Prostitution in Colonial Delhi: Hygiene, Femininity and State Control in Historical Perspective
U.N.K. Rathnayake
Ph.D Research Scholar, Center for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Prostitution in colonial Delhi was a focal point of intersecting anxieties surrounding hygiene, morality, and racial control within the British Empire. Through the enforcement of the Contagious Diseases Acts and the regulation of brothels in garrison towns, the colonial state sought to discipline womenÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs bodies in the name of public health, particularly to protect European soldiers from venereal disease. These measures not only medicalized and policed Indian women but also reinforced imperial notions of racial and moral superiority. Simultaneously, Indian reformers and nationalist elites redefined femininity through discourses that condemned prostitution as a marker of social decay and cultural degradation. This study examines the gendered and racialized dimensions of these interventions, highlighting how colonial health policies and indigenous reform movements intersected to reshape the meanings of womanhood, purity, and public hygiene. By integrating colonial medical reports, legal documents, and oral testimonies, this paper reconstructs the lived experiences of sex workers who negotiated surveillance, stigma, and reform. In doing so, it reveals how prostitutes in colonial Delhi navigated and resisted overlapping regimes of control, offering new insights into the politics of gender, health, and power in urban colonial India.
Keywords: Colonial Delhi, prostitution, public health, femininity, state control, gender and empire
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