Tawaifnama is a sweeping, intimate and deeply researched microhistory that traces the multi-generational saga of a family of celebrated tawaifs with roots in Banaras and Bhabua. Through vivid narratives of women such as Dharmman Bibi, Sadabahar, Bullan, Kallan, Teema, and many others, the book reconstructs a rich world of music, resistance, desire, kinship and survival that conventional histories have either erased or distorted.
Once at the cultural heart of northern India, tawaifs were skilled performers, literate women and custodians of refined aesthetics—yet they were simultaneously stigmatized, policed and marginalized. Against the backdrop of colonial rule, nationalist politics and shifting social norms, their vibrant communities were dismantled and criminalised.
With extraordinary detail and narrative power, Saba Dewan foregrounds voices long pushed to the margins, offering a rare and compelling account of how history, gender, art and power intersected in the lives of these remarkable women.
Saba Dewan is a documentary filmmaker known for her work on gender, sexuality and culture. Tawaifnama is her first book and draws from her acclaimed trilogy of films on marginalised women performers: Delhi–Mumbai–Delhi (2006), Naach (2008), and The Other Song (2009). The book was supported by a fellowship from the New India Foundation. She lives in Gurgaon.