This book focuses on the plight of the queer people in rural India. By examining how rural life shapes queer identities, the book offers a fresh perspective that bridges the gap between urban and rural queer communities. While on one hand, it elucidates the various ways in which people living in the Indian villages deal with the queer subjects and subjectivities, on the other hand, it explores the ways in which the process of growing up in the countryside makes its impact on its village queers. Drawing from personal experiences, ethnographic research, and cultural representations, this multidisciplinary book explores the intersection of gender, sexuality, and rural landscapes. It delves into the historical and cultural forces that influence the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, and transgender individuals in provincial India. The collaborative effort by activists and scholars across fields such as literary studies, gender studies, political science, and more provides a rich analysis of the rural queer experience. It challenges the urban-centric narrative and contributes significantly to gender and sexuality studies, sociology, cultural studies, and subaltern studies.
Edited by:
Kaustav Chakraborty,
Himadri Roy
Imprint: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Country of Publication: Switzerland
Dimensions:
Height: 235mm,
Width: 155mm,
ISBN: 9789819657421
ISBN 10: 9819657423
Pages: 241
Publication Date: 17 June 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Chapter 1. Centering the Country Queer Paradox: An Introduction to the Rural Indian Queer (Kaustav Chakraborty).- Part I. The Personal and/as the Provincial.- Chapter 2. Demystifying Queer Taboo: Autoethnography of a Prince from Provincial Gujarat (Manavendra Singh Gohil).- Chapter 3. The Other Story: A Journey of a Queer Boy from a Village in Kosi - Seemanchal (Bihar) (Smit Kumar).- Chapter 4. 4. Queer and the Category of the Rural: My Personal Experiences in Goa (Kshitij Bisen).- Chapter 5. Rural Punjab amidst Turmoil and Evolution (1980-2023): A Queer Memoir (Yashwinder Singh).- Chapter 6. The Asexuals and the Rurban India (Raj Saxena).- Part II. Cultural/ Cinematic/Literary Representations.- Chapter 7. Representation of Rural Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Lives in Indian English Novels (Kaustav Chakraborty).- Chapter 8. Rural Queer Polymorphism and Postmodern Performative Spectacle: Contextualizing Heterotopia and ‘Other’ Liminal Spaces in Indian Filmic Representations (Saher Bano).- Chapter 9. Wo(men) Un(like) Me! Female Impersonators and Folk Performances in Rural Areas of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab (Nikhilesh Yadav).- Chapter 10. Is there a Joke for the Rural Indian Queer? (Wahida Tasnim).- Chapter 11. Exploring Same-Sex Relationships and Queer Marriages: Insights from Rural Areas of Mizoram and Meghalaya in Northeast India (Anup Shekhar Chakraborty).- Part III. Cartographical Explorations.- Chapter 12. Death, Friendship and Migration of Queer People: Revisiting the Countryside of Keralam (Reshma Bharadwaj).- Chapter 13. Queering the Rural Verdure Scapes of North Bengal: Mapping the Everyday Performative Geography of Gays and Bisexual Men (Victor Banerjee).- Chapter 14. Queer Romance in the Indian Countryside: Rethinking Life and Death in Assam (Anupom Kumar Hazarika).- Chapter 15. In Search of a ‘Place’: Exploring the Untold Narratives of Rural Queer Lives in Odisha (Pranta Pratik Patnaik).- Chapter 16. Emotional Perils and Survivality: Gay and Bisexual Men of Rural Uttarakhand (Himadri Roy).
Kaustav Chakraborty is Associate Professor in the Department of English, Southfield (Loreto) College, Darjeeling. He is the 2024-25 fellow at The Nantes Institute of Advanced Study, France. He has been a Fellow at Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. His areas of interest are Queer Studies, Indigenous Literatures and Cultures, Folklore, Cultures of Nationalism, Philosophy of Intimacy, and South Asian Literatures. His major publications include Tagore and Nationalism (Co edited with K. L. Tuteja), The Politics of Belonging in Contemporary India: Anxiety and Intimacy (edited volume), Queering Tribal Folktales from East and Northeast India, Nations and Nationalisms: A Short Introduction, The Queer and the Vernacular Languages in India: Studies in Contemporary Texts and Cultures (Co edited with Anup Shekhar Chakraborty), and The Collected Short Stories of Kazi Nazrul Islam (Co edited with Syed Manzoorul Islam). Himadri Roy is Professor in the School of Gender and Development Studies of Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. He teaches queer studies, gender and media and gender and literature. His article titled ‘Crossing Temporal Space for Disclosing One’s Sexual Identity: A Psychoanalytical Study of Memories in March (2011)’ published by IIAS, Shimla (2014), has been critically acclaimed, and his article titled, ‘Unveiling the Hidden Desire: Cruising Places of Gay and Bisexual Men in New Delhi’, is considered a very significant work. He has published academic books on gay men and Bollywood, titled ‘Reel and the Real: Portrayal of Gay men in Bollywood Films’ and Author to Auteur: Theories and Film Adaptations. He is also a novelist, and his novel Tales of Hope Chasers has been considered as a ‘Must Read’ by the Times of India.
