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Unfinished Gestures presents the social and cultural history of courtesans in South India who are generally called devadasis, focusing on their encounters with colonial modernity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Following a hundred years of vociferous social reform, including a 1947 law that criminalized their lifestyles, the women in devadasis communities contend with severe social stigma and economic and cultural disenfranchisement. Adroitly combining ethnographic fieldwork with historical research, Davesh Soneji provides a comprehensive

Dance --- Devadāsīs --- Devadāsīs --- Prostitution --- Social change --- Social aspects --- Social conditions. --- Deva-dāsī --- Deva-dāsīs --- Devadāsī --- Joginis --- Mathammas --- Uruttira kaṇikaiyar --- Courtesans --- Dancers --- Change, Social --- Cultural change --- Cultural transformation --- Societal change --- Socio-cultural change --- Social history --- Social evolution --- Female prostitution --- Hustling (Prostitution) --- Prostitution, Female --- Street prostitution --- Sex work --- Brothels --- Pimps --- Procuresses --- Red-light districts --- Sex crimes --- Dances --- Dancing --- Amusements --- Performing arts --- Balls (Parties) --- Eurythmics --- courtesan, india, sex work, prostitution, sexuality, education, escort, demi monde, class, devadasis, stigma, criminalization, modernity, colonialism, reform, laws, ethnography, women, gender, marginalization, performance, aesthetics, tanjore, dance, tradition, anthropology, folklore, nautch, salon, madras, citizenship, respectability, masculinity, marriage, femininity, subjectivity, viralimalai, andhra pradesh, selfhood, muthulakshmi reddy, nonfiction, history, memory, religion.