Ruth Vanita taught at Delhi University, India, for many years, and is now Professor at the University of Montana, USA. Co-founder of India’s first nationwide feminist magazine Manushi, Vanita is the author of many books and articles on gender, sexuality and culture in Indian and British literature, and has translated several works of poetry and fiction from Hindi/Urdu to English.
This is a spectacular reassessment of India's cinematic courtesans; it provocatively challenges reigning stereotypes concerning gendered and ideological collectives. If offers new insights into the interface between canonical texts and performance, between art and labor. -- Syed Akbar Hyder * Associate Professor of Asian Studies and the Director of the Hindi-Urdu Flagship at the University of Texas at Austin. Author of Reliving Karbala: Martyrdom in South Asian Memory. *