Bans & Bar Girls: Performing Caste in Mumbai’s Dance Bars

This monograph introduces the radical concept of caste capital to examine the process that led to the 2005 ban on dancing by bar girls in Mumbai, the opposition to this order, and the legal arguments for and against it. It analyses the implications of all these on caste and gender dynamics, and on the power play that sought to reinforce the caste and social status quo, via legislation. A rare ethnography that simultaneously discusses the economic, moral and social dimensions of a legal intervention.