Journal Articles and Book Chapters by Kathryn Hansen
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2026
From the 1870s through the 1930s, Parsi entrepreneurs based in Bombay financed large professional... more From the 1870s through the 1930s, Parsi entrepreneurs based in Bombay financed large professional theatre companies. Their extensive tours brought live stage entertainment to all parts of the subcontinent. Female performers were one of Parsi theatre's chief attractions. This article focuses on three celebrated women whose trajectories took them in different directions. Jamila Begam came from Iraq to India but achieved her ambition of running a theatre company in colonial Burma. Mary Fenton, 'the English actress', was born in India and escaped poverty by performing in Urdu and Gujarati on stages across North India. Nanhi Jan worked in Parsi theatre, recorded art music on phonographs, and yet was best known for her postcard image as a quintessential 'nautch girl'. Each actress can be verified from memoirs, newspaper ads, official records, or photographs. Their experiences underscore the hazards of mobility as well as the ways in which travel enabled performing women to occupy a larger world professionally, socially, and economically.
Trans Asia Photography, 2025
This article connects early photographic practices in India to the social worlds of music, dance,... more This article connects early photographic practices in India to the social worlds of music, dance, and theater. It argues that the female performer or courtesan, long recognized as the central figure in the evolution of the expressive arts in the nineteenth century, also spurred the development of photography. To explore the identity of one historical figure pictured in an orphaned photograph, the article brings together a number of photographic portraits and postcards made of her. It also traces her appearance in official court records and local histories. This research-intensive, multidisciplinary method shows the value of juxtaposing distinct archives, visual and nonvisual, to complicate the reading of individual images. The project demonstrates how courtesans—as subjects, consumers, and creators of early photography—contributed significantly to photography's flourishing and expansion.
Melodrama Unbound: Across History, Media, and National Cultures, edited by Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams, 2018
In 1887, the Times of India welcomed a new production to the Gaiety Theatre in Bombay, "a Parsee ... more In 1887, the Times of India welcomed a new production to the Gaiety Theatre in Bombay, "a Parsee adaptation of Boucicault's COLLEEN BAWN." Bholi Jan (Innocent Belle), the Gujarati version of The Colleen Bawn, was greeted enthusiastically (Times of India, February 12 and 19, 1887). Bawn had long been a hit in India, but the site was now the "native stage," the Indian-language sphere of hybrid theatrical practices and large commercial companies. With this crossover, Boucicault's work was recast. Transformed into Parsi theater, Bawn ushered in a different kind of cultural production, which was to have a long afterlife in South Asian popular culture.
Literature, Language and the Media in India, ed. Mariola Offredi, 1992
Traditional media relied heavily on the spoken word and its rhythms, supported by an appealing us... more Traditional media relied heavily on the spoken word and its rhythms, supported by an appealing use of music, to communicate messages in a manner that not only engaged audience interest but left behind a strong impression in the memory. Given the low rates of literacy, especially among women and rural people, it can be assumed that traditional performances rather than written texts were the principal pathway for the transmission of ideological constructs. It is therefore of great importance that these traditions (some of which are little known and now vanishing) be documented and analyzed for their role in the production of gender differences.
Chapter 1, "Pioneers to Professionals: A Retrospective of the Parsi Theatre," narrates the evolut... more Chapter 1, "Pioneers to Professionals: A Retrospective of the Parsi Theatre," narrates the evolution of the theatre between 1853 and 1931. It is excerpted from the 2013 revised edition of the book. The book was published originally by Permanent Black in India and republished by Anthem Press in the UK. It is also available as an ebook from Anthem.
Journal of South Asian Literature, 1982
One of the striking features of Renu's regional style is his liberal mixing of folk songs, devoti... more One of the striking features of Renu's regional style is his liberal mixing of folk songs, devotional lyrics, political refrains, and even film tunes in with the prose passages in his narrative. All of this lyric material may be referred to as "song," for its indented placement in the texts and the accompanying contextual comments indicate that it is sung or recalled as song, rather than recited by the narrator or character in question.
Speaking of the Self: Gender, Performance, and Autobiography in South Asia, 2015
The autobiographies of Jayshankar Sundari and Fida Husain join others of a similar nature from th... more The autobiographies of Jayshankar Sundari and Fida Husain join others of a similar nature from the nascent period of modern theater in South Asia. They establish the significance of the theatrical memoir, which emerged as an important subset of autobiography in India. Compared to the life narratives of political leaders or social reformers, these accounts from the world of professional entertainment might seem tangential to the trajectory of India as an emerging nation. Yet they are important sources for the study of cultural formation in the nationalist era from the perspective of those who were embedded in vernacular, largely oral, systems of communication and knowledge. They also are invaluable to the archives of theatrical history and oral performance, and in their own right are colorful documents of a bygone era.
The Annual of Urdu Studies, 2001
A close examination of the evidence in the parallel streams of Urdu, Gujarati, and Hindi scholars... more A close examination of the evidence in the parallel streams of Urdu, Gujarati, and Hindi scholarship is necessary to reveal the memories and amnesia, the voices and the silences, that have hitherto constituted knowledge about the Parsi theater. This essay proposes to unpack the communalized views of Parsis, Muslims, and Hindus writing in these three languages (as well as in English), while providing the researcher with a guide through the most frequently consulted Indian-language sources on the Parsi theater.
Pure Entertainment: Parsi Theatre, Gender, and Performance - published by Primus Books, 2024
This essay focuses on the coalescence of Company Drama from the multiple strands of theatrical pr... more This essay focuses on the coalescence of Company Drama from the multiple strands of theatrical production that preceded it. I argue that the long century from 1783 to 1889 saw major changes in the theatrical culture of urban Madras. Tamil Company Drama arose at the end of the period following substantial activity in three distinct sectors: anglophone theatre, Tamil drama, and Parsi theatre.
Pure Entertainment: Parsi Theatre, Gender, and Performance - published my Primus Books, 2024
This book brings together my best-known work on the Parsi theatre. Fourteen essays written over t... more This book brings together my best-known work on the Parsi theatre. Fourteen essays written over the past twenty-five years are assembled here for the first time. Parsi theatre was a type of live stage performance popular throughout urban India from the 1870s to the 1930s. It originated in Bombay with the educated Parsi community and then quickly spread across the subcontinent. By the end of the nineteenth century, Parsi theatrical companies had travelled to South-East Asia and even beyond.
South Asian History and Culture, 2021
Tamil musical theatre (isai natakam) became a thriving form of public entertainment in the late 1... more Tamil musical theatre (isai natakam) became a thriving form of public entertainment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this formative period, Parsi theatre companies from Bombay frequented Madras and staged Urdu-language spectacles before heterogeneous audi- ences. The legacy of historical contact between Tamil drama and Parsi theatre is visible at multiple levels: nomenclature, tale types, song genres, orchestration, troupe organization, use of the proscenium stage. The positive reception of Parsi theatre in Madras, however, was not a foregone conclusion, given the linguistic, social, and cultural boundaries to be crossed. Through an analysis of Parsi company performances, this essay shows the process of creating a multilingual theatrical public at the cross- roads of urban Madras. It brings to light the patronage of an unsung sector, the community of Urdu-speaking Muslims clustered around the titular nawabs of Arcot. The sponsorship of the Begum of the Carnatic for a local troupe, the Madras Mahomedan Operatic Company, helped to dis- seminate the imported art, carrying it into wider networks of circulation.
Journal of Urdu Studies, 2020
ʿAbbās ʿAlī of Lucknow published several volumes of photographs which were unique in being acco... more ʿAbbās ʿAlī of Lucknow published several volumes of photographs which were unique in being accompanied by text in English and Urdu. The Beauties of Lucknow (1874), an album of female performers and costumed actors from the Indar Sabhā, is attributed to him. Based on examination of the rare book in five archival locations, this article accounts for the variations among them. It distinguishes between the photographer’s authorial intentions and the agency of artisans, collectors, and others who altered the artifact at various stages. Comparison of the textual apparatus of the English and Urdu editions reveals the author’s mode of address to different audiences. The Urdu intro- duction, saturated with poetic tropes, provides insight into ways of viewing photo- graphs as formulated among the local cognoscenti. The article proposes that ʿAbbās ʿAlī’s book was meant as a private gift, as well as a publication for wider circulation.
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2018
Rangoon circa 1900 was known as 'one of the best show towns in the East'. As the capital city of ... more Rangoon circa 1900 was known as 'one of the best show towns in the East'. As the capital city of Burma, then ruled from Calcutta as a province of India, it was home to more Indian nationals than Burmese. In this cosmopolitan context, two vernacular arts complexes — the Parsi theatre of India and the popular zat-pwe of Burma — flourished, competed, and converged. This article documents the 55-year long engagement of Parsi theatre in Burma within the larger history of global theatrical flows in the Indian Ocean. It highlights the story of Dosabhai Hathiram, a theatre man who rooted himself in Rangoon his entire life. And it asks, why was Parsi theatre celebrated elsewhere in Southeast Asia as a vector of modernity, and yet in Burma it left scarcely a trace behind? The history of the Parsi theatre in Burma has long been overlooked within the larger history of global theatrical flows. This article redresses the omission by documenting the Burma-based activities of Parsi theatrical troupes over a remarkably long period, some 55 years. It focuses in particular on an intriguing life story, that of actor Dosabhai Hathiram, a Bombay man who rooted himself in Rangoon for most of his career. His movements across regions, languages, and ethnic communities prompt questions of transnational engagement and impact, even as they trace the extensive theatrical circuits of Parsi theatre companies in the eastern Indian Ocean. The emergence of global history approaches over the past two decades has been very useful to understanding the development of modern and transitional theatrical practices in South and Southeast Asia. 1 The transnational circulation of Parsi theatre needs to be more widely acknowledged and contextualised within this body of literature. So far, most of the scholarship on the beginnings of modern theatre in Asia documents the transoceanic adventures of anglophone companies as they carried 1 'Transitional' refers to an intermediary category between traditional and modern in Asian Theatre Studies, often associated with the period of British colonialism and 'Western' practices such as commercial companies, the proscenium stage, and the prevalence of melodrama. Hanne de Bruin's designation 'hybrid popular' is also used for this kind of theatre.
BioScope, 2016
This essay documents the transnational circulation of Victorian domestic melodrama and its adapta... more This essay documents the transnational circulation of Victorian domestic melodrama and its adaptation to Indian theatrical practice, through the example of The Colleen Bawn, one of Dion Boucicault’s most successful works. Using the historical South Asian newspaper archives, the study traces the introduction of melodrama and modern stagecraft into India via the Lewis Company, an enterprising Anglo-Australian family troupe. The drama’s performance history and reception are charted as it traveled from Calcutta to Simla and Bombay. Its subsequent translation and reworking in the Parsi theater, in the form of Bholi Jan, the Gujarati-language version authored by K.N. Kabraji, reveal the highly productive role of melo-drama in the South Asian environment. From melodrama developed the “social”, a distinct genre centered on women, the family, and the tensions of modernity. Domestic melodrama’s shape and meaning were thus recast in the new location, leaving a legacy of great importance to the evolution of modern theater and cinema in Indian languages.
The Parsi theatre is known to have contributed to early Indian cinema textual legacies of story a... more The Parsi theatre is known to have contributed to early Indian cinema textual legacies of story and theme, genre and star roles. It also supplied technical expertise, personnel, and capital vital to the new industry. I argue that the aesthetic sensibility associated with the Urdu language was also of great importance, especially to the emergence of the Islamicate idiom in Bombay cinema. Beginning with the popular pageant, the Indar Sabha, Parsi theatrical companies embraced the poetics of the Urdu ghazal with its declarations of ishq (passion) and recurring radifs (refrains). Why did Urdu win out over English and Gujarati as the dominant language of the then Bombay-based theatre? The analysis traces the contribution of Urdu munshis (playwrights), who together with their more illustrious actor-manager employers, co-created a distinctive Parsi-Urdu theatrical style. The performance of Urdu poetry together with Hindustani music and dance is seen as enhancing the literary appeal and musicality of new dramas, imparting a commercial advantage. Moreover, changes in playhouse design and the conventions of melodrama called for a forceful, rhythmic style of delivery, for which actors trained in Urdu were well suited. The article concludes with a case study of Agha Hashr Kashmiri, author of countless dramas and screenplays, focusing on his historical allegory, Yahudi ki Larki, which was made into a well-known Bombay film in 1955.
Examines female impersonation in the commercial theaters of late colonial India as the resurgence... more Examines female impersonation in the commercial theaters of late colonial India as the resurgence of a longstanding cultural practice. Published as Chapter 11 of _Queering India: Same-Sex Love anbd Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society_, ed. Ruth Vanita, 2002.
Bharatendu Harishchandra's contribution to theatrical development in relation to Svang, Nautanki,... more Bharatendu Harishchandra's contribution to theatrical development in relation to Svang, Nautanki, Ram Lila, and Parsi theatre. Published in _Culture and Power in Banaras_, ed Sandria Freitag, 1989.
Deals with the diverse poetic genres and linguistic aspects of Amanat's 1853 drama. Presented at... more Deals with the diverse poetic genres and linguistic aspects of Amanat's 1853 drama. Presented at the International Conference on Early Literature in New Indo-Aryan Languages, Venice, 1997. Published in _The Banyan Tree_ edited by Mariola Offredi, 2000.
Chatterji's innovative film (1970) critiqued in relation to its source, Rajendra Yadav's Hindi no... more Chatterji's innovative film (1970) critiqued in relation to its source, Rajendra Yadav's Hindi novel of the same name. Published in _South Asia_ (Australia) N.S. 4:1 (June 1981).
Pleasure and the Nation: The History and Politics of Public Culture in India, ed. Chris Pinney and Rachel Dwyer , 2001
An early example of the crossover, the Indar Sabha quickly moved out of its courtly milieu to inh... more An early example of the crossover, the Indar Sabha quickly moved out of its courtly milieu to inhabit a large public domain. As it migrated, the story moved across media, taking shape as a popularly printed text, a stage drama, a rare book, a set of recorded songs, and as film.
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Journal Articles and Book Chapters by Kathryn Hansen