Giving Voice to the Forgotten: Abhilasha Ojha Brings Courtesans’ Stories to Stage

Courting the Courtesans, a music and storytelling performance by singer and writer Abhilasha Ojha, will be staged at Depot 48, New Delhi on August 3.

The show looks at the lives of India’s courtesans and their important role in shaping Hindustani classical music. Through ghazals, thumris, and dadras, along with stories and research, Ojha brings attention to the women whose voices and talents have often been forgotten.

Here, she shares what inspired the show, her process of curating it, and what audiences can expect on the night.

As someone deeply rooted in storytelling through journalism, what inspired you to transition into performance and take up music?

Abhilasha Ojha:  Music is my first love — I was singing as a child, and I’m grateful to my teachers in Mayo College Girls’ School, Ajmer, for always encouraging me to perform on stage as a solo artist.

I lost touch with music when I became a full-time journalist, working in national dailies such as Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Business Standard Newspaper, and Mint. Later, I joined DAG, a leading art gallery, as production editor.

I found my way back into music almost a decade ago when I was dealing with a personal crisis. Music pulled me out of depression, becoming my lifelong companion, the focal point around which my life continues to revolve. 

I am blessed to have found my Guruma, Indra Mukherjee, who introduced me to the Banaras gharana style of thumris. It is to her credit that I started understanding the context of women’s roles in shaping this genre of Hindustani classical style of music. 

My writing experience taught me the value of research and documentation, allowing me to delve deeper into songs by not only understanding their melodies but also finding out more about the songs’ origins, their genesis, and the contribution of women, notably several of the unnamed courtesans, in shaping the cultural context of Indian history.

To me, writing and music are my children that I have to raise and nurture lovingly. I’m doing it to the best of my ability. 

Though I came from a family where music was not encouraged as a full-time profession, I’m so grateful to my parents for preparing me to have a career as a writer while fulfilling my passion as a musician.

Additionally, it was my husband, Jai Arjun Singh, who showed me a brand new way to look at cinema and songs. He — along with my circle of close friends and musicians — remains my biggest supporter. 

Courting the Courtesans’ sounds fascinating. What drew you to the stories of courtesans, and how do you aim to bring authenticity to their voices through your singing? Could you also share a bit about what audiences can expect at the upcoming event on August 3rd?

Abhilasha Ojha:  I loved reading Saba Dewan’s Tawaifnama some years ago. It gave me a context into the lives of courtesans that had fascinated me, especially when my Guruma started teaching me how to sing thumris.

The only ones to receive education, own land in their names, and those who could talk to men of status, including royalty, guiding them with their political opinion, the courtesans were well regarded in society until the British stripped them of their status, rights, and labelled them as cheap.

At the same time, they were also labelled the “other woman” by legally wedded wives of royalty. The decline of these women who fought battles, were nationalists in their own right, brave enough to have a voice, is what compelled me to understand their stories better.

Their contribution to shaping the cultural and political history of India needs to be unravelled and understood.

It was the courtesans who were propagating ghazals, thumris, dadras, and various other forms of classical music in their own right. While I am focusing on north India, in South India, too, the contribution of women courtesans has been immense. 

My endeavour is to introduce audiences, even if briefly, to the contribution of many of these anonymous women. In contemporary times, we talk of women having jobs, homes, the right to education, raising children all by themselves… well, these women were just that — quite possible, the OG Feminists. 

The show features ghazals, thumris, and dadras—genres steeped in emotion and history. How did you go about selecting the musical pieces for the performance?

Abhilasha Ojha:  It was really difficult to make the setlist with my musicians — how does one straddle “popular” songs with “important” songs? I have a mix of popular ghazals, but along with that, I have some dadra and thumri songs to showcase how many of the so-called “erotic” songs can be seen as steeped in bhakti. 

Tanish, my brilliantly talented sarangi player, suggested a popular Punjabi tappa to be sung. I was reluctant since I didn’t think it would fit into the curatorial theme.

It was only after I researched the genre that I found that tappa was popularised by camel riders and baijees in the Punjab region; many of the courtesans in Punjab were invited to sing these as wedding songs. Now, women of royalty weren’t allowed to sing, so it was obvious that the courtesans were invited to sing these as wedding songs. 

With the recent release of Umrao Jaan and restored screenings of Guru Dutt’s films, how do you think cinema has shaped—or perhaps even distorted—public perceptions of courtesans?

Abhilasha Ojha:  There’s a beautiful dadra by Shobha Gurtuji, “saiyan rooth gaye” from the film Maen Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki. The picturisation is of a courtesan wearing rather outrageous clothes — it robbed the song of its richness, in my opinion.

Also, there aren’t too many films made from the perspective of the courtesans. Ruth Vanita’s book Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema, which I referred to for my show, makes several interesting points about how courtesans are depicted in films.

In Pakeezah, for instance, and many other films, the ultimate resolution for the protagonist lies in the fact that she, despite being a tawaif, remains a virgin and eventually gets married into a respected family.

Films like Mandi, Bazaar, Sardari Begum, have still tried to unravel important aspects of women emerging from the kothas, even ensuring that the music does justice by way of lyrics and timeless melodies.

Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan, which I saw recently on the big screen, is an essential film told from the courtesan’s perspective — just like the film, Umrao Jaan’s music was bold, refreshing, and borrowed liberally from folk and traditional styles of gayaki.

Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan sa’ab, for instance, has sung Raag Mala, which is an important technique to master in Hindustani classical music. 

When Rekha sings the lines “mere liye bhi kya koi, udaas, bekarar hai? (is there someone sad and pining for me too?)’ in the song, Ye Kya Jagah Hai Doston, it has the ability to move the audience to tears.

What do you hope audiences will take away from Courting the Courtesans, beyond just a musical experience?

Abhilasha Ojha:  I’m so grateful that Depot 48 has trusted me with this concept. It’s one of the most important venues for artistes and music lovers in Delhi, which allows musicians to experiment in several genres of music, Indian and Western. 

Courting the Courtesans in Depot 48 is a precursor to what I want to do in the coming months: building a tightly knit narrative to introduce some of the rare songs that the courtesans sang, along with personal stories of many of the courtesans that are so far lost in the pages of history.

I hope that the audience understands how important it is not to label or judge these women as “loose characters”, “the other woman”, etc. I also want to look at the role of courtesans / tawaifs outside of the royal courts.

What can I discover about many of these anonymous women who had so much strength, character, and so much talent?

I hope the audience will also ponder over these questions after they attend the show; I hope to seek some answers myself through my show on August 3rd. 

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