Undoing Angashuddhi: Interrogating Indian Classical Dance and the Nation

For the layperson, Indian classical dance is an ancient Indian art. When classical dancers perform, the audience ordinarily views the performance as an authentic representation of the art of the temple dancer or courtesan from centuries ago. An ancient Hindu dramatic treatise called the Natyashastra is meant to offer proof of this assessment of ancientness and authenticity. Indian classical dance is construed as a timeless form, kept alive despite the vagaries of time. In this way, Indian classical dance is seen solely as a centuries-old art form outside the realm of politics. In this thesis, I counter the reading of Indian classical dance as an apolitical dance form by building on scholarship which shows that dance is shaped in and through the politics of the time. In this thesis, I make two key arguments that contribute to understanding Indian classical dance as a politicised form. First, I argue that the bayadere, nautch girl, and the early Indian classical dancer are not neutral figures. Instead, each of them is shaped through colonial, gender, national and caste politics. Second, I suggest that these politics are visible in the movements, steps and dance of the contemporary Indian classical dancer. In other words, movement has meaning. In making these two arguments, I redefine the meaning of a central concept in classical dance called angashuddhi. In its literal translation, it means the purity of the limbs but is most often understood as the clarity of lines of the dancer’s body. Angashuddhi is a word used ubiquitously in many Indian classical dance classrooms. It is used to comment on the formal proficiency of the dancer. I argue that this formal analysis does not account for how the embodiment of angashuddhi is also connected to the production of the Indian nation. The nation rewards and prioritises dancing connected to angashuddhi through patronage, processes of nationalisation, and opportunities at cultural festivals. Angashuddhi replicates existing socio-religious hierarchies through dance. Thus, this thesis argues against the idea that art is divorced from politics, or art for art’s sake. It argues that both dance and the dancer are political instruments that can replicate or counter already existing power structures. Recognising this fact is crucial because Indian classical dance invokes an ancient Hindu India. Over the past decade, Hindu ethnonationalists have repeatedly called for a Hindu Rashtra or nation based on ancient Hindu India. In such an India, minorities are relegated to second-class citizens and face everyday violence both at the physical and symbolic level. This thesis is motivated by the entanglement between dance and ethnonationalism and how the Indian classical dancer both supports and counters it.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Nair, Ranjini

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Denmead, Tyler

• caste
• dance
• gender
• nationalism

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/150dddc3-a9b9-4ee5-a740-4d8ac3d7bea1/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.119602

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/386354