Government Making Women Dance in Front Of Guests Arriving for G20 Summit, Reducing Women To “Item Numbers”

Why is the Government of India making various groups of women dance at the airport to welcome the international guests arriving for G20 Summit and reducing them to item numbers? Dancing is not a traditional way to welcome guests in Indian culture. The whole idea is deeply sexist, and offensive to both women and Indian culture.

Social media is filled with videos of young women doing various song and dance performance at the airport to welcome G20 Summit Guests. The performances are neither completely classical nor folk and nowhere near Indian tradition.

In one such video shared by Press Trust of India (PTI) captioning it as “Cultural dance performance at Delhi airport to welcome Argentina President Alberto Fernandez, who has arrived to attend the G20 Summit,” young women are performing a fusion between Hip Hop and British Pop with some Carnatic utterances thrown in. Neither the song, nor the dance moves and nor the dresses worn by the women are purely classical. Netizens have pointed out that the fusion song is on the tunes of the British hit pop track “Shape of You” by Ed Shireen.

Majority of the netizens are rightly disappointed with such cringe-worthy performance which is neither here nor there and definitely does not reflect Indian culture.

In another video a purported folk song and dance performance can been seen on the arrival of Deputy Prime Minister of Oman HH Sayyid Asaad bin Tarik Al Said at the airport. The performance is nowhere a pure folk performance and is a Bollywood version of sexualized folk.

A Twitter user writes, “India can only provide this. Utilizing women as a means of entertainment,”

India has a diverse culture and different regions and states have different forms of welcoming but the most commonly accepted is an aarti ki thali, sweets, garland and kum kum on the forehead. In no culture do we have bodies of women placed in the path of the arriving guests merely as objects and decors to please the eyes.  

Dance, whetherclassical or folk, is part of our culture and heritage. We respect them as ‘performance art’. But traditionally dance has been a subject of several taboos in the patriarchal societies. It has been viewed as something women do to satisfy the male gaze and appease to male sexual desires and fantasies. Their origins are in sexualization, objectification and exploitation of women. There are histories of sexual slavery associated with various dance forms.

In ancient times, classical dances were only performed by certain category of women who were not included in the respectable society. For example, Bharatnatyam was only performed in the temples by women who were given to the temple as Devadasi. There is a history of sexual oppression within the culture of Devadasi system. Women also performed in the courts of the Kings which again has sexual connotations. Traditionally, respectable women of the households were not allowed to perform or watch dance recitals. Classical song and dance originated in the upper classes while folk song and dance originated from the grassroots which is why in their very origins, they are unrefined and purportedly rude and vulgar.  

There is of course nothing wrong with song and dance performance, and such patriarchal taboos against the art form must end. Women who take up dance as their passion, hobby and profession must have all the respect and encouragement as it is their choice. But there something deeply problematic when people in power think it fit to place some dancing women in the pathway of arriving guests as some kind of props. These women are merely dancing, and Guests and other important people are looking at them from a distance which creates an object-audience power structure and a power “gaze”. Had the performers also participated in the welcome protocols by way of shaking hands or speaking with the Guests and not merely being “seen” then it would have appeared that they are being treated with respect as equals.

In order to treat women as equal and extend the respect they deserve for their performance these performances should have been kept as sperate events at appropriate venues where they could have also been felicitated for their performance with their names and identities.

It is clear that those responsible for organizing and planning the welcoming protocols for the G20 summit Guests have not put any thoughts into it. They have shown utter sexism by reducing groups of women into “item numbers” at the airport.