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Author(s): Rohit K. Dasgupta

Article Title: LAUNDA DANCERS: THE DANCING BOYS OF INDIA

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 RAAF826025 Techset Composition India (P) Ltd., Bangalore and Chennai, India 8/13/2013

Asian Affairs, 2013

Vol. XLIV, no. III, 1 – 7, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03068374.2013.826025

LAUNDA DANCERS: THE DANCING BOYS OF

5 INDIA
ROHIT K. DASGUPTA

10
Rohit K. Dasgupta is a doctoral student and Associate Lecturer at the University of
the Arts London. He is co-editor of the forthcoming volume Masculinity and its
Challenges in India (Mcfarland). He won a Sir Peter Holmes Memorial Award
to visit India to document the lives of Launda Dancers. This article is based on
that project.
15
naachbo na toh khabo ki kore. Tumi khabar ene debe bujhi? (If I don’t dance, how
will I eat? Will you get me food?)

I first started coming to Sealdah Station a few years ago. Here I heard about the
20 dancing from other kothi men. They used to go to Bihar a lot to dance and
made lots of money. I decided to accompany them once and from then I have
become a regular

The quotes above, taken during my research visit to West Bengal made
25 possible by the Sir Peter Holmes Memorial Award, are indicative of the
transgender/same-sex experiences of young launda dancers in contem-
porary India. My interest in the launda community started in 2007
when I first started volunteering and working with several queer organ-
isations in Kolkata. The launda dancers are a group of dancing boys who
30
usually identify themselves as ‘kothi’.1 They earn their living through
dancing in the rural belts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Launda Naach
(dance) is seen as a cheaper substitute for dancing girls. The tradition
of men performing as women has a chequered history in India and ema-
35 nates from restrictions placed on women performing publicly, which
also included early Parsi theatre and folk art.2 Launda dancers are an
integral part of the entertainment barometer in the Hindi belt of Northern
India and are seen as an essential part of wedding ceremonies and public
functions. The dancers usually come from lower middle class and poor
40 families, with an exceptionally high number coming from West Bengal.

I have primarily engaged with launda dancers who are from Bengal, both
due to our shared language and cultural affinity and also because I
45
wanted to be focused, instead of trying to spread the net too far wide.
My first interaction took place in Prothoma (First), India’s first
# 2013 The Royal Society for Asian Affairs
 2 LAUNDA DANCERS: THE DANCING BOYS OF INDIA

transgender shelter home run by Agniva Lahiri and the organisation

PLUS (People Like Us).3 Most of the inmates are young launda
dancers who are poor, homeless and faced severe violence at home
and in their profession. Whilst I interviewed and spoke to many of the
50
people within the community, I have chosen to focus on the narratives
of two dancers, Rishik and Anjani, to reflect the intersection of class,
community and sexuality in suburban India and also shift the focus
onto a community which has received little scholarship and has
55 remained largely absent from public consciousness.4

Questions of identity are complicated to begin with and become even

more complicated when one has to relate dissonant sexual and gendered
identities with the specificities of national identities. This becomes even
60 more difficult in a place like India, where identities are created through
the intersections between tradition and modernity, colonialism and glo-
balisation. Rishik and Anjani do not want to be called launda dancers,
which they see as a pejorative term. However, they do not want to be
65
called gay either, as they cannot identify with the word or the images

70

75 Colour online, B/W in print

80

85

90
Figure 1 At the Shelter Home (Courtesy PLUS)
 LAUNDA DANCERS: THE DANCING BOYS OF INDIA 3

associated with it. Western constructs (such as gay/queer) are too

specific and fall into the trap of simplifying gender and sexual cat-
egories. Such definitions delimit the understanding of gender and AQ1
sexual performativity. So, in accordance to my participants’ wish, I
95
have chosen to address them by the pronoun which they requested.
Their quotes at the very beginning of this article emphasise the disillu-
sionment of Rishik and Anjani at development aimed at ‘rescuing the
sex worker’.5 My own background as a researcher believes that consid-
100 ering sex workers (of either sex) as victims in economically deprived
contexts does not give the sex workers themselves opportunity to over-
come structural and economic barriers and, more importantly, the issue
of choice. The two people I interacted with testify to this. On being
asked by me if they felt safe being in a profession where they face
105 daily violence (verbal, physical and sexual), they were quick to repri-
mand me, pointing out that my empty words would not fill their
stomachs.

110
Rishik, who is just 20, left home when he was 15. Coming from a
migrant family who moved to Kolkata in search of a better life;
Rishik is unable to come to terms with his family’s expectations of
him as a man and his own subjectivity. As the eldest son, he is expected
to be a breadwinner and support his family economically. However his
115 effeminacy and gender identity (signifying alternative sexual desire6)
has been a sore point for his family. He recounts:
They knew I cross dress sometimes and were aware that I was getting teased by the
local boys. They kept wanting me to change and get a job which was just not poss-
120 ible. I could not finish school because of all the teasing. When I heard about
launda dancing, I knew it was a way to make quick money. I don’t live with
them but I still provide for them. I am doing my duty as a son [emphasis by
Rishik], so they can’t complain now.

125 The family in India is the microcosm around which the social lives of
people revolve. However, as Rishik’s experience shows, this is centred
on a brand of normativity which excludes and discriminates Rishik,
whose queerness threatens to disrupt this structure. Social scientist Nive-
dita Menon points out that in the Indian context, “the heterosexual patri-
130 archal family [is] the cornerstone of the nation” and “any radical
transformative politics today must therefore be post-national”.7

Rishik’s experience of launda naach has been quite violent. He

135
recounted being sexually exploited by a farmer after the performance.
Launda naach has been defended by traditionalists such as Pankaj
 4 LAUNDA DANCERS: THE DANCING BOYS OF INDIA

Pawan in his play ‘Launda Badnaam Hua’ (The Launda has been
defamed)8 as a tradition that needs to be kept alive. But with little gov-
ernment or organisational intervention and the high risks involved for
the dancers, there is an urgent need for involvement especially recognis-
140
ing and allotting resources for sexual health education and self-defence.
The PLUS Report also indicates that the young age of the dancers, most
of who are between 15 and 25, means they are not aware of their own
vulnerability and the risks they run. This is exacerbated by the social
145 stigma attached to the profession, coupled with the individual’s own
sense of self worth.

Anjani also mentions how she was made aware of her ‘othered’ status
early on at home. She was removed from school at the age of 12 and
150 asked to work in her father’s garage. Over there she was taunted for
being a meyeli chele (effeminate boy)9 and often sexually abused by
the other workers. Anjani lacked any space for support. She was disem-
powered not just for her social status (coming from a poor working class
155
family) but also for her effeminacy. This went on for a while till she
decided to travel to the city in search of work. Here she was first told
about launda naach by other kothi men and saw it as a form of economic
upliftment.

160 Rishik and Anjani were not ‘forced’ to enter this profession in the literal
sense; however, social stigma attached to their gender and sexual var-
iance indirectly left launda naach as the only solution for them.
Having attended one dance programme in a village between Bihar and
Bengal, I was taken aback by the camp appropriation of Bollywood by
165
the dancers. Popular Hindi ‘item numbers’10 were used and often
lyrics changed to make them more sexually suggestive. Directed by a
Bajawala Master (Band Master), they were coached to dance in a
certain way (which was meant to be quite sexual) and flirt with the
170 onlookers, who would be paying money for the performance. Anxieties
around homoeroticism have circulated in various spheres. Kathryn
Hansen’s work on the Indian theatre shows how cross-dressing created
various forms of uneasiness at the desire being evoked between the
male spectator and the cross-dressing male actors which was evident
175 during this performance too.11 However, as Rishik and Anjani have
told me, this desire was supposed to be passive and not to be acted
upon other than by the client.12 The performance space had little security
and the dancers were not even offered a changing room. Bottles were
180 thrown at the dancers and the audience shouted every time they hit
 LAUNDA DANCERS: THE DANCING BOYS OF INDIA 5

185

190

Colour online, B/W in print

195

200

Figure 2 Dancing (Courtesy PLUS)

205
one of the dancers. Rampant abuse and minimal awareness made this a
very disturbing spectacle.

Another interesting facet of the launda community is the way in which

210
kinship/family and desire is re-routed for economic purposes. Most of
the launda dancers I interviewed entered the profession with the
promise that they would land a parikh (partner/husband) in Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar. They were also promised that they would be able
215 to stay and live their lives as women during the dancing season, which
was also a huge draw. Most of the bajawalas ended up having a relation-
ship with one of the launda dancers, even though they were married. The
wives were aware of this arrangement and, as I was told, they did not
mind it. Another launda dancer told me that bajawalas often try to
220 push their sons to start having a relationship with them. This kinship
arrangement was based purely on an economic reason. It was expected
that the launda dancers would share their earnings with their partner
and run the household together. So intrinsic is this symbiotic relationship
225 that one launda dancer recounts how the wife and she have become
extremely good friends and instead of giving half the earnings to the
 6 LAUNDA DANCERS: THE DANCING BOYS OF INDIA

bajawala, she gives some to the wife to help provide her with access to
some independent money. Queer kinship according to Judith Butler13 is
not the same as gay marriage; rather it can be read as a reworking and
revision of the social organisation of friendship, sexual contacts, and
230
community to produce non-state-centred forms of support and alliance.
This is exhibited very strongly within the kinship arrangement amongst
launda dancers.

235 Rishik and Anjani embody the nature of defiant desire and gender iden-
tity in contemporary India. They are conscious of the particular socio-
cultural battles they have to navigate daily just to survive and be
heard. They are not interested in hearing about the risks of their pro-
fession, as they are already aware of them. As articulated through the
240 interviews, there is a very narrow and limited space that comprises
accepted and approved gender and sexual practice in India.14 People
like Rishik and Anjani are attracted to launda dancing because of the
economic freedom it offers and also “being able to dance like a
245
woman away from the jibes of relatives” (Rishik, interview). Their
class status, lack of education and inability to be a part of the mainstream
community make them vulnerable. Whilst awareness of rights and
sexual health education can help alleviate some of these issues,15 it is
also crucial that the social vulnerability of the transgender community
250 is recognised and, more broadly, that divergent queer issues beyond
the urban milieu are explored and actions identified.

I am particularly thankful to Agniva Lahiri and Subarthi Mukherjee of

PLUS for advice and encouragement.
255

NOTES

260 1. The MSM (men having sex with men) category in India is classified around gender
as well as sexual behaviours. According to Ashok Row Kavi (2007), kothis are a
subgroup within this MSM category. This is premised on the context that kothis
are men who have a feminine sense of self and who enact ‘passive’ sexual roles.
See Paul Boyce, ‘Conceiving Kothis’: Men Who Have Sex with Men in India
265 and the Cultural Subject of HIV Prevention’. Medical Anthropology Vol. 26.
Issue 2 (2007): 175 –203, and Ashok Row Kavi, ‘Kothis versus Other MSM’, in
Brinda Bose and Subhabrata Bhattacharya (Eds.), The Phobic and the Erotic:
The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India. Kolkata/London: Seagull,
2007, pp. 391 –398.
270 2. Kathryn Hansen, ‘Theatrical Transvestism in the Parsi, Gujarati and Marathi Thea-
tres (1850–1940).’ South Asia Vol. XXIV (2001): 59–73.
 LAUNDA DANCERS: THE DANCING BOYS OF INDIA 7

3. DFID UK has recently stopped funding the only outreach program for HIV and
other sexual health interventions within the launda community. PLUS is despe-
rately looking for funding to continue their work.
4. Names have been changed upon request. Verbal consent was required from the par-
275 ticipant before an interview took place. Interviews were semi-structured and con-
ducted mainly in Bengali. Whilst some of the interviews took place within the
shelter home, a majority of them were conducted in different public spaces in
the city. I have used the pronoun (him or her) as requested by the interviewee.
To read more about Agniva Lahiri and PLUS, see Subhash Chandra, ‘Interview
280 with Agniva Lahiri’. Intersections Issue 22. October 2009. Available at: http://
intersections.anu.edu.au/issue22/chandra_interview.htm. The only available
report on the launda community that I am aware of is Agniva Lahiri and Sarika
Kar’s, Situational Assessment Report on Adolescents and Young Boys Vulnerable
to Forced Migration, Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation in India. Kolkata:
285 PLUS, 2007, which was funded by the UNDP.
5. Ratna Kapur, ‘Post-Colonial Economies of Desire: Legal Representations of the
Sexual Subaltern’. Denver University Law Review Vol. 78. Issue 4 (2001): 855–
885.
6. Diepiriye Kuku, ‘Queering Subjectivities: On the Praxis of Outing Gender, Race,
290 Caste and Class in Ethnographic Fieldwork’, in Sanjay Srivastava (Ed.), Sexuality
Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 205– 227.
7. Nivedita Menon, Sexualities. New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2007, pp. 38 –39.
8. Tehelka Vol. 10. Issue 20. Available at: http://tehelka.com/dancing-queens/.
9. See Akshay Khanna, ‘Taming of the Shrewd Meyeli Chhele: A Political Economy
295 of Development’s Sexual Subject’. Development Vol. 52. Issue 1 (2009): 43 –51.
10. See Anna Morcom, ‘Film Songs and the Cultural Synergies of Bollywood’, in
Rachel Dwyer and Jerry Pinto (Eds.), Beyond the Boundaries of Bollywood.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
11. Hansen, 2001.
300 12. Also see the PLUS report on how during sex, the launda is meant to be quiet and
still (passive) and not act upon his/her desire and only do what the client asks of
them.
13. Judith Butler, ‘Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual?’ Differences: A Journal
of Feminist Cultural Studies Vol. 13. Issue 1 (2002): 14 –44.
305 14. ‘Introduction’, in Brinda Bose and Subhabrata Bhattacharya (Eds.), The Phobic
and the Erotic: The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India. Kolkata/
London: Seagull, 2007, pp. ix –xxxii.
15. People Like US (PLUS), Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee and Pratyay
Gender Trust’s new shelter home Purbasha (The Home in the City) are some
310 support organisations and shelter spaces available right now.

315