The Panoptic Temple: Surveillance, Discipline, and Agency within the Devadasi Institution

Abstract

The Devadasi system remains one of the most contested socio-religious institutions in Indian history, reflecting the complex relationship between religion, gender, power, and social hierarchy. This article investigates the historical transformation of the Devadasi system through the combined theoretical perspectives of Michel Foucault’s concept of Panopticism and Agency Theory to examine how mechanisms of surveillance, discipline, and power operate alongside practices of resistance and self-determination. Drawing upon historical records, literary narratives, and critical scholarship, the study analyses how a tradition that is initially associated with religious service gradually becomes embedded within structures of social control, marginalization, and exploitation. Foucault’s framework of Panopticism demonstrates how colonial administrators, nationalist reformers, and dominant social institutions establish systems of observation and discipline that regulate the lives and identities of Devadasi women while reinforcing existing hierarchies of caste, gender, and morality. In contrast, Agency Theory reveals that Devadasis are not merely passive recipients of institutional control but actively negotiate, reinterpret, and challenge restrictive social structures through everyday acts of resilience, cultural practice, and personal autonomy. By bringing these theoretical perspectives into dialogue, the article moves beyond binary representations of Devadasis as either victims or symbols of religious tradition and instead presents their experiences as sites of continuous negotiation between domination and agency. The study contributes to existing scholarship by demonstrating that historical systems of oppression cannot be understood solely through institutional mechanisms of power but must also account for the diverse ways in which marginalized individuals exercise agency within restrictive social environments. In doing so, it offers a more nuanced understanding of the Devadasi system and expands contemporary discussions on surveillance, power, gender, resistance, and social transformation.