Nautch

Common card · No. 207772

The nautch (, meaning "dance" or "dancing" from Hindustani: "naach") was a popular court dance performed by girls (known as "nautch girls") in later Mughal and colonial India. The word "nautch" was a British corruption of "Nach", the Bengali word for dancing. In the early part of the 19th century, it was the resident Bengalis British supported and created elite with whom they associated most with and they picked up their culture from them. 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. 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 palaces 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...

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