'Religious Prostitution' in Colonial India Kalpana Kannabiran 'Devadasis' have been a subject of apparently opposed discourses for over a century and a half. On the one hand, various perceptions of them in the colonial period converged in a strong disapproval and condemnation of their moral conduct. On the other hand, both in the colonial period and, more importantly, in post-colonial scholarship, the fact that some of these women were performing artistes of repute provided the ground for a feminist resurrection that separated them from those that did not belong to these privileged traditions and placed them in a newly created space that redefined and respected their freedom, autonomy and creativity.