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Gosain Tawaif: Slaves, Sex, and Ascetics in Rasdhan, ca. 1800–1857

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2004

VIJAY PINCH
VIJAY PINCH
Affiliation:
Wesleyan University
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Extract

In the center of the clearing, an aging warrior tries to draw his sword, fury etched upon his face. He faces two young warriors with raised swords who are racing to attack. A distraught old woman restrains the old warrior, while two younger men attempt to calm his attackers. A young boy holding a bow, arrows tucked in his waistband, dashes toward the combatants, in hopes of intervening. In the flash of a moment, perhaps as a result of a misspoken word or a perceived affront, harmony has given way to fracture. The anger on some faces, and despair on others, suggests an earlier time of friendship and love. Only one person is unperturbed. In the foreground a placid young woman observes the unfolding battle while tending a crying newborn. A young boy by her side also looks upon the scene, but with an expression of horror on his face. She, by contrast, seems utterly unconcerned. Indeed, she almost appears to enjoy the collapse of the social world around her. This is a hint, perhaps, about the nature of the conflict, namely, that it somehow revolves around her.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , July 2004 , pp. 559 - 597
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The research for this essay was supported by grants from the Fulbright-Hays Program of the U.S. Department of Education; the Joint Committee on South Asia of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation; and the Office of Academic Affairs at Wesleyan University. I am grateful to these organizations. Thanks are also due to Kailash C. Jha, who spent many hours with me traveling to Rasdhan in 1999 and 2002, and whose constant friendship and wisdom have aided this research in ways too numerous to detail. I am grateful to Dr Seema Alavi, Reader in History at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, for raising the question of gosain family politics over lunch in 1995, which started me down the path of the present inquiry. I wish also to record my gratitude to Dr Daljeet Khare, Keeper-in-Charge of Paintings at the National Museum, New Delhi, who kindly allowed me to view and photograph the painting, ‘Yogis Fighting,’ and graciously arranged permission to reproduce it for this essay. Versions of this paper were presented at the Colegio de México (13–15 June 2001), Dartmouth College (7–8 December 2001), and Wesleyan University (13 December 2001). I thank the following individuals for offering responses, corrections, and criticisms during those presentations: Ian Barrow, Sugata Bose, Fred Dallmayr, Saurabh Dube, Durba Ghosh, Douglas Haynes, Ayesha Jalal, David Lorenzen, Bruce Masters, Uday Mehta, Mridu Rai, and David Rudner. Barrow and Haynes made many valuable suggestions, and Jennifer Saines provided sharp copyediting.