Ruth Vanita

Queering India provides an understanding of same-sex love and eroticism in Indian culture and society. The essays focus on gay and lesbian life in India to provide a comprehensive look at a much neglected area.

Same-sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society

Queering India

Saleem Kidwai

Same-Sex Love in India presents an array of writings on same-sex love from over 2,000 years of Indian literature. Translated from more than a dozen languages and drawn from Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and modern fictional traditions, these writings testify to the presence of same-sex love in various forms since ancient times. An eminent group of scholars have translated writings for the first time and have retranslated well-known texts to correctly make evident previously underplayed homoerotic content. Selections range from religious books, legal and erotic treatises, story cycles, medieval histories and biographies, to modern novels, short stories, letters, memoirs, plays, and poems. From the Rig Veda to Vikram Seth, this anthology will become a staple in courses on gender and queer studies, Asian studies, and world literature.--From publisher description.

Readings from Literature and History

Same-sex Love in India

This book explores the urban, cosmopolitan sensibilities of Urdu poetry written in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Lucknow, which was the center of a flourishing Indo-Islamic culture. Ruth Vanita analyzes Rekhti, a type of Urdu poetry distinguished by a female speaker and a focus on women's lives, and shows how it became a catalyst for the transformation of the love poem.

Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India, 1780-1870

Gender, Sex, and the City

Gandhi's Tiger and Sita's Smile presents a collection of compelling essays which interrogate a variety of Indian texts and contexts along intersecting axes of gender, nation, and desire. The primary theme that weaves these varied essays together, written at different points of time with varying focal points of interest, is intertextuality. Vanita examines the way in which medieval texts speak to each other and draw on earlier canonical works, rewriting and transforming narrative in a spirit of respectful conversation. She also looks at modern texts, such as nineteenth-century poetry and twentieth-century fiction and cinema, as they converse with each other and with older texts. In doing so, she tries to explore how such pre-modern and modern texts are received in later periods or by other cultures in the same period. These captivating and intensely thought-provoking writings demonstrate the author's superb ability to turn the norm, whether Right-wing or Left-Wing, on its head, and find a fresh way to appreciate diversity and change, and the valuable dialogue they give rise to.

Essays on Gender, Sexuality, and Culture

Gandhi's Tiger and Sita's Smile

Preparations for King George the Third’s fiftieth birthday gala are in full swing in Lucknow. As poets and performers vie to be part of the show, Chapla Bai, a dazzling courtesan from Kashi, briefly enters this competitive world, and sweeps the poet Nafis Bai off her feet. An irresistible passion takes root, expanding and contracting like a wave of light. Over two summers, aided by Nafis’s friends, the poets Insha and Rangin, and Sharad, himself in love with a man, they exchange letters and verses, feeding each other the heady fruit of desire. When Chapla leaves for home, they part with the dream of building a life together. Can their relationship survive the distances? Narrated in the voice of Nafis, Memory of Light weaves an exquisite web of conversations, songs, reminiscences around a life-changing love.

Memory of Light

Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West

Love's Rite

This is the first book to examine same-sex weddings and same-sex couple suicides in India today, discussing these phenomena both in the context of the international debate on gay marriage, and in the context of past and present Indian and Euro-American cultural representations of same-sex union.

(This) Absorbing New Book Shows How Subtly And Imaginatively Indian Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Unions Have Evolved Over The Centuries&And Offers A Marvelously Global Perspective Characterized By Profound Historical Understanding, Impeccable Scholarship, And A Rare And Delightful Precision Of Feeling. - Terry Castle, Professor At Stanford University, Editor Of The Literature Of Lesbianism. Why Should The State S Refusal To Recognize A Union As Marriage Mean That The Union Is Not A Marriage? In Love S Rite Ruth Vanita Asks This Challenging Question In Order To Emphasize That Mutual Consent And Family And Community Recognition Validate A Marriage-And This Support Frequently Extends To Same-Sex Marriages As Well. When People Claim The Right To Marry, Their Sex Or Sexuality Is Not Intrinsic To That Right, Although Social Prejudice Makes It Appear So. Moreover, It Cannot Be Denied That A Multitude Of Events And Depictions In Vastly Different Cultures, Times And Places, All Point To The Possibility Of Same-Sex Love And Commitment Being Recognized And Accepted. Marriage Is A Universal Rite Of Passage That Can, In The Right Circumstances, Become The Perfect Ceremony Of Love S Rite . Vanita Examines The Twin Phenomena Of Same-Sex Weddings And Same-Sex Joint Suicides (Mostly Female) That Have Been Reported From Many Parts Of India. She Argues That These Couples, When They Choose To Marry Or Die Together, Invoke Long-Standing But Fluid Indian Legal, Religious, And Literary-Cinematic Traditions To Declare Their Love To The World. Using Her Intimate Knowledge Of Ancient Indian Textual History, The Author Demonstrates That Same-Sex Love And Relationships Are Deeply Rooted In Indian Culture- And Compares The Cultural And Legal Implications Of Same-Sex Marriage In India With Those In The West. The International Debate On Same-Sex Marriage Is Relevant To All Democratic Societies Today. Ruth Vanita Brings A Fresh Perspective To This Debate, Suggesting That Same-Sex Marriage Dwells At The Heart, Not On The Margins, Of Culture. An Effortless Combination Of Empathy, Moral Conviction And Deep Cultural Sensitivity -Ashis Nandy

Same-Sex Marriages in Modern India

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.

Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society

In 2009, the Delhi High Court's historic judgment overturning Section 377 as violative of the Indian Constitution referred to Same-Sex Love in India. So did the 2018 Supreme Court decision which upheld that judgment. All the petitions against this anti-sodomy law have cited this landmark book to prove that homosexuality is not a Western import. Same-Sex Love in India is the book that brought to light the long, incontestable history of same-sex love and desire in the Indian subcontinent. Covering over 2000 years, from the Mahabharata to the late twentieth century, the book contains excerpts from stories, poems, letters, biographies and histories in fifteen languages. The editors' introductions to each period and text trace the changing depictions of and debates around same-sex relations, illuminating their social, political and literary contexts. These essays have been called 'outstanding works of scholarship'. Including writings that range from romantic to analytical, playful to thoughtful, this classic work will help you see Indian culture and society with new eyes.

Ruth Vanita

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