South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies ISSN: 0085-6401 (Print) 1479-0270 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/csas20 Tawa'if, Military Musicians and Shi'a Ideology in Pre-Rebellion Lucknow Adrian McNeil To cite this article: Adrian McNeil (2009) Tawa'if, Military Musicians and Shi'a Ideology in Pre-Rebellion Lucknow, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 32:1, 46-62, DOI: 10.1080/00856400802709276 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00856400802709276 Published online: 25 Mar 2009. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 135 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=csas20 Download by: [Monash University Library] Date: 14 February 2017, At: 19:49 South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, n.s., Vol.XXXII, no.1, April 2009 Tawa’if, Military Musicians and Shi’a Ideology in Pre-Rebellion Lucknow Adrian McNeil Macquarie University, Sydney Lucknow occupies a particularly poignant place in the musical imagination of North India. A city with a proud cultural history, Lucknow in the first half of the nineteenth century nurtured an explosion of innovations in vocal music, instrumental music and dance whose effects were felt well beyond the Awadh region. Memories of this sublime period of creativity are still today capable of evoking a potent sense of nostalgia amongst connoisseurs. That such memories so passionately endure is testimony to the special place that the arts occupied in the life of that city when it was the capital of a kingdom.1 Memories of Lucknow’s pre-rebellion cultural heritage are nowadays often recalled through its tawa’if bazi or ‘courtesan culture’. This heritage has been carried into the present through a bevy of films, stories, anecdotes, social 1 The political formation and religious orientation of post-Mughal Awadh has been well documented. See Richard B. Barnett, North India Between Empires: Awadh, the Mughals and the British 1720–1801 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980); C.A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion 1770–1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983); J.R.I. Cole, Roots of North Indian Shi’ism in Iran and Iraq: Religion and State in Awadh 1722–1859 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988); Michael H. Fisher AClashofCultures:Awadh,theBritishandtheMughals(Riverdale Md.: Riverdale Co., 1987); Violette Graff, Lucknow: Memories of a City (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997); Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, AFatalFriendship:TheNawabs,theBritish,andtheCityofLucknow (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985); and Veena Talwar Oldenburg, The Making of Colonial Lucknow (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) amongst others. For discussion of the city’s cultural life see Banmali Tandon, The Architecture of Lucknow and its Dependencies 1722–1856: A Descriptive Inventory and Analysis of Nawabi Types (Lucknow: Vikas Publishing House, 2001); Neeta Das, The Architecture of Imambaras (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991); Amir Hasan, Palace Culture of Lucknow (Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation, 1983); Abdul Halim Sharar, Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture (trans. and eds E.S. Harcourt and Fakir Hussain) (London: Paul Elek, 1975); and Hakim Mohammad Karam Imam, ‘Melody through the Centuries’ (trans. Govind Vidyarthi) in Sangeet Natak Akademi Bulletin ([1856] 11–12 April 1959) amongst others. ISSN 0085-6401 print; 1479-0270 online/09/010046-17 Ó 2009 South Asian Studies Association of Australia DOI: 10.1080/00856400802709276 TAWA’IF,MILITARY MUSICIANS AND SHI’A IDEOLOGY 47 customs, linguistic idioms, images, and music and dance repertoires. A number of studies have also brought to life the culturally-complex and socially- hierarchical world of these courtesans and their significant contributions to the cultural heritage of North India.2 Generally the importance of the contribution made by women performers to the development of Hindustani music has been gaining interest, and long overdue recognition.3 Nevertheless, articulation of this recognition has been hampered by the marginal position assigned to the tawa’if in mainstream history. This paper explores three aspects of Lucknow’s tawa’if bazi that are generally not a part of either musical or historical discussions. One of these concerns the disenfranchisement of the regional military labour market in, and around, Awadh in the late eighteenth century and how this might be connected to a subsequent, and significant, increase in tawa’if activity in Lucknow. Another deals with the nature of the social connections between the tawa’if and her musical accompanists. A further point involves the role of tawa’if as active agents in the promotion and spread of the Shi’a ideology promulgated by Awadh’s political administration. My aim in raising these considerations is to further understanding of the nuances of Lucknow’s tawa’if bazi—how it came about and the influence it had on the development of contemporary Hindustani music and dance. Lucknow’s Tawa’if Bazi Tawa’if is an open-ended term which historically has signified a broad spectrum of professional female performers ranging from wealthy courtesans in the harem of the Nawab to destitute prostitutes in the bazaars on the fringes of the city. The range of meanings tawa’if can signify has determined that distinctions between this and cognate terms such as baiji, takahi, nachni, randi and so on, can be blurred depending on context. Nevertheless a common link between them is the significant role music and dance play in the course of the professional lives of these women. 2 For a general discussion see Mirza Jaffar Hussain, ‘Qadeem Lakhnau ki Twaifen’, in Aajkal (May 1977) (in Hindi); Veena Talwar Oldenburg, ‘Lifestyle as Resistance: The Case of the Courtesans of Lucknow’, in Violette Graff, Lucknow: Memories of a City (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp.136–54; and Joep Bor, ‘The Voice of the Sarangi: An Illustrated History of Bowing in India’, in National Centre for the Performing Arts Quarterly Journal,Vol.15,nos.3&4(Sept.,Dec.1986)&Vol.16no.1(Mar.1987),pp.5–182. 3 See for example Reba Muhury, Thumri O Baijis (Calcutta: Pratibhas, 1986) (in Bengali); Malka Pukhraj, Song Sung True: A Memoir (trans. and ed. Saleem Kidwai) (New Delhi: Kali for Women, 2003); and Amelia Maciszewski, ‘Nayika ki Yadgar: North Indian Women Musicians and their Words’, in Amlan Das Gupta (ed.) Music and Modernity: North Indian Classical Music in the an Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Kolkata: Thema, 2007), pp.156–219. 48 SOUTH ASIA Historical narratives on Lucknow’s tawa’if have usually focused on the lives of those patronised by the political and wealthy elite of the city. Such tawa’if were normally employed either directly by the court or in respectable kothas (salons or bordellos) run by chaudhrayans(headcourtesans)andtendedtobehighly proficient in the performance of dance, music, poetry, conversation and etiquette. Indeed before the annexation of Lucknow by the British in 1856, these kothaswereregardedasimportantinstitutionsintheculturallifeofthe city. Oral histories testify that the house of the chaudhrayan was often the chief meeting place for the most important musicians in the city and those visiting from elsewhere;4 while some tawa’if became so well known for their sophisticated and refined manners, conversation and cultural acumen, that the wealthy of the city sent their sons to be educated by them in social skills. Respectable outside women or khangi also used these kothas for their own liaisons.5 Some tawa’if in surrounding rural areas were so valued by their zamindar patrons that they were assigned their own lands.6 Given the associations of this cadre of tawa’if with the elite public and cultural life of the city it is no surprise to find that their lives are on public record and have inspired memoirs by commentators such as Sharar and Imam. However much less is known about the greater number of tawa’if in Lucknow who worked in less salubrious locations such as the kothas located on the fringes of the city, which by and large catered for a lower socio-economic clientele. Nevertheless, Sharar does list three types of tawa’if belonging to these kothas whom he describes as the ‘queens of the bazaar’. They are identified as kanchani, chuna wali and nagarnt.Hegoesontostatethatthe‘Kanchanwere from Delhi and Panjab and mostly worked as prostitutes, the Nagarnt were from Gujarat while the Chuna Walis are not associated with any one region’ and that these three groups were equally renowned for prostitution as for musical or dance expertise.7 As we shall see, though, these were not the only communities to which Lucknow’s tawa’if belonged. Inside Lucknow regional differences were blurred. The vast proportion of tawa’if living in the city professed Shi’ism. Cole believes that the majority of 4 See also Sharar, Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture,p.139. 5 Oldenburg, ‘Lifestyle as Resistance: The Case of the Courtesans of Lucknow’, p.140. 6 Cole, Roots of North Indian Shi’ism in Iran and Iraq: Religion and State in Awadh 1722–1859,p.88. 7 Sharar, Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture,p.146.InRajasthan,theKanchancommunityis described as one of the sub-groups of the Brahmin sub-caste Kalawant, whose members were hereditary occupational music specialists. Kanchani signifies the women who belonged to this sub-caste. See M.A. Sherring, The Tribes and Castes of Rajasthan, together with Descriptions of Sacred and Celebrated Places of Historical Value in Rajasthan ([London: 1881] New Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 1975), p.200. TAWA’IF,MILITARY MUSICIANS AND SHI’A IDEOLOGY 49 Lucknow’s tawa’if were originally low-caste Hindus, often from the ranks of widows, who had converted to Shi’ism once in Lucknow.