TAWAIFS AND DEVDASIS:AN

UNDERSTANDING
The tawaifs were an Indian equivalent of the Japanese Geisha. Their heyday
was in the 18th and the early 19th century. They were very important in the
development and propagation of a number of North Indian styles of music and
dance, most especially the kathak form of dance, and the thumree, ghazal,
and dadra forms of singing. However, after the British consolidated their con-
trol over India in the last half of the 19th century, the tawaifs were branded as
prostitutes, and subsequently marginalised in society. This marginalisation
might have proved disastrous for their arts, had it not been for the intervention
of the Indian bourgeoisie at the turn of the 20th century. The "rescue" of
the tawaif's arts was remarkable, but was accompanied by a fair degree of cul-
tural recontextualisation in order to fit these arts into the culture of the emerg-
ing Independent India. Marginally related to the tawaif was the "devdasi". The
term "devdasi" literally means "a female servant of God". The devdasis were
girls who were attached to the temples. It is important to remember that there
was virtually no connection between the devdasis and the tawaifs. However,
devdasis and a common prostitute were not distinguished due to the largely
wali", or "nautch-wali", has been applied to tawaifs and devdasis. The traditionalists
did raise their voice against the injustice of society towards the devadasis, tawaifs
and nautch girls but to no avail. The reformers had their way in degrading the
dancing profession and its practitioners. A contemporary maxim summed up the
reform programme thus: 'The dancing girl was formerly fed with good food in the
temple; now she turns somersaults for a beggar's rice.' The dance as an art form was
ostracised; dedication of young girls to temples was stopped. However, the coming
of All India Radio and cinema provided opportunities for a few talented artists to
practise their profession but most of them sank into oblivion. During the 1930s, there
came an awakening when some lovers of the old performing arts of music and dance
launched a vigorous drive to revive them. But their objective was to rescue it from
the clutches of the 'infamous' tawaifs and devadasis. After Independence, even All
India Radio closed its doors to these professional women singers on the ground that
'their private life was a public scandal'. Thus the national government became the
guardian of public morality. The traditional performers of art were asked to prove
their respectability - and that was possible only by quitting the profession and
appearing in a new incarnation as chaste wives to be addressed
as Devis and Begums in place of the traditional Bais.
Alas, honoured by royal lovers, rewarded by nawabs and nobles, patronised by the
European elite, immortalised by poets and chroniclers, pursued by lovesick gallants,
the Indian Courtesan, a symbol of glamour, grace and glory and the queen of
performing arts, passed into the pages of history.
 NOTION OF COURTESANS IN
POPULAR CULTURE
Courtesans were once celebrities who quietly shaped socio-political discourse,
forming influential relationships with members of the nobility. So why do we now
think of tawaifs as prostitutes? As historian professor Veena Oldenberg wrote in
her book, The Making of Colonial Lucknow, "To relate tawaifs to prostitution is
an extremely corrupt portrayal of the institution.” In the late 19th and early
20th century, as Abdul Halim Sharar wrote his book on the life and culture of
Awadh under the nawabs, Guzishta Lucknow, he describes three classes of
courtesans in Lucknow and other parts of India, and kanchanis as one of them.
Kanchanis, he says, belong to the kanchan tribe and that their primary
profession was to sell their virtue. He adds they came from Delhi to Lucknow, so
the change has already taken place. One reason, of course, would be that after
the attacks on Delhi by Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali, the Mughal empire
was tottering and royal patronage was no longer enough to sustain a high-class
lifestyle. Thus, many women whose primary profession was to sing and dance
had to live by "selling their virtue".The other classes that he mentions are
"chunawalis", women who used to sell slaked lime, but have now become bazaar
women, and the third is "nagrant". Nagrants are from Gujarat and he calls these
three groups the "queens of the bazaars".
Obviously, Sharar is writing post-1856 when the traditional tawaifs had all, but been
destroyed by the British. Oldenberg, who has researched the tawaifs of Lucknow
extensively, found out that when the British went after all those who had joined the 1857
uprising, found that their occupations was given as "dancing and singing girls", and “as
if it was not surprise enough to find women in the tax records, it was even more
remarkable that they were in the highest tax bracket, with the largest individual incomes
of any in the city".
They owned houses, orchards, manufacturing and retail establishments for food and
luxury items which were all confiscated by British officials for "their proven involvement
in the siege of Lucknow and the rebellion against British rule in 1857".Just confiscation
of property was not enough, the most attractive of the tawaifs were sent to British
garrisons to service the troops there. The tawaifs who excelled and contributed to
classical music, dance and the Urdu literary tradition, and were considered an authority
on etiquette, now became common prostitutes. There was a time when sons from noble
families were sent to the courtesans to learn etiquette and niceties of moving in society.
Now British officers and troops came to satisfy their physical desires.
Post-1857, it wasn’t only the Mughal dynasty or Nawabs of Awadh who were destroyed,
but an era was destroyed: A culture was destroyed. The "arbab-e-nishat" or kathak
dancers and classical singers were now the "nautch girls" (from word naach or dance).
Today, the word tawaif is used for a woman in the flesh trade. Those that learn to sing
and dance no longer sing Ghalib or Dagh’s ghazals. They gyrate to lewd double-meaning
film songs to tittilate the customer.
There are no balakhanas, where music and dance flourished, just kothas where more
often than not, girls are kidnapped, lured and forced into the flesh trade against their
will.
Post the British Era in India, another figure emerges: A woman who is not a public
entertainer but is courtesan-like since she lives on her own and has unconventional
relations with men. This has been widely portrayed in popular culture through films and
Bollywood.
This similarity is signalled to the audience through tropes associated with
the cinematic courtesan. For example, serving alcohol to a man is strongly associated
with a courtesan. In domestic situations in films, the husband serves alcohol to male
guests, while the wife serves food, snacks and tea (e.g. Kabhi Kabhie [1976]). Most
tawaifs are introduced with a shot of their dancing feet but occasionally one is
introduced with a shot of her hand pouring liquor into a glass for a man, as in Ek Raaz
(1963). In Deewaar (1975), Vijay’s (Amitabh Bachchan) girlfriend Anita (Parveen Babi) is
compared and contrasted with a tawaif. Her courtesan-like provenance is indicated
through symbols, as when Vijay enters the flat, turns on an electric chandelier
(chandeliers are a sine qua non in cinematic kotha scenes), and asks her to pour him a
drink. However, we also see Anita in bed with Vijay. In this era, neither heroines nor
tawaifs are seen in bed with men; this scene shows that Anita does not fit either
category. However, Anita, like many non-virgin courtesans, is killed just before her
wedding. In Naam (1986), the figure evolves further. Rita (Amrita Singh) is a working
woman whom Vicky (Sanjay Dutt) meets on a plane. Next day, she finds that her
employer expects her to sleep with him, so she slaps him and leaves. The same day,
Vicky requests her to spend the night with him, which she does, and the next morning
she agrees to accompany him on assignment to Hong Kong. There we see them in bed
together in a shot very similar to the one in Deewaar. Her choices associate her with a
courtesan’s rather than a sex-worker’s lifestyle: she is not willing to sleep with just any
man but once she chooses to live with a man, she accepts financial support. Both films
thus capitulate to the typical courtesan plot of this era, in which the virgin tawaif can
become a wife but the non-virgin often ends up dead.
The next step in the tawaif’s evolution away from the kotha is her development of
complete flexibility, an erotic ideal for a new era. Kidwai argues that as real-life tawaifs
disappear, the tawaif character, detached from social institutions, is emptied of meaning
and turned into a shape-shifter who can be anything and everything. Dream Girl (1977) is
a perfect example; along with the shape-shifting tawaif also appearing in a noir
incarnation, for example, as a vigilante in revenge tragedy Jaal (1986). Rekha as tawaif
Meenabai takes on numerous personae (typical tawaif, cabaret dancer, upper-class urban
lady, wealthy landowner, trickster vamp, murderous ghost), and after each makeover she
models a different aesthetic and erotic style.
Although the courtesan dresses in traditional style, in many early films she has a far
more modern home than conventional households, for example, in Shair (1949), Bank
Manager (1959) and Benazir (1964), courtesans have homes filled with westernized
furnishings, in contrast to the male protagonists’ traditional homes. Thus, the courtesan
is in many ways a quintessential modern rather than a traditional woman . Also, much
before "ethnic" fashion became popular abroad, the cinematic courtesan’s outfits, named
after films in which they appeared, from the Anarkali kameez to the Amrapali blouse,
influenced Indian women’s fashion trends, as did other film stars’ styles, such as the
Sadhna haircut.
Since the courtesan represents higher culture derived from royal courts, she and her
house have a lot in common with upper-class women and their homes. In many films,
especially Muslim socials set in Lucknow, the décor of the kotha and the respectable
home are very similar, as are the tawaif and the innocent young woman, with respect to
their singing, dance and dress styles. This is not unrealistic; households of the nobility
and upper class were related to royal courts in one way, and upper-class courtesan
households were related to those same courts in another way. Thus, in a way we attempt
to see how popular culture through films affected the stand of Courtesans in society.
 Conclusion
Throughout the project we see the various timelines with stress on
the modern era, by means of which we explore the evolution in the
status of courtesans , specifically in Delhi. We start with the ancient
case of Amrapali and we see how the curve of a Tawaif’s status only
rises until the coming of the British and Victorian Ideals which
renders the most talented ones into Cinema and the rest into
Prostitutes. We attempt to understand how these courtesans were
accepted into society and how they carried on their way of living,
today- long after the partition and the exit of the British from India.
Their acceptance into the ordinary section of people has also been
subject to contemplation along with their part in the social order as a
whole . However,in a sense the tawaifs live on. They live on in
everyone who is either Indian or has some connection with Indian
music. Just as a person is defined by their soul and not their body, it
is the artistic soul of the tawaif which is still strong, even though
their physical presence is virtually gone.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
• https://qz.com/india/1077360/a-search-for-old-delhis-courtesans-reveals-a-
present-thats-not-always-comfortable-with-the-past/
• https://huffingtonpost.in/akanksha-dureja/revisiting-the-forgotten-
courtesans-of-old-delhi_a_21617546/
• https://scroll.in/magazine/849681/a-search-for-tawaifs-in-old-delhi-reveals-a-
present-thats-not-always-comfortable-with-the-past
• https://adatewithdelhi.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/a-tawaifs-palace-at-
chandni-chowk-delhi/
• https://madrascourier.com/insight/nur-the-courtesan-the-koh-i-noor/
• http://www.india-seminar.com/2004/540/540%20saleem%20kidwai.htm
• https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255-
s01/courtesans/defining-the-courtesan.htm
• http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/Courtesan_Culture:_Complexities_and_
Negotiations
• http://tribune.com.pk/story/342952/the-terrible-life-of-a-courtesan/
• http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/Amrapali-was-more-than-
a-luscious-courtesan/articleshow/12517919.cms
• http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/umraojan/txt_veena_
oldenburg.html
• http://www.thehindu.com/books/books-reviews/courtesans-bar-girls-and-dancing-
boys-book-review/article6281126.ece
• http://www.historyundressed.com/2009/04/life-of-courtesan.html
• https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/British/Umrao.html
• Tawaif Project Proposal- Exploring Kotha: North- Indian ‘Courtesan’ culture in the
Indo- Muslim society of Awadh and Bengal in the 18th and 19th centuries
• J.D Boejharat-Indian courtesans: from reality to the silver screen and back again
• Meenal Tula and Rekha Pande- Re- Inscribing the Indian Courtesan: A Genealogical
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• Book extract: Pran Neville's 'Nautch Girls of India: Dancers Singers Playmates‘
• https://feministaa.com/
• https://www.dailyo.in/arts/bollywood-tawaif-hema-malini-dream-girl-rekha-
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girls-awadh-prostitutes/story/1/21698.html
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank the Principal of Kamala
Nehru College, University of Delhi for
introducing such a course structure that allows
us to delve into the practicality of the subject.
We would also like to thank all the people
including Mr. Naresh Kumar, Mr. Yousuf Saeed
and Mr. Sohail Hashmi for constantly helping
and guiding us in compiling and completing this
project.
COMPILED AND
PRESENTED BY:
PREKSHA KOTHARI
ANOUSHKA DEB
MANNAT KAUR KANDHARI

B.A HISTORY HONOURS

4th SEMESTER(2nd YEAR)
THANK
YOU!