ashmak", "Khelia" were liked by most of his senior critics and was successfully produced.{{Cite web|title=esakal {{!}} लेखन, चिंतन अन् संशोधनाचा झरा...|url=https://www.esakal.com/blog/article-pralhad-lulekar-datta-bhagat-307072|access-date=2021-10-01|website=www.esakal.com|date=14 June 2020 }}

His other play Wata Palwata (Routes and Escapes) is also well known and included in the collection of Indian plays Drama Contemporary by Erin B Mee. It is considered to be 'a milestone in Marathi theater'.{{cite book|author=Gabrielle H Cody and Evert Sprinchorn|title=The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama|volume=2|location=New York|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2007}}

He is also noted for his literary criticism, particularly the essay Dalit chetna aur Marathi Dalit Rangmanch (Dalit consciousness and Marathi Dalit theater). Datta Bhagat was selected as the President of the 37th Marathwada Sahitya Sammelan of Marathwada Sahitya Parishad at Jalna {{Cite web|title=३७ व्या मराठवाडा साहित्य संमेलनाध्यक्षपदी दत्ता भगत |url=https://www.loksatta.com/aurangabad/marathwada-sahitya-sammelan-datta-bhagat-president-1186405/|access-date=2021-10-01|website=Loksatta|language=mr-IN}}

in 2006 Datta Bhagat was selected as the President of the Akhil Marathi Natya Sammelan at Nanded.