In a July 14, 2024 interview with Scroll.in, theatre actor-director MK Raina sums up his education with the line “I am a product of Indian socialism.” He means that a state-backed education system, not family wealth, carried him through school and into the theatre. He traces his path from Srinagar to the School of Drama in Delhi, through decades of politically engaged theatre, and into his memoir Before I Forget: A Memoir. This article explains what he said, what the book covers, and how to weigh his account of Kashmir’s recent history.
Where the line comes from
The headline draws on a moment in the interview where Raina explains how he came to study theatre at all. He says the Naya Kashmir project made his education free from primary school through university. A state scholarship then allowed him to join the School of Drama in Delhi. The interview states that he arrived to study in Delhi in 1967. For Raina, the phrase describes a chain of public support rather than a political slogan.
Two details matter when quoting it. First, the words are Raina’s, spoken in the first person. Second, the headline contracts “I am” to “I’m”; the body of the interview uses the full form. The headline and the framing of the piece belong to the interviewer, Sujata Prasad, while the account of the scholarship and the Naya Kashmir programme is Raina’s recollection.
Childhood in a mixed Srinagar neighbourhood
Raina describes a Srinagar neighbourhood where Hindu and Muslim families lived close together, and where children shared games and outdoor adventures. He says the camaraderie between communities is what he remembers most about those years. This is one man’s memory of one neighbourhood, offered as personal testimony. It should not be read as a full picture of Kashmir in that period.
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Training and theatre in Delhi and beyond
At the National School of Drama, Raina says, he learned theatre alongside a broader understanding of the arts and of performance traditions across India. The interview describes his later work in several directions:
- organising theatre workshops and working with groups across India;
- collaborations with theatre groups in Lahore, Dhaka and Kathmandu;
- protest performances and experimental theatre as part of his practice.
Across these strands, he treats theatre as a tool for public argument as well as for craft. The interview uses the phrase “using theatre as a form of protest” to describe this approach.
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Badshah Lear and working with Kashmiri performers
The clearest example in the interview is Badshah Lear, Raina’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear made with Kashmiri Bhand Pather performers. Bhand Pather is a folk theatre tradition from Kashmir. Raina says he reshaped the play around the company’s oral and theatrical habits. After discussion with the performers, he changed Lear’s daughters into sons. He recounts performances in Srinagar and in rural Kashmir, including audiences who travelled long distances to attend. These are his accounts; the interview does not include independent attendance figures or reviews.
The adaptation is useful for understanding his method. It shows a Shakespeare text being adjusted to a local performance language, rather than local performers being fitted into a Western template.
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The memoir: Before I Forget
The book is Before I Forget: A Memoir by M. K. Raina. Publisher and distributor listings give the following details. Where the sources differ, the table shows both.
| Detail | What the listing shows | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Title and author | Before I Forget: A Memoir by M. K. Raina | Penguin Random House India, Adult Publishing April–June 2024 Catalogue |
| Format | Hardcover, 424 pages | Penguin Random House India catalogue |
| Imprint | Vintage | Penguin Random House India catalogue |
| ISBN | 9780670098811 | Penguin Random House India catalogue |
| Publication month | April 2024 | Penguin Random House India catalogue |
| Market listing date | August 2024 | Independent Publishers Group distributor listing; market-specific |
| Price | Not stated in the sources reviewed | Not applicable to these listings |
If you need a release date for a specific territory or a particular printing, check the current listing from the publisher or distributor for that market. Editions and dates can differ between catalogues.
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Writing from memory without an archive
In the interview, Raina says he began writing during the pandemic, after years of returning to Kashmir and working in cultural spaces there. He says he had no digital archive or written records for many of the events he describes. He credits theatre and cinema with developing his visual memory, and he presents the book as an effort to set down what he could still recall. Asked how he handled the gaps in his memory, he describes the book as reconstruction rather than documentation.
This matters for how the memoir is read. Its authority rests on Raina’s recollection, and readers should weigh it as testimony. It is not a substitute for independently sourced reporting on contested events.
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Political history as one artist’s testimony
The interview covers several of the most contested episodes of modern Indian and Kashmiri history:
- the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits;
- violence and militarisation in Kashmir;
- Raina’s experience around his mother’s death in January 1990;
- his memories of the 1984 anti-Sikh violence in Delhi and a peace march held in response.
Each of these is presented through Raina’s memory and the interviewer’s questions. The interview does not verify them against court records, government sources or academic histories. Where the article or interview uses charged descriptions, they should be attributed to the speaker rather than treated as settled fact. Readers who want the wider historical record should pair this interview with independent histories of Kashmir and of the 1984 violence.
How to read the interview and the book
- Attribute the education story and the Kashmir accounts to Raina, and treat the headline as the interviewer’s choice.
- Use the full title Before I Forget: A Memoir and the author’s name when searching, since the title is shared with other books.
- Check the edition, page count and date in the publisher listing for your market before citing them.
- Treat the memoir’s accounts of historical events as personal testimony, and check them against independent sources.
Read as a whole, the interview is useful as a portrait of one theatre practitioner who links a publicly funded education, protest theatre and collaboration with Kashmiri performers. It is one artist’s perspective on a contested history, and it is most valuable when read alongside other accounts.
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