Ki sambandha hoibe takhon he?: Locating Nachnis in the Societal Margins of Kinship in Rural Bengal

Sengupta, Saloka and Narasimhan, Haripriya (2020) Ki sambandha hoibe takhon he?: Locating Nachnis in the Societal Margins of Kinship in Rural Bengal. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 27 (2). pp. 282-301. ISSN 0971-5215

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Abstract

Na_chni na_ch, a dance form of West Bengal, is going through a difficult time in its 500-year history. The woman dancer, who is known as a nachni, performs, often at night, along with her male partner, or rasik. Her life is intricately tied with that of her rasik, which includes her status as a woman performer at public events and the observance of proper rituals upon her death. Caught in a web of exploitation, the nachni essentially has no ‘kin’. Following the work by Inden and Nicholas on Bengali kinship and its categories and meanings within Bengali culture, this article looks at the amorphous pattern of kinship for the marginalized, with a special focus on the daily lives of nachnis. It explores the networks on the margins of kinship in which women performers of this crisis-ridden folk-art form survive.

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IITH Creators:
IITH CreatorsORCiD
Sengupta, SalokaUNSPECIFIED
Narasimhan, HaripriyaUNSPECIFIED
Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: India; kinship; performance; Women
Subjects: Social sciences
Divisions: Department of Liberal Arts
Depositing User: . LibTrainee 2021
Date Deposited: 26 Jul 2021 08:02
Last Modified: 26 Jul 2021 08:02
URI: http://raiith.iith.ac.in/id/eprint/8529
Publisher URL: http://doi.org/10.1177/0971521520910970
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