India's Kathak Dance in Historical Perspective by Walker Margaret E.; Howard Professor Keith ;

Author:Walker, Margaret E.; Howard, Professor Keith ;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2016-04-11T04:00:00+00:00

Kathaks Reconsidered

If Dharis became Mirasis who are sometimes called Doms, but other Dharis remained in Panjab; if Lucknow Kathaks are descended from Ras Dharis but Ras Dharis are not Dharis and also do not consider themselves Kathaks; if Jaipur Kathaks sometimes identify themselves as Dholis but are occasionally called Mirasis and perhaps used to be Bhands, one is left either with a complete muddle or else with a picture of a very fluid social layer of musicians and dancers who have continually migrated, adapted, shifted, adopted identities and had yet other identities thrust upon them. Furthermore, although one can certainly argue that the census officers made errors and very likely misunderstood the finer points of the social organizations they were documenting, one needs also to take into account that the groups being enumerated were aware of the importance of names and increasingly aware of the power of the census to validate identities.

Caste in India is not, and probably never has been, the immutable system of social barriers it often seems, and it is undeniable that the British efforts to list and categorize social groups contributed to a perception of solidity that probably never was accurate. Scholars re-examining the censuses have found numerous examples of flexibility in caste designation and self-identification. Schwartzenberg identified what he terms ‘category climbing’ among agricultural people (1981: 46) and Conlon wrote of the ‘contentious representations’ of caste categories created by ‘upwardly mobile castes seeking to raise their rank’ (Conlon 1981: 109). Jacob Pandian, in his study of the raised status of the Nadar caste in Tamil Nadu observed that ‘it is not uncommon for divisions in caste groups to occur, with successful members of the caste group forming a new caste group’ complete with a new name and higher social standing. Such caste shifts often occur in relation to increased wealth or economic influence and involve the caste group not only ‘discarding its former lifestyle and adopting a lifestyle that is associated with ritually high-caste groups’ but also revising its history to ‘exclude any reference to [its] former inferior status’ (Pandian 1995: 71–2).

Considering the almost ubiquitous low status of hereditary performing groups, it would seem illogical to insist that attempts to gain higher status were never made by any of the above-mentioned groups. In one of the first written descriptions of Mirasis, Sherring wrote: ‘The men are said to be highly respected by Mahomedans, though for what especial reason I have been unable to learn’ (Sherring 1974a [1872]: 275). It would seem that this esteem did not last, but if, as Neuman asserts, Mirasis did arise from Dharis around this time, perhaps the ‘new’ caste initially attempted to present itself as respectable. Perhaps because the name shift was not accompanied by economic gain, or because the economic gain that precipitated the name change was fleeting, the group slid back into lower status. Subsequent reports make no reference to respect for Mirasis. The question, of course, is not what may or may not have happened to Mirasis,

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