Watching without Seeing: Vulgarity, Obscenity, and the Politics of Launda Naach

Abstract

Launda Naach, a cross-dressing performance tradition from the Bhojpuri-speaking regions of Bihar, dances at the threshold of queer and culture in the caste-patriarchal social order of the region. Tracing the genealogy of the tradition through Bhikari Thakur’s repertoire and Naach traditions of the Mughal courts, the paper argues that the vulgarity charges levelled against the performance are a function of caste hegemony. The historically stigmatised body of the performer is made invisible outside the performance space. Drawing from Kerstin Mey’s theory of obscenity and Bertolt Brecht’s concept of Verfremdungseffekt, the paper tries to demonstrate how the feudal structures operate to render the feminised launda body physically accessible to violence rather than legibility. The harassment of Launda Naach performers is thus understood not as incidental transgression but as a systematic extension of caste violence into the domain of cultural production.