International Journal of Language, Linguistics, Literature and Education

Social class and inequality constitute enduring concerns in English drama, shaping its engagement with power, representation, and social critique. Dramatic literature has consistently reflected the hierarchical structures, economic disparities, and cultural tensions embedded within specific historical and political contexts. From early modern English theatre to contemporary Indian English drama, the stage has functioned as a site where class relations are articulated, contested, and reimagined. English drama records transitions from feudal hierarchies to capitalist formations, foregrounding issues of labour, privilege, and social mobility, while Victorian and modernist plays intensify debates around poverty, industrialisation, and exclusion. In the Indian English context, class representation acquires added complexity through colonial legacies, caste hierarchies, urbanisation, and globalisation. Playwrights engage with the intersections of class and caste, rural–urban migration, diasporic capital flows, and the anxieties of the emerging middle class. Language, space, performance, and reception operate as key dramaturgical strategies through which inequality is staged and interpreted. A comparative approach reveals both continuities and divergences between British and Indian theatrical traditions, highlighting how drama mediates socio-economic realities within postcolonial frameworks. Examining social class in English drama thus deepens understanding of theatre as a socio-political practice that interrogates structures of inequality while amplifying marginalised voices across historical and cultural boundaries.