Heeramandi and the forgotten role of tawaifs in India’s freedom struggle

Netflix’s new series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, helmed by popular director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, has brought the role of courtesans in India’s freedom struggle to the centre stage. While we remember and celebrate our freedom fighters, the story of tawaifs find no mention in our history books.

As _Heeramandi_ narrates the tale of courtesans in the backdrop of India’s freedom struggle, we take a look at these unsung heroes who are yet to get their dues.

Brief history of courtesans

Courtesans, known as tawaifs in the North, were highly skilled women trained in music, dance, poetry, languages and literature. They enjoyed clout and wealth, and attracted patronage from the elite and royalty.

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As per a Scroll report, Pran Nevile in his book Nautch Girls of India: Dancers, Singers, Playmates wrote that tawaifs of North India had wealth, power, prestige, and political access.

Eminent families used to send their sons to them to learn “tehzeeb or etiquette”, and “the art of conversation”, the report added.

According to The Conversation piece, courtesans enjoyed “privileges not afforded to most women in Indian society, such as education and personal income. They led glamorous lifestyles … and paid taxes.”

Seen as a centre of art and culture, they reached their highest point under the Mughals. “To be associated with a tawaif was considered to be a symbol of status, wealth, sophistication and culture…no one considered her to be a bad woman or an object of pity,” Nevile wrote in his book.

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There is no conclusive research that proves if these courtesans offered sex. However, they had sexual agency and any such relationships with their patrons might have been “consensual”, Scroll reported.

Tawaifs role in India’s freedom struggle

From financial help to inspiring the freedom fighters, tawaifs played a significant role in India’s Independence movement.

As anger against the East India Company spread, courtesans offered their establishments, known as kothas, as a meeting place and hideouts for rebels, noted Scroll.

Azeezunbai, who was originally from Lucknow, shifted to Kanpur at a young age. According to a paper by Lata Singh, an associate professor at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), she became close to sepoys of the British Indian Army, especially one named Shamsuddin Khan.

Azeezunbai, also spelled as Azizun Bai, was involved in the 1857 uprising against the British East India Company. She was spotted “on horseback in male attire decorated with medals, armed with a brace of pistols” during the mutiny, Scroll reported citing testimony to the British into the uprising.

“Azizun’s house was also the meeting point of sepoys. She had formed a group of women who went around fearlessly, cheering the men in arms, attended to their wounds and distributed arms and ammunition,” Singh wrote in her paper.

According to The Conversation, her interest was to ensure the continuance of her patronage from the native rulers for her economic and social well-being.

Courtesans were called “nautch girls” during British rule, and their profession was equated with prostitution.

Another courtesan in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) also played a role in the 1857 rebellion. As per Singh, Hussaini is believed to be one of the key conspirators of the Bibighar massacre, which saw the death of over 100 captive British women and children.

Begum Hazrat Mahal, who was the wife of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, was a courtesan before her marriage, some accounts say. During the mutiny, when her husband was exiled, Indian fighters seized control of Lucknow under her leadership, even though briefly.

In 1921, Mahatma Gandhi asked Gauhar Jaan, a celebrated courtesan, to contribute to the Swaraj Fund through her performance. She agreed but put the condition that Gandhi should be present at the fund-raising concert. However, after Gandhi failed to show up, she sent only half the amount she managed to raise, as per Vikram Sampath’s book My Name is Gauhar Jaan.

During the non-cooperation movement from 1920 to 1922 led by Gandhi, some courtesans in Varanasi formed the Tawaif Sabha to back the independence struggle. Singh noted in her paper that Husna Bai, who chaired the sabha, asked the group members to wear iron shackles in place of ornaments in solidarity and boycott foreign goods.

After being inspired by one of Gandhi’s speeches in Varanasi, a courtesan named Vidyadhar Bai started singing nationalist songs in her every mehfil, boycotted foreign-made cloth and started dressing in only Indian hand-spun fabric, reported HuffPost.

How courtesans were targeted

After the mutiny, there was a crackdown on courtesans by the British.

“They got warrants for [searching the kothas] and would destroy them, break the furniture, pull down the curtains. That’s how the tawaif culture was actually, physically, dismembered,” Veena Talwar Oldenberg was quoted as saying by Scroll.

Their influence and position considerably declined under British rule. They faced discrimination and oppression from society and the state, noted PTI.

While their social status decimated by the 1900s as compared to their glory days in the 19th Century, courtesans still played a part in India’s Independence.

As Heeramandi generates interest in the role of tawaifs in India’s freedom struggle, it’s worth remembering these heroes lost in the pages of history.

With inputs from agencies