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19 - Sex in Bombay in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2024

By
Aditi Sen
Edited by
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks  and
Mathew Kuefler
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Mathew Kuefler
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
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Summary

The chapter provides an insight into the complex sexual milieu of Bombay in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Beginning with the Rajabai Tower case as a key narrative, numerous facets of the city, such as cosmopolitanism, group identities, the link between forensics and sexual assault, racial profiling, and police corruption, are discussed. Also examined are the spatial controversies surrounding Bombay’s red-light neighbourhoods and links between spatiality and the identity of prostitutes. Pop culture’s role in shaping a sexual ethos, in Parsi theatre and later Bombay cinema, and particularly the unique position of performative androgyny, is reviewed. Further, the impact of contagious disease acts and the fluid definition of prostitution is studied. Finally, the role of eugenics is surveyed, and the extremely divisive and convoluted politics of the eugenics movement is analyzed.

Keywords

BombayMumbaiIndiaParsi theatrehijraeugenicsFearless NadiaRajabai TowersKamathipuraBal Gandharva
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History of Sexualities , pp. 402 - 418
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

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