Illicit worlds of Indian dance : cultures of exclusion PDF
Preview Illicit worlds of Indian dance : cultures of exclusion
University Press Scholarship Online Oxford Scholarship Online Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance: Cultures of Exclusion Anna Morcom Print publication date: 2013 Print ISBN13: 9780199343539 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2014 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199343539.001.0001 Title Pages (p.i) Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance (p.ii) (p.iii) Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance (p.iv) Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2013 Anna Morcom Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Published in the United Kingdom in 2013 by C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd. www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Morcom, Anna. Illicit worlds of Indian dance : cultures of exclusion / Anna Morcom. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780199343539 (alk. paper) ISBN 9780199343546 (alk. paper) 1. Dance—Social aspects—India. 2. Dance— Psychological aspects—India. 3. Women dancers—India—Social conditions. 4. Transgender people—India—Social conditions. 5. Marginality, Social—India. 6. India—Social conditions. I. Title. GV1693.M67 2013 793.3’1954—dc23 2013017923 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in India on AcidFree Paper PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2015. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacypolicy). Subscriber: University of Birmingham; date: 31 January 2016 Access brought to you by: University of Birmingham University Press Scholarship Online Oxford Scholarship Online Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance: Cultures of Exclusion Anna Morcom Print publication date: 2013 Print ISBN13: 9780199343539 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2014 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199343539.001.0001 Acknowledgements (p.vii) There are innumerable people and organisations to thank who have helped to make this book possible. To begin with, I extend my thanks to the British Academy whose Larger Research Grant supported approximately sixteen months of fieldwork for this project between 2006 and 2009. I am also grateful to the Music and Letters Trust for a grant towards an invaluable topup field trip for this book in 2010. In terms of the core fieldwork for this book, one of the biggest votes of thanks must go to Varsha Kale, President of the Indian Bargirls Union and an activist with remarkable vision, who I met in 2006 for general enquiries about Mumbai’s bar girls and dance bars. This meeting dramatically opened up the project, as she informed me that most of the bar girls were from hereditary (khandani) backgrounds, and hence linked to communities and lineages of courtesans and dancing girls. She was able to introduce me to Deredar courtesans in Mumbai, in Muzaffarpur and to performers and experformers from other communities, including Nat and Bedia, in Mumbai and beyond. She also introduced me to many Kolhati Lavani performers. I cannot thank Varsha and her husband Ankush Deshpande enough for their support, generous hospitality, and friendship. Time spent with them has been an education. Whilst all the khandani performers I met across Maharashtra/Mumbai, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan may not be keen to be named, I would like to extend my thanks to them for giving me their time and sharing experiences and information. I would also like to thank several of them for some absolutely unforgettable mujra performances involving film music, dance and Qawwali, in Mumbai (Fores Road and Congress House) and Muzaffarpur, which I wish more people would understand the value of. I would also particularly like to thank Pinky Madhiwal and her uncle Shyam Lacchiya for their time in educating me about the Nat community and Bhatu performers in general, and for the trip to Nat villages in Rajasthan which they arranged and accompanied me on. The second dimension of fieldwork for this book has been with transgender kothi and hijra performers (many of whom I refer to with pseudonyms). I would like to (p.viii) thank Salman, Rajesh and Mahesh, who initially opened up this world for me when I met them at the Entertainment Workers conference in Calcutta in 2007, where they encouraged me to come to Lucknow to meet male mujra performers. The Bharosa Trust and Naz Foundation International (NFI) were invaluable in Lucknow in helping introduce me to kothi performers and for their excellent resource centre, and I would like to thank Shivanandam Khan and Imran Khan for their assistance. I would also like to thank the many kothis and kothi performers I met in Lucknow for their openness in discussing their lives with me, their friendliness, and some wonderful dance performances, in particular, Salim, Samesh and Narendra. The biggest thank you must go to Divya Sagar in Lucknow, who was the key facilitator of my fieldwork in this city, an excellent brainstormer, and a loyal friend and sister. I would also like to thank her parents for their warmth and hospitality, and was delighted to see them win the Bharosa Trust’s parents prize one year I was there. Divya, an accomplished kothi performer, was able to introduce me to many other performers, to accompany me on endless interviews, and also several trips to Balliya. She was particularly helpful in introducing me to some of the older generation of kothi performers. I would also like to extend warm thanks to Samesh, who introduced me to a range of kothi and hijra performers in Lucknow, including those involved in Nautanki and Badhai. Research on kothi performers also extended to Balliya, Delhi and Mumbai. In Balliya, I am grateful for the help of Shailesh Kumar. In Delhi, I would like to warmly thank Naz India and Anjali Gopalan, and specifically the Milan project and Rahul for time, help, explanations, and support. I would also like to thank Siddharth for sharing his knowledge and stories, and hope I have the opportunity to see him perform another time. In Mumbai, I am grateful for the help of two charismatic hijra performers, Laxminarayan Tripathi and Simran, and for an unforgettable dropin evening at Humsafar Trust, where I saw sizzling performances from Simran and other kothi/hijra performers. The third dimension of this book is the middle class, transnational Bollywood dance scene. I would like to thank a range of dancers and choreographers for taking time out from their impossibly busy lives to talk to me and tell me about the film industry, live dance shows, and dance institutes. In Mumbai, I would like to thank the wellknown singer/dancer/choreographer Ganesh Hegde, and dancers/entrepreneurs Justine, Gaysil, Anchel and Vivek. I would also like to give a big thank you to Shiamak Davar, Rajesh Mansukhani and a number of dancers at SDIPA for meeting me and for their friendliness and help in explaining about how SDIPA and also the Victory Arts Foundation (VFA) work and their own involvement in dance. In Delhi, I would like to thank Kalpana Bhushan, from whom I would have greatly enjoyed learning some dance had there been more time, and Praveen Shandilya. I am also very grateful to Gaggun Bedi, director of the Sparkling Pearlz Institute of (p.ix) Fine Dances, Grooming and Fitness in Jalandhar for a particularly memorable and informative day meeting him and a number of his students, who enthusiastically shared their views on and experiences of dance, a recent discovery for the largely female, married cohort I met. Their enthusiasm and positive energy towards dance was infectious, and I left wishing I could stay on and join the institute. Moving away from those who were a direct part of my fieldwork, I would like to say a particularly warm thank you to Rachel Dwyer, who has been as immensely generous as ever in introducing me to people and sharing contacts. Particularly supportive during this project were Talmeez Ahmed and Sunita Mainee, who are some of the most hospitable, friendly and kind people I have ever met, and to whom I owe a very big vote of thanks; and Julian Parr, who is an indefatigable source of good energy and fun, who had me to stay in Delhi for I can’t remember how long or how many times, much to my general betterment. This book has also benefitted from immeasurable amounts of input from other colleagues and friends, ranging from brief but inspiring discussion to longer term brainstorming and networking. I would like to thank the following (in alphabetical order): Ira Bhaskar, Kaushik Bhaumik, Amy Caitlin Jairazhboy, Sameena Dalwai, Angela Impey, Saleem Kidwai, Amie Maciszewski, Jerry Pinto, Shweta Sachdeva, Madhu Sarin, Katherine Schofield, Amrit Srinivasan, Shzr Ee Tan, Valentina Vitali, and Richard Widdess. Madhu Sarin I must thank also for wonderful hospitality in Chandigarh on numerous stopovers, and Shzr Ee Tan, for having me to stay in Singapore, for a brief yet very intriguing exploration into dance bars and Bollywood dance. I would also like to thank the following people who read partial or full drafts of the manuscript and offered invaluable comments and support (again, in alphabetical order): Thierry Dodin, Ananya Kabir, Tina K Ramnarine, Davesh Soneji, Richard Williams, and the second anonymous reader for Oxford University Press. I would like to give a particular vote of thanks to Michael Dwyer for believing in the project (even at the teethingproblem stage), helping revise the manuscript, and seeing it through to a book. I am also grateful to the whole team at Hurst for their work in preparing the manuscript. I would also like to thank Ravinder Singh and Shweta Sachdeva (who transcribed many interviews for the book). I am also grateful, as ever, to my parents, for their enduring interest and engagement with my work, and support of me in general. I also thank Carlo Gallo, who emerged latish in this project, for kindness, support, companionship and brainstorming too. This book is dedicated to all the performers in this book, and those like them. In particular, it is dedicated to the disenfranchised female hereditary and kothi performers of India, who continue to struggle for livelihood and sociocultural space. PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2015. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacypolicy). Subscriber: University of Birmingham; date: 31 January 2016 Access brought to you by: University of Birmingham University Press Scholarship Online Oxford Scholarship Online Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance: Cultures of Exclusion Anna Morcom Print publication date: 2013 Print ISBN13: 9780199343539 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2014 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199343539.001.0001 List of Images (p.x) (p.xi) 1. Sahib Jan performing Inhin logon ne. (DVD capture) 5 2. Chalte chalte from Pakeezah. (DVD capture) 8 3. Sahib Jan’s final dance, Aaj hum apni duaon ka asar dekhenge. (DVD capture) 9 4. ‘A retrospective of the films of Shahrukh Khan’ film festival booklet sponsored by The High Commission of India in Nairobi and the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi in 2006. 13 5. Motif of a dancing girl used to illustrate an article about Calcutta sex workers with no traditional performing background. 50 6. Eightyfiveyearold Nat former court performer with his disused sarangi, Tonk, Rajasthan, 2010. (Author’s photograph) 72 7. Eightyfiveyearold Nat former court performer shows his shield, used for hunting for Rajput patrons, Tonk, Rajasthan, 2010. (Author’s photograph) 73 8. John Paul’s Slum Development Project, Dr Khan, author and other staff discussion with commercial sex workers, Pune, 2010. (Author’s photograph) 81 9. Divya Sagar, staff member at Bharosa Trust, performing informally to a film mujra in Naz Foundational International office, Lucknow, March 2007. (Author’s photograph) 101 10. Publicity postcard for Honey’s Dance Academy, UK, offering (a) choreography for Bollywood weddings, and (b) training for UKbased Bollywood wannabes. 118 11. Live Shows of Shiamak Davar’s Victory Arts Foundation. (© The SHIAMAK Group) 126–127 12. Bhartiya Bargirls Union poster advertising a rally, (© BBU) 161 13. Rally of the Bhartiya Bargirls Union, (© BBU) 162 14. Varsha Kale giving a speech at Bhartiya Bargirls Union rally, (© BBU) 163 (p.xii) 15. Bhartiya Bargirls Union publicity poster, ‘Let us live too’, (© BBU) 164 16. Advertisement in Balliya for a female dance troupe for wedding and other shows. Similar troupes of kothi performers are common in Balliya. (Author’s photograph) 175 17. Professional hijra dancer, Simran. (Author’s photograph) 186 18. Professional hijra dancer, Simran, performing at an Urs celebration in Rajasthan. (Author’s photograph) 187 19. Female impersonators for Binbaikacha Lavani performance in Mumbai. (Author’s photograph) 187 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2015. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacypolicy). Subscriber: University of Birmingham; date: 31 January 2016 Access brought to you by: University of Birmingham University Press Scholarship Online Oxford Scholarship Online Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance: Cultures of Exclusion Anna Morcom Print publication date: 2013 Print ISBN13: 9780199343539 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2014 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199343539.001.0001 Introduction Indian Performing Arts and Modernity’s Cultures of Exclusion Anna Morcom DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199343539.003.0001 Abstract and Keywords This chapter frames the modernity of Indian performing arts modernity in terms of inclusion and exclusion, describing how illicit worlds of Indian dance were created in the shadow of the reform period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which saw the birth of Indian classical performing arts as a bourgeoisnationalist zone. It explores how nationalism has constructed courtesans and female impersonators as contrary to and outside of Indian modernity, which is based in bourgeois respectability. Discourses of progress have deepened the exclusion of these traditional performers further, portraying them as ‘backward’ and at best in need of ‘help’ or ‘reform’. Whilst India’s erotic female performers (courtesans, dancing girls and transgender males) existed in liminal social spaces, the changes of modernity have seen them move to a more absolute exclusion,
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