Gulab Bai (1926–1996), popularly known as Gulab jaan, was an Indian stage performer of

Nautanki Nautanki is one of the most popular folk performance forms of South Asia, particularly in northern India. Before the advent of Bollywood (the Hindi film industry), Nautanki was the biggest entertainment medium in the villages and towns of north ...

, the first female artist of the traditional operatic drama and considered by many as its pre-eminent exponent. She was the founder of ''the Great Gulab Theatre Company'', a successful Nautanki troupe. The

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

awarded her the fourth highest civilian award of

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

in 1990.

Biography

Gulab Bai was born in 1926 in Balpurva, in

Farrukhabad district Farrukhabad district is a district of Uttar Pradesh state in Northern India. The town of Fatehgarh is the district headquarters. The district is part of Kanpur Division. Farrukhabad is situated between Lat. 26° 46' N & 27° 43' N and Lo ...

of the Indian state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

in Bedia caste, a backward community of entertainment performers. She started formal training in singing under Ustad Trimohan Lal of the Kanpur

gharana In Hindustani music (North Indian classical music), a ''gharānā'' is a system of social organisation in the Indian subcontinent, linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship, and more importantly by adherence to a particular mus ...

and Ustad Mohammad Khan of the Hathras gharana in 1931 and began performing in public by joining Trimohan Lal's Nautanki troupe at the age of thirteen, becoming the first female performer of the art form. Soon, she developed an individual style of singing which earned her the moniker, ''Guba jaan''. Her rising popularity helped her to establish a Nautanki troupe of her own, the ''Great Gulab Theatre Company'', against the wishes of Trimohan Lal. The company was said to be an instant success. The responsibility of the management of the company and her growing age forced her to curb her own performances by the 1960s and she groomed her little sister, Sukhbadan, later day Nanda Guha, as the leading performer, who over the years became a noted performer in her own right. Her daughter, Madhu, is also a known performer. Towards the latter part of her career, Nautanki's appeal, as an art form, gradually waned. The Government of India honoured her with the civilian award of the

in 1990. Six years later, she died, at the age of 70. Her life has been documented in a biography by Deepti Priya Mehrotra, under the name, ''Gulab Bai: The Queen of Nautanki Theatre''; the book was published by

Penguin India Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...

. Her life story was also the theme of a play, enacted on stage in May 2014 at

Kanpur Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations o ...

Biography

See also

References

External links

Further reading