- Safdar Hashmi, The Enchanted Arch, Or the Individual and Collective Views of Art (April 1983), The Right to Perform, pp.

28–29[8]Hashmi co-founded the Jana Natya Manch (People's Theatre Front), with the acronym JANAM ("birth" in Hindi), in 1973.

When Indira Gandhi imposed a state of emergency and made political theatre difficult, Hashmi began to work as a lecturer in English literature in universities in Garhwal, Kashmir, and Delhi.

[6] When the Emergency ended in 1977, he returned to political activism, and in 1978, JANAM took to street theatre in a big way with Machine, which was performed for a trade union meeting of over 200,000 workers on 20 November 1978.

[8] This was followed by plays on the distress of small peasants (Gaon Se Shahar Tak), on clerical fascism (Hatyare & Apharan Bhaichare Ke), on unemployment (Teen Crore), on violence against women (Aurat) and on inflation (DTC ki Dhandhli).

Hashmi also produced several documentaries and a TV serial for Doordarshan, including Khilti Kaliyan (Flowers in Bloom), which examined rural empowerment.

[8][12] Hashmi was the de facto director of JANAM, and prior to his death, it gave about 4,000 performances of 24 street plays, mostly in working-class neighbourhoods, factories and workshops.

On 4 January 1989, two days after his death, his wife Moloyshree Hashmi went to the same spot again with the JANAM troupe, and defiantly completed the play.

[18] Fourteen years after the incident, a Ghaziabad local court convicted ten people, including Congress Party member Mukesh Sharma, for the murder.

JANAM continues its theatre work, and on 12 April 2012, Hashmi's birthday, the group inaugurated Studio Safdar, a performance and workshop space located in Shadi Khampur, near Patel Nagar in Central Delhi.

The latter also depicts a scene where a street theatre activist is beaten by men hired by a political party, an incident which turns into a catalyst for a public uprising.