Once upon a time the art of my ancestors was usurped, the women were stopped from dancing based on moral grounds and by a law. People were arrested and many had to undergo severe repercussions of poverty and oppression. The art was then altered to fit upper-caste bodies – our bodies and our aesthetics were discarded. And now times have changed…
Nrithya Pillai
If you wish to be aware of and not support continuing oppressive behavior, exclusionary caste politics and ever continuing appropriations of devadasi dance and want to make a conscious choice to actually support the traditional hereditary artistes and their art in a manner that is uplifting of their memories, here is something you should read.
Let us speak, sing and dance for ourselves! Once upon a time the art of my ancestors was usurped, the women were stopped from dancing based on moral grounds and by a law. People were arrested and many had to undergo severe repercussions of poverty and oppression. The art was then altered to fit upper-caste bodies – our bodies and our aesthetics were discarded. And now times have changed, some of us women carry the pain of the grave injustice that happened to our women from the previous generations, but we also carry their art.
We understand our art, we understand what has happened to it and how different it is today to dance freely for the others, but our burdensome past lets us not. But, how can we dance freely? Where is the space for the actual women from the hereditary dancing communities, when courtesan dance and hereditary art – performance and articulation again is the bastion of upper-caste / upper-class women?
The word devadasi and the sociopolitical and cultural repercussions and the persecution that comes from belonging to such communities falls on us women, while these privileged women play devadasi dress up in the guise of seeking and producing authentic art and dance- although ultimately it is only reimagined, re-constructed and again highly embodied art .
We as women from the hereditary community have been forced by law and society to feel shame and embarrassment with our identities, we wish to claim our identities in ways that are comfortable and not shaming of us and our ancestors. We may not want to call our dance “devadasi dance”, we may not have the energy to fight for dignity, which is a given for others, we may not want to dress up to satiate your ideas of “devadasi fantasy” – yet our bodies and minds represent them better. Please try and understand our politics and the conflicts within us. Our space was forcefully taken away then and it is still unavailable today. Open up the space for authenticity…
Let our women speak, dance and sing- the art of our ancestors , through our own bodies.Be conscious while you support art and artists. And as for dancers please think before you decide to play devadasi dress up or represent the women of such communities and their art forms, after all representing a devadasi or a hereditary dancer also comes from the lived experience of belonging to the community.It is truly sad and oppressive for us to watch constant re-appropriation and violence on our art forms.
(Nrithya is a well-known Bharatanatyam dancer)
