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Saturday, September 6, 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

Kolkata’s silencing of Javed Akhtar exposes India’s secular vacuum

Even those parties that wear the label of secular and progressive often bow to the pressures of fundamentalist groups within the Muslim community.

GST 2.0: India streamlines indirect tax regime amid Trump tariffs & what it means for consumers

Goods and Services Tax Council paves way for a broad two-slab structure of 5% and 18% with a demerit rate of 40% for super luxury and 'sin' goods.

Nuclear-propulsion systems to next-gen tanks, India draws up its 15-year defence wishlist

New Delhi: India is looking to induct hypersonic missiles, nuclear propulsion for aircraft carriers and warships, next-gen tanks, a variety of unmanned systems and...

Punjab is fast becoming the new Northeast. And there’s a message in it for Modi

In its toughest time in decades because of floods, Punjab would’ve expected PM Modi to visit. If he has the time for a Bihar tour, why not a short visit to next-door Punjab?