Women’s Roles and Representation in Caitī Songs: A Textual and Performance and Cultural Dynamics

Abstract

The paper examines the literary aesthetics and performance dynamics of Caitī, a prominent genre of seasonal folk music native to the Bhōjpurī-speaking areas of Northern India, primarily Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Caitī, historically classified as Ṛtu Gīt (seasonal songs), is customarily sung during the Hindu month of Cait (March–April), aligning with the spring harvest (Rabī crop). This work offers a critical feminist analysis of the textuality and performance contexts of Caitī, which is typically categorized by its Rāg-s or distinctive structural refrain (Hō Rāmā) in structural musicological studies. This article examines a selected collection of traditional Caitī lyrics and contemporary performance venues to delineate how women's roles, wants, agency and structural discrimination are expressed and challenged. The study indicates that Caitī functions as a dual-faceted cultural site: textually, it serves as a venue for psychological emancipation where women articulate subversive sexual desires and critique patriarchal neglect; structurally, its public performance is fiercely contested and significantly influenced by caste, class and patriarchal gatekeeping.