2015 Reynolds Faculty Symposium
Ghazala Hashmi
Professor of English
The Nautch Girls of India
British Rule and its Social and
Economic Impacts on the
Dance Girls of India
Overview of Presentation
• The background and history of the nautch girls in India
• The relevance of the nautch girls within the dramatic
political reshaping of the Indian subcontinent from the 18th
century onward
• A brief history of the English East India Company
• Discussion of the ways in which British cultural
hegemony shaped the East Indian’s own perceptions of the
nautch girls and also devalued their role in the
preservation and transmission of cultural artifacts such as
high poetry, sophisticated manners, and dance traditions
The Argument
British colonial rule deliberately targeted and disrupted the role of
cultural players within Indian feudal society in order to create political
instability.
The undermining efforts of the East India Company were supported by
three major elements of expanding colonial rule:
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the arrival of Christian missionaries on the subcontinent in the late 19th century
the increased migration of English women in the late 19th century
the social sensibilities of Victorian England
Orientalist assumptions about the sexuality and sexual behaviors of non-European
peoples
At significant cost to themselves, East Indian communities assimilated
the reductive values of the colonizer, participating in what some
theorists have termed “the colonization of the mind.”
The Nautch
Girls of India
Background
Cultural values and
traditions
Roles in High Society
Early Colonial Perspectives
Contributions to Literary and Linguistic Traditions
The Ghazal
• a highly-structured, lyrical poem
• sung out loud, typically within an organized, public performance
• languages of the ghazal include Urdu, Farsi, Turkish, and Pashto
• renowned poets include Rumi, Hafiz, and Ghalib
Other Essential Contributions of the
Nautch Girls
Tameez
Tehzeeb
• A sense of decorum
• Culture
• Refinement of thought,
action, and words
• An ability to discern
• Cultured sensibility
• Demonstration of good
judgment
• Courtliness (linguistic
• Good manners
equivalent of Castiglione’s
sprezzatura)
The East India Company
History, Structure, and Power
The English “Nabob”
Consequences and Impacts on
the Modern World:
• The rule of the Company Man
• Forerunner to companies such as British
Petroleum (BP) and colonizing
monopolies characterized by political
domination and control of resources
Lingering Influences of Colonial Attitudes
Case Study: Pakeezah, an Indian film released in 1972
Pak means “pure” or to make clean an object that was once
unclean.
Pakeezah reflects orientalist assumptions about the nautch
girl, that she is unclean, a prostitute,
and a social pariah.
At the same time, it also seeks to
undermine these assumptions.
Concluding Comments
• Assimilation of Western values with regard to women’s
roles within public performance, high society, and
preservation of literary and dance art forms proved
detrimental to the societies of nautch girls.
• The loss of political, economic, and social capital among
the nautch cultures had a broader impact on South Asian
society.
• Negative societal judgment of women’s public
performance remains evident today and is more indicative
of English Victorian values than of indigenous attitudes
that preceded British colonial rule.