Introduction: Indian Performing Arts and Modernity's Cultures of Exclusion
Pakeezah and the paradigm of the traditional female public/erotic performer in South Asia
Female publiclerotic performers, patriarchy and transgression
The new order: mapping legitimate and illicit zones in Indian performing arts
Colonial and postcolonial modernities, collateral damage and performing arts
Possibilities for and signs of change in post-liberalisation India
Recovering histories, valuing performing arts: the aims of this book
1. The Creation and Recreation of India's Illicit Zones of Performing Arts: Dynamics of Exclusion in Colonial and Postcolonial India
Stigmatisation and the loss of status and livelihood of hereditary female performers in colonial India
The repetition and consolidation of history: Continued dynamics of exclusion of female erotic performers in postcolonial India
2. Female Hereditary Performers in Post-Independence India: Communities, Histories and Livelihoods
Tribes and communities: the social organisation of hereditary female performers
Female hereditary performing communities in contemporary India
3. Transgender Erotic Performers in South Asia
MSM transgenders and sexual minorities in South Asia
Erotic feminine male performers in historical sources
Kothis, femininity, dance and eroticism
4. The Bollywood Dance Revolution and the Embourgoisement of Indian Performing Arts
Classical performing arts
Indian/Hindi films and the film industry
The Bollywood dance revolution: new horizons of dance in middle class India
5. Mumbai Dance Bars, Anti-Nautch II, and New Possibilities
The continuation and repetition of history: The dance bar ban as anti-nautch II
New directions: The bar girls debacle as an unprecedented chapter in the history of public/erotic female performers in India
6. The Contemporary World of Kothi Performers: Changing Patterns of Livelihood and Socio-Cultural Space
The social organisation of kothi performers
Livelihoods of kothi dancers: some glimpses
New struggles for socio-cultural space
