4 | Famine and a British photographer

I discover that there is quite a bit of academic writing about the bayadère and her Western counterpart, the ballerina (e.g. Bor 2010; Engelhardt 2014). I also read up on some of the Western ballet companies that have produced the ballet and ran into trouble (e.g. Carman 2020; Chakraborty 2020; Warnecke 2019). And of course I read Jacob Haafner’s travelogue in Dutch, which I am lucky to have brought to India. I read and re-read the passages where he first rejects, then pines for and, finally, is reunited with his beloved Mamia. During their first meeting Mamia, perhaps on the instigation of her ayah (foster mother who is often equated with a matchmaker), presents Haafner with kampaak after her dance. This cultural practice equals an invitation to sex (Haafner Part 3, 1997 (1808), 190-1). I notice that Jacob never introduces Mamia to any of his European friends or business partners (except one who acts as go-between). This seems to point to a social taboo on their interracial relationship. I also discover that Jacob Haafner figures prominently in The Pagoda Tree (2017), a creative novel by Claire Scobie and part of her thesis on the representation of the figure of the devadasi in European travel writing (Scobie 2013).

I look into the historical and social setting of 18th and 19th century South India and the responses of Indians to the colonial administration, Western culture and values. Both the colonial and indigenous elites were negotiating their commercial and political interests in a constant dance that involved capital, power, a desire for self-aggrandizement and status mingled with prejudice and aversion. The British had personal agents or dubashes (literally ‘two language-speakers’) who acted as brokers. They were involved in local politics through financial contributions to temples and the appointment of temple chieftains or dharmakartas. Corruption was widespread, not only among the indigenous merchants some of whom had recently come into money, but also among government officials all the way up to the level of British Governors. Yet ordinary people were not entirely voiceless. They petitioned the colonial government and took out protest marches, at least in the emerging city of Madras (Mukund 2005).

Focusing in on the wider social context of the time period in which Pepita and Mink created La Bayadère, I discover that the ballet’s premiere coincides with the Great Madras Famine of 1876-1878. The contrast between a Western oriental ballet situated in an elite European cultural setting and the ground reality in South India during the same time period comes as something of a shock. The famine was caused by an intense two-year drought resulting in the failure of crops. However, its devastating effects have also been attributed to the refusal of the British administration to take proper care of its starving subjects, continuing the export of grains and providing relief that was totally insufficient. Exact estimates are difficult to come by, but it is believed that 5 ½ million people may have perished during the famine (Great Famine of 1876-1878 Wikepedia).

The Great Madras Famine has been documented through the images of Willoughby Wallace Hooper, an amateur photographer serving in the 7th Madras Cavalry. His grotesque photos of emaciated men, women and children arranged as if they were peons,  and the lack of empathy they communicate, raise uneasy questions about the way he saw his subjects (Mukherjee 2017).

References

Bor, Joep (2010), ‘Mamia, Ammani and other Bayadères” Europe’s Portrayal of India’s Temple Dancers’, Soneji, Davesh (ed.), Bharata Natyam: A Reader, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 13-49.

Carman, Joseph (2020), ‘A "La Bayadère" for the 21st Century: How Companies are Confronting the Ballet’s Orientalist Stereotypes’, Pointe Magazine [https://pointemagazine.com/la-bayadere-orientalist-stereotypes/]

Chakraborty, Pallavi (2020), ‘La Bayadère and the Footprint of the Indian Temple Dancer’, The Dance Journal (Philadelphia), 15 March 2020 [https://philadelphiadance.org/dancejournal/2020/03/15/la-bayadere-and-the-footprint-of-the-indian-temple-dancer/, accessed on 08 November 2022].

Engelhardt, Molly. 2014. “The real Bayadère meets the ballerina on the Western stage.” Victorian Literature and Culture 42 (Cambridge University Press), 509-534.

Great Madras Famine of 1876-1878 (Wikepedia)

Haafner, Jacob. 1808. De werken van Jacob Haafner Deel 3 bezorgd door J.A. de Moor en P.G.R. I.J. van der Velde, 1997. Zutphen: Walburg Pers.

Mukherjee, Sujaan (2017), Who was the photographer who took these dehumanising images of the Madras famine?, Scroll Magazine (https://scroll.in/magazine/855532/who-was-the-photographer-who-took-these-dehumanising-images-of-the-madras-famine)

Mukund, Kanakalatha (2005), The View from Below: Indigenous Society, Temples, and the Early Colonial State in Tamilnadu, 1700-1835.

Scobie, Claire (2013), “The Representation of the Figure of the Devadasi in European Travel Writing and Art from 1770 to 1820 with specific reference to Dutch writer Jacob Haafner: an exegesis & The Pagoda Tree, a novel.” Thesis Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctorate of Creative Arts at University of Western Sydney.

Scobie, Claire (2017). The Pagoda Tree. London: Unbound.

Warnecke, Lauren (2019), ‘Tradition is a good thing — but Bolshoi’s ‘Bayadère’ is out of touch’, Art Intercepts [https://www.artintercepts.org/2019/02/02/tradition-is-a-good-thing-but-bolshois-bayadere-is-out-of-touch/]

Willoughby Wallace Hooper (Wikepedia)