STRI-BHUMIKA - FEMALE IMPERSONATORS AND ACTRESSES ON THE PARSI STAGE

The latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century was a p eriod of transition when the public image of Indian womanhood was bein g crafted no only through literature and social experiments but also t hrough the commercial media of the Parsi theatre and silent cinema. Ge nder and racial masquerades commonly found in these a confusion about the demarcation between male and female and between 'white' and 'India n'. The female image this presented perpetuated patriarchal control no t only of the material female body but its visual manifestations.