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- 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 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 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 “”, 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 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 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 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 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 , 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. Unlike the devadasi The alternative lifestyles coloniser and the Hindu philosophy of of the female desire by the bar dancer and whose profession either of the dancing and singing girls purity and pollution, where an individual through the gaze is consciously impeded their chances of marriage or threatened the image of the self- is polluted when he/ she steps outside the constructed within the male gaze itself. restricted it, thus distinguishing the wife/ sacrificing Indian woman whose temporal and spatial parameters defined The bar dancer then contests the male mother from the public woman, the bar sexuality was embodied in marriage by society (Madan 1985; Marglin 1985). gaze, as much as she performs it. dancer upsets and blurs the distinction and motherhood. They challenged the between the private woman (chaste dominant image of Sita and Savitri used Class and Anxiety in Law The bar dancer, unlike the and controlled sexuality) and the public in the nationalist struggle to represent The will of bar dancers to traditional dancer (assumed by the woman (impure, uncontrolled sexuality) the Indian woman (Katrak 1992). engage through “eye contact” with State), exacts a response to her by easily transforming from the public

220 / 07 livelihood 07 / 221 woman (bar dancer) to the private by the Development Authority and “Indian culture” in which dance derogatory to the dignity of women… the woman (wife/mother) and vice versa. (DDA) as a prerequisite to resettlement has played a significant role. administrative policy it is also required or allotment of land plots (Tarlo 2001) to ensure that the dignity of women is Stratification by Exclusion proves how the law is “the rhetoric of Dancing, as an act of preserved and they are not exploited. This The hypocritical morality of a particular group or class” (Goodrich entertainment, is deeply rooted in is the value which is prescribed in several the State is reflected by the exemption 1984: 174). The sheer framing of the this Nation’s history and tradition… international covenants (ibid para 10). granted to dance performances in regulation exempts the elite of the city, The stone carvings and pictures in certain establishments where entry reiterating the need of the State to control “Kailash Temple” at Ellora, Khajuraho The human rights narrative is restricted to certain members only. the “irresponsible” lower class citizens. and paintings at Ajanta, stands out as adopted by the State, on the one hand The exemption is not merely based on an evidence of history, traditions and resonates with universal values of human categorisation of class of establishments, Similarly, the cultural heritage of India.The Vedas, dignity that appeal to international media but on performers and the visitors actress that the bar dancer imitates Upanisadas, Sruties, Smrities, Puranas and donors, and on the other hand to they entertain. The hegemony of the in her performance is exempted from and other religious teachings or moral middle class morality. By legislating the upper class is reinforced by law. The the ban. Unlike the Bollywood item codes, along with traditions, followed ban within the human rights framework class bias is apparent in the reasoning girl who receives fame and serves the in Ancient India, bears testimony to the it creates the third world “female victim” provided by the morally-upright Hindu purpose of the global markets, the fact that dancing has been considered that interests the global audience. To state functionaries for the exemption bar dancer who dances to the same as a mode of entertainment and has paraphrase Merry (2005), the State not afforded to certain establishments: music becomes an amasser of easy had earned social sanction even in only remakes the transnational human wealth by rousing “the physical lust the early vedic age (ibid para 25). rights principles in local language, but The class of establishment amongst the customer” (ibid para 37). also reinterprets the ban into national and covered by Section 33(B) are those The referencing to India’s past by transnational language of human rights. conducted by responsible persons/ The rhetoric of law is the human rights’ organisations alludes It constructs itself not as the violator of management who are conscious of their exclusionary. Law by exclusion and that the bar girl’s dance is as pristine the bar dancer’s right to livelihood but as social commitments and obligations. inclusion infuses meaning into individual and uncorrupted as India’s pre-colonial an upholder of human rights principles. These are the types of establishments, acts and rewrites the individual (Goodrich “Hindu history”. The State, on the other By subscribing to values of equality, which have never conducted any activity 1984). The manner in which the personae hand, in imposing the ban on bar dancing rule of law and democracy it projects of the kind that was being conducted of the bar dancer as a sexual outlaw adopts the “modernist discourse” of itself not merely in the modernist light at the dance bars (ibid para 37). fabricated by law is internalised and exploitation of women. This modernist- but also as a law abiding nation state. reproduced by bar dancers reveals emancipatory discourse endorses the Further: how the living person becomes a relevance of the law.The State employs The feminist human rights’ The persons visiting these reflex of his/her legal personae.4 transnational human rights discourse organisations also construct the bar hotels or establishments stand on to prove the legitimacy of the ban. dancers as the third world female victims different footing and cannot be The Human Rights Narrative who do not dance out of choice but to compared with people who attend the The ban on bar dancers, It transplants the global support their families. The court, similarly, establishments which are popularly however, is constructed by the State human rights discourse by reframing in its judgment assigns the same “victim known as (ibid para 37). as not merely being against “Indian its argument around human rights status” to the bar dancer when it reasons: tradition”, but as exploitation of principles of “dignity” and “exploitation The stratification of class by women which is in conflict with the of women” in its rationality for the ban. …the women work in the law and the obscurity and impenetrability “modern” human rights values. The dance bars because of economic of its language to make it inaccessible State argues both modernist and It is submitted that the State necessity. They need to support to a certain class can be studied from traditionalist arguments in favour of the mechanism which controls the sale their family and most of all to feed, the laws enacted in the period of the ban. The human rights organisations of intoxicant liquor in bars cannot be clothe and educate their children… Emergency as well. The compulsory in their arguments against the ban misused by the licensees by exploiting many of these women are widowed, sterilisation of slum- dwellers of Delhi have interestingly invoked “tradition” women by committing acts which are deserted or divorced (ibid para 85).

222 / 07 livelihood 07 / 223 Conclusions by Wilson (1997), infused with local value filed in the by the Bharatiya Bargirls Union, human rights’ organisations and Indian hotels/ On 12 April 2006, the court distinctions. As illustrated by the court bars association. The petitions challenged the constitutional validity of the amendment to the Bombay Police Act struck down the ban on the ground that that concludes its judgment with a quote 1951 (“Bombay Police Act”) on the ground that it was violative of the fundamental right to carry on an occupation it was unconstitutional and violative of from Gandhi, thus marrying the global or profession (Article 19(1)(g)), the right to freedom of speech and expression (Article 19(1)(a)) and the right the fundamental right of the bar dancer language of rights with local “values” to livelihood (Article 21) of the Constitution. The newly inserted provision of the Bombay Police Act prohibited to practise her profession and earn her (Gandhian nationalistic language): dancing in bars, but exempted three star and above establishments, gymkhanas and clubs from the ban. livelihood under Article 19 (1) (g) of the 3 I use the expression “performitivity” in the Butlerian understanding of the term. Constitution. It held that the exemption I hold that the more helpless 4 The research conducted on the bar dancers (by Prayas, a Field Action Project of the Tata granted to a class of establishments a creature, the more entitled it Institute of Social Science, ) reveals that 33% of bar dancers were in favour of the ban on was arbitrary and violative of the right to is to protection of men from the dancing in bars despite their livelihood being dependent on it (cited in the case law). equality guaranteed under Article 14 of cruelty of men (ibid para 95). 5 The state has filed an appeal, challenging the decision of the High Court of Bombay striking down the ban, the Constitution. It observed that there in the Supreme Court. In the interim period the ban, despite being overruled by the court, continues. was no nexus between the amendment Law as a normative science and the objectives propounded in favour adopts a singular narrative sans the References of the ban in the Bombay Police Act.5 multiplicity of voices. By defining the • Goodrich, P (1984): “Law and Language: An Historical and Critical Introduction”, Journal of Law and Society, (Online) norm, the law invents and adopts the 11/2: pp 173-206, available at: http://www.jstor. org/stable/1410039, Blackwell Publishing, accessed 31 June 2008. The law, as Wilson (1997) noted, dominant morality. The encoding of • Hanna, L J (1993): “Classical Indian Dance and Women’s Status” in H Thomas (ed.), functions as a medium of social control, morality into law with reference to the bar Dance, Gender, and Culture (New York, NY: St Martin’s Press), pp 119-38. coercion and surveillance to preserve dancers and the singing and dancing girls • Katrak, K (1992): “Indian Nationalism, Gandhian “Satyagraha” and Representations of Female power relations. The concealing of its of India demonstrates the same dominant Sexuality” in A Parker et al (ed.), Nationalism and Sexualities (New York: Routledge), Ch 21. (State) coercion and control by translating morality of the colonisers and the elite. • Madan, N T (1985): “Concerning the Categories, Subha and Suddha in Hindu Culture: it into expressions of human rights is The legal precedents demonstrate that An Exploratory Essay” in M A Marglin (ed.), Purity and Auspiciousness in Indian Society, Brill, an illustration of how law is dictated the prohibition on bar dancing is an International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology, Leiden, pp 11-29. by complex relations of power. A close incarnation of colonial law and dominant • Marglin, M A (1985): “Types of Opposition in Hindu Culture” in B J Carman and A F Marglin (ed.), Purity and examination of what Merry termed puritanical concerns of the “populace”. Auspiciousness in Indian Society, Brill, International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology, Leiden, pp 65-83. “vernacularisation” of international The present law maintains hegemony • Merry, Sally Engle (2005): “Transnational Human Rights and Local Activism: Mapping the human rights law, reveals that while of the original law and reproduces the Middle”, Wellesley College/New York University, (Online) (accessed March 2008). the interaction of the local and global global-local human rights discourse of • Oldenburg, T V (1990): “Lifestyle as Resistance: The Case of the Courtesans of Lucknow, introduces plurality into law, it is still the subjugator/subjugated. Thus, the India”, Feminist Studies, (Online) (accessed March 2010), 16- 2, pp 259-87. caught within the web of power and regulation on bar dancers is an attempt • Srinivasan, A (1998): “Reform or Conformity? Temple ‘’ and the Community class politics (Wilson 1997). However, to reproduce bar dancers in the social in the Madras Presidency” in B Agarwal (ed.), Structures of Patriarchy: The State, the both the State and the human rights imagining of the past. The configuration Community and the Household (London: Zed Books Ltd), pp 175-98. organisation challenge the essentialist of “moral”, “traditional” and “modern” • Tarlo, E (2001): “The Emergency and Slum Clearance through Forgotten Files” in Fuller and V polarisation of the universalists and stimulated by the imperial morality and Benei (ed.), The Everyday State and Society in Modern India (London: C Hurst), pp 68-90. relativists, by subverting human rights nationalist anxieties of the pure and • Vajaisri, P (2004): Recasting the Devadasi: Patterns of in narrative to achieve their own ends and pious is implicit in the very framework Colonial South India (New Delhi: Kanishka Publishers and Distributors). instilling varying notions of justice and of Indian law. It not only upholds the • Veer, D V P (1999): “The Moral State: Religion, Nation ed. Empire in Victorian Britain and British India” in D V P Veer and morality into law. The interpretation of “traditional” but remakes and recodes H Lehmann (ed.), Nation and Religion: Perspectives on Europe and Asia (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), Ch 2. human rights law is finally, as proposed it with its rhetoric and imagining. • Wilson, R (1997): “Human Rights, Culture and Context: An Introduction” in R Wilson Notes (ed.), Human Rights, Culture and Context, Anthropological Perspectives, Ch 1. 1 It is not merely the legitimisation of dance that law concerns itself with, but also what qualifies as “classical” • Wulff, H (2003): “The Irish Body in Motion: Moral Politics, National Identity and Dance” in N Dyck and or “Indian Dance”. The construction of Bharatanatyam into India’s most renowned classical dance by erasing A Eduardo (ed.), Sport, Dance and Embodied Identities, (Oxford, New York: Berg Publishers), Ch 9. traces of sadir (the traditional dance of devadasis of the state of ) is an example of it. • Case Law 2 The ban on bar dancing imposed by the state of Maharashtra on 15 August 2005 was challenged by petitions Indian Hotels and Restaurants Association and others Vs the State of Maharashtra Citation: 2006(3), BomCR705.

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