The Devadasi are a much maligned and misunderstood group who have been persistently excluded and repressed for many years. They were originally a varied caste of Temple servants who undertook a wide range of different activities within Hindu Temples. They were dancers, singers, actresses and even political advisors, and many also integrated sexual practices into their vocations. Their skills and talents meant that unlike most women in South Asia, they could live independently of men and that the Devadasi often enjoyed considerable wealth and influence.

The German Feminist Maria Mies who has undertaken extensive anthropological research on the Devadasi has recorded how many women would rather be a Devadasi rather than a subjugated married woman. Unlike other women in South Asia, Devadasi are not dependent on Male relatives as they can pursue a vocational career. They can also partake in religious ceremonies usually reserved for men and they have equal inheritance rights with men. Ordinary hindu women in South Asia have none of these rights.

However there is a great controversy about the Devadasi which has different groups claiming that the women involved are actually sex slaves while others consider the Devadasi liberated women breaking free of moralistic and paternalistic restrictions.

The truth is difficult and complex. The Devadasi system has been broken down by centauries of repression and abuse intended to reduce the Devadasis' privileges while also keeping them available for the sexual service of men. This repression was greatest under the British Empire when the Devadasi were defined as "prostitutes" and subjected to arrest and constant punishment. All of the institutions that allowed the Devadasi to protect themselves, were destroyed and they became increasingly vulnerable to abuse. The destruction of the Devadasi system increased the opportunities to abuse the Devadasi dramatically, it was as if someone threw you out of your house and then complained about the problems of the homeless.

Prostitution became synonymous with "Devadasi" and the rich tapestry of cultural practices that made previously up the Devadasi was collapsed into the single issue of "prostitution". So when discussing the Devadasi it is important to be clear about which representation of the Devadasi is being discussed.

The forced repression of poor women and girls into supplying sex for privileged men without any regard for the needs of the women concerned is nothing to do with Devadasism. All sorts of abuse in prostitution have been named as being representative of the Devadasi system when in fact it has nothing to do with the Devadasi. These abuses are partly the consequence of destroying the Devadasi system and subsequent creation of an unrestrained secular system of prostitution controlled by men as the normal way of controlling commercial sex.

The Devadasi were originally protected by the conventions and rules of a religious system that allowed them to offer sexual services for considerable rewards and to have a personal autonomy that is unknown among most South Asian women even today.

The Devadasi system is not about the forced rape of young girls in pseudo religious ceremonies and the grinding poverty that compels old women to sell themselves for a few rupees outside a temple gate. It was about placing control of non-reproductive sex for pleasure in the hands of skilled and autonomous women who were able to offer such sex to men according to a series of conventions and practices that prevented most abuses associated with modern prostitution.

The Devadasi system was not perfect it was constantly required to renegotiate its place and privileges with other power groups. Under the British Empire the system was effectively destroyed and it became a parody of itself.

Therefore a corrupted Devadasi system that subjugates women and abuses children is a bad system and it should be resisted.

However a Devadasi system that allows women to break free from subjugation, acquire autonomy, and control of her sexual behaviour for her own interests is probably a very useful option for those women who want such a life.

This dichotomy directly reflects the current debate between forced prostitution and voluntary prostitution in Europe. A forced and abused European prostitute is the victim of a system that must be condemned; however an emancipated European woman working in prostitution according to her own purposes should be accepted and allowed to benefit from her choices.

The Devadasi experience can be good or bad according to a number of factors. If you can not distinguish between the differing possibilities and if you condemn all Devadasi practices as bad, you must logically condemn the parallel situation in Europe and consider all forms of prostitution in Europe as inherently harmful. However most people are able to recognise that it is possible to experience prostitution in Europe in different ways, the same is true of the Devadasi experience.

I would freely admit that the Devadasi have a greater uphill struggle to reclaim their legitimacy than the well-organised European sex workers, but no one should deny us the opportunity to reclaim our heritage from its present corruption.

If you make an internet search for Devadasi you will find many sites that focus on the serious problems of the modern corrupted Devadasi system. Many of these critics are often serving a hidden agenda and are using the defenceless Devadasi to serve their own causes. Anti-religion group's criticise the modern Devadasi abuses because it allow them to attack religion in general. Some Feminist or Moralist groups attack the modern abuse because they can then engage in general attacks on the patriarchy or on every form of prostitution.

However the following two sites illustrate the need to differentiate between the traditional and modern forms of Devadasi and they also hint how a Devadasi revival, if possible, could actually offer an escape from the modern abuses.

www.samarthbharat.com/devadasis.htm

www.hennapage.com/henna/forum/messages/69480.html

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