Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-4, 2016 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
The Institution of Kotha: A Case Study of Tawaif-Centered Films.
Ayesha Arfeen Research Scholar, J.N.U., New Delhi 222-E, Mahanadi Hostel, J.N.U., New Delhi.
Abstract. : This paper tries to engage into the KOTHA AS A TOTAL INSTITUTION. debate of social relations and gender identities of tawaif-centered films; the representation of women, Total institution is a term coined by sociologist their place in society and their relationships to men Erving Goffman. A total institution is a place of and their dwelling and work place-the kotha. This work and residence where a great number of paper also tries to indulge into the debate opposite similarly situated people, cut off from the wider to the notion, “Man can think of himself without community for a considerable time, lead an woman. She cannot think of herself without man.” enclosed, formally administered life together. In Tawaif-centered Bollywood films are taken as case defining this concept Goffman delineates the key studies. features of totalitarian social systems. Should a person reside in such a system, it encompasses his Keywords: Kotha, Tawaif, Total Institutions, or her whole being. It undercuts the resident's Indian Cinema. individuality. It disregards his or her dignity. It subjects the individual to a regimented pattern of life that has little or nothing to do with the person's INTRODUCTION. own desires or inclinations. And it is inescapable. While we examine other total institutions of the society, the definition holds true for a kotha too. Women’s issues are central to every human Even the insiders are of the same view. Pakeezah, society, primarily because they go on to define all Umrao Jaan, Tawaif ,and many more films talk human relationships and social constructs. And, about the inescapable nature of the kothas and their cinema is a medium which has a much wider desire to move out of the kotha. However, the catchment area than any written literature or 1 taewaifs know once they are in a Kotha, they are political debate. This paper tries to engage into the safe. There is on one hand indignity attached to debate of social relations and gender identities of their name, on the other they are the safeguards of a tawaifs in tawaif-centered films; the representation royal and noble culture. They are artists and not of women, their place in society and their prostitutes as the British branded them after the relationships to men. Umrao Jan,(1981), Jaanisaar revolt of 1857. Even if the tawaifs are driven out or (2015), Pakeezah (1972), Tawaif (1985), Salma displaced from a particular place, they are not (1985) and Sardari Begum (1996) are all about the jobless, they again set up kothas and markets sacred – profane, purity- pollution debate, gender automatically start establishing around their kothas. identity and relations and their dwelling and work It automatically becomes a basti, how deserted the place-the kotha. This paper also tries to indulge place may be at once. One clear example of it is into the debate opposite to what Benda maintains, Umrao Jaan when at the time of revolt of 1857 “Man can think of himself without woman. She when escaped from the British, came back to her cannot think of herself without man.” Tawaif- Kotha after the revolt which shows that her centered Bollywood films are taken as case studies. economic condition was regained and her work The set up of the films are generally Lucknow, continued. Another example could be Shyam Agra and Delhi. Therefore, the culture of these Benegal’s Mandi, which does not show a cities is taken into account and hence, Muslim traditional kotha but shows the plight of sex- women of a particular time, that is, nineteenth and workers and how they established themselves even twentieth century are thoroughly dealt with in this after displacement. paper.
Kothas were such institutions that they were 1 Jain, Jasbir, (2009) Body as a Text: Women Transgressors and compared to institutions of religious learning in Hindi Cinema’ in Jasbir Jain and Sudha Rai’s ed. Films and Muslim cultures which are known as madarssas. Feminism, p.119. This comparison is seen in Jaanisaar (2015) of
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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-4, 2016 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
Muzaffar Ali where Raja Ameer Haider’s the world outside the walls, conveniently called grandfather and his friends decide to send him to a inmates. kotha to learn Awadhi culture and the tradition of nobility. Jaanisaar’s portrayal of courtesans further Khushwant Singh quotes some female supports Oldenburg’s claim where she maintains acquaintance and says that while men are that the imposition of the contagious diseases physically stronger than women, women are regulations and heavy fines and penalties on the sexually their superiors. ‘The brothel is the most courtesans for their role in the rebellion signaled decisive demonstration of woman’s supremacy the gradual debasement of an esteemed cultural over man.’ He adds that the wife comes off very institution into common prostitution. poorly when compared to the courtesan. ‘Once on the chariot of a courtesan’s hips, who will Every institution captures something of the time consciously opt for a married wife?’ demands the and interest of its members and provides something author of one of the plays and replies: ‘No one of a world for them; in brief, every institution has consciously leaves off a chariot to ride in a bullock- encompassing tendencies. The kothas can be cart.’ (Singh, Khushwant: Women, Sex, Love and grouped under the type of total institutions which Lust, 2014, first edition 2002, p. 102-103). are teaching stations of culture and music and dancing for the inmates. In a total institution, all The tawaifs were professional women performing aspects of life like cooking, eating, sleeping, artists who functioned between the eighteenth and playing, and other works are conducted in a same early twentieth century in north India. The word place and under same single authority. While ‘tawaif’ is believed to have come from the Persian describing the features of total institutions, tawaif of circumambulation of the kaaba and refers Goffman mentions that each phase of the member's to her movement around the mehfil space, the circle daily activity will be carried out in the immediate of her patrons. As per the interviews taken by noted company of a large batch of others, all of whom are Hindi writer, Amritlal Nagar, tawaifs are not treated alike and required to do the same thing prostitutes. They see themselves superior to the together. And that, all phases of the day's activities performing artises such as the street performers like are tightly scheduled, with one activity leading at a the natnis and the nautankiwalis who perform for prearranged time into the next, the whole circle of the common folk and to the prostitutes who just are activities being imposed from above through a engaged in the sex-work. They regard themselves system of explicit formal rulings and a body of high in status as they had best of skills in classical officials. Finally, the contents of the various singing and dancing; their performances were enforced activities are brought together as parts of sponsored and patronized by the highest nobility in a single overall rational plan purportedly designed the exclusive space of the courts or the mehfils to fulfill the official aims of the institution. This (soirees) or at the kothas. Yesteryears tawaif and holds true for a kotha too. However, I believe this singer-actor Gauhar Jan speaks of the necessity of a holds true for any institution like the respectful tawaif to be trained, not only in the ‘techne’ of zenana quarters of privileged women and the classical music but also in the ‘abhinaya’ or the art Begums. Goffmann too later says that individually, of enactment. The tawaif must internalize the these totalistic features are found, of course, in meaning of the text,… ‘its context and the ‘cultural places other than total institutions. Increasingly, for setting’ of the song as a whole.’2 example, our large commercial, industrial and educational establishments provide cafeterias, As Booth maintains that in the hegemonic minor services and off-hour recreation for their masculine view of the Hindi cinema, any woman members. But while this is a tendency in the would rather be respectably married to a man and direction of total institutions, these extended dependent on him than be a tawaif. Sardari Begum facilities remain voluntary in many particulars of is simply the anti-thesis of this view. She chooses their use, and special care is taken to see that the to be otherwise. Her career is her priority, men ordinary line of authority does not extend to these came later or we can say that men came in the situations. Similarly, housewives or farm families process of achieving her career, to be a famous can find all their major spheres of life within the singer. The tawaifs have made a place in the same fenced-in area, but these persons are not society. They are liberated women. I’m talking collectively regimented and do not march through about the women who have already become tawaifs the day's steps in the immediate company of a and not the life and circumstances they went batch of similar others. In total institutions, there is through before they become tawaifs. After all, the a basic split between a large class of individuals who live in and who have restricted contact with 2 Sampath, Vikram. (2010). ‘My Name is Gauhar Jan! : The Life and Times of a Musician’, New Delhi. Rupa Publications., p.197.
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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-4, 2016 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in world can turn a woman into a courtesan, but a (Veena Talwar Oldenburg, ‘Lifestyle as Resistance: courtesan does not continue to be a second sex, that The Case of the Courtesans of Lucknow’, 1990) is, just a woman. In Umrao Jan and Sardari Begum, the females are Tawaifs as protagonists are both heroic and there to do the main jobs, their confidants were masculine within the understandings of Indian women, and their treasurers were women. Khanam folklore types.3 Jaan and Sardari Begum were proper business women. Kothas were independently run and When she is a labelled courtesan, she becomes controlled by women. Even Oldenberg (“Lifestyle powerful. ‘Lucknow’s nawabi culture was ruled by as Resistance”, 1997) has found tax records either quails or the courtesans’. (Amritlal Nagar, showing that the tawaifs were among the richest “Ye Kothewaliyan”,p.60) They were even known citizens on record and the largest tax payers. for ‘keeping’ their lovers. (ibid. p.158) Amritlal Bandana Chakrabarty too is of the opinion that the Nagar, while interviewing the most powerful person in the kothas is the chief kothewalis/prostitutes/sex workers/nautch courtesan. (Bandana Chakrabarty in Jasbir Jain’s girls/courtesans, asks if they being given a chance edited book ‘Muslim Culture in Hindi Cinema’). In to marry and settle in a homely set up, will they do ‘Umrao Jan’, it is Khanum Jaan who rules over the so? The answer which most of them gave was a household. Even the wealthy patrons accepted the blatant ‘No’. The reason being fear of losing authority of these women, as for example, Nawab freedom and another being fear of divorce and the Sultan’s father in ‘Umrao Jan’. Here, men occupied kind of treatment housewives face. They said they subservient roles as doormen, instructors and are content with their current situation, money musicians. Saleem Kidwai maintains, being the only problem with the current rules and regulations regarding their working hours. (ibid, “To become successful tawaifs, young p.64, 104, 105). girls were rigorously trained in literature, music and dance and the art of conversation…Male While girls are unwanted in our so-called respected relatives, attendants and musicians lived on the society and there are female foeticides, on the other ground floor…The entire establishment was ruled hand, at the kothas, females are welcomed as it is a by a matriarch-like figure.” (Saleem Kidwai, “Of moment to be cherished when a female is born. Begums and Tawaifs: The Women of Awadh”, There is again role reversal vis-à-vis the so-called 2008: 122) mainstream society. Veena Talwar Oldenburg’s studies say that her assistant at translating Persian According to Bandana Chakrabarty, the tawaifs had and accompanying her to the kothas of Lucknow, education, independence, money, power and self- was himself born at the kotha. His name is Chhotu determination in a period when many women were Miyaan. Narrating his story, she says that he was treated worse than cattle or were considered the son of a courtesan, and his mother never insignificant beings. But they were excluded from 4 revealed to him the identity of his father. Ironically, domesticity and society. Khanam Jaan and Sardari his sad life story had all the elements of the Begum were comfortable and content with their socialization and upbringing accorded to a girl in a positions. However, Umrao Jan and Sakeena, "normal" household. In Chhote Miyaan’s words, Sardari’s daughter had the longing for domesticity. she explains, The tawaifs were ingrained from the very “While I love and respect my mother beginning to rule, and not to be ruled. Goffman too and all my "aunts" (other courtesans) and my identified several variables in the power structure grandmother, my misfortune is that I was born a of totalitarian institutions, like the brothels or the son and not a daughter in their house. When a boy kothas, and one of them seems apt here and that is, is born in the kotha (salon), the day is without that the managers of the institutions make it moment, even one of quiet sadness. When my sister impossible for the managed to obtain simple was born, there was a joyous celebration that was everyday things such as cigarettes or a cup of tea or unforgettable. Everyone received new clothes, coffee without submitting to the humiliating 5 there was singing, dancing, and feasting. My aunts process of soliciting permission. went from door to door distributing sweets.’’
4 Chakrabarty, Bandana, (2011) “Celebrating the Courtesan in 3 Booth, Gregory D. “Making a Woman from a Tawaif: Hindi Films”, in Jasbir Jain’s ed. “Muslim Culture In Indian Courtesans as heroes in Hindi Cinema”, New Zealand Journal of Cinema”, p.138 Asian Studies 9, 2 (December, 2007): p. 5 5 Goffman, Erving, “Aslyums”,p.41.
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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-4, 2016 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
At the Kotha, the other courtesans are seen casting off evil eyes from Noor, signifying that courtesans were not prostitutes or sex-workers as the common notion holds. The fear from evil eyes shows that evil eyes are not welcomed and hence no sex-work is done at the kothas. In yet another incident, The Raja is misinformed about Noor, the heroine and courtesan and the only strategy our patriarchal society plays against a chaste woman is to defame her by proving her a whore. The same is played against Noor. This somehow shows that the courtesans were regarded with respect that even their chastity can be defamed like any ordinary respectable woman by ‘trying to prove’ that they are whores or concubines.
CONCLUSION.
It is altogether a different thing that the society at large finds the tawaifs as devint groups and which needs rehabilitation. However, the nineteenth and early twentieth century tawaifs were not sex- workers who sold their bodies out of need for money or a standard lifestyle. The kothas were cultural hubs of that period. These tawaifs were powerful women, who established kothas and run them efficiently without the help of any man. The tawaifs were certainly not the ‘second sex’, a term coined by Simone de Beauvoir which means one sex considered secondary or subordinate, especially used for women in a male-dominated society.
REFERENCES.
1. Beauvoir, Simone de, The Second Sex, London: Vintage Books, 1997. 2. Booth, Gregory D, Making a Woman from a Tawaif: Courtesans as heroes in Hindi Cinema, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 9, (2) December, 2007. 3. Goffman, Erving, Aslyums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and other inmates, New Brunswik and London: Anchor Books, 1961. 4. Haynes, Douglas E and Gyan Prakash, Contesting Power: Resistance and Everyday Social Relations in South Asia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. 5. Jain, Jasbir, and Rai, Sudha, Films and Feminism, New Delhi: Rawat Publications, 2009. 6. Nagar, Amritlal, Ye Kothewaliyaan, Allahabad: Lokbharati Paperbacks, 2011. 7. Sampath, Vikram, My Name is Gauhar Jan!: The Life and Times of a Musician, New Delhi:Rupa Publications, 2010.
8. Singh, Khushwant, Women, Sex, Love and Lust, New Delhi: Hay House Publishers, 2014.
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