Disciplining the Dasi: Cintamani and the Politics of a New Sexual Economy

This article analyzes the representation of the figure of the dasi in early Tamil film. Against the backdrop of the abolition of the devadasi system in the Madras Presidency and the reformist activity associated with it, the article attempts to look at how the figure of the dasi underwent a strong r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBioScope South Asian screen studies Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 51 - 69
Main Author Kaali, Sundar
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New Delhi, India SAGE Publications 01.01.2013
Subjects
vision
Tamil film
hagiography
sexuality
devotional
Devadasi
uncanny
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Summary:This article analyzes the representation of the figure of the dasi in early Tamil film. Against the backdrop of the abolition of the devadasi system in the Madras Presidency and the reformist activity associated with it, the article attempts to look at how the figure of the dasi underwent a strong repression in the cinematic discourses of the 1930s and 1940s. This was part of nationalist modernity, a project that sought to secure a new sexual economy in which the dasi was eventually narrativized out of Tamil film and pushed to the cultural margins of Tamil society. The article focuses on one film, Cintamani or Bilvamangal (1937) and shows how in this text the repression of the figure of the dasi was accompanied by an irruption of the real, the “uncanny.” It argues that there existed a nexus between sexuality and vision in early Tamil film, and that cinema itself acted as a safeguard against the trouble of the excessive sexuality embodied in the dasi.
ISSN:0974-9276
0976-352X
DOI:10.1177/097492761200483062