This work is concerned with the ways m which status is manifested, determined and altered within the Hindustani musical world of North India. This enquiry is undertaken by investigating two seemingly distinct, yet profoundly intertwined parts of North Indian classical music - the Hindustani violin and the significance of gender distinctions within Hindustani music. The 'stories' of both the Hindustani violin and of women as public performers of Hindustani classical music are inextricably tied to the larger paths of colonialism and nationalism, as they have manifested in India over the past century. At the same time, a deeper understanding of these two subjects is found in an engagement with the individuals who, through their personal actions and endeavors, have sought to shift their status within Hindustani music, thereby changing the Hindustani musical world in the process. This work is therefore grounded in the musical and social knowledge of the Hindustani violinist Kala Ramnath. Kala-ji's innovative violin technique, insights into gender differentiation within the Hindustani musical world, and articulated identity as a female Hindustani instrumentalist provide new understandings of how music, words, and personal action can affect a performer's relationship with the sociomusical world that she inhabits.