Nautch

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The nautch (/ˈnɔːtʃ/, meaning "dance" or "dancing" from Hindustani: "naach")^[1] was a popular court dance performed by girls (known as "nautch girls") in later Mughal and colonial India.^[2] The word "nautch" was a British corruption of Nachna, the Hindi^[3] verb "to dance".^[2] The culture of the performing art of the nautch rose to prominence during the later period of Mughal Empire and the rule of the East India Company.^[4]

Over time, the nautch travelled outside the confines of the imperial courts of the Mughals, the palaces of the nawabs and the princely states, and the higher echelons of the officials of the British Raj, to the places of zamindars. However under the British Raj they came to be reviled as lewd by the Victorian standards of the British and not well tolerated. As a result, many nautch girls lost their former patrons and were pushed further into prostitution, as local mistresses for the British were replaced with wives from Britain.^[2]

Some references use the terms nautch and nautch girls to describe Devadasis who used to perform ritual and religious dances in the Hindu temples of India. However, there is not much similarity between the devadasis and the nautch girls. The former performed dances, mostly Indian classical dances, including the ritual dances, in the precincts of the Hindu temples to please the temple deities, whereas the nautch girls performed nautches for the pleasure of men. In 1917, attributing the adjective to a woman in India would suggest her entrancing skill, tempting style and alluring costume could mesmerize men to absolute obedience.^[5]