The Kalakshetra Foundation and the Revival of Bharatanatyam

Rukmini Devi Arundale establishes and uses the Kalakshetra Foundation and her own growing reputation as a performer to ‘revive’ temple dances, mainly in the form of what we know as Bharatanatyam today. While the position of temple dancers had been in decline during the early modern period, colonial intervention worsened their situation considerably. Following the 1910 ban on the practice in the Madras Presidency (parts of present-day southern India outside the Deccan), many erstwhile dancers lost their remaining status and prestige, and had to undertake prostitution or bonded labour. In the wake of protests against the ban, the colonial government also passed Devadasi Protection Acts in the Bombay and Madras Presidencies in 1934.

While Arundale and others base Bharatanatyam on Sadirattam, the most common temple dance tradition before the ban, the revived version is not actually practised in temples. From its establishment in the politically charged decade leading up to Independence, Bharatanatyam will be seen as a major cultural symbol of Indian identity, although the circumstance of its secularised revival as an upper-caste performance practice will be criticised by many scholars as a form of appropriation.