The Dancing Girls of Lahore by Louise Brown is distressing book. Primarily because it offers a mirror to us, South Asians on a gutter-society (for want of a better word) existing right under and in-front of their eyes but which we (and our rulers) conveniently choose to ignore and trample upon.
It’s a sociologists diary-converted-to-book, an experience (over a few years) of life in the Heera Mandi red-light district of
As an writers’ narration of her experiences, it is expected that they would be flavoured on every page by her views and opinions, biases, upbringing and beliefs, perhaps condescension and so they do. The question that does spring up from time to time in my mind in the book is how can the writer be a passive observer to some pretty ghastly episodes: watching a child succumb to TB due to lack of money (small change for the author), watching the event of an underage girl being sent to have her virginity ‘broken’ in a Sheikhs palace in the Middle East, recording faithfully the daily episodes of prostitution by minors etc.. All in the name of aseptic intellectual pursuit!!!!!! Or am I being a little too simplistic here? Which reminds me of that much-distributed email photo of a starving almost-dead African child about to be eaten by a vulture. The helpful text accompanying the photo mentions that the photographer did not venture to help the child and the child must have doubtless been eaten by the vulture soon after. The award-winning photographer later committed suicide. Which brings us to the potent question as to how far can you remain uninvolved in the subject-matter on hand.
I would recommend this as a must-read for all, primarily for its stress on talking about those ignored sections of society which we and our press all too often conveniently sidestep in pursuit of ‘India Shining’ or ‘Pakistan Shining’ or whatever.
The following statement in that book caught my eye and had me fuming in indignation (a little too soon as I was to discover). “3000 years ago religious prostitution flourished in Hindu temples throughout the subcontinent. Pubescent girls were married to gods and dedicated to temples where they performed ritual dances…………..This is not an archaic practice: its legacy continues even today in the devadasi tradition of
‘The government of Orissa has stated that the devadasi system is not prevalent in the state. There is only one Devadasi in Orissa, in a Puri temple. Similarly the government of Tamil Nadu wrote that this system has been eradicated and there are now no devadasis in the state. Andhra Pradesh has identified 16,624 devadasis within its state and Karnataka has identified 22,941. The government of Maharashtra did not provide the information as sought by the Commission. However, the state government provided statistical data regarding the survey conducted by them to sanction a "Devadasi Maintenance Allowance". A total of 8,793 applications were received and after conducting a survey 6,314 were rejected and 2,479 devadasis were declared eligible for the allowance. At the time of sending the information, 1,432 Devadasis were receiving this allowance.’
My apologies Louise, I stand corrected.
In this connection, Bollywood fans might find the following facts about Lata Mangeshkar informative. These are taken from the book Bollywood – A history by Mihir Bose, an otherwise pedestrian book.
‘…….the forefathers of the Mangeshkars came from Somnath, where they were devdasi (temple musicians and dancers) at a temple………….After the sacking of the temple and its wonderful treaures by Mohammed of Ghazni (whose annual winter habit was to plunder India)…..Lata’s ancestors fled Somnath for the south and settled in Goa, in a place called Mangesh……..Here they once again resumed their services as devdasis………..Lata has always been cagey about her antecedents and, in her autobiography, written in Marathi, her native language, there is no reference to all this.
Update on 3-Apr-11
From ‘The Big Book Shelf’ - Sunil Sethi in conversation with 30 famous writers
William Dalrymple: …… Devadasis in medieval India often had very high status; they were the great dancers and singers. Bharatanatyam originated with them; Chola princesses would become devadasis. Many devadasis were not simple prostitutes, but had a high status in temples – they looked after the sanctuary and were consorts of the deity which meant looking after the idol. In many ways they were more like nuns than prostitutes. Then legislation – well-meaning initially – in colonial and post-colonial times made the institution illegal but it didn’t kill it, though it cut it's link with the temples and destroyed the devadasis’ high status. Today the devadasis are almost all Dalits and, frankly, their lives are little different from prostitutes working in brothels ………. Yet in their minds, it is entirely different
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