Engendering Performance: Indian Women Performers in Search of an Identity

Bishnupriya Dutt and Urmimala Sarkar Munsi

Sage India,

332 pages, ` 995

A comprehensive critical history of women artists in Indian theatre and dance of the colonial and post-colonial periods, the book’s underlying premise is that one cannot evaluate such performances in the Indian context without looking at dance and theatre together, unlike the course taken by traditional scholarship. The authors weave together issues of sexuality and colonialism, and culture and society to provide a holistic account of women performers in India.