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Essay: How the Revival of Bharatanatyam Helped Preserve Indian Culture Post Anti-Nautch Movement?

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Sadir is the classical dance of Tamil Nadu, India which was solely practiced by devadasis (Srinivasan). As the British Raj began during the mid-1800s, the colonist began making a few changes to assert their dominance and culture(Varga). One is participating in the Anti-Nautch movement of 1892 due to misconceptions arising around the devadasis (Varga). Though the dance was banned, the form was brought back and revitalized with the name Bharatanatyam due to its importance in Indian culture (Srinivasan). To what extent has the classical Indian dance Bharatanatyam, played a role in preserving Indian culture prior to and post the Anti-Nautch movement?

The dance form of Sadir was originally solely practiced by devadasis, young women who dedicated their lives to the dance (Srinivasan). Devadasis were well-educated women who committed an oath to serve the deities of the temple that they resided in (Srinivasan). The term devadasi literally means slave (dasi) of God (deva) (Ganapathi). As per tradition, the devadasi was known as the first wife of god before she could become a second wife or concubine to a man of high social status (Srinivasan). The devadasis were also the only women allowed to adopt children (Srinivasan). They typically adopted daughters as they were favored for inheritance and to follow in the footsteps of their mother devadasi (Srinivasan). The devadasis learned the art form through the teachings from the Guru which mimicked the Tamil sectarian traditions of spiritual teachings and secular education (Srinivasan).

Though Sadir was accepted amongst most of the citizens of India, the British did not have the same outlook on this practice (Ganapathi) . The colonial rule looked down on all types of Indian dances practiced by women (Varga). They might have felt this way due to the cultural barrier and lack of similar extravagant dances in European culture (Pillai). The British furthermore weaved together different traditions, from the North and the South, under one umbrella-term, that of the nautch (Srinivasan). The idea of the devadasis being described as temple prostitute (Ganapathi) seems to have come from the devadasi marriage rituals and customs. Including the ritual of the women performing at parties when they were summoned (Pethe). Since the Devadasi were known for dancing during special events and weren’t fully married to a man, this ideology went against Christian beliefs (Varga).  Their views were due to possessing a few misunderstandings in deeming the devadasi dance rituals as solely corrupt. The visible part of the nautch, the dances performed for a broad audience were not described as improper. Even when it came down to the clothing of women, it was noted that it was not the slightest revealing, rather nautch women are said to be the most decently dressed among Indian women (Varga).

    The British weren’t the only ones who felt negatively against the traditional dances in India though. The British participation in the anti-nautch campaign can be interpreted as an act of negotiating the boundaries of the British colonial community (Varga).  Prior to the British representing their views, Brahmanic and non-Brahmanic understandings of female chastity also caused disputes over the nautch question, similarly to caste antagonism (Varga).

Although the nautch was an ancient, non-changing tradition, in which Indians took delight generation after generation (Varga). Immorality was handed down from father to son, as the nautch woman was welcome in the Indian home, the Indian domestic sphere has portrayed a place of corruption. The British and Western-influenced layers of Indian society were portrayed as educators and reformers, while native society was depicted in need of external intervention for social advance(Varga).

These views stimulated the first Anti-Nautch movement in 1892 which urged abolition of all ceremonies and procedures by which young girls dedicated themselves as devadasis to Hindu temples (Srinivasan). The movement being termed as Nautch, which was a corruption of the Hindu term each which was the term for the dance performed by a more common class of North Indian girls (Srinivasan). The Anti-nautch movement consisted largely of educated professionals and Hindus (majorly Brahmins) (Pillai). The campaign led to the complete suppression of Sadir even before the Reddy’s Bill of 1920 was enacted against temple dedication in 1947 (Srinivasan). The reformers also tried to westernize the Indian women with education in pursuing a career such as doctors and trying to get them to believe that the practices involved in being a devadasi, such as pre-pubertal marriage to the deities, were to be looked down upon (Srinivasan). The hereditary component that determined how dancers were selected is no longer applicable (Ganapathi). Gender struggles also played a role in the movement, as men got more societal power as the devadasis fell (Srinivasan). Men were also benefiting from this 1947 act as they could wed devadasis properly. The men’s participation in enacting this law seems to be more of an internal battle in whether women or men had more of a voice in the community (Srinivasan). The anti-nautch campaign can also be interpreted as expressing sexual anxieties and a struggle to tie privilege to accepted forms of sexuality (Varga). British discourses attempting to prove that the nautch was a social ill were not only directed at the colonial government, these aimed to draw the attention of Europeans to the harmful effects of the nautch (Varga). Despite the fact, that the possibility of European attraction to forms of native entertainment, sexuality, as violating racial and cultural boundaries was denied, the British participation in the anti-nautch campaign can be interpreted as an act of negotiating the boundaries of the British colonial community (Varga).

Due to the forms of dance, a prominent aspect in Indian culture, being stripped away due to the Anti-Nautch Movements. As the Anti- Nautch Movement took place, revival movements began for the dances in India, such as Sadir. The major movement of the time was the Theosophical Movement, which was headed by Madame HP Blavatsky and Colonel HS Olcott (Srinivasan). One of the main ideologies that played a role in bringing back the dance was the Indian citizens liking the idea of “Indian home rule” (Srinivasan). The goal of this movement was to restore India’s ancient glory, her art, science, and philosophy (Srinivasan). One of the reasons that the tables were slowly turning for more women and culture overall due to, the prominent leader in the revival movement of Sadir and women’s ancient spiritual heritage, Rukmini Arundale (Hoffman). She did this by becoming a public Sadir dancer herself which aided in erasing the negative thoughts about Sadir dancers being vulgar in nature (Hoffman). Arundale changed the image of her dancing to a pure and holy image in order to attract the right crowd of people (Hoffman). She also attracted people from respectable Brahmin families, and other elites by promoting the dance as similar to a form of yoga (Hoffman). Though the dance was being promoted in better lights, it still contained the same principles of having a guru (nattuvanars), performing pujas, and waking up early which represented purity (Srinivasan). The small differences were that women bands over men accompaniment bands, the dance forms were more scripture based, and the dance involved showing internal emotions, such as love scenarios, without eroticizing it (Srinivasan). With the slight reforms in straying Sadir from its preconceptions becoming a dance solely for devadasis and said to have ill intentions to more acceptable in the society, the title of Sadir was changed to Bharatanatyam.

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