India Booked | Courtesans in the Indian Imagination

India Booked with Ayushi Mona

In this eighth episode of India Booked, Ayushi Mona speaks to the stalwart academic and writer Ruth Vanita. They chat about her journey writing about the courtesans of India (in Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema and Memory of Light), what inspired her to write about the courtesan culture, how Victorian morality changed the ideas of pleasure in Indian society and made the "dominant attitude" as anti-pleasure, her favourite cinematic depiction of courtesans, and much much more. Tune in now on the channel of your choice or the link in our bio. * Ruth Vanita is an Indian academic, activist and author who specialises in British and Indian literary history with a focus on gender and sexuality studies.