Queering India is the first book to provide an understanding of same-sex love and eroticism in Indian culture and society. The essays focus on pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial gay and lesbian life in India to provide a comprehensive look at a much neglected topic. The topics are wide-ranging, considering film, literature, popular culture, historical and religious texts, law and other aspects of life in India. Specifically, the essays cover such issues as Deepa Mehta's recent and controversial film, Fire, which focused on lesbian relationships in India; the Indian penal code which outlaws homosexual acts; a case of same-sex love and murder in colonial India; homophobic fiction and homoerotic advertising in current day India; and lesbian subtext in Hindu scripture. All of the essays are original to the collection. Queering India promises to change the way we understand India as well as gay and lesbian life and sexuality around the world.

About the Author

Ruth Vanita is Associate Professor of Liberal Studies and Women's Studies at the University of Montana. She is the co-editor of Same-Sex Love in India: Readings fromLiterature (2000).

Reviews

" Queering India provides a fascinating, livley, and historically grounded discussionof the impact of same-sex love on Indian culture. Spanning a range of disciplines, these essays shatter the myth that homosexuality is a Western or Northern experience. This is an excellent collection"
--Urvashi Vaid, co-editor of CreatingChange: Public Policy, Sexuality, and Civil Rights."
"Ruth Vanita's wonderful project bears fruit. She has assembled a superb collection of essays that establish the queerness of desis, the sexual struggle of Indian history. Queering India will annoy the despots, but forces of desire do not give in without a few good books."
--Vijay Prashad, author of The Karma of BrownFolk."
""Queering India" offers exactly what the best scholarship is supposed to. The book contains an impressive variety of ways to view a vast array of experiences, expressions, and perspectives on the lives of a complex and diverse part of the world. This collection will undermine any shallow assumptions or stereotypes one might hold about sexuality, gender, and daily life in South Asia"
--Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Copyrights andCopywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How itThreatens Creativity."

Awards
Short-listed for Lambda Literary Awards (Studies) 2002.



Book Information
ISBN 9780415929509
Author Ruth Vanita
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 490g