Author: Morcom Anna
Place: Gurgaon
Publisher: Hachette India
Year: 2014
Pages: 286
ISBN: 978-93-5009-792-2
Subject: Bombay/ Mumbai
Sub-Subject: History
Keyword: Livelihood, Colonial Post Colonial
Shelf: C5R6
Accession No: B1310
Contents: Acknowledgements List od Images Introduction: Indian Performing Arts and Modernity’s Cultures of Exclusion 1- The Creation and Recreation of India’s Illicit Zones of Performing Arts: Dynamics of Exclusion in Colonial and Postcolonial India 2- Female Hereditary Performers in Post-Independence India: Communities, Histories and Livelihoods 3- Transgender Erotic Performers in South Asia 4- The Bollywood Dance Revolution and the Embourgoisement of Indian Performing Arts 5- Mumbai Dance Bars, Anti-Nautch II, and New Possibilities 6- The Contemporary World of Kothi Performers: Changing Patterns of Livelihood and Socio-Cultural Space Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
Abstract: Courtesans, Bar Girls & Dancing Boys: The Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance examines the marginalization and transformation of India’s stigmatized dance traditions. Focusing on female hereditary performers, transgender dancers, bar girls, and kothis, the book explores how colonial, nationalist, and postcolonial policies excluded these communities in favor of bourgeois cultural norms. Through historical and ethnographic analysis, it traces shifts from colonial Anti-Nautch reforms to debates on Bollywood and Mumbai’s dance bars. Challenging sanitized narratives of Indian modernity, the book highlights how performers negotiate identity, livelihood, and dignity within intersecting structures of caste, gender, and sexuality in changing cultural landscapes.