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Tracing the history of nightlife in India

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December 15, 2023

The idea of “nightlife” in ancient and medieval India was very different from what it means in modern times. Ancient and medieval Indian civilization was firmly based in its religious and cultural customs, and these values frequently guided day-to-day activities. But there did exist other gatherings and activities that may be categorised as a social get-together or kind of entertainment in the evenings such events organised by the royal court, sports, festival celebrations and of course religious gatherings. But an important part of these activities was the featuring of performance arts such dancing, singing etc. As far as drinking is concerned, we find evidence of alcohol from ancient times and public taverns from medieval times.

But to say that this already existent culture eventually led to the nightlife culture we see in India today would be an unimaginably far-fetched stretch. It is during the period of British East India Company and then British Crown rule when we see some important developments which can explain how India’s nightlife can be traced back.

Emergence of Club Culture

We have to travel to Calcutta to understand the beginning of a ‘club’ culture in general in India. During the time of British colonialism in India, the imperialist-minded British individuals maintained and strengthened their hegemonic authority, as well as their national and imperial identities. They thus started to plan and develop new structures like clubs that were only available to the British and many other Europeans. These locations were emblematic spaces that stood for British patriotic, imperialist, cultural ideas and identities, which included racial separation from the natives.

Our Ball by George Franklin Atkinson (1822-1859).

British colonists viewed the club as a place to unwind, relieve tension, and take a little vacation from the intricate political discourse of the British Raj. The clubs – especially the ones in chilly hill stations – served as hubs for only British and European people where they could congregate, dance, enjoy music, play cricket and polo, read newspapers and magazines, discuss daily life and colonial responsibilities, and plan entertaining and cultural events. Royal Bombay Yacht Club (Mumbai), Ootacamund Club (Ooty), Madras Club (Chennai), Bangalore Club (Bengaluru) and Tollygunge Club (Kolkata) are a few examples from the 19th century.

Jazz and cabaret

Prior to jazz, the diverse genres of popular dance music, waltzes, polkas, rumbas and tangos, were performed in colonial clubs. Due to its historical significance as the capital of ancient India until 1911, Calcutta was the hub for the dissemination and adaptation of western cultural forms, especially jazz music, in the decades leading up to World War II. This period of time was later identified as a turning point in the evolution of jazz’s popularity in India. Jazz was linked, along with electricity, the automobile industry, trains, boats, and aeroplanes, to modernism and the rise of a fast-paced, intensive metropolitan lifestyle. Jazz, as a symbol of modernism and freedom, was a must at the clubs and hotels of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, and Delhi.

In the mid-1930s the American trumpet player Crickett Smith led a band at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay that included several Indian jazz musicians.

In the early 1920s hotels and clubs were required to recruit only the most prominent foreign bands that had been in the Orient for several years, or else they had to reserve bandleader positions for musicians from the United States or Europe. Famous examples are Dan Hopkins’ Syncopated Five, Canadian Jimmie Lequime’s Grand Hotel Orchestra (who recorded a fox trot, ‘Soho Blues’, for HMV, the first trace of recorded jazz in India) and Teddy Weatherford (who became very popular in the Calcutta club scene with a string of fans who waited for his performances).

The other thing which we see coming in the 19th century is the coming of exotic dancing. White males were fascinated and voyeuristic about Oriental and African dancers who showed up as sensual display shows in Europe in early as in the 19th-century. Between the 1920s and the 1930s, large hotels and pubs in Indian towns saw a brisk flow of transnational dancers as part of travelling companies and circus parties, according to ethnographic study on the global cabaret movement.

Still from Mira Nair’s India Cabaret (1985)

The British army was treated to exclusive dance performances every Tuesday at the Ronaldshay Hut in Barrackpore, on Sunday afternoons enlisted personnel could enjoy free entertainment and sumptuous wartime services from the British-American Club of Dalhousie Square, which included dancing at night and occasionally floor shows, the Great Eastern Hotel’s Maxim’s and Scheherezade nightclubs were well-known for their boisterous late-night entertainment.

A new need for quick and inexpensive entertainment at restaurant-bar hybrids emerged in the 1940s. According to Arjab Roy, jazz did not become crazily popular in Kolkata and Park Street, its epicentre, until the city was chosen as the home base of the Allied forces in the eastern theatre of the war. More than four thousand American soldiers were billeted in the famous Oberoi Grand, which provided them with frequent musical interludes and cabaret performances in its ballrooms, Prince’s and Casanova. After an American woman named Magnolia opened a bar there in 1945, the bar industry saw even more growth, and Park Street became a hub for officers and soldiers to enjoy entertainment until late at night.

Bollywood Cabaret Queen, Helen, in Baithe Hai Kya Uske Paas in Jewel Thief (1967)

The post Independence era saw the continuation of Jazz clubs but now Indians took over previously British establishments and the onus of exotic dance fell upon new women refugees from the partitioned areas as seen in the case of Arati Das or Miss Shefali who rose to popularity through the means of exotic dancing in the Calcutta club scene post partition.

Entry of Disco and the Discotheque

India was greatly impacted by the disco craze of the 1970s, which spread throughout the US and other areas of the world. Major cities saw the emergence of discotheques, which were influenced by the sparkle and glamour of worldwide disco culture.

Musical expressions of western modernity like jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, or beat music were popularly known in India, but none of them attained the same named, mass cultural presence that disco did in the 1980s. The Hindi language and the lower socioeconomic levels that began to predominate in the Hindi movie audience during the 1980s and early 1990s were the sources of disco’s Indian identity. These elements allowed disco to establish a far more widespread, mass-audience identity.

Kimi Katkar, Mahesh Anand, Sharmila Roy Choudhury, Nandini Sen in disco attires at Studio29, Mumbai

Discotheques began to be established in the late 1970s in places like Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai (then Bombay). These places were known for their dance floors, disco music played by DJs, and eye-catching lights. They gained popularity fast among young people living in cities who were looking for contemporary, exciting entertainment.

Bollywood disco originated as a result of disco’s impact on Bollywood movies. Disco music and dancing scenes were included by filmmakers into their works, which helped to popularise disco culture. Famous flicks like 1982’s “Disco Dancer” came to represent the disco period in Bollywood. During this time, Bollywood released a number of well-known disco songs. Songs like “Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja,” “I Am a Disco Dancer,” “Yaar bina chain kaha re”, produced by ‘Disco King’ Bappi Lehribecame huge successes and are now regarded as timeless masterpieces.

Mithun Chakroborty in Disco Dancer (1982)

The vibrant and upbeat mood of the 1970s and 1980s nightclub scene was well-known. Discotheques provided an environment for individuals to mingle, dance to the newest songs, and feel free and free. During that era, some of the most prominent discotheques and nightclubs were Studio 29 in Mumbai, Trincas in Kolkata, and Ghungroo in Delhi much later in the 90s. These places drew a mix of trendy and youthful patrons and became renowned icons of the disco period.

Pubs

The idea of public drinking places began to take shape in the early years after independence. State-by-state variations existed in licensing requirements and limits on alcohol use, nevertheless. Police searches may be disastrous for alcohol consumers in Bombay (now known as Mumbai), during the Prohibition era. However, not many people were discouraged overall. Indeed, raids were routine, a part of the urban legend surrounding the illegal alcohol trade in the 1950s and 1960s that was alternately amusing and menacing. Even law enforcement officials managed to become drunk. The establishment of Udupi eateries and permit rooms in the 1960s and 1970s signalled a dramatic shift in pub culture. These places, especially in South India, offered alcoholic drinks in addition to vegetarian meals. Pubs and lounges proliferated in major cities including Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, and Delhi in the late 1990s and early 2000s. These places had a more laid-back vibe, music, and a selection of alcoholic beverages, and they were popular with younger, multicultural patrons.

90s and beyond

India’s nightlife culture, especially in cities, has become more and more popular since the 1990s. In Indian dance clubs in the 1990s, Western music genres including hip-hop, house, techno, and electronic dance music (EDM) became more and more popular. A more worldwide partying experience was made possible by the impact of foreign DJs and music trends. Musical trends and tastes of the 1990s were influenced by the emergence of music television networks like MTV and Channel V. The music performed at dance clubs was influenced by the worldwide and Indian music videos that were shown on these channels.

Actress Yana Gupta performing at Fire N Ice, Mumbai, considered to be a Bollywood partying hotspot in the 90s

The 1990s saw a lot of theme evenings at dance clubs, when particular musical genres or styles were emphasised. The clubbing experience was made more varied by theme evenings, which also appealed to the varying preferences of the metropolitan young population. Clubs tried to offer a range of moods, from exuberant EDM evenings to more relaxed lounges playing house music. India also saw the emergence of an underground rave culture in the 1990s. Fire ‘n’ Ice (Mumbai), Club Westend (Goa), Venom (Delhi), Tavern at the Inn (Bangalore) are a few examples.

Reference

Mukherjee, S. (2010, January). Leisure and Recreation in Colonial Bengal: A Socio-Cultural Study. In Proceedings of the Indian History Congress (Vol. 71, pp. 764-773). Indian History Congress.
YELMİŞ, İ. (2021). British Clubs in India and Reinforcement of British National/Imperial Identity: Tom Stoppard’s Indian Ink. Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi, (10), 1-21.
Booth, G. D. (2022). Disco, Dancing, Globalization and Class in 1980s Hindi Cinema. In Global Dance Cultures in the 1970s and 1980s: Disco Heterotopias (pp. 127-150). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Dorin, S. (2010). Jazz and race in colonial India: The role of Anglo-Indian musicians in the diffusion of jazz in Calcutta. Jazz Research Journal, 4(2), 123.

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