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Women, Morality and Law: Prostitution in Kashmir

Abstract Of the many systems of governance and rule by the colonial rulers, in both British India and the princely states, the control of sexuality according to Victorian morality norms was central. Among many other things, extramarital sexuality was strictly policed. In particular, prostitution came under attack in Kashmir, as in other regions of India. Legislations were enacted to monitor the work of prostitutes’ viz. the Public Prostitutes Registration Rules (1921) and The Suppression of Immoral Traffic Regulation (1934). This paper engages with the ways prostitution was regulated in Kashmir in the early twentieth century by the then rulers, whether by Dogras or their colonial masters. What is of particular interest is to highlight if prostitution defied western sensibilities of morality for women, why was the trade not altogether banned but merely regulated by enacting new legislations. What interests did it serve the state to legalize this trade? And did the local community discourse make any attempts to stop it? In this regard, the life and work of Muhammad Subhan Hajām, a barber by profession, who through various means, in particular, how through his writing of Hidayatnamas (guidelines) in Urdu and Kashmiri languages, attacked prostitution in Kashmir, will be studied.