Victorian Interference: Re-defining Morality in Colonial India

India's colonization which lasted roughly for a period of 200 years had consequences, the

effect of which has continued and has been normalized into our value systems to the extent

that it governs our lives even today. Histories were re-written, age-old traditions were given

new meanings and the culture that the subcontinent stood for was drastically remolded. A

matter that does not occupy a very significant aspect of the historiography of the colonial era

in India is that to do with a ‘profession,’ that is prominent till this day. The question of

prostitution was one that formed a major concern for the British Raj right from the early 19th

century up to the mid-20th century. The scope of this essay is to undertake the study of the

attitude of the British towards this ‘debauched’ profession.

Who defines and distinguishes between moral and immoral? The British in their creation of

colonies all across the globe sought justification for this act of subjugation as part of a greater

act of benevolence. The ‘civilizing mission’ they embarked on was diminishing the line

between the native and colonial elements, largely unsettling Indian society. Imposition of

western ideals of morality had ravaging effects on the established Indian social fabric. The

individual was exposed to and coerced into following these new set of norms, introduced,

under the veil of ‘modernization’.

The immediate question to address is therefore, and what will form the crux of this essay is

how the British with their ‘selective definition of Indian culture’ were able to drill into the

minds of their subjects the belief that they were an inferior, backward and stagnant nation
which needed to be reformed, in order to bring them at level with European standards.1 In

the early part of the 19th century the British took upon the documenting of indigenous

religious practices. The Devadasi tradition was one among many traditions that the British

garbed in their Oriental definition of India.

The first section of the essay will trace the significance of the Devadasi system in the period

before the advent of the British colonizers. The second section will put forth the main

concerns of the government with the Devadasi community and how they sort to resolve these

issues. The third section reflects on how morality is masked by ambiguity and the

perpetuation of prostitution, for the convenience of the British personnel in India. The fourth

section further goes on to elaborate the situation of prostitutes in the period and the rapid

spread of venereal diseases. The fifth section portrays the hierarchy that crept into the system

of prostitution and the idea of race becoming a prominent ideology of governance.

1.Thomas R. Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj, New Cambridge History of India, (New York, Cambridge
University Press, 1994) ,1-28.

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 I

The Devadasis were women who had been offered to the temple as young girls. They were

extremely skilled in the classical arts of dance and music, many of whose renditions have

come to become so popular today. Their status had been considered better than married

women both socially and economically. The term ‘akhand saubhagyawati’ (the fortunate

goddess who will die before her husband) to refer to them reflects the pride of a Devadasi.

However, for the British the image of the Devadasi was in direct conflict with that of the

chaste, monogamous, virtuous ‘Aryan woman’ they had read about in the Sanskrit texts.2

They refused to eke out a separate position for the Devadasi, terming them as nothing else but

prostitutes. The question then that becomes important to raise is why were the British so ill-

disposed towards this tradition?

II

The dual front put up by the British of rule of law and just governance on the one hand and

on the other taking special care to maximize the wealth of the crown and company, was a

well-though out and executed plan. The condemnation against the Devadasi tradition was a

direct result of the failure to incorporate it into the 'colonial scheme', leading to its harsh

portrayal as an immoral activity in the name of religion. The path they resorted to was

viewing the Devadasis in the secular ambit rather than the religious. The Devadasi now came

2.‘Hindu law, the very texts that the colonial administrators relied on, sanctioned the existence of courtesans and
their right to property’. The Smritis mention the activity as a rather “light and pardonable offence.” Kalpana
Kannabiran. “Judiciary, Social Reform and Debate on 'Religious Prostitution' in Colonial India.” Economic and
Political Weekly, (Oct. 28, 1995), WS59-WS69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4403368

3
to be equated with the ‘common prostitute.’

It was not only a direct attack on the power of the upper-class Indian elites who courted these

women but also sort to remove the administrative hindrance caused by certain customs and

traditions of the Devadasis. The latter involved customs such as the right to inherit property

which led to them amassing enormous wealth over the generations, perpetuated by the

practice of adopting a girl child. Under Sections 372 and 373 of the Indian Penal code,

procuring a girl child below the age of 14 years was criminalized and prohibited. This again

caused a tussle within the judiciary as adoption was seen as a means of continuing lineage,

and in accordance with Hindu tradition. The Devadasis were stripped of their civil rights and

this was an unacceptable act as echoed in Gaur Das Bysack’s words:

“In the first place, it will be difficult to distinguish between natural and foster children of prostitutes,

secondly there is no registry of birth or certificates of birth among them… it is impossible to prove the birth

of their children and the result is that they will be unjustly deprived of the custody of their children.”3

The irony of the situation was that while the Devadasi community was being wiped out, the

19th and 20th century witnessed expanding brothels and widespread prevalence of prostitution

in the cantonments very much under the supervision of the British. Immorality had acquired a

rather fluid definition. Importantly, the act of prostitution was never criminalized. The

British reluctance to give a legal definition for a ‘common prostitute’ further entangled the

judicial system. The British Raj had put in considerable effort in perpetuating the sex trade in

India and were in fact the prime benefactors of this activity.

3. Ibid.

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 III

With a large number of British officers and soldiers being stationed in India, the British

government thought it important to establish and maintain brothels in and around the

cantonment areas. In fact, one of the then viceroys went so far as to suggest that it was the

duty of the commanding officers to see to it that the sexual desires of their soldiery were

fulfilled so as to prevent them from undertaking any unnecessary risk.4 These were

commonly referred to as 'chaklas' or 'rags'. An interesting feature was the way in which these

brothels were classified – the 'gora chaklas' meant for the British officers; the 'lal kurta

chakla' meant for the infantry ranks and lastly the kala chaklas meant for the Indian soldiers.5

This system as it existed was unprecedented, as the prostitute emerged as part of a distinct

community that held not only a gendered but a racial distinction as well. The prostitute of

this period came to be the perfect symbol of Marx's theory of alienation. She was completely

detached from the product of her labour and was simply treated as a 'body' and nothing else.6

This concept will become clear by taking a look at the various measures taken by the British

to regulate this profession.

4.Philippa Levine. “Prostitution, Race, and Politics: Policing Venereal Disease in the British Empire.”
Psychology Press, 2003, pp 177-231

5.Sumanta Banerjee. “The 'beshya' and the 'babu': Prostitute and Her Clientele in 19th Century Ben-
gal”. Economic and Political Weekly 28 (45), 1993, 2461–72. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4400383.

6.Ibid.

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 IV

The ease of accessibility to the brothels for British soldiers was central to governance as a

means of maintaining stability and also to allay fears of homosexuality, the latter being a

major concern of the colonial government. These state-regulated brothels were seen as

indispensable to provide 'safe sexual recreation'7

However, throughout the 1800s the spread of venereal diseases among British soldiers

reached uncontrollable levels and the British in order to keep a tab on military efficiency

introduced the Cantonment Act of 1864 followed by the Contagious Disease Act of 1868,

which documented the spread of venereal diseases. By these acts the British introduced strict

regulation of brothels by the registering, licensing and compulsory weekly medical

examination of prostitutes in the lock hospitals set up in the cantonments. If the prostitutes

were found to be inflicted with a venereal disease, they were quarantined and not released

from these prison hospitals unless cured. For the same purpose the number of prostitutes per

cantonment was restricted to 12-15, and were to consort only with European soldiers.

These lock hospitals were unhygienic and unsanitary to say the least and Levine remarks that

examination procedures and medical facilities made the event of the “syphilitic poison of one

woman being communicated to the other” almost unpreventable. Another grey area that can

be spotted is that men inflicted with the disease were not made to undergo the same

procedure. The thought of their own men undergoing such inspection was considered ‘brute

treatment’. 8

7.Philippa Levine. “Rereading the 1890s: Venereal Disease as "constitutional Crisis" in Britain and British
India”. The Journal of Asian Studies 55 (3), Association for Asian Studies, 1996, 585–612.
DOI:10.2307/2646447; Stephen Legg. “Stimulation, Segregation and Scandal: geographies of Prostitution
Regulation in British India, between registration (1888) and Suppression (1923).” Modern Asian Studies, Vol.
46, No. 6 (Cambridge University Press 2012 ,1459-1505).
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X11000503

8.Ibid.

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Though initially this regulation affected only the military bases but it eventually spread to the

provinces and presidencies. As Michel Foucault puts it, ‘these new measures would become

anchorage points for the different varieties of racism of the nineteenth and twentieth

centuries’. 9 The deliberate casting of an almost dictatorial sexual order wasn't simply

symptomatic of the apprehension for the spread of venereal diseases but also to regulate

sexuality. In reality these measures were simply a concern for the health of the soldier and the

issue of public good and hygiene was a mere farce. The 19th century thus saw the

medicalization and categorization of sexuality.10 This became an important means of

cementing the grip of the government over its colonial subjects.

The 19th century witnessed changes in British attitude, as they became almost obsessed with

the idea of 'preserving racial purity'.10 The imposition of stricter definitions of race and sex,

led to changing notions of sexuality in 20th century India. Warnings were given to soldiers to

abstain from consorting with Indian women as the 'spread of disease from one race to the

other was considered to be more severe.'11 The need to demarcate the line between the 'ruled

and the rulers’ became imperative after the revolt of 1857.

In their attempts to maintain ‘racial purity' the white slave traffic posed several problems for

9.Michel Focault, “History of sexuality”, (New York, Pantheon books, 1978), 425.

10.Philippa Levine. “Prostitution, Race, and Politics: Policing Venereal Disease in the British Empire.” (New
York : Routledge, Psychology Press, 2003), 177-231.

11.Stephen Legg. “Stimulation, Segregation and Scandal: geographies of Prostitution Regulation in British
India, between registration (1888) and Suppression (1923).” Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 6 (Cambridge
University Press 2012 ,1459-1505). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X11000503

7
the British Raj. It raised serious questions regarding the legitimacy of their rule. This was a

major threat to the hierarchies of race and class that had been so shrewdly established by

them.12 Though relations between British men and native women was still acceptable, the

thought of European women consorting with Indian men however, was deeply unsettling for

the British. The European prostitutes though belonging to a lowly class (commonly referred

to as 'poor whites' or 'low Europeans') still represented the ruling elite. European brothels

were always kept a notch above the local brothels and the former were marked by higher

standards and higher rates simply to make them inaccessible to the common man.13 However,

there were many wealthy natives who found their way into these brothels.

They went to great extents to maintain and assert their position. Reformers such as Alfred

Dyer and Josephine Butler exposed the furtive measures of the government. There was mass

resentment and the grievances against the British were staged through protests and reform

movements. This ultimately led to the Contagious Disease Act being repealed in the late 19th

century by when even the Cantonment Act had undergone several variations. These

developments did not really bring about any marked changes as brothels continued to operate

in full swing till the 1930s and medical examination continued till the 1920s.14

12.Ashwini Tambe, “The Elusive Ingénue: A Transnational Feminist Analysis of European Prostitution in
Colonial Bombay”. Gender and Society 19 (2). (Sage Publications, Inc. 2005,160–79)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30044581.

13.Harald Fischer-Tine. “White women degrading themselves to the lowest depths: European networks of
prostitution and colonial anxieties I British India and Ceylon ca. 1880-1914.” Indian Economic Social History
Review, 40 (2), (June, 2003, 63-190). doi: 10.1177/001946460304000202

14.Ashwini Tambe, “The Elusive Ingénue: A Transnational Feminist Analysis of European Prostitution in
Colonial Bombay”. Gender and Society 19 (2). (Sage Publications, Inc. 2005,160–79)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30044581.

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 *

This essay in its entirety has tried to bring out the constant dual play of the British. In the

midst of all these chaotic developments, the debauchery that came to be associated with the

prostitutes is most significant because it finds its reflection in the present day. The hassle

taken to keep brothels accessible to the soldiers talks of nothing else but the ambiguity of

morals the colonial state propagated so intensely, portraying a rather lopsided image of Indian

culture. In examining the 19th and 20th century in India, multiple questions get raised. Can we

ever regard prostitution as any other profession and not associate those engaged in it as

untouchables or outcastes? Is the culture of the people the same as the culture of a few

leaders? Who decides how crucial a role culture plays in shaping our identity? How can

traditions and culture be made free from the clutches of power structures?

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 Selected Bibliography

Banerjee, Sumanta.1993. “The ‘Beshya’ and the ‘Babu’: Prostitute and her Clientele in 19th
Century Bengal.” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.28, no.45 (Nov.6,1993), pp. 2461-
72. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4400383.

Bhandari, Sudhanshu. 2010. “Prostitution in Colonial India”. Mainstream, Vol XLVIII, No 26.
Accessed, 25th February, 2015. http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article2142.html

Chatterjee, Ratnabali. 1993. “Prostitution in Nineteenth Century Bengal: Construction of Class

and Gender”. Social Scientist 21 (9/11). Social Scientist: 159–72. doi:10.2307/3520431.

Fischer-Tine, Harald. 2003. “White women degrading themselves to the lowest depths:
European networks of prostitution and colonial anxieties I British India and Ceylon ca.
1880-1914.” Indian Economic Social History Review 40 (2) ;163. DOI:
117/001946460304000202

Jabbar, Naheem. 2012 “Policing native pleasures: a colonial history.” The British Journal of
Sociology, 63 (4) ,704-729 DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-4446.2012.01433.x

Kalpana Kannabiran. 1995. “Judiciary, Social Reform and Debate on 'Religious Prostitution' in
Colonial India.” Economic and Political Weekly, 30(43), WS59-WS69.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4403368

Legg, Stephen. 2012. “Stimulation, Segregation and Scandal: geographies of Prostitution

Regulation in British India, between registration (1888) and Suppression (1923).”
Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 6 (Cambridge University Press 2012 ,1459-1505).
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X11000503

Levine, Philippa. 2000. “Orientalist Sociology and the Creation of Colonial

Sexualities”. Feminist Review, no. 65. Palgrave Macmillan Journals: 5–21.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1395847.

Levine, Phillipa. 2003. “Prostitution, Race, and Politics: Policing Venereal Disease in the
British Empire.” (New York : Routledge, Psychology Press, 2003), 177-231.

Levine, Phillipa. 1996. Rereading the 1890s: Venereal Disease as "Constitutional Crisis" in
Britain and British India The Journal of Asian Studies 55 (3) Association for Asian
Studies, 585-612 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2646447

Tambe, Ashwini. 2005. “The Elusive Ingénue: A Transnational Feminist Analysis of European
Prostitution in Colonial Bombay”. Gender and Society 19 (2). (Sage Publications, Inc.
2005,160–79) http://www.jstor.org/stable/30044581.

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