Going beyond the usual concepts of dependency relationships located within a post-colonial state, this new research project examines in greater depth how Indian conceptions of the body (depicted in art, iconography and in performance) have been impacted by a moral, religious Western perspective imposed before, during and post-colonial rule. The ‘moralising projects of colonial and post-colonial modernity’ as Davesh Soneji has termed them remain part o f the ‘unfinished pasts’ (2012: 3) of both the place and enactment of performative ritual and performance in India, from the roles of the female temple dancers, the devadāsīs, through to the itinerant folk dance and theatrical performers, and the ‘third gender’ or transgender performers – the hirijas and kothis. In this project I investigate aspects of ‘asymmetrical relations of dependence’ (Hegewald, 2023:8) and issues of empowerment as well as erasures of memory brought about by nationalistic agendas.