Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance: Cultures of Exclusion projects the historical and the genealogical underpinnings of the performative arts and dance in the Indian pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. In the process it deepens the understanding of colonial policies that propagated notions of 'purity' and 'anti-nautch' (anti-dance) that led to the inclusion and exclusion of certain traditions which further shaped the segregation of the classical folk and popular performative arts in the British era.