What led to the emergence,and subsequent decline,of dance bars in Mumbai It is well past midnight and Congress House appears deserted,with the entrance obscured by a dark mesh of wires. But a walk to the back gate reveals signs of life. Men,gathered by the cigarette seller,chatter in high spirits. Another stands hand in hand with a girl,dressed in a bright green-and-gold sari,as she clings to the wall,giggling,wet after the evenings downpour. Inside,on a decrepit staircase of the four-storey building,with a stream of waste water running along it,a cat purrs softly while devouring leftovers. The sound of womens conversations emanating from the dingy,dimly-lit rooms lingers like a greeting. What perhaps sets this scene apart from that of writer Saadat Hasan Mantos many descriptions of Congress House in his stories set in Bombay is the missing sound of tabla and ghungroos. This building on Grant Road,where men once flocked for mujra performances,is home to many girls who work in Mumbais beer bars,with up to 10 living in each of the cramped rooms. The bustle of business was alive till the 1990s,when the popularity of dance bars peaked. But since a ban in 2005 on dancing in bars,the silence of sobriety has been enforced. All I do is stand along with the others girls on what was once the dance floor, says 28-year-old Rashmi (names changed to protect identity). Following the ban,bars are allowed to hire women only as waiters or to accompany the orchestra as singers if they have a performance license. A few clients might tip them,but it doesnt match the wads of notes that customers earlier showered on them. The news of the recent Supreme Court order,upholding an earlier Bombay High Court order quashing the ban,is a reason for the dancers to celebrate. Dance bars emerged in the Bombay of 1970s. According to Varsha Kale,president of Bharatiya Bar Girls Association,one of the petitioners in the case,its roots lay in the Indian immigration to Gulf countries. Many Indian men moved to Dubai which had a culture of dance bars. They were often lonely and looking for female company. Indian restaurants there realised that there was a potential market for Indian dance bars. So,before dance bars opened in Mumbai,women from traditional dancing communities,or the nat-samaaj,were already travelling to the Gulf, Kale says. Indian entrepreneurs spotted an opportunity in Bombay,a port city of migrant workers,where the cabaret and mujra culture had existed since the days of the British Raj at Foras Road and Congress House. The first dance bar,Sonia Mahal,started by a Parsi,opened at Nariman Point in 1972. By 1986,24 bars had come up in south and central Bombay. For traditional performers and dancers,whose fortunes had dimmed as the patrons of mujra,lavani and tamasha declined,the bars were a welcome opportunity. For the households of laid-off mill workers,it provided a source of income,and a means to avoid the stigma of prostitution,argued advocate and activist Flavia Agnes,who represented the bar girls in the high court,in her 2006 essay,State Control and Morality for Yale University. Soon,women from dancing communities across India,such as Bedias,Sansi and Deredar where the entire family depended on the income of the daughter moved to Mumbai. A parallel industry emerged,with employment opportunities for over 1 lakh people as waiters,stewards,makers and sellers of snacks and so on. What made dance bars popular with men,believes the owner of a 40-year-old bar in Cotton Green,is the suggestive nature of the performances. The Indian man likes to flirt; he doesnt necessarily want to sleep with a woman outside of wedlock. Dance bars offered him that entertainment after a hard days work, he says. Kale seconds him,adding that nudity to Indian men is a private affair,limited to the bedroom,and they dont appreciate a woman dancing naked in front of men. This is also the reason why bar dancers wore traditional outfits such as lehngas and saris. What made the dancers powerful is the hold many had on their clients,who would tip them generously and buy expensive gifts for them. The women played several roles with such men. They told them false stories of their poor background (pretending to need protection) or behaved like a wife,lovingly inquiring about their well-being, says lawyer and activist Sameena Dalwai. Several became mistresses and keepers of secrets of Mumbais powerful businessmen and gangsters. In 2002,Abdul Karim Telgi famously spent Rs 93 lakh on his favourite bar girl in one night. This excess didnt go down well with Mumbais middle class. But Dalwai also believes that the ban was the result of Indias long-standing tradition of caste and gender discrimination. Dance bars empowered women,many of whom were from the lower castes,she points out. Once considered the keepers of culture,nautch girls across India were from lower castes. But eventually,as these dance forms were adopted as folk and art forms by the government,they became respectable and upper-caste performers displaced the original keepers of the traditions, says Dalwai. The women left to dance in bars became less respectable. The states argument is that adult men are being led astray by the women. They claim the dancers are spoiling the environment for youth. But so are item numbers,which are performed by high-caste women in fewer clothes, Dalwai says. The dancers,Kale says,work hard to make money and their desire to earn as much as possible should be seen in the same light as that of actors doing item numbers. After the ban,many dancers left the city for Bangalores burgeoning dance bar scene or the Gulf. They are preparing to return to Mumbai,even as the state government prepares to battle the court order. But some say the excitement may be misplaced. The golden era of dance bars is long over, says a former dancer. You have all kinds of entertainment available on smartphones,be it chat lines or porn videos. Film heroines provide all the entertainment. Who will look at the bar girls even if some are so pretty?
