Kathak as Cultural Text: Negotiating Devotion, Aesthetics, and Nationhood

Abstract Book of the 8th International Conference on Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts

Year: 2026

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Kathak as Cultural Text: Negotiating Devotion, Aesthetics, and Nationhood

Sukeshi Rishabh

ABSTRACT:

This paper examines the evolution of Kathak as a performance tradition that embodies the cultural-spiritual fabric of India and reflects its civilizational ethos. Kathak originated in temple spaces as kathā vācana or storytelling devoted to Krishna and Rama. It was a devotional medium rooted in sacred geographies such as Braj, where narrative and movement intertwined with religious memory and ritual practice. With the rise of Mughal and Nawabi patronage, the form absorbed Persian aesthetics. Flourishing in courts and salons while maintaining its devotional undercurrents, Kathak became a syncretic art that wove together Hindu bhakti poetry and Islamic refinement. The colonial encounter disrupted this ecology: the decline of courtly patronage and the stigmatization of courtesan culture cast Kathak as morally compromised. In the twentieth century, however, nationalist cultural projects reclaimed and reframed Kathak as a classical art. This agenda was accomplished by erasing Kathak’s courtesan associations to align it with a respectable, spiritualized vision of Indian heritage. Drawing on Indian aesthetic theory, particularly the Nāṭyaśāstra and Abhinavagupta’s writings on rasa, alongside insights from performance studies and postcolonial theory, the paper argues that Kathak functions as a living text of India’s cultural identity. Its evolution illustrates how performance not only preserves devotional and regional traditions but also negotiates the moral, aesthetic, and political claims of nationhood, making Kathak a crucial site for understanding the intersections of art, spirituality, and cultural memory in modern India.

Keywords: Art; Classical; Culture; Dance; Nation