0:00:00 > 0:00:03This programme contains scenes of a sexual nature
0:00:04 > 0:00:06INDIAN DRUMMING
0:00:23 > 0:00:25Servant of God.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43Right.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04In your opinion you think it has successfully stopped?
0:01:06 > 0:01:07Good.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14I heard about the Devadasi system two years ago.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18It was described as an ancient Hindu tradition in which young girls
0:01:18 > 0:01:23are married to God in childhood, and then at puberty sold for sex -
0:01:25 > 0:01:27the money they earn given to their families.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33The practice was made illegal more than 60 years ago,
0:01:33 > 0:01:35but in spite of official denials,
0:01:35 > 0:01:39there are still an estimated 30,000 Devadasis
0:01:39 > 0:01:44in the villages and towns of Karnataka, Southern India.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29They say the Devadasi are dedicated to serve the goddess,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32but what does the goddess do for the Devadasi?
0:06:48 > 0:06:55In the Devadasi system girls are dedicated whilst still children to the goddess Yellamma,
0:06:55 > 0:07:00a Hindu goddess solely worshipped by the Dalit caste,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03once known as the untouchables.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06The culmination of the ceremony
0:07:06 > 0:07:08is the tying of red and white beads around her neck.
0:07:08 > 0:07:15Now she is Devadasi, literally translated "slave of God".
0:07:16 > 0:07:22The way that I like to think of it is as a kind of marking,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25a way of setting a woman aside from
0:07:25 > 0:07:29the mainstream, conjugal-style sexuality.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33Setting her aside from the domestic world.
0:07:35 > 0:07:42In Dalit communities when girls are given to this goddess named Yellamma
0:07:42 > 0:07:46it is for the most part irreversible.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49They are not allowed to marry a man.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52They are, in a sense, bound
0:07:52 > 0:07:54to the laws
0:07:54 > 0:07:58of that kind of non-conjugal sexuality.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03Dedication was once sanctioned by the temple.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05It is now illegal.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11But for some, connection to the goddess
0:08:11 > 0:08:16gives them an auspicious status otherwise unavailable to them.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00If girls are being dedicated at this festival, where will it happen?
0:11:00 > 0:11:02Where will they do it?
0:14:13 > 0:14:17WOMAN ON LOUDSPEAKER:
0:16:40 > 0:16:43Grandma says it often, doesn't she?
0:16:52 > 0:16:54And have you been to Saundatti?
0:17:05 > 0:17:09Do you know that all the women here are Devadasi like your mother was?
0:17:13 > 0:17:17So are you worried that when you reach puberty, your life will change?
0:18:57 > 0:18:59Do you take medicine every day?
0:19:05 > 0:19:09But when you are HIV positive, don't they say to take it every day?
0:22:16 > 0:22:20In the Devadasi belt of Karnataka today,
0:22:20 > 0:22:25the women are all from the lowest caste, Dalit.
0:22:25 > 0:22:32But there is evidence of another pre-colonial tradition that was an elite of high status women.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36Women from a very, very vastly different range of caste
0:22:36 > 0:22:44and regional identities were all lumped together under this kind of umbrella term, Devadasi.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49And that included Dalit women, the kind of women that we've seen in this film.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54And also elite, at the other end of the spectrum, elite courtesans.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00This is the last known recording of a temple Devadasi.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03From childhood, she would have been taught the daily rituals
0:23:03 > 0:23:10that honoured and appeased the gods, received lessons in the arts of music and dance and, since puberty,
0:23:10 > 0:23:16she would have been taken as the lover of a priest, prince or another high caste male.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20On high holidays and at public processions,
0:23:20 > 0:23:25she and the other Devadasi associated with this temple
0:23:25 > 0:23:31would be bedecked with jewels, and go out to publicly celebrate their devotion to God.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39To have a star dancer attached to your temple,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43or a troupe come in and to advertise it, it was a huge attraction.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47And what was in it for the temple was a hell of a lot of money, because they knew that
0:23:47 > 0:23:51the more pilgrims came, the more people would give money to the temple.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55MUSIC PLAYS
0:24:22 > 0:24:28Each of those women had their Pottukattu, the ceremony of tying the Pottu,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31paid for by the state. So what did that mean?
0:24:31 > 0:24:34That meant that the state owned them, and could call upon them
0:24:34 > 0:24:37whenever it needed them to come into the court to perform.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45By the 17th and 18th century, the elite Devadasi were living
0:24:45 > 0:24:50in full view of their patron's official family, on palace or temple grounds,
0:24:50 > 0:24:56in encampments that involved hundreds, sometimes even thousands of women and their children.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04Because they had no mortal husband, they were considered head of their own household,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08a position unimaginable for a woman at that time.
0:25:10 > 0:25:16Some of them were able to amass a tremendous amount of wealth during their own lifetime.
0:25:16 > 0:25:22The wealth usually was consolidated and stored in the form of jewels,
0:25:22 > 0:25:28which had to do with the whole perpetuation of their status as courtesans, of their lifestyle.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34A Devadasi uniquely had land rights in her own name,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38and the power to distribute and bequeath her own wealth down the matriarchal line.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43Her marriage to God made her auspicious,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47and she had responsibility for prayers and blessings
0:25:47 > 0:25:52that kept away the evil eye from temple, family and court.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02The idea of the God, and the idea of the performing arts,
0:26:02 > 0:26:09and the idea of all of the other cultural accoutrements,
0:26:09 > 0:26:14if you want to call them that, I don't know what else we can call them,
0:26:14 > 0:26:19do certainly, in a sense, pivot around the economics of it all.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23The elite courtesans no longer exist,
0:26:23 > 0:26:28but in the Dalit community, there are some who take pride
0:26:28 > 0:26:31and gain status from the Devadasi tradition.
0:26:35 > 0:26:41A common prostitute for that court does not have a place in gentle society.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45The Devadasis in the village society had a place.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49If you say "Devadasi", they have more acceptance,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53because they come with a history and a culture and a religion.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00OK, now the brothels start on your right.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06And then it starts again ahead.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20I am the old-fashioned social worker.
0:27:20 > 0:27:25I actually believe that we have to strengthen communities, to fight their battles.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32I don't believe in charity at all.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35I do it because I'm politically motivated to do this.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08They absolutely use gold as a justification,
0:28:08 > 0:28:16because it is the use of the Yellamma
0:28:16 > 0:28:18that has helped them exist.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25So it is not only that they just believe in Yellamma, it is also for their economy,
0:28:25 > 0:28:27Yellamma is absolutely essential.
0:28:27 > 0:28:35And for their own social status, social standing, Yellamma is absolutely essential.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52Here is a community that has figured out
0:28:52 > 0:28:58how to economically strengthen itself using sex work.
0:29:01 > 0:29:07But since we are so against people being in sex work...
0:29:08 > 0:29:16..we are unable to see that any kind of programme that we put up
0:29:16 > 0:29:20will actually be something that we do for them.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24Not something that they do for themselves.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29The whole sex work parallel for them is something that they have figured out for themselves.
0:29:29 > 0:29:35They have figured this out, they have thought that, OK, this could be a good economic option for this family.
0:29:35 > 0:29:42But since we do not accept that economic option, we are now trying to dictate to this group
0:29:42 > 0:29:44what their economic options should be.
0:30:54 > 0:31:02The women formally believe that their role in the family is that of a male.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05And this is where I come to this understanding that this is the high.
0:31:05 > 0:31:11Where you have women managing households,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14they're female heads of their households.
0:31:14 > 0:31:20It is being a Devadasi, believing that they have certain powers,
0:31:20 > 0:31:25because they are Devadasis that has been invested in them by Yellamma, believing that they know
0:31:25 > 0:31:28how to take decisions because they have the money.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31You know, all of this is a huge high
0:31:31 > 0:31:36and cannot be easily, I think, done away with.
0:33:53 > 0:33:58The one thing that you must absolutely hear
0:33:58 > 0:34:03is that choice is a very cruel mirage
0:34:03 > 0:34:07for all women from the Third World.
0:34:07 > 0:34:13This is a mirage that we are battling with, because, somehow, the western world has given us this
0:34:13 > 0:34:20word called "choice", and we are all enamoured so much by it that we constantly are devaluing
0:34:20 > 0:34:23our lives because we do not believe we have choice.
0:36:32 > 0:36:37You say solutions from the outside don't work.
0:36:37 > 0:36:38Look at this Devadasi system.
0:36:38 > 0:36:43It is a home-made, economic thing.
0:36:43 > 0:36:49They are saying, "Look what we have, you know, to keep the family together."
0:36:49 > 0:36:53I just want to know, are you absolutely happy to put that online?
0:36:53 > 0:36:56Because it's a very extreme view.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00- I don't disagree. - No, no, the point is not agreeing or disagreeing.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05The point is that the Devadasi system is a much maligned system.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10It's a much maligned system because it's constantly being analysed from the outside.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14The lower-caste woman's voice in all of this, who is a Devadasi,
0:37:14 > 0:37:20who has benefited from this system, has not got any kind of credence or currency.
0:37:36 > 0:37:44Isn't the problem, isn't the intractable, when the Devadasi are dedicated?
0:37:44 > 0:37:49My grandmother got married when she was ten years old, my own grandmother.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54If my child thought of even having sex at ten years old, I'd be horrified.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58It's taken two generations for us to reach this place.
0:37:58 > 0:38:03So I am saying, why are we not willing to give that time and energy?
0:38:03 > 0:38:06If you go and look at the communities...
0:38:09 > 0:38:14You will not find 14 and 15 and 16-year-olds in business at all.
0:38:14 > 0:38:20Whereas, 16 years back, when I started working, every house had 12 and 13-year-olds.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24You have to think of a long-term strategy.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27It's not that my heart did not beat for the 12 and 13-year-olds.
0:38:27 > 0:38:32My point is that, if we had done a rescue thing,
0:38:32 > 0:38:35the brothel would have closed, the community would have closed,
0:38:35 > 0:38:38and we would never have had the access that we have today.
0:38:38 > 0:38:43When the community is educated to say no to this level of violence,
0:38:43 > 0:38:49which is what it is to have a girl or a small child in these places.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02Inscriptions and carvings on temple walls show evidence
0:39:02 > 0:39:06of the Devadasi system from as early as the 11th century.
0:39:06 > 0:39:13But by the 17th century, there were tens of thousands of Devadasi living and working in South India.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18The women themselves
0:39:18 > 0:39:25were seen as signs of pleasure,
0:39:25 > 0:39:32of a kind of excess, a kind of enjoyment.
0:39:32 > 0:39:38So if you had a small kingdom, a small court, one of the ways, especially in the colonial period,
0:39:38 > 0:39:44when political power was being taken away from a lot of these Indian elites,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47the ways they would display their authority and their power
0:39:47 > 0:39:53was through displays of excess, displays of grandeur, of splendour.
0:39:53 > 0:39:59And the women themselves came to be almost the quintessential sign of that.
0:39:59 > 0:40:06So much so, I would say, that elite courtesans were referred to as mbhogam,
0:40:06 > 0:40:10coming from the Sanskrit word "mbhoga," which means enjoyment.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14They were literally embodiments of enjoyment.
0:40:20 > 0:40:26According to the Kama Sutra, a courtesan should have the following characteristics -
0:40:26 > 0:40:34beauty, amiability, auspicious body marks, a firm mind, desire for wealth...
0:40:35 > 0:40:38..delight in sexual union, and she should be anxious
0:40:38 > 0:40:45to acquire experience and knowledge and enjoy social gatherings and the arts.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51A Devadasi danced with her hips to one side, thrusting to another,
0:40:51 > 0:40:56using hand movements to describe sexual encounters with the gods.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01A promissory note to her lover patron.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07It would move from a very literal interpretation of that line,
0:41:07 > 0:41:09so we make sure we all understand the line.
0:41:09 > 0:41:16He undid my bodice. She would actually reach behind her and mime out the undoing.
0:41:16 > 0:41:23Then he began to kiss me, or he began to see my breasts.
0:41:23 > 0:41:24He began to touch my breasts.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27He began to put his hand on my breast.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29He began to stroke my hair. Blah, blah, blah...
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Eventually that would lead to this whole scene,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36it would culminate after the line is repeated 15 times or 20 times,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39into this full-out love-making scene
0:41:39 > 0:41:42where she would just go into these abstract gestures
0:41:42 > 0:41:45and show us the different positions in which they made love.
0:42:02 > 0:42:08The fact of the matter is that for 99.9% of the women in these communities, having a relationship
0:42:08 > 0:42:11of concubinage was necessary for survival.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14They could not survive without that relationship.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17That's also why it was very important
0:42:17 > 0:42:20in terms of the internal social organisation,
0:42:20 > 0:42:24the kinship structures within these communities,
0:42:24 > 0:42:29that somebody be in control of matching people up.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33In that sense, many of these relationships were like arranged marriages.
0:42:33 > 0:42:39Most women were "given" to a patron by their grandma or their mother.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33So was she angry that Shobha stopped because the money stopped?
0:50:14 > 0:50:17BUGLE PLAYS
0:50:17 > 0:50:21This lady was not the only one who was not amused.
0:50:25 > 0:50:31When the British formally took over India in 1857, the Devadasi came under attack.
0:50:39 > 0:50:45The Victorian values that epitomised the Empire - monotheistic religion applied with missionary zeal,
0:50:45 > 0:50:51the criminalisation of sex outside marriage in both England and India,
0:50:51 > 0:50:58put paid to those women who had been at the centre of court, religious and political life.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02A lot of the kinds of models around womanhood that we see in that period
0:51:02 > 0:51:08were certainly models that were coming directly out of Victorian models,
0:51:08 > 0:51:15and I think that it becomes very clear that what's going on here is a kind of valorisation
0:51:15 > 0:51:19of the wife that we have not seen in Indian history up to that point
0:51:19 > 0:51:25and that role of domesticity and of the importance of the married woman
0:51:25 > 0:51:31was something that really was the cornerstone of Indian nationalism.
0:51:33 > 0:51:38Effectively, Devadasis were failed citizens of the state.
0:51:38 > 0:51:43They couldn't be citizens of the new and modern India.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47Their selfhood, which was embodied in their sexuality,
0:51:47 > 0:51:53in fact understood essentially as their sexuality, was something that could not be accommodated.
0:51:56 > 0:52:01The system of concubinage became very uncomfortable for the Indian elite at that point.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05It became quite embarrassing, actually, for elite men,
0:52:05 > 0:52:08who strangely, two or three generations ago,
0:52:08 > 0:52:13would have had those same women as their concubines, as their second wives,
0:52:13 > 0:52:18but now all of a sudden felt a tremendous amount of shame when it came to accepting the fact that
0:52:18 > 0:52:22institutionalised concubinage was part of their own heritage.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31The majority of Devadasis, it seems, were actually opposed to reform.
0:52:31 > 0:52:39By the time the British left India in 1947, they had passed comprehensive legislation
0:52:39 > 0:52:44that forbade the marriage of children to God and the giving of lend for young girls.
0:52:44 > 0:52:50The Devadasi were banned from living in temple and dancing in processions and private homes.
0:52:50 > 0:52:56These laws effectively eradicated the Devadasi elite.
0:52:58 > 0:53:03But in the villages and towns of the Devadasi belt, far from the notice
0:53:03 > 0:53:06and concern of India's ruling class,
0:53:06 > 0:53:10economic hardship in the Dalit community
0:53:10 > 0:53:13ensured that the system continued.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17Government officials deny that dedications still happen,
0:53:17 > 0:53:21but in spite of the risk of fine and imprisonment,
0:53:21 > 0:53:26for some, the traditional practice of dedicating a daughter to the goddess
0:53:26 > 0:53:30remains the answer to their economic need.
0:55:22 > 0:55:23Yeah, let's go.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29It's too much torture for the girl.
0:57:08 > 0:57:10Do you have a dream for your future?
0:58:08 > 0:58:14The irony of trying to abolish the Devadasi system is that now many girls from the same community
0:58:14 > 0:58:18are simply trafficked into city brothels.
0:58:18 > 0:58:24No longer elevated by dedication to the goddess, cut off from their villages and families,
0:58:24 > 0:58:28these girls are condemned to do the one thing
0:58:28 > 0:58:32that all the legislation was attempting to abolish - sex work.
1:00:30 > 1:00:34And if they want to be out, they don't have the right to be out?
1:00:56 > 1:01:00But if they are minor and they want to be out?
1:02:28 > 1:02:30Condom.
1:03:32 > 1:03:34One, two,
1:03:34 > 1:03:37three, four.
1:03:37 > 1:03:39Again - five, six.
1:03:39 > 1:03:43Five, six, seven - go.
1:05:08 > 1:05:09Bye.
1:05:49 > 1:05:54As part of its victory over colonialism,
1:05:54 > 1:05:57post-independence India reclaimed its heritage.
1:05:57 > 1:06:01When they cherry-picked their own history,
1:06:01 > 1:06:07they renamed and reconstituted the dance tradition of the Devadasi as Bharatnatyam,
1:06:07 > 1:06:10India's most popular national dance.
1:06:10 > 1:06:14The improvisation was completely taken out.
1:06:14 > 1:06:17Everything was choreographed, structured.
1:06:17 > 1:06:21The eroticism of the poetry, the poetry itself was deleted
1:06:21 > 1:06:24and replaced by religious poetry.
1:06:24 > 1:06:31So Devadasi histories have always in our generation, for example, always been thought of in terms of a fall.
1:06:31 > 1:06:37A kind of radical shift from a golden, pure religious age
1:06:37 > 1:06:41into a kind of decadent,
1:06:41 > 1:06:46degenerate culture of prostitution.
1:06:46 > 1:06:49And that in a sense is the reverse,
1:06:49 > 1:06:54mirror reversing of what went on with their dance forms.
1:06:56 > 1:07:02The Devadasi system elevated some and fed others.
1:07:02 > 1:07:06It created an artistic community and kept families afloat.
1:07:06 > 1:07:10And while over time the age of consent in mainstream society
1:07:10 > 1:07:16was raised, the Devadasi, pushed to the margins, got left behind.
1:07:16 > 1:07:22Successive interventions robbed them of their social mobility and their status
1:07:22 > 1:07:29without resolving their economic condition or their place in Indian society.
1:08:20 > 1:08:21Hello.
1:09:20 > 1:09:22Do you think that she is strong?
1:09:22 > 1:09:26She said, no more in my family.
1:09:26 > 1:09:27Yes.
1:09:27 > 1:09:30What do you think?
1:09:30 > 1:09:37My mother is very clever and doing the best things.
1:09:37 > 1:09:40It's all the worst problems.
1:09:42 > 1:09:44And singing also.
1:10:41 > 1:10:43Bye.
1:11:18 > 1:11:21Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
1:11:21 > 1:11:24E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk