When you hear the word tawaif, a mental image may emerge of a supple, pretty dance-girl who is trying to fascinate her clients through her clever movements and facial expressions. Her world, however, has not been confined to this alone. She not only managed her place, called kotha, but also kept herself focussed on her trade while pursuing new heights of traditional art.
The dance-girl has been part of a long history right since the mythological period when the nartaki or dancer performed to the music of the gandharvas and was called apsara. It was Menaka, an apsara, who broke sage Vishwamitra’s penance at the insistence of Indra. The Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas too speak of ‘Nritya’ in many places, when it was associated with spiritual value. Lord Rama was welcomed home from exile with a dance by ganikas.
In the recorded ancient period, the nartaki has adorned cultural events in temples and royal courts, and she enjoyed an elite status. She was an important entity in South India in temple and royal functions and festivals.
During the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal periods, her excellence and high social status continued right until the 1857 uprising, with some prohibitions by some rulers. The nawabs, courtiers and the elite sent their wards to tawaifs for training in adab, tehzeeb and nafasat (manners, etiquette and disposition). Thus, she played a vital role in society. She was a source of power in the courts of the Mughals and nawabs, and several political decisions owed their origins to her. For instance, Mehdi Hasan of Awadh became the wazir due to the influence of a tawaif named Piyaro.
Tawaifs were adept at language. Luminaries of Hindi literature, including Bhartendu Harishchandra, had approached Husna Bai, a tawaif, for a literary discussion on more than one occasion. Great writers like Premchand and Amritlal Nagar were so impressed by the women of this tradition that they have written masterpieces like Bazar-e-Husn (Beauties of the Marketplace) and Ye Kothewalian (Courtesan Quarters) respectively.
The tawaifs deserve the credit of raising kathak to classical heights. The Mughals emerged from Persian traditions, and when the native dancers adopted these styles, the outcome, in the form of kathak, was scintillating. Originally, kathak was used by Brahmin story-tellers to introduce a dramatic element in their tales. Some Muslim rulers, like Aurangzeb, tried to prohibit dance and music, but even he could not keep the women in his zenana away from poetry, singing and dancing.
It was from the beginning of the East India Company’s rule that the tradition of tawaifs started to see a downfall. Until the introduction of the steamships in the early 19th century, the tawaifs were entertainers to the Europeans who mostly arrived without their families. It was owing to their influence that several Europeans embraced an Indian way of life, and even married them.
With the introduction of steamships, the Europeans were able to bring their families and started clubs and churches. It was at this stage that new legislation targeted the tradition, as now the distinction between a tawaif and a sex worker was obliterated, and all of them were included under a common category of ‘nautch girls’.
In addition, tawaifs were at the receiving end in other aspects too. Earlier, their traditional inheritance laws did not differentiate between Hindu and Muslim tawaifs, and their property was inherited by daughters; however, the British laws put them under Hindu or Muslim category to be governed by the respective religious laws. In addition, other laws such as the United Provinces Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act, 1933 came into existence, curbing the tradition of tawaifs.
The social reform movement before freedom too did them much harm. Organisations such as the Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj put the tawaif in a bad light. Gandhiji wanted tawaifs to abandon the profession and take up the charkha for livelihood. When some of them joined the Congress, Gandhiji objected saying that none could officiate “who did not approach it with pure hands and a pure heart”.
All these prejudices degraded the high status a tawaif once enjoyed, so she naturally nursed ill-will against the imperial masters in particular.
During the entire British period -- right from the Battle of Plassey in 1757 to Independence in 1947, tawaifs have participated in the freedom movement. Many of them, including Azizan Bai and Dharman Bibi, picked up arms and sacrificed themselves in the 1857 uprising. Begum Hazrat Mahal, who led a fierce resistance against the British, was a tawaif who fought to bring justice for her husband Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh. Indeed, one of the causes of the 1857 uprising at Meerut was that the nautch girls had thrown their bangles at the reluctant sepoys calling them “impotent”.
(The writer is the author of Dance to Freedom, a book based on the lives of tawaifs and their role in the freedom struggle)
akganndhi@yahoo.in
