Anti Nautch Movement Analysis

The British mindset created and propagated disdain for Indian culture and traditions in their attempt to establish theirs as superior. Hence, while it was common for the officials to call the tawaifs of North India to perform Kathak at social functions, the dance and especially the dancers were still looked down upon.
The anti nautch movement was thus launched in the 1890s, as an extension of the Social Purity Movement in the Great Britain. The anti nautch movement was spearheaded by the Christian missionaries and the Indian elite who thought that the dance could arouse unchristian and immoral feelings. And the Madras Christian Literary Society, a publishing house of the missionaries in the South, published a considerable amount of anti-nautch

Even the feminine roles were portrayed by men, because it was acceptable for men to be explicit about sensuality and erotic sentiments. For instance, in the dance drama Bhama Kalapam, transvestite characters were used for ribald humour and to show the transition from Madhava to Madhavi throughout the drama.
However, with the intervention of Vempati Chinna Satyam in the 1960s, Kuchipudi was brought to Madras, where he opened up the dance style to women. There were criticisms about the untempered and vulgar sexuality the women brought to the dance form. Chinna Satyam however, revolutionized Kuchipudi and presented Bhama Kalapam again, this time with women not only portraying the role of Satyabhama but also that of Lord

So the only women back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century who dared to enjoy or partake in music and dance in public spaces, were deemed courtesans and prostitutes. Religious zealots aggravated the contempt shown towards them, and they became a part of the sidelined sections of the society. The people then showed a considerable amount of hypocrisy when they criticized these women in public and enjoyed their art and even bodies, in discretion.
It was only later after the 1900s, when the likes of Balasaraswati and Rukmini Devi Arundale, a woman of the higher caste, took to the Indian classical dance that female dancers started to be looked at in a more dignified light. Performance arts which were seen as that propagated only by the lower castes, saw many from the higher castes showing interest to learn them.
It is important to understand this topic because it will talk about the change in the way women in performance arts and public spaces were looked at. It would therefore elucidate how the concept of gender in arts was revolutionized over time. With a change in how women are perceived in art forms, there came along a change in their roles in the society as well. The barriers of caste which earlier defined classical dance eventually diminished to give way to the elite and the non elites equally enjoying a performing