Folk dance/vulgar dance: erotic lavani and the hereditary performance labour

ABSTRACT

Performed as hereditary labour by women artists of lower castes largely for male entertainment, the erotic dance of lavani seems to occupy two different bifurcated worlds. There is a licit world of festivals, television dance shows, and urban revivalist cultural shows where lavani is performed in its vernacularized codified form, and valorized as the folk art of Maharashtra. The nostalgia of the urban cosmopolitan middle class for the indigenous and rural, and the concern of the regional state and elites for cultural identity undergirds this folk world. The other world is of a range of subaltern cultural spaces from local performance houses (kala kendra), to stage shows and orchestras, where the erotic dance of lavani is performed for livelihood, and is castigated as vulgar, ‘just sex, no art’. While the cultural labour of this ‘vulgar’ lavani is performed only by the hereditary women artists, they have only a nominal presence in the folk world of lavani. This paper seeks to unpack the politics of folklorization that rests upon the exclusion of vulgarized but an organically thriving performance of lavani. It further interrogates how the hereditary cultural labour is central to this process of folklorization.

KEYWORDS:

• Folk art
• hereditary labour
• erotic dance
• vulgarization
• caste stigma
• sexual performance
• gendered labour

Acknowledgment

This paper is a part of my on-going work on hereditary performance labour in Maharashtra and the politics of its folklorization. I am grateful to Surekha Bharati, Kanchan Jadhav and Suvarna More for their research assistance; Svati Shah, Indira Peterson, Elizabeth Armstrong, and V. Geetha, and two anonymous reviewers for their critical and generous feedback on the drafts of this paper; and Fulbright- USIEF, ICSSR, CSSH-UPE-II Savitribai Phule Pune University for supporting this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Naregal, ‘Marginality, regional forms and state patronage’.

2. Fiol, Recasting Folk in the Himalayas.

3. Dhond, Marhati Lavani.

4. Rege, ‘The hegemonic appropriation of sexuality’.

5. Babasaheb Ambedkar refused to accept donation for his temple entry campaign from Patthe Bapurao, an exemplary shahir or lavani composer belonging to the highest brahmin caste, deeming it as earnings from the systematic institutionalized sexual exploitation of lower caste women like the iconic dancer Pavala. The obligatory labour of erotic dancing and the materiality of embodied stigma of Dalit lavani dancers was challenged in his analysis of caste as the graded hierarchy. He highlighted the regulation of female sexuality through differential rules of mating and lineage through differential sexual practices across castes that relegated Dalit women to non-domestic sexuality in lavani performance. See Rege, Against the Madness of Manu.

6. Rege, ‘The hegemonic appropriation of sexuality’.

7. Naregal, ‘Performance, caste, aesthetics’.

8. The folklorization of lavani involves bifurcation of the poetic of lavani from its music and dance. Whereas the roots of lavani poetry were mapped in the Marathi literary tradition of shahiri which foregrounded lavani more than the erotic, and as composed or written by men not just from the lower castes, but also brahmins such as Ram Joshi, Anantfandi and Prabhakar who were albeit marked in their times for losing caste in writing lavani. However, the musical tradition of lavani is not delineated, marking lavani as non- classical and spontaneous as ‘folk’, with the exception of scholars like Olsen Rao, The lávaní of Maharashtra, who tries to outline the tradition of measured and unmeasured lavani through ethnographic work. While the routes of lavani are still to be mapped in terms of its dance and performance traditions, from baithikichi lavani performed by women in the private intimate concerts often with slow paced adakari and bhavkam, to phadachi lavani performed by women dancers on stage often with fast paced dance, or shahiri lavani sung by male shahirs. See Kule, Panchalavanya.

9. Hauser, “From Oral Tradition to ‘Folk Art’. She discusses how the making of the patua art of Bengal as ‘folk’ has entailed a shift from a primarily oral tradition of story-telling to a primarily visual tradition of scroll- painting in the context of urban middle class commerce and patronage to art products.

10. Naregal, ‘Performance, caste, aesthetics’. She points out how the legacy of brahmin lavani composers such as Patthe Bapurao came to be recuperated as iconic, interestingly several years after his performing career has ended in penury and isolation; the subaltern legacy of more radical lower caste lavani composers like Annabhau Sathe who energized tamasha and lavani form with dalit and communist political content came to be marginalized.

11. These life- narratives of lavani artists frame their life as struggle for survival, and journey towards appreciation and achievement, often in folk theatre, stage shows, touring talkies or low- grade cassette industry, but occasionally also in modern theatre, film and television or recordings. It brings out their experiences of humiliation as artists, of penury and pain, but also of passionate pursuit of art despite difficulties- ill health and familial burdens. Travel, continuous travel – between different artistic worlds, often illicit, and between life of performance being single and life with partner without performance, is central to their life. These life narratives for instance of Vithabai Narayangaonkar, Yamunabai Waikar, Madhu Kambikar are available through different textual and audio- visual documentation as cited below. For a rich analysis of the life- story of a lavani artist, Mangala Bansode, read Paik, ‘Mangala Bansode and the Social Life of Tamasha’.

12. The distinct discourse of loksanskruti in the Marathi public sphere has been immensely contentious and changing. Its analysis is part of my ongoing work, but outside the scope of this paper.

13. Fiol, Recasting Folk in the Himalayas.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. Bharucha, ‘Thinking through Culture: A Perspective for the New Millennium’.

17. Chatterjee, ‘Scripting the Folk’.

18. Lowthorp, ‘Folklore, politics, and the state’.

19. The state claimed sole authority in the cultural field with the state patronage replacing earlier princely patronage of arts, through its institutions such as Sangeet Natak Akadami. Its schemes for promotion of regional arts, such as funds for stage shows and festivals, pension or honorarium for ageing artists, awards for artists, seed money for performing troupes, documentation of arts, training workshops for artists etc. supported lavani and tamsha over the other localized artistic practices across Maharashtra. This is brought out through data gathered about the schemes of Maharashtra government for folk artists through its cultural ministry as well as that for social welfare; and also from conversations at the related government sections during the field work in 2017.

20. Diamond, ‘State Patronage and Performers’.

21. Interview with Reshma Paritekar, April 2018, widely acclaimed lavani artist who is a doctoral researcher at Savitribai Phule Pune University which is quite uncommon for a hereditary lavani artist like her.

22. This cultural programme was initially composed, performed and produced by Shahir Sable, a distinguished folk artist performing in Mumbai’s Kamgar Rangabhoomi or Workers’ Theatre. In its long journey, it has shaped early careers of several artists coming from Mumbai’s workers’ chawls including many acclaimed artists of the Marathi entertainment industry.

23. See Madhurang, the autobiography of Madhu Kambikar, 2012.

24. Interviews with Jaisingh Mohite Patil, former member of Legislative assembly and Nana Kumbhar, from the organizers of Akluj Lavani Spardha in Akluj in July 2018.

25. Kishore, ‘Dil Dance mare re’.

26. Chakravorty, This is how we dance now!.

27. The show ‘Dholkichya Talavar’ (On the Beat of Dholki) is a dance reality show of lavani dance screened on Colors Marathi television and included Shankuntala Nagarkar, a hereditary lavani artist as one of the judges in its 2^nd season that featured lavani in duet of a young woman and a young girl. The promotional speech of this show underlined assertively that on occasions when lascivious content of lavani is to be performed, the young woman from the duet would come forward, placing the young girl in the background, thus preserving the innocence of child. This sanitization and legitimization of lavani is ironic, as while young children performing romantic and even raunchy hyper-sexualized film dances or songs is appreciated, lavani can not be absolved of its intrinsic label as sexually degenerate. Several folk artists deride this show as it didn’t involve dholki in it, which is central rhythmic instrument in lavani, contradicting its title.

28. Coulangeon and Duval, The Routledge companion to Bourdieu’s Distinction.

29. Hanquinet, and Savage, ‘Educative leisure’.

30. See ‘Lessons from Lavani’ written by Lisa Björkman, accessed at https://medium.com/@uclurbanlab/lessons-from-lavani-bdf5289b942e in December 2018.

31. Mankekar, ‘Dangerous Desires’.

32. Tambe, ‘Women- Only!’.

33. Jaagaran- gondhal is a night long programme of devotional singing and theatrical presentation, performed on auspicious occasions, especially after weddings, to summon the deities to seek their blessings for overcoming chaos, and to worship them for granting wishes.

34. See Surekha Punekar lavani dance show 2018 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN-tMqfQkBA&app=desktop, accessed in October 2018.

35. Rege, ‘The hegemonic appropriation of sexuality’.

36. Recently non- hereditary lavani artists performing in banner shows have also started introducing themselves in this way for instance as Mumbaikar or Nashikkar to claim the authenticity of performance.

37. Further, in the context of hereditary cultural labour, the performance roles often interfere with kinship roles which is seen by elites as vulgar and immoral. Mangala Bansode’s son, Vijay admits rather embarrassingly in a media interview that he has to perform- sing/dance with his mother as her romantic partner. While upper caste women were prohibited from performing, for being placed with ‘stranger’ men from unknown castes, these lower caste performers, women in particular are degraded for having to perform with their own kin men.

38. Paik, ‘Mangala Bansode and the Social Life of Tamasha’.

39. Interview with Yogesh Deshmukh, June 2018.

40. Interview with Reshma Paritekar, April 2018.

41. See autobiographies of Vithabai Narayangaonkar and Yamunabai Waikar, the documentary Vithabai, produced by SPARROW, Mumbai, accessed at https://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/filmedia/play/732/Vithabai in August 2018.

42. Interview with Yogesh Deshmukh, June 2018.

43. Duggal, ‘The “pirate” DJ’.

44. Interview with Sarala Nandurikar, July 2018.

45. Rao, ‘Thumri as Feminine Voice’. She underlines Thumri as feminine voice, not because of its largely women singers or for articulation of female desire, albeit for male gaze; but for its fluidity and multivocality that rejects rigidity, its interrogative, subversive quality as it extends the musical space by playing with ambiguities, meanings, and in its use of humour which rather marks it as dangerous. One can think of lavani in this context.

46. See the documentary Vithabai, Ibid.

47. See autobiographies of Vithabai Narayangaonkar and Yamunabai Waikar.

48. See interview of Surekha Punekar, Great Bhet: Surekha Punekat at News18 Lokmat, Published on October 26, 2012, and accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NCliZuopQw in August 2018.

49. Interview with Yogesh Deshmukh, June 2018.

50. Prakash, Cultural Labour.

51. Interview with Yogesh Deshmukh, June 2018.

52. Kala Kendra are performance cum residential complexes with 8/10 lavani troupes of hereditary women artists bound with year- long contract. These troupes are named after their main dancers/troupe owners and include few other dancers and music accompanist men. Kala Kendra typically includes residential quarters for artists- one big room for one troupe, a stage theatre for short preview ticketed performances of ‘traditional’ lavani in the evening, and 8/10 rooms for privatized concerts for the audience of a group of 5/7 men who request performance on their favourite songs. The mobility of these performers is restricted when under contract, and they live and work within the precincts of Kala Kendra.

53. The banner shows are performed to the accompaniment of live and recorded music punctuated by comedy sketches, often by professionally trained dancers but also by acclaimed hereditary dancers. These shows often have sexually suggestive titles with ‘double’ meaning often after lavani lyrics such as karbhari damana (hey partner, go slow), ya ravji (come in partner), mi kat takli (I have changed myself), zalya tinhi sanja (its evening time).

54. The orchestra shows have new structures of music, language, performers (often involving professional/non- hereditary performers), musical instruments and performing style. The emergence of orchestra as neoliberal mediatized cultural form corresponds with the local corporate cassette and CD industry in 1980s. The live orchestra shows by local ensembles or parties, performing a mix of Bollywood, film and folk music and dance, has swept through the performance landscape of India since 1990s, and has been incorporated into local performance genres. Such orchestra shows are organized on varied occasions, in private familial, as well as public neighbourhood contexts of gatherings and festivities, from wedding to ramnavami or Jayanti, and mixing disparate genres of lavani, bhavgeet, gazal, qawwali, dharmik geet or film music according to the demand of their hosts/patrons, and requirements of the occasion. Read Prakash, Cultural Labour.

55. Interview with Yogesh Deshmukh, June 2018.

56. Weidman, Singing the Classical, Voicing the Modern.

57. Tambe, ‘Women- Only!’.

58. The Dalit feminist critique of this feminist romanticizing of female sexual agency in erotic dancing is critical.

here to point out complex interplay of stigma, labour and desire entrenched in the hierarchies of caste, gender

and sexuality. For more discussion Read Paik, ‘Mangala Bansode and the Social Life of Tamasha’ and Rege, Against the Madness of Manu.

59. See this video Amorous Adventures of Shakku and Megha in the Valley of Consent by Agents of Ishq, a multi-media project about sex, desire and love in India at http://agentsofishq.com/a-lavni-about-consent-the-amorous-adventures-of-megha-and-shakku/ accessed in April 2018.

60. The ‘folk’ arts across India are entrenched in the hereditary performance labour within the caste economy. These caste underpinnings of the arena of culture and arts have not only shaped the cultural categorization and classification in the regional contexts, but have also imbued meaning- making processes and affective politics more broadly. See Ajotikar, … … .The popularization, commercialization and diversification of these artistic genres albeit has transformed the performance contexts, for instance adjustments in the nomadism of service castes of entertainers, or integration of spiritual dimension of artistic tradition with the aspirational mobilities of subaltern artists. Yet the caste- based hereditary labour continues to gird the ‘folk’ arts and its ‘vulgar’ forms. The performing communities have responded to this in diverse ways, from its outright rejection or its performance in new reconfigured formats with rejection of associated caste duties, to its re-articulation and reclamation for equality and dignity to challenge the very order that frames it.

61. See the documentary Vithabai, Ibid.

62. Interview with Surekha Jadhav, January 2018.

63. Korgavkar, Sangeetbari.

64. Interview with Reshma Paritekar, April 2018.

65. Interview with Reshma Paritekar, Ibid.

66. Read the interview of Malati Inamdar at https://policenama.com/controversy-erupts-on-vithabai-narayangaonkar-puraskar/ accessed in August 2018.

67. See interview of Raghuvir Khedkar, Majha Katta: Raghuvir Khedkar at ABP Maza, Published on July 7, 2018, and accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDOqZ3q4qDo in August 2018.

68. Naregal, ‘Marginality, regional forms and state patronage’.

69. The folk arts have been conceptualized as cultural labour in the local cast economy, entailing livelihood as well as production of symbolic values, that would reproduce both caste norms as well as communitarian affirmative knowledge, For further discussion, see Prakash, Cultural Labour, Chakraborty and Tambe, ‘Performing Art/Performing Labour’.

70. Interview with Reshma Paritekar, April 2018. Here reference is to the Balutedari system in Maharastra, which is similar to the Jajmani system in northern India, and refers to the caste based hierarchisation of labour and services. It involves a complex web of hereditary rights and duties linked with agrarian patronage.