Short Abstract
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This paper focuses on the practice of dancing in the dance bar among the Kanjar community in rural areas of Rajasthan. It discusses the practice of dancing in dance bars by Kanjar women, who were traditional entertainers in the ancient period during their nomadic or semi-nomadic lives in history. The nature of their work also changes with the changing sites. This paper sheds light on how unmarried Kanjar women empower themselves through their earnings from dancing and sex work and become the centre of the family economy in a society where they were once labelled as being criminal once. It further highlights the manner in which they fought for survival and exercised their power, at least expected social sites. How Kanjars are cutting across the two centuries old stigma and making their own identity in the larger society. The paper is based on multi-sited ethnography Kanjars.