Despite being legally prohibited, the Devadasi tradition continues to survive in modified forms across several regions of India, revealing the persistence of caste-based, gendered, and economic exploitation. This paper examines the lived realities of Nachni performers in the border regions of West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Odisha by situating their experiences within the broader historical and socio-cultural framework of the Devadasi tradition. It argues that although the two institutions differ in their regional and ritual contexts, both are sustained by intersecting structures of patriarchy, caste hierarchy, and economic dependency that transform women's artistic labour and bodily autonomy into instruments of survival.

The paper traces the feudal roots of the Nachni tradition, demonstrating how the decline of royal and zamindari patronage displaced hereditary women performers into rural indigenous spaces, where poverty, landlessness, and social exclusion compelled many Dalit and Adivasi women to enter the profession. Drawing on Subaltern Studies and contemporary theories of unfree labour and debt bondage, the study conceptualizes the Nachni–Rasik relationship as a form of coercive dependency in which a woman's artistic labour, mobility, sexuality, and economic existence become inseparable from the authority of her male patron. Informal contractual arrangements and customary practices effectively reduce her body and labour to commodities exchanged for livelihood and protection, blurring the distinction between consent and coercion.

The paper further explores the paradox of art and subjugation. During Jhumur performances, the Nachni frequently embodies Radha, the idealized symbol of divine love, devotion, and feminine beauty within the Vaishnava tradition. While she is aesthetically celebrated and spiritually romanticized on stage, she is simultaneously stigmatized as a "fallen woman" in everyday life, denied kinship rights, inheritance, property ownership, domestic inclusion, and even dignified funeral rites. This condition of social ostracism constitutes a form of "civil death," echoing historical definitions of slavery. Through a critical examination of existing legislations, public policies, and literary representations, the paper argues that the continuing marginalization of Nachni performers represents a contemporary manifestation of sexual exploitation, structural violence, and unfree labour. It calls for a re-evaluation of the Nachni tradition through the intersecting lenses of caste, gender, labour, and cultural studies, advocating recognition of these women not as social outcasts but as cultural practitioners entitled to dignity, economic justice, and equal citizenship.