The Archives and Afterlives of Nautch Dancers in India

Unearthing rare archival materials, Prarthana Purkayastha reveals the profound anti-colonial legacy of nautch dancers in India.

Revealing acts of refusal performed by forgotten Indian nautch dancers, Prarthana Purkayastha brings to light rare materials on nautch women, decolonising existing ontologies of dance and performance as disappearance and advocating for the restless remains of nautch in animating urgent debates on race, caste, gender and sexuality today.In a time of colonial subjugation, subaltern, illicit and courtesan dancers in India radically disturbed racist, casteist and patriarchal regimes of thought. The criminalized 'nautch' dancer, vilified by both British colonialism and Indian nationalism, appears in this book across multiple locations, materials and timelines: from colonial human exhibits in London to open-air concerts in Kolkata, from heritage Bengali bazaar art to cheap matchbox labels and frayed scrapbooks, and from the late nineteenth century to our world today. Combining historiography and archival research, close reading of dancing bodies in visual culture, analysis of gestures absent and present, and performative writing, Prarthana Purkayastha brings to light rare materials on nautch women, real and fictional outlawed dancers, courtesans and sex-workers from India. Simultaneously, she decolonises existing ontologies of dance and performance as disappearance and advocates for the restless remains of nautch in animating urgent debates on race, caste, gender and sexuality today.