Bharatanatyam//Colonialism

After reading the Poisonwood Bible, I wanted to uncover how the gem of Bharatanatyam fared undernearth the harsh and often unreasonable commands of the British Raj (Crown).

To start off, to say that propaganda against all Indian CUlture was high at the time of British rule is a henious understatement. The british called many Classical Indian art forms, including Bharatnatayam, as crude, immoral, and barbaric, in spite of its deep-seeded, anceint origins. The devadasis which once were esteemed coutriers inthe highest palaces in India were no longer supported in fears of British reprimanding, These devadasis were forced to take up other jobs, pushing them even lower on the social ladder than before and causing the dance form to almost disappear throughout Southern India by the first quarter of the 20th century.

"In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, social reformers under Western influence took advantage of these circumstances, launching an Anti-Nautch campaign to eradicate not only the prostitution that had come to be associated with devadasis, but the art itself, condemning it as a social evil. "

While the art form of Bharatanatyam is thriving in today's India, and even globally, many ideas have not. Pre-colonial ideals of devadasis and court dancers have all but disappeared, and are simply a memory in the great history of the art form.