Product Description

Queering India provides 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 area. The topics are wide-ranging, considering film, literature, popular culture, historical and religious texts, law and other aspects of life in India. All the essays are original to the collection.

Product Details

• Published on: 2001-11-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
""" 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" Creating Change: 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 Brown Folk."
"""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 and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity."

From the Back Cover
Little is known about same-sex love and eroticism in Indian culture, but this once forbidden subject is slowly receiving more attention. Here for the first time, this largely uninvestigated area of Indian culture is uncovered in Vanita's provocative collection of original essays. The topics are wide-ranging, covering film, literature, popular culture, historical and religious texts, law, and other aspects of life in India. With a comprehensive scope, contributors discuss a diverse range of examples, including the recent controversial lesbian film, Fire; a case of same-sex love and murder in colonial India; homophobic fiction and homoerotic advertising in current day India; and queering the Kama Sutra. Queering India provides a profoundly important new understanding of gay and lesbian life.

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 from Literature (2000).