scorecardresearch
Add as a preferred source on Google
Monday, October 20, 2025
TopicTawaifs

Topic: Tawaifs

Caste and kotha didn’t go together. It freed many lower caste girls

In 'Nautch Boy', Manish Gaekwad offers a memoir of his life, documenting his experiences as a queer child growing up in a kotha.

‘The Last Courtesan’ is a saga of guns, gangs, ghazals. Author didn’t want it to be a movie

Manish Gaekwad brought a lot of Hindi-Urdu words into the text. 'That’s how she spoke, and that’s the language of her story–why change it? Why interrupt a woman while she is talking?'

Haseenain-e-Lucknow—a photographic record of tawaifs and what it tells us about Awadh

The album was produced as a luxury item, with no more than a few copies, and suggests an aesthetic link to the Mughal 'muraqqa' tradition of illustrated albums.

Why’s Bollywood obsessed with Tawaifs? ‘Heeramandi’ brings back the stereotypes

According to Pakistani film critic Omer Adil, filmmakers of the subcontinent have created a fantasy chimaera, a celluloid courtesan, which has nothing to do with tawaifs.

‘Mujra, tawaif not bad words’—Classical dancer rescuing courtesan culture from British gaze

Manjari Chaturvedi is bringing tawaifs’ songs and performances to life through ‘The Courtesan Project’, which she launched in 2011 and discussed at IIC’s recent Music Appreciation Programme.

Tawaifs weren’t just into art and culture. Their role in Independence remains forgotten

When the British Raj encountered Tawaifs—women with agency and autonomy—they were confounded and threatened, unable to categorise this community within their social divisions.

On Camera

Pakistan’s next target could be India’s economy — and the US won’t mind

The one thing that bothers Pakistan, China, and the US is the global talk about India’s resilient economy and its inevitable rise as the third pole in geopolitics over the next decade.

Paul John Whisky, Malhar Gin win top honours at Soho India Wine & Spirits Awards 2025

Goa: Creators of the Paul John Indian Single Malt Whisky and Malhar India Craft Gin, John Distilleries registered yet another stellar showing at the...

Precise & proven: The Tomahawk, America’s prized missile wanted by Kyiv & feared by Kremlin

After initially showing interest in supplying the long-range missile to Ukraine, Trump appeared hesitant following his meeting with Zelenskyy, a day after his phone call with Putin.

CJI, IPS, IAS & Homebound: A wake-up call 75 years in the making

Education, reservations, govt jobs are meant to bring equality and dignity. That we are a long way from that is evident in the shoe thrown at the CJI and the suicide of Haryana IPS officer. The film Homebound has a lesson too.