CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Gandhi, Vidhi |
|---|---|
| Title | Sexuality, Morality and Contested Heritage: Tracing the History of the Tawaifs of North India |
| Summary | Several generations of communities have contributed to the weaving of India’s cultural tapestry and the contribution of many of these groups has gone unnoticed. This thesis is an attempt to highlight the contribution of a group of such women whose history has been marginalized in the public sphere. Tawaifs were courtesans in North India, who were valued for their dance, music, and etiquette skills. They received patronage from royalty and were doyennes and custodians of high art (Kathak and Hindustani classical music). They engaged in sexual liaisons with the selected elite in society. Historical studies show that Tawaifs exercised significant political and diplomatic influence in the royal courts of India and were some of the wealthiest women of their times. The royalty and the elite sent their sons to the Tawaifs to train young men in etiquettes and Urdu poetry. Association with the Tawaifs was a symbol of prestige and the cultural soirees that took place in their establishments (kothas) contributed to the development of Kathak and Hindustani music. The thesis uses ‘microhistory’ as a methodology to study Tawaifs and examine their embeddedness in the Indian society. It demonstrates the long-term impact of Victorian morality and colonialism on Indian sexuality. The thesis shows how the moral concerns regarding Tawaif’s sexuality led to their heritage becoming a contestation ground and several “upper castes” tried to appropriate her heritage as their own. Finally, the thesis uses three films as case studies to examine how the Tawaifs are situated in public memory, their representation in the public discourse, and how ‘sexual’ became a perpetual taboo. |
| Supervisor | Prof. Giovanni Tarantino |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/gandhi_vidhi.pdf |
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