The nautee in 'the second city of the Empire'

Abstract

In this article I shall be bringing together several otherwise disparate histories of nineteenth- century Bengal: of migrant women turning to some form of prostitution; of traditions of women performers active in Calcutta from the eighteenth century; and finally , that of representation and female impersonation among the upper-class practitioners of private theatricals (1830s-60s). With the induction of women as actresses in 1873, there appears to be a point of no return in men playing the women's parts on the Bengali public stage. I suggest that this should not be read as a sudden break, but rather as a 'resolution' of contradictions, dilemmas and anxieties evident in the histories outlined above. A useful but neglected perspective on this trajectory emerges from the relationship of gender to genre and musical forms: this article seeks to initiate such an inquiry.