Bar Dancers, Morality and the Indian

The Hindu mythological tale put forth by the State, I shall study the moral condemnation was internalised of god Shiva defeating goddess Kali in ban in the light of three interlocking by English-educated Indians, who in an a dance competition is an illustration themes: first by examining the encoding attempt to eradicate supposed immoral of how even goddesses have to accept of colonial morality into law and the Hindu practices and to modernise Hindu and defeat in order to guard their modesty. nationalistic social purity and reform Mughal practices started the “anti-nautch In the contest, Kali manages to dance in movements. Second, I analyse this moral campaign” in the south at the end of the perfect tandem with Shiva but loses when anxiety of the State by tracing the history 19th century, which quickly gained ground she is restrained by feminine modesty of the anti-nautch movement in India and in the north (Vajaisri 2004) of the country. from imitating Shiva’s intentional pose inter- linking it with the State’s objection The movement led to laws abolishing the of raising his right foot to the level of his to the bar dancer’s contractual gaze devadasi dedication practice in 1930. crown. She accepts defeat (Hanna 1993). that defies class boundaries and gender It is this victory that earned Shiva the parameters. I argue that this caste- This abolition led to the revival title of “Nataraja”, the king of dance. class anxiety framed in the language of of the devadasi dance in the form of law is an offspring of the past. Third, I Bharatanatyam promoted by upper The legitimisation of dance1 demonstrate how the State’s rationale caste reformers as a nationalistic by law in India is coded with imperial for the ban, while couched within the attempt to save and unite Indian art interpretations of the Indian dance. The framework of transnational human rights and culture based on a utopian and manifestation of morality into law bears law, has the same “reformist” and purity unified view of the past (Hanna 1993). the influence of colonial morality and agenda.I conclude by illustrating how the The “rescued” dance emphasised the the colonial gaze of the native and his State, the human rights organisations and sexual purity of the Bharatanatyam culture. The encoding of morality into law the courts employ the same human rights dancers (Srinivasan 1998). Similarly, the first initiated by the British government narrative to buttress their conflicting introduction of the Contagious Diseases and later by its successors was a reasoning in favour of or in resistance Act 1864 and the mandatory medical representation of and a comment on the to the prohibition on dancing in bars. inspection of the courtesans transformed Bar Dancers, native and his questionable morality. the reputation of courtesans from Nevertheless, the legal narrative adopted Moral Politics, Legal Precedents cultural custodians and artists to that of by the upper class Hindu male in imitation The present ban on dancing in common prostitutes (Oldenburg 1990). Morality and the of the coloniser is not merely infused with bars is not new. The prohibition on the Victorian morality but is also a product singing and dancing girls of India imposed The present moral politics of Hindu puritanical anxiety. This anxiety by the British, as a civilising mission, was of the State has to be placed in the is expressed in the language of law. absorbed by the national leaders towards context of the nation’s colonial history. Indian Law the close of the 19th century when they The differing moral order led to, what Reprinted from Economic & Political Weekly September 25, The prohibition on dancing in started viewing the reform of religion Howell (1997 as cited in Wulff 2003) 2010 vol xlv no 39 with permission from the author beer bars is a result of the same anxiety. and religious laws in consonance with suggests, a re-examining of moral It attempts to recast and re-clothe the bar the British legal system as an imperative values and practices. The colonial dancers in the familiar mould of the pre- to social change (Srinivasan 1998). constructions of “un-holy” Hindu practices modern: that is of the “traditional” chaste triggered nationalistic and post-colonial “Indian” woman. In this article, I suggest The ban eventually affected the reinvention of traditional practices to that the prohibition on bar dancing in cultural identities of the devadasis and create a culturally-coherent nation. Mumbai2 and the encoding of morality into the courtesans (Hanna 1993; Vajaisri the Indian law, are residual influences of 2004). The colonisers, notes Vajaisri, The invoking of moral indignation the colonial morality and the imposition essentialised the notion of devadasis and of the elite Hindu nationalists, by drawing Sonal Makhija of nationalist-Hindu agenda and caste- courtesans into prostitutes by using terms attention to certain practices prevalent Lawyer/ Researcher class purity. By evoking the arguments like “degradation” and “immoral”. This in Hinduism as immoral and savage, 218 / 07 livelihood 07 / 219 was as much a manipulative act by the It is this colonial morality and patrons in the act of dancing challenges “initiation”, challenging the notion colonial administrators to justify their the impulse to return to an untouched, the notion of the female dancer as a of dance as merely a spectacle. sovereignty as a civilising mission by and pure past that is codified into law. The spectacle. It is this contractual gaze of an influence of the Christian missionaries. social reform movements were seen as bar dancers that the State objects to. The purpose of the “gaze” is to The imperial narrative which presented progressive, modern, and humane. The convert a casual visitor into a habitual the colonial culture in opposition to the reformation and rehabilitation of the These girls would dance in customer. On stage the gaze results in moral savagery of the “Indian” provoked dancing and singing girls was informed a peculiar manner with constant eye the showering of money in exchange social reform movements that were by the same narrative. Similarly, the contact with certain customers and for the attention given with the “eye initiated by the nationalist Hindu leaders law prohibiting dancing in bars uses the with such body movements so as to contact” during the performance. The to cleanse cultural practices of any rhetoric of rescuing trafficked women attract the attention of customers nature of contractual exchange offstage, impurity by referring to Sanskrit texts and preventing their exploitation. The and entice them, so that they would however, is ambiguous. The exchange as evidence of the untouched, pure difference though is that unlike Gandhi’s be showered with currency notes causes the state moral and puritanical past (Veer 1999; Srinivasan 1998). self- sacrificing Indian woman who by the customers (Indian Hotels and anxiety as they are accompanied by endures suffering, the bar dancers Restaurants Association and Others vs class transgressions. The intermingling Nationalist and Hindu Purity protested the ban and joined a union. the State of Maharashtra, para 37). of caste/class is not the only concern of The construction of the other in the State, it is the “male power” and the opposition to oneself and the embedding In the years following the The contractual exchange control that the female bar dancer exudes of a moral tenor into the law has been independence of India, the law has transgresses defined caste-class and by being the proactive initiator in the reproduced by the natives – the most acquired a similar function: of inventing gender perfomitivity. 3 The objection of sexual game. The supposed bargaining recent case being the prohibition on the the past and recovering the supposed the State to women “luring” customers by and the negotiation that takes place bar dancers. The exemption afforded to uncontaminated pure Indian tradition. The constant “eye contact” bestows power not offstage is absent from the public eye. The the three-star and above hotels, drama law has become a site for construction merely onto customers, but also invests currency of the transactional exchange, theatres, cinema theatres, auditoriums, of a unified past and present. A site for the dancers with power over customers. where for the money showered on the clubs and gymkhanas, in the present questioning and reasserting what qualifies This reversal of the gaze upsets the bar dancer there is no tangible or visible ban, visited by the elite is an example as “Indian” and what does not. In the traditional power of the active male-gazer payback, makes the State suspicious. The of the belief in the moral supremacy case of the prohibition on bar dancing, and the passivity of the female object. It communicative process of gazing then of the upper class. The politics of the source of the law is the imperialist is the indeterminacy of the exchange and does not reveal what is being transacted. exclusion distinguishes the elite from moral code and the Hindu- nationalist the dialogue between the dancer and the the subjects. The objective of codifying purity movements. Law derives its customer that causes the State moral The State anxiety is propelled sexual control by the British was to moral content from external sources. anxiety. The bar dancer with her initiating by the transition of the bar dancer from curb racial contamination. Likewise, gaze and sexuality challenges and a public to private woman, defying the the prohibition on the bar dancers is The external source of the negates the traditional, passive dancer. notion of the “pure” private woman a manifestation of a similar anxiety. law in the case of prohibition can be in opposition to the public woman attributed to the moral anxiety of the Nevertheless, the articulation articulated by law.

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