an indian employee said, as it came up in discussion during a youth performance rehearsal.
did/does Islamic civilisation’s spread in indian cubcontinent, encouraged/s concubinage of women?
a tune was hummed and later referred to as a tavaif song. and she had the nerve to react back out of spite and said to the person who sung the tune, ‘are your ancestors from tavaif background’?
her sense of entitlement being an south asian indian was enough to make her feel all alright, in spitting this out. simply over a hummed tuned refferred to as a tavaif song.
and then she went on to say, that all the tavaif hood in south asian continent, is in fact a brainchild of the moghul times? other than protecting the youth from answering back in a disrespectful manner to her, i kept my own reply back.
i throw this topic out here, and would like you to do three things.
think and describe your answer to these, if you like.
a) was she wrong or right in making the correlation?
b) given the moghul history, does it or does it not appear to be expolitation of women, in coutroom dances, during that period of rule in the indian sub continent.
c) if such a comment from anyone who is indian is made to you, how would you react and /or set out the history accurately as well?
fellow guppan ladies, especially, please share your thoughts on this.
male guppies, your thoughts?
Re: south asian moghuls history and exploitation of women as court room dancers
a) was she wrong or right in making the correlation?
There is no denial about the courtroom dancer culture in Mughal period. But then restricting the correlation by her only to the Mughal period was wrong. It would have been fine had she correlated it as enslavement of females by high and mighty males of the society in every civilization in every era. Prostitution known as the worlds oldest profession and it has existed in different era and civilizations in different forms.be it tawaif culture of mughals,devadasis of south India ,female slave culture of romans greeks egytians and middle east.every era had this culture so restricting the correlation only to Mughals is wrong in one way.The only reason for it can be her limited knowledge about history or under some other influential negative thought relating to mughals she proposed her theory of correlation of tawaif culture only with them.
b) given the moghul history, does it or does it not appear to be expolitation of women, in coutroom dances, during that period of rule in the indian sub continent.
Yes it was.Women as such were exploited in different era(even in modern era) under as sex slaves devdasi,coutroom dancers.but then the definition of rights changes over timeperiod.you cant ‘ve the todays standards of women rights and compare it with old era.And yes tawaif culture amounts to exploitation.but then if you speak about the exploitation of women itself then it’s a deep rooted problem which can even question the treatment meted out to females by different religions of this earth.Exploitation of females is vast topic to elaborate upon which which encompasses tawaif culture.
c) if such a comment from anyone who is indian is made to you, how would you react and /or set out the history accurately as well?
The comment should not be taken based on nationality but based on rationality. And here the question is not about wrong history but the perception based on the limited knowledge or some influence. That particular lady was right about tawaif culture but she was entirely wrong in her correlation.Had she said like ”women exploitation is brainchild of influential people of the society in every era of which tawaif culture was one during the mughal era” then I wud ‘ve agreed with her.
Re: south asian moghuls history and exploitation of women as court room dancers
an indian employee said, as it came up in discussion during a youth performance rehearsal.
did/does Islamic civilisation's spread in indian cubcontinent, encouraged/s concubinage of women?
This could be considered a theory. Need some more investigation
[quote]
a tune was hummed and later referred to as a tavaif song. and she had the nerve to react back out of spite and said to the person who sung the tune, 'are your ancestors from tavaif background'?
her sense of entitlement being an south asian indian was enough to make her feel all alright, in spitting this out. simply over a hummed tuned refferred to as a tavaif song.
and then she went on to say, that all the tavaif hood in south asian continent, is in fact a brainchild of the moghul times? other than protecting the youth from answering back in a disrespectful manner to her, i kept my own reply back.
[/quote]
Despite being disrespectful, her statement holds some value. The patronage was indeed there from the rich and mighty (mughals, nawaabs) The golden age of tawaifhood is quite classy indeed with rich garment, ornaments and classic language.
Re: south asian moghuls history and exploitation of women as court room dancers
ajtr and code red, thanks for your replies. i agree.
it does go to show that a lot needs to be dispelled, misconception against all muslim women and men, in the mind of not just caucasians, but everyone in the mix of america. a desi woman saying this in the context is very disappointing.
however, it is true that the history of mogul rule period has been like that.