A Day-long Symposium and Ticketed Performance that celebrate the contributions of Courtesans to India’s Performing Arts
For Immediate Release
Any study of India’s rich history of arts will be incomplete without a reference to the Tawaif, Baiji or Courtesan who served as vision and muse for poets, painters and musicians, and is a consummate artiste in her own right. Courtesans were known for their delicate poetry, a fine interlacing of Persian and Awadhi languages, their profound influence on musical traditions (like ghazals, dadra, thumri and gayaki) and their most indelible impact on expressive dance disciplines, imbuing the language of dance with poetics and soul.
The Tawaifs and Baijis were once considered the epitome of performance art. They were held in high esteem and treated at par with Royalty. However, the important contributions of Courtesan Culture to Indian heritage have unfortunately been mitigated in the pages of history, having left residual and often highly romanticised traces. Journey back into India’s performative past with a unique event that brings the magic, the mannerisms and mujras of the Tawaif back to life!
Sufi Kathak Foundation, The Royal Opera House, Mumbai and Avid Learning present Tehzeeb-e-Tawaif: Courtesan Culture and Women Performers in India (18th- 20th Century), an illuminating day-long Symposium exploring The role and significance of women artistes and how they irrevocably influenced dance and musical legacies of the Indian Tradition.
Please read below for more on the Symposium:
Conceptualised by Kathak Dancer and Founder of the Sufi Kathak Foundation Manjari Chaturvedi this symposium will be divided into sessions that re-tell stories, reaffirm histories and address issues related to these exemplary performers. The seminar will aim to encourage awareness and academic exploration of the fast-fading history and legacy of the Tawaif and highlight the important role of women performers in the shaping of, preservation and promotion of cultural heritage.
This symposium follows on the heels of its recent iteration held in Delhi, and continues the exploration of the subject since the first-ever All-India Tawaif’s Conference held in 1961. Through discussions, film screenings and performance, the Symposium will aim to introduce alternate narratives about these incredible women performers that have been marginalized by history.
Speakers will include doyens from the worlds of the performing arts, academia and cinema, like Shubha Mudgal, Lata Singh, AN Sharma and many more.
The day will also include a screening at the venue of the documentary film Anwesha which explores the performance traditions of Calcutta.
The Symposium will close with A Tribute to Begums and Baijis of Bollywood: The First Women of Hindi Cinema by Manjari Chaturvedi that will pay homage to early depictions of courtesans in film and bring back to life the magic, grace and soul of the Tawaif.
Sessions include: Panel Discussion | Courtesan: Women Performers and Male Gaze Presentation | Tawaif: The Muse in Cinema Panel Discussion | Performance Art of the Tawaifs and Baijis Panel Discussion | The Tawaif’s Song: The Journey from Live Performer to Recording Artiste Documentary Film Screening | Anwesha by Sanghamitra Sarkar Closing Performance | A Tribute to Begums and Baijis of Bollywood: The First Women of Hindi Cinema
Asad Lalljee, SVP, Essar Group, CEO, Avid Learning and Curator, Royal Opera House, Mumbai says, ““This landmark symposium promises to revive and evoke the lost art and gravitas of the Tawaif, a trope that has immense relevance for the history and cultural milieu of Mumbai’s performance arts ecosystem, and, especially for the Royal Opera House, Mumbai. We are proud to host Manjari and this symposium and performance, that will showcase the renaissance of the art of the Courtesan.”
Manjari Chaturvedi, Kathak Dancer and and Founder of the Sufi Kathak Foundation says, “My efforts are to question and remove the social stigmas associated with the Tawaifs and give them their respectful place as artists par excellence. It is time we respect art for arts sake...nothing more, nothing less...This is an unusual subject as even in the history of performing arts this subject has always been brushed away as it has many social stigmas attached to it. We need to draw the attention of the society towards our erstwhile courtesans and how discriminatory practices impacted NOT only their life but also of their families. Thus, advocating and creating much required space for them as an ‘artist” in society through cultural activism and social change.”
Do not miss this insightful symposium and vibrant performance that celebrate the culture of the courtesan, demystifies myths, promotes awareness and historically and socially repositions these artistes par excellence for the significant cultural contributors they truly were.
Where: Royal Opera House, Mama Parmanand Marg, Mumbai - 400 004 When: Saturday, 27th April 2019 | 10:30 AM – 11:00 AM – Symposium Registrations | 11:00 AM – 5:30 PM – Symposium Sessions | Symposium Registration: www.avidlearning.in Press Email / Call: Ayeshah Dadachanji on [email protected] / +91 9820155297
About Manjari Chaturvedi
Manjari Chaturvedi is a Classical Dancer, Director, Choreographer, TedX Speaker and Cultural Academic. Among the 300 concerts that she has performed in 20 years, a few prestigious venues include the Symphony Space, New York City, Judith Wright Centre For Performing Arts – Brisbane, Sydney Opera House, Australia, National Gallery Of Victoria, Australia, Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi and Parliament House, New Delhi. She is the leading exponent of classical dance in India. Her productions as a dancer are projects that are meticulously researched and documented; it includes gender sensitive subjects that through her medium of dance, explores the many traditions woven into poetry and music. Under the banner of the Sufi Kathak Foundation she supports similar research and encourages marginal artists to participate in dissemination of their art. She has been the part of the Sufi Symposium at the prestigious Smithsonian Museum Washington D.C. and of the conference on Living heritage by UNESCO and is the Jury and member of “Think Tank on Asian dance” for the prestigious Asian Dance Committee in Korea.
About the Speakers
Shri A. N. Sharma, I.R.S., Ex-Principal Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai is a known Archivist and Historian of Early Recorded Sound’s History of the Indian sub-continent. He has devoted 30 long years of his life in discovering and documenting early sound discs including rarest of the rare Brown Wax cylinders of the Indian Sub- continent. He is credited to have re-written the history of this esoteric field of our cultural heritage by discovering and documenting the lost voices of Ustad Allahdia Khan; Dada Saheb Phalke; Bhaurao Kolhatkar; Pandit V.D. Paluskar and Pandit Bhaskar Bua Bakhale, all recorded on Brown Wax Cylinders. He is equally admired for discovering Indian sub-continent’s oldest and earliest voice recordings of 1899 in the form of ‘Abha Cylinders’. His two books titled as ‘Bajanaama’ and ‘The Wonder That Was The Cylinder’ are internationally acclaimed seminal works of this field. His talk will primarily centre around recently discovered non- commercial sound recordings on brown wax cylinders entwined with history of early commercial sound recording era of the Indian Sub- continent (1899-1910), with a special emphasis on recordings of nautch-girls of early India.
Kushal Gopalka is a Dhrupad singer, Archivist of Indian music, music historian and researcher based in Mumbai. Pertaining to Indian music, he has curated exhibitions and permanent displays, lent research and archival audio and video material for making films, made documentary films, conceptualized and presented live thematic shows (over 250), produced and organized festivals of classical music, interviewed music makers, edited a newsletter (for 7 years), extensively written articles and essays, very closely interacted with musicians and music directors, etc. Kushal hosts his own ongoing monthly musical show at the Indian National Theatre- Aditya Birla Centre for Research and an annual seminar on Cinema music. He has recently produced an LP record featuring the great singer- Zohra Bai of Agra. All his passion and hectic musical activities are supported by his chemical business and encouraging family.
Dr. Lata Singh is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Women’s Studies, School of Social Science, JNU. Her expertise in women’s studies is a multifaceted one which looks at women subjects through the lens of colonialism and nationalism in India, gender binaries, women’s movements and cultural and performance studies. Her interest in women performers in public spaces has been documented as ‘Courtesans and the 1857 Rebellion: The Role of Azeezun in Kanpur’ in Biswamoy Pati, ed. book, The Great Rebellion of 1857 in India: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities, Routledge, 2010, and ‘Retrieving Voices from the Margins: The Courtesans and the Nation’s Narrative’ in Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1 that directly concern itself with nautch performers. And other works like ‘The Women Performers as Subjects in Popular Theatres: Tamasha and Nautanki’, ‘Modern Theatre as Epitome of Middle Class Civilized Culture: Scripting of Stage Actresses as ‘Prostitutes’ and ‘Fallen’ Women’ that highlight stigmatisation of women performers in theatre.
Malavika Sangghvi is a journalist, editor, author and columnist with three decades experience in media. She has edited newspapers like The Sunday Review - and written for respected international journals like the New York Times and the Sunday Times, (UK). She has been regarded as a pioneer in lifestyle journalism and content creation. She has also worked as a broadcaster for BBC Radio and a TV anchor on Star TV and is a published poet and author of two books. Sangghvi currently writes a popular daily city diary column 'Malavika's Mumbai' in Mid- day and 'Woman of Letters' in DNA. She has recently co-founded a luxury and lifestyle consultancy 'SANGUINE' which curates bespoke events and which will launch an upscale digital content and e-commerce platform shortly.
Manjula Shirodkar nee Negi is a published author and film critic who has served print journalism for over two decades. A post-graduate in English Literature from Delhi University, Manjulaa has worked with national newspapers and magazines including as Asst. Editor with Hindustan Times; Senior Editor with the Times of India and News Editor, Deccan Herald. She has penned a biography of the Urdu litterateur Ismat Chughtai A Fearless Voice (Rupa & Co) and her articles, features, book and film reviews and interviews with celebrities have been published in the Asian Age, the Hindu, the Pioneer, the Open Magazine, Good Housekeeping and The Little Magazine. She has been Managing Director, Woodpecker International Film Festival and a Contributing Editor at thehoot.org. She has also worked as Consultant with Osian’s Cinefan International Film Festival. As film correspondent she has covered national and International film festivals – including the International Film Festival of India, Mumbai International Film Festival and the world’s largest Animation Film Festival, Annecy, France over the years. Manjulaa has also been on the Film Selection Committee of Jagran Film Festival – India’s biggest film festival. She is also serving as (Hony) Director at the Indian Film Institute, New Delhi. Manjula has recently set up her own company Words Worth Enterprises, a start-up which is into research and documentation of Indian cinema.
Born into a musically-dedicated family, Shubha Mudgal has been trained by some of the finest musicians and musicologists in India. Trained by eminent scholar-musician-composer Pandit Ramashreya Jha ‘Ramrang’, she also received guidance from Pandit Vinaya Chandra Maudgalya and Pandit Vasant Thakar. She later learnt stylistic techniques from maestros Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki and Pandit Kumar Gandharva. She also received training in thumri from Smt. Naina Devi and is thus a versatile and popular performer. In addition to being a performer, Shubha Mudgal is also recognised as a composer. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Padma Shri in 2000, and the Gold Plaque Award for Special Achievement in Music at the 34th Chicago International Film Festival, 1998, and the Yash Bharati Samman from the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 2015. She has also been closely involved with several projects related to music education in India. Formerly a member of the Central Advisory Board of Education constituted by the Government of India, Shubha also chaired a focus group discussing the need for introducing an arts education program in mainstream school education during the National Curriculum Framework 2005. Shubha Mudgal was also a Nana Shirgaokar Visiting Research Professor for traditional music at Goa University.
Veejay Sai is an award-winning writer, editor, translator and a culture critic. He has written and published extensively on Indian classical music, classical dance, theatre, Indic studies, food, and travel. He loves documenting the cultural history of India through the lens of performing arts. He has held editorial designations in several newspapers and magazines in the past two decades. He also helps curate several festivals of Indian classical performing arts. His first book ‘Drama Queens: Women Who Created History On Stage’ was published by Roli Books in 2017. He lives in New Delhi.
Dr. Veena Talwar Oldenburg was born and grew up in Lucknow where she attended La Martiniere Girls School. Her Ph.D. (1980) was to become the own classic book, The Making of Colonial Lucknow from Princeton University Press and is part of the Lucknow Omnibus published by Oxford University Press. She became a professor of History in the US teaching at Sarah Lawrence College and the City University of New York. Her latest book is Gurgaon: From Mythic Village to Millennium City. Her influential work on the courtesans of Lucknow which has been anthologised in several collected volumes including her own edited work, Shaam-i-Awadh: Writings on Lucknow (Penguin, 2007) and accounts for her presence at this conference.
Yatindra Mishra is a celebrated Hindi Poet, Music and Cinema scholar. He has four collections of Hindi poetry, several well-received books on Indian Classical Music & Cinema and some translations. His book ‘Lata: Sur-Gatha’ won total of Six Awards in 2017 including the prestigious 64th National Film Award for Best Writing on Cinema (Swarna Kamal) and MAMI Mumbai Film Festival Award for Best Writing on Cinema, Mumbai, 2016-17. His latest book released in January, 2019 Akhtari: Soz aur Saaz ka Afsana, is based on the Life, Times, and Music of Akhtari Bai Faizabadi Aka Begum Akhtar. He is currently working on a book on eminent Lyricist, Poet and Film Maker Gulzar Saheb.
About the Filmmaker
Dr. Sanghamitra Sarker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science of Surendranath College for Women, University of Calcutta. She is intensely involved in researching political sociology of North East India. As a media person she has written several articles in newspapers and journals. She is a regular empanel expert in Television News Channel. Her extensive interest in research led her to direct a documentary feature Anewesha on the Indian classical music and dance and their yesteryear women performers or the nautch girls in the city Kolkata. She won international accolades for this documentary feature in various national and international film festivals. Her debut documentary film Anwesha also entered the Asia Pacific Film Festival Berlina in league with other documentaries.
About Partners
The Sufi Kathak Foundation is a non-profit registered society in India (Regd. 61883, exempt from tax under section 80G and 12A and registered under FCRA). The Foundation is headed by its Founder & President, Manjari Chaturvedi, a leading exponent of classical Indian Kathak & creator of Sufi Kathak dance. She has a deep interest & in-depth knowledge on performance art & with her own experience of 20 years, with more than 300 performances in 24 countries, she leads the research projects. The General Body of the Foundation comprises of other 10 eminent academicians, lawyers, marketing heads, art & cultural activists & personalities. Sufi Kathak Foundation in 10 years has conducted 38 festivals /seminars/ concerts involving 402 artists to create awareness about India’s intangible heritage in music and dance and preserve the gradually fading 700 year Sufi Traditions in Music and Dance. SKF aims to create a world of cultural unity, by spreading the secular message of the Sufis and also help in initiating children and orienting the youth to become self-employed through arts - dance and music. It provides assistance and support to needy artists and students by giving scholarships, pensions and medical support, in order to enable them to pursue classical music and dance. SKF seeks to evolve a humanist outlook and create centers, organize training classes, workshops and musical concerts to promote Sufi music, Qawwali, Sufi Kathak, and folk & classical dance across the world. Sufi Kathak Foundation has also worked with the Government of India and State Governments for various cultural concerts organized by them and through its concerts the foundation has tried to relive the past eras, thereby representing our rich cultural heritage. Sufi Kathak Foundation has also conceptualized and organized cultural festivals which explored the inter-religious issues through music and dance and brought together references of different religions on the same plane of confluence, for the audiences to experience. The 22 Khwaja Project that explores the lives of Sufi Saints is a unique secular initiative that has never appeared before the masses and adds to the list of successful initiatives taken by the Foundation. “The Courtesan Project”, is the flagship dance revival concept by Sufi Kathak Foundation. “The Courtesan Project” is a labor of love, and a culmination of passion, research and mission to bring alive the stories of women largely forgotten by the history. www.sufikathakfoundation.com
Royal Opera House, Mumbai is widely touted as Mumbai’s Cultural Crown Jewel and India’s only surviving Opera House. The original idea for the space was conceived of in 1908, inaugurated in 1911 by King George V, and eventually completed in 1916. The design incorporated a blend of European and Indian detailing. The space became a cinema in later years before falling into disrepair and shutting by the 1990s. Fittingly, the space has been owned by the Royal Family of Gondal since 1952 and was eventually restored by conservation architect, Abha Narain Lambah under the leadership of His Highness, Maharaja Shri Jyotendrasinhji of Gondal. The Royal Opera House Mumbai, now one of the last remaining Baroque structures in the city, reopened after 23 years in October 2016. The building was included on the 2012 World Monuments Watch to raise awareness about its history and significance, and support preservation efforts. The building has since been recognized with an Award of Merit in the 2017 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. The restored facilities feature a 575- seater 3-level auditorium with an orchestra pit and state of the art technological upgradations, including acoustics, stagecraft, lighting and air-conditioning, alongside retaining the old world charm of the proscenium stage, the royal boxes and the magnificent regal chandeliers. Some more enhancements to the venue include a motorized screen, co-axial ceiling speaker system, Four-zone volume control and all round wifi access. Today, it stands as a key performance and creative hub in the city’s cultural landscape, while being a premier heritage landmark. Facebook: MumbaiOpera Twitter: @MumbaiOpera Instagram: @mumbaiopera
Avid Learning, a public programming platform and cultural arm of the Essar Group, has conducted over 1000 programs and connected with more than 125,000 individuals since its inception in 2009. Driven by the belief that Learning Never Stops, AVID’s multiple formats like Workshops, Panel Discussions, Gallery Walkthroughs, and Festival Platforms create a dynamic and interactive atmosphere that stimulates intellectual and creative growth across the fields of Culture & Heritage, Literature, Art and Innovation. Facebook : www.facebook.com/Avidlearning; Twitter : www.twitter.com/Avidlearning; Instagram: @avidlearning