Bayadères, Inde (Dancers, India)

Framed by arches, three young women pose dramatically for Samuel Bourne’s camera. Labeled "Bayadères" (a French feminine noun for "dancers"), these women were known as "nautch girls" ("nautch" being the anglicized corruption of the Hindi word naach, meaning "dance"). In Victorian times many British and some Indians disapproved of many forms of dance. Lord Lytton (the British viceroy in India from 1876 to 1880) commented in a personal letter: "The young ladies [in England] are not allowed to dance lest they dance to perdition." An anti-nautch movement was launched in 1882. The movement's immediate concern was to stop the occurrence of nautch parties—a popular diversion for many British men.　
Later, beginning in the 1920s, a revival of the classical Indian performing arts revitalized naach.