William Shakespeare has been widely read and performed in India in terms of its own culture and poetics. He was introduced to the Indian readers in 1775, during the age of Johnson. Evidently, he proved to be the most valuable and cherished British investment in India, since even after independence he continues to be the most popular English author. There has been a wide range of adaptations and translations in almost all the Indian regional languages. The Indian response owes no doubt to a large extent to western criticism but there is a presence of independent perspectives too, which emerge with the application of Sanskrit poetics in Shakespeare’s plays and their comparison with classical Sanskrit plays. Interestingly enough, the plays as performed in India, manifests itself into an Indian flavour, colourful, change of dialect, alteration of the names of the characters and even the motives, looking after its application to Indian audience. This paper attempts to bring out two vital aspects, firstly, early Shakespeare Criticism in India, and secondly, the multiculturalism with which Shakespeare was performed in India.
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