Set in the 1940s, at a time when an independence movement is striving to free India from colonial rule by the British Empire, the Netflix series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar tells of the lives, entanglements and fate of courtesans in the bazaar and red light district of Lahore, also known as Heera Mandi, as a popular uprising brews.
But how much truth is there in the series created by a successful Bollywood director (Sanjay Leela Bhansali)?
In today's India and Pakistan, the true story of the Indian courtesans (the so-called taiwafs), who were once highly respected in the courts of the nobility, has been forgotten. Worse still, the courtesans are nowadays reviled as prostitutes. Did they really fight as freedom fighters against the British? Were they deliberately deprived of their powerful position in Indian society at the time by the British - their reputation desecrated in order to suppress the threat they posed?
Or were the taiwafs never anything other than prostitutes in the courts of Indian kings?
#dwhistoryandculture #heeramandi
For more visit: www.dw.com/en/culture/s-1441
⮞ Follow DW Culture on Facebook: / dw.culture
⮞ Follow DW Culture on Twitter: DW_Culture
Please follow DW's netiquette: p.dw.com/p/MF1G