Freedom Movement, Partition and Their Effects on the ‘dangerous outcasts’ As Portrayed in Contemporary Films and Literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56062/Keywords:
Freedom movement, Partition, dangerous women, films, literatureAbstract
This present work discusses the historical practices of tawaifs and prostitutes in Indian history and portrayal of them in films and literature. Sumanta Bannerjee in his book "Dangerous Outcast: The Prostitute in Nineteenth century Bengal" (1998) talks about how the profession of prostitution underwent a vast change in Bengal after the Britishers came into control. They legally controlled this ancient profession which caters to the basic instinct of mankind. The Britishers during their rule enacted many laws subjecting the women's body to the state control. Their motive waas to mainly protect the government servants. Such discipline and punish was extended even during India's Independence and during the partition.
Downloads
References
Bandyopadhyay, Manik. “The Final Solution.” Mapmaking: Partition Stories from Two Bengals, edited by Debjani Sengupta, translated by Rani Ray, Shristi, 2011.
Banerjee, Sumanta. Dangerous Outcast: The Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century Bengal. Seagull Books, 2000.
Barthes, Roland. The Death of the Author. Translated by Richard Howard, 1967.
Basu, Protiva. “The Marooned.” The Other Voice, edited by Tapati Gupta and Anil Acharya, translated by Subhasree Tagore, Anustup, 2011.
Bourdieu, Pierre. The Logic of Practice. Translated by Richard Nice, Stanford UP, 1990.
Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton UP, 1993.
Dewan, Saba. Tawaifnama. Context, 2019.
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. Pantheon Books, 1976.
Manto, Saadat Hasan. “Khol Do (Open It!).” Manto Kahaniyan, Sang-e-Meel Publications, 1995.
Nandy, Ashis. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism. Oxford UP, 1983.
Pritam, Amrita. “The Shah’s Harlot.” Shah di Kanjari, Routledge, 2023.
Sarkar, Tanika. Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation: Community, Religion, and Cultural Nationalism. Permanent Black, 2015.
Sengupta, Debjani. The Partition of Bengal: Fragile Borders and New Identities. Cambridge UP, 2016.
Sinha, Kaliprasanna. Hutom Pechar Naksha. 1862. Translated by Swarup Roy as The Observant Owl, Permanent Black, 2008.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Amrita Bhattacharya

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
