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Title Domesticating the Harem

Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5wn7m9bz

Author Carotenuto, Gianna

Publication Date 2008-05-01

eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Domesticating the Harem Reconsidering Zenana Imagery in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century India

by Gianna Carotenuto

oosely bound with a black ribbon in a now long forgotten Lgesture of affection, one hundred and twenty photographs of the women of the Seventh Nizam of Hyderabad’s royal zenana (female household) were discovered in the dark storerooms of the King Kothi palace in Hyderabad, India. One expects these so-called harem pic- Odalisque with Slave, 1841 tures to depict the stereotypical sex- Jean Dominique Ingres ualized image of lounging half nude Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland odalisques smoking hookah pipes. A common misunderstanding is that the harem and the zenana are one and the same; operating as pictorial or semantic designations,

MAY08 6 CSupdateW they are most often used inter- century. The Nizam’s court, changeably. The surprise in the firmly rooted in its Indo-Islamic discovery of these photographs heritage, held out during the is their presentation of women nineteenth and early twentieth as wives, sisters, and mothers, as centuries against British efforts well as consorts and concubines, to reform and modernize Indian an uncommon depiction that society and resisted the Indian complicates the conventional National Congress campaign for understandings of what a harem self-rule, insisting upon politi- might be. Rather than eroticize, cal and cultural autonomy from 2 the pictures domesticize the both spheres. Refracting the Indian female, and present the Nizam’s resistance through the possibility for a different un- camera lens, Dayal’s portraits derstanding of the predominant celebrate the zenana women’s 1 definition of the harem. place as an integral part of Taken between 1905 and 1910 time-honored Indian society, Courtesan,photographer unknown, c. 1870 (approximately ) by Raja Deen as opposed to the view that Dayal, court photographer to relegates women of the harem to The Nizam and each woman’s Presented in Dayal’s pho- the Nizam and dignitaries of the exotic deviants. In this context, personal power. The lavish tographs as an ensemble of 44 British Raj, these pictures were the women of the House of Jah, clothing and the excessive jew- courtesans, 22 concubines, 6 produced at a crucial moment legendary for their exceptional elry function as a code that tells premier wives, singular beauties, in the history of India and its beauty, elegance, and refinement, of each zenana woman’s group and mothers with children, the colonial legacy. Hyderabad at symbolize the customary power and individual status, their women confirm The Nizam’s this time was a bastion of tradi- of the Nizam. Their power- hierarchy within the harem, and royal status by their sheer num- tionalist sentiment, squeezed by ful gaze suggests confidence in their relationships to each other ber. The range of female types colonial pressures and modern their rank and authority, thereby and to the Nizam. There are portrayed in these pictures em- forces of Indian nationalism, the refuting notions of disempower- both similarities and subtle signs phasizes the diversity of physical appeal of modernity, and nascent ing subjugation. of individuation in dress and beauty and regional identities of female emancipation move- The spectacular adornment type of jewelry within different the Nizam’s zenana, while the ments of the late nineteenth symbolizes both the wealth of groups of women. various groupings indicate the MAY08 7 CSupdateW varied structure of female roles and cultural paradox of harem tographs of the Nizam’s zenana the pictorial history of the tradi- and familial associations. versus zenana imagery in Colo- indicate, the transformation of tional zenana rather than exclu- In general, the women are nial India (1820–1920). It offers the Indian family. For the late sively through that of the harem, carefully arranged in neat rows a close reading of the photo- nineteenth and early twentieth which contains the larger legacy or posed against stock Euro- graphs discovered in the King centuries, the harem was defined of stereotypes, a more nuanced pean-style painted backdrops; Kothi palace, and other pictures, as a site of female power and understanding of women’s lives they are presented in a sober, painted and photographed, of promoted as a place of Indian during the colonial era becomes classicizing manner that lends a royal Indian zenanas from col- tradition, and is but one of the apparent. sense of noble reserve. The stan- lections in America, Europe, ways that Indian women were While the pictures of the dardized composition reveals and India in order to examine idealized during the colonial Nizam’s zenana attest to the fluctuating levels of conformity the private and public represen- period. But the zenana was veracity and strength of the and individuality within the tation of elite Indian women also an aspect of Indian soci- ancient tradition of female seg- zenana rank and file that alludes alongside the unstable condi- ety that caused great concern regation practiced in the early to the larger flexibility of a tions of colonial Indian female for the colonial British rulers twentieth century by the elite colonial modern female identity. identity. I am primarily con- of the subcontinent, generat- classes of India, they also an- This visual conformity reflects cerned with the sociopolitical ing legislation against widow nounce its decline. I argue that a sense of internal cohesiveness currency of harem mythology, burning, child marriage, and the well-known and powerful that a segregated community the manner in which harem and education of women that ran narratives of the harem, with its of women would exhibit. It zenana images were employed counter to the norms of Indian eroticized images and sexualized also references typical portrai- by both traditional and mod- society. Burgeoning national- connotations, along with inac- ture styles inherited from long ernist factions to define Indian ist and feminist movements of curate notions about the actual standing indigenous painting of womanhood, and the influence the modern Indian nation also boundaries of purdah (female the Mughal Dynasty (1526–1857) of the Orientalist trope of the utilized the zenana as a plat- sequestration), have eclipsed our that produced a vigorous picto- erotic harem upon representa- form of debate that employed understanding of not only what rial tradition of zenana imagery. tions of zenanas in India. pictures of elite Indian women a harem might be in the Indian Reconsidering representa- The discourse around the co- to capitalize on the harem myth colonial context but has also tions of the nineteenth and lonial harem was an important and to reconstruct the definition limited the possibilities for other early twentieth century zenana factor in the development of a of womanhood to serve indig- notions of elite female identity of India, my doctoral disserta- pictorial narrative for Indian enous political agendas. When to emerge—identities that are tion aims to unravel the visual femininity and, as Dayal’s pho- female identity is read through not solely generated through a MAY08 8 CSupdateW Western lens, but from within durai 1997:5). For the Nizam to ...the well-known and powerful narratives Indian culture and in response have his zenana photographed of the harem, with its eroticized images to colonial influences. featuring his wives, children, and Three thematic threads run concubines suggests a choice to and sexualized connotations, along through Dayal’s images that both expose the lived reality of inform the dissertation: first, the zenana, and also display them with inaccurate notions about the the interplay between the as his possessions. European eroticized harem, the As a record of a private royal actual boundaries of purdah (female nationalist reconceptualization zenana in colonial India, these of the harem, and the traditional rare photographs resonate with sequestration), have eclipsed our Indian domestic zenana; second, conflicting realities—on the one the exchange of artistic influ- hand, the photos of the Nizam’s understanding of not only what a harem ences, genres and mannerisms women assembled on carpets of European stylistic trends in the palace garden exhibit the might be in the Indian colonial context and Indian aesthetic practices; exotic notions of the harem com- and third, the shifting image of mon to Western Orientalist fan- but has also limited the possibilities for female identity as the fulcrum tasies. On the other hand, as an other notions of elite female identity to between the Colonial and the intimate memoir of family life, modern eras. these pictures depict a domestic emerge—identities that are not solely The familial nature of the space filled with children, family Nizam’s zenana pictures are hierarchy, and household prac- generated through a Western lens, their most striking attribute tices. For example, the Nizam within these themes. Accord- presents himself casually arm in but from within Indian culture and in ing to Arjun Appadurai, “in a arm with his children at whose sex-segregated colonial environ- feet are seated their various response to colonial influences. ment,” photography was one of mothers, along with the family the “central practices through ayah (nanny). Imaging the non- which family, domesticity and traditional family challenged reproductive intimacies…moved British constraints on the moral- into the public sphere” (Appa- ity of its Indian subjects. Other

MAY08 9 CSupdateW photographs in the Nizam’s Karlekar engages with the in sensationalist renderings of texts were seen as promiscu- archive feature the women of various modes of representation the “unveiled” harem women ous and duplicitous… those of the zenana in their roles as royal made of Bengali women at the featured in stereotypical style the Indian zenana were seen as 4 consorts, gathered in varying turn of the twentieth cen- as lounging courtesans and passive and exploited…” This groups of ten and twenty, some tury, subjects which range from dancing (nautch) girls. These feminine binary inherent in the lounging casually on the ground, philanthropists to housewives “Orientalized” renditions were discourses of Imperialism and 3 others seated, with bottles and and social activists. However, mass produced at the later half Indian Nationalism, is seen in dishware interspersed amidst a discussion of harem/zenana of the nineteenth century by the simultaneous interplay of their ranks as if ready for an imagery is left unexplored. My European and Indian artists the erotic and the domestic. The afternoon picnic. Paradoxi- comparative analysis with the alike, such as painters Edwin pictures of the Nizam’s zenana cally, these pictures show the Nizam’s zenana pictures and Lord Weeks (1849–1903) and reveal complex and discrete full spectrum of the traditional other pictures of elite Indian Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906), or differences overlooked in harem domestic sphere while including women draws attention to the the photographs of Maharaja Jai discourse, whereby pictures of visual references to the Orien- enormous disjuncture between Singh II, who documented his the harem are primarily eroti- talist harem in their composi- how the harem and the zenana own zenana thirty years earlier cized and those of the zenana tion and select iconography. were exoticized and popular- in 1870, setting a precedent for are predominantly domestic. In Considered in a larger socio- ized, primarily for European the harem as an eroticized space the case of the Nizam’s zenana political context, the Nizam’s audiences, and how it was lived that remains fixed in popular both undercurrents are pres- zenana pictures nuance the dis- and portrayed by Indian cul- imagination. In contrast, pictures ent. A careful analysis of these cussion of Indian female iden- ture. When measured against of the domestic zenana were zenana pictures makes pos- tity during the colonial period other colonial images of Indian not frequently published and sible a distinction between the and help answer questions about harems and zenana women remained hidden from view. harem as a construct and the how Indian women and men of (an extremely limited archive), What my study suggests zenana as a reflection of a lived the colonial era negotiated the the influence of the Oriental- is that the eroticized female reality. What is gained from complicated exchange between ist trope of the erotic harem is refashioned in pictures of this understanding is that, in colonial expectations, traditional upon representations of zenanas conservative elite Indian women both cases, Indian women were Indian culture, and modernity. becomes apparent. crafted for the campaigns of idealized, either through erotic Colonial photographs of In- The trope of the harem, one Indian nationalist reform. As In- or domestic narratives, and in dian women champion a variety of the most pervasive stereo- derpal Grewal has noted, “while service to both Indian and Brit- of identities. Malavika types of the colonial era, existed the harem woman in Orientalist ish concerns. MAY08 10 CSupdateW Part of the impact of the interpretations of the boundaries included in their zenana commu- such as those of the royal women Nizam’s zenana archive is the chal- dictated by purdah. nity. This reveals a wide spectrum of Gwalior or Lucknow. Having lenge posed to the standard argu- The harem trope was often put for reconsidering traditional female commissioned these pictures, the ment that women were forbidden to use by Indians to produce anti- roles and the status of Indian Nizam has produced powerful from depiction because of the laws colonial propaganda. For example, women in colonial India. What be- symbols of a traditional royal of purdah (female sequestration). the zenana pictures of the Seventh comes clear is that there is a harem lifestyle. Exposing his women to Current scholarship has presented Nizam of Hyderabad, I argue, genre, or style of representation, the scrutiny of the photographic the colonial harem/zenana as a site were, from an Indian perspective, that is employed in varying degrees process goes against the belief for British and Indian attempts to intended to act as proof of the in the representation of the zenana in the sequestered status of the modernize and reform not only Nizam’s power and status. Fur- and of elite Indian women. female, therefore, defying cul- the status of women but also the thermore, Daya’s pictures attest Though both of these categories tural norms and casting doubt 5 future of Indian society. However, to the Nizam’s desire to preserve of female representation, the erotic upon the presumed ban on elite many scholars assume that elite his traditional way of life in the and the domestic, at first seem women’s pictorial representation. female portraiture during the colo- face of colonial and nationalist designed to meet Western stan- From a contemporary viewpoint, nial era is rare because the laws of reforms. dards of womanhood, they in fact it is easy to see the Nizam’s purdah forbid women from having The assumed absence of elite are informed by and functioned in pictures as evidence for women’s portraits taken. This taboo intensi- women from the pictorial record response to colonial pressures upon continued subordination within a fied the mystic and titillating ef- is further strengthened by the per- Indian culture. The category of pic- patriarchal system/family. How- fects of pictures of harem women, ceived dominance of the Orien- tures that escaped public scrutiny ever, examined in their historical causing them to be misread. Based talist harem genre in literary and are those of the zenana. Though context they stand as a testimony on my findings, the claim for the visual arts of the colonial period. often idealized, zenana pictures to the ambiguous responses rarity of elite female representation Because harem pictures featured remain grounded in the desire to inherent in the colonial moment, in India, in particular, that of the women unveiled, an unorthodox preserve a certain cultural authen- and speak of the expanding fron- women of the zenana, is an unten- gesture, it was thought that the ticity while they also accommodate tiers of women’s lives at a time able fiction, one tied to the power- women depicted could not be of modern forms of self-exposure. At when those possibilities were ful mythology of the harem and elite females, but those of lesser the time, made for private viewing severely limited. its legacy of exoticization, which status. However, my research and kept within the confines of the In tracing the many ways in has colored understandings of shows the contrary is true, that family, the Nizam’s pictures co-ex- which female identity was fash- status, rights, and mobility for elite elite women were extensively pho- ist with other zenana archives that ioned during the colonial period colonial Indian women, including tographed, either as individuals or circulated beyond domestic limits, in India, an analysis of zenana

MAY08 11 CSupdateW Gianna Carotenuto is a doctoral often employed by the West candidate in South Asia Art History to refer to an erotic context for at UCLA. Her area of focus is the female segregation. Colonial Art of India, in particular 2. Rajendra Prasad. The Asif Jahs photography, with a directed interest of Hyderabad: Their Rise and in Postcolonial and Subaltern Theory Decline. Vikas Publishing and Feminist Studies. She will be House Pvt.:New Delhi. 1984. filing her dissertation, "Domesti- 3. Malavika Karlekar. Re- cating the Harem: Reconsidering Visioning the Past: Early Zenana Imagery in Colonial India," Photography in Bengal 1875-1915. in June of 2009. Oxford University Press: New Notes Delhi. 2005. 1. Zenana is a Persian derivative 4. Inderpal Grewal. Home and that signifies “woman” and the Harem: Nation Gender, Empire female quarters of the home. As and the Cultures of Travel. Duke an Eastern institution it comes University Press: Durham 1996:51. from the concept of purdah, North Carolina. a Persian word that literally 5. See Antoinette Burton, means “curtain,” but connotes Dwelling in the Archive. Oxford the concealment of women from University Press: New York. public view. The Arabic term 2003. Though there are no “harem” conveys the notion of studies to date in the discipline taboo and generally refers to of art history on the visual Gianna Carotenuto at the Chowmahalla Palace, 2005 prohibition or unlawfulness as component of the zenana, well as something revered and see Karen Leonard (1978), holy. When used by the West, Meredith Borthwick (1984), burgeoning female agency. These pictures bring us full circle. From it most often signifies a place of Ruby Lal (2005), Geraldine their initial impact as rarely-seen remarkable photographs speak erotic decadence. In my study I Forbes (1996), Ruby Lal (2005). depictions of the female household to the complexities of patriarchal make a clear distinction between Gail Minault (1994). of the Nizam, a deeper analysis re- control and traditional values, the Indian use of the word zenana veals aspects of Orientalist fantasies and in their analysis we find a for domestic contexts from the and notions of resistance, to both mixed legacy from these repre- use of the term harem, which does not occur as a colloquial British colonial presence and In- sentations of the lived reality of term in Hindi or Urdu. It is most dian nationalism, and reference to elite Indian women. MAY08 12 CSupdateW