Indubala

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Indubala
A South Asian woman with a bindi; her dark waved hair is partly covered by a light-colored dupatta
Indubala, from a 1936 issue of The Indian Listener
Born1898
Amritsar, India
Died30 November 1984 (aged approximately 83)
Kolkata, India
Other namesIndubālā Debī, Miss Indubala, Indu Bala
OccupationSinger and actress

Indubala (1898 – 30 November 1984), sometimes credited as Miss Indubala, Indubālā Debī, or Indubala Devi, was a Bengali singer and actress. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1975.

Early life[edit | edit source]

Indubala was born in Amritsar, the daughter of Motilal Bose and Rajabala. Her parents were with the Great Bengal Circus,[1] and separated soon after her birth.Her father was a circus owner, her mother performed acrobatics in the circus. Her mother also had other siblings, including Matibala who worked in performance and Tinkary a circus performer. She lived with her mother in Calcutta. Her mother later began her singing career in Kolkata.[2] She trained as a singer in Calcutta with several teachers, including Gauhar Jaan,[3][citation not found] Kamal Dasgupta, and Kazi Nazrul Islam.[4] Gauhar Jaan was indubala's most helpful teacher, not only teaching her to sing but also instructing her in etiquette. Indubala began her singing career as a courtesan (tawaif) in her teens.[5][citation not found][6] Indubala's mother wanted her to become a nurse, she had even been accepted as an intern at a hospital in Pataldanga, Kolkata. However, Indubala didn't like nursing and ultimately chose to follow in her mother's footsteps as a singer, despite her mother's disappointment at her decision to give up nursing.[7]

Career[edit | edit source]

Indubala is considered one of the great Bengali women singers.[8][9] She made her first of hundreds of recordings for Gramaphone Records in 1915 or 1916.[10][11] She performed on stage with her mother's company, the Rambagan Female Kali Theatre,[12] and at the Star Theatre. She sang on All India Radio beginning in 1927, on the broadcaster's second day on the air, and regularly through the 1930s.[13] In 1936 she was appointed court musician to the Maharaja of Mysore.[14] Beginning in the 1930s she provided playback vocals for sound films, and she acted on-screen in more than two dozen films, including Rajrani Meera (1933), Sati Sulochana (1934), and Naveena Sarangadhara (1936).[15] She retired from the stage in 1950. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1975.[1]

Indubala lived most of her life in the Rambagan neighborhood of Calcutta,[16] and was concerned for the welfare of the actresses and sex workers concentrated in that district. "I am Rambagan's Indu," she declared. "Here I have learnt music, established myself, and got respect."[12]

Personal life[edit | edit source]

After several years of declining health, Indubala died in 1984, in Calcutta, in her mid-eighties.[4] She is one of the title characters of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's short story "Einstein and Indubala" (2016).[17] In 2020 a compilation album of Indubala's recordings was released on vinyl, by Tara Disc.[18]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chakrabarti, Kunal; Chakrabarti, Shubhra (22 August 2013). Historical Dictionary of the Bengalis. Scarecrow Press. pp. 232–233. ISBN 978-0-8108-8024-5.
  2. ↑ "The journal of the 'Sociely of Indian Record Collectors, Mumbai '" (PDF). Record News. Retrieved 14 March 2026.
  3. ↑ Gupta, Debdutta (17 January 2020). "Indubala Devi – the singing sensation of 1915 Calcutta!". Get Bengal. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Guha, Jyoti Prakash (2008). "A short biography of Indubala" (PDF). Record News: 35–50.
  5. ↑ "Indubala Devi â€" the singing sensation of 1915 Calcutta!". Getbengal. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  6. ↑ "4 - Joyous Courtesan Worlds Amod (Pleasure), Alladi (Indulgence) and Indubala's Scrapbook". Cambridge University. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  7. ↑ "78rpm vintage: Indubala". Indian Raga. Retrieved 14 March 2026.
  8. ↑ Murshid, Ghulam (25 January 2018). Bengali Culture Over a Thousand Years. Niyogi Books. ISBN 978-93-86906-12-0.
  9. ↑ Bhattacharya, Rimli (15 May 2018). Public Women in British India: Icons and the Urban Stage. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-429-01655-4.
  10. ↑ Denning, Michael (1 August 2015). Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Musical Revolution. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-78168-857-1.
  11. ↑ Joshi, G. N. (1988). "A Concise History of the Phonograph Industry in India". Popular Music. 7 (2): 147–156. doi:10.1017/S0261143000002725. ISSN 0261-1430. JSTOR 853533. S2CID 161788875.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chakraborti, Bikas (2014). "Mirabai and Indubala: Spiritual Empowerment Redefined". In Banerjee, Debalina (ed.). Boundaries of the Self: Gender, Culture and Spaces. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 127–139, quote on page 138. ISBN 9781443860789.
  13. ↑ "Miss Indubala". The Indian Listener. 6: 11. 22 December 1940.
  14. ↑ "Books Reviewed" The Indian Listener (22 September 1936): 952.
  15. ↑ Dickey, Sara; Dudrah, Rajinder (24 October 2018). South Asian Cinemas: Widening the Lens. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-97729-2.
  16. ↑ Purkayastha, Prarthana (2021). "Outing Pleasure and Indulgence: Indubala's Scrapbook and the Red-Light Dances of Calcutta". Contemporary Theatre Review. 31 (1–2): 14–33. doi:10.1080/10486801.2021.1878502. ISSN 1048-6801. S2CID 234783392.
  17. ↑ Ravi, S. (20 April 2016). "Tales that continue to rankle". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  18. ↑ Discogs, Miss Indubala – Miss Indubala (1889-1984) (2020, Vinyl), retrieved 15 November 2021

External links[edit | edit source]

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