This book takes up the challenge of studying the wide gamut of lived reality of the Indian queer, against the backdrop of a set of theories. Written by a man who has been openly gay for the last 40 years, it dissects issues, concepts, and theories within the realm of queer studies against the day-to-day experiences of Indian queers. Drawing from personal and shared experiences, it highlights the sites of transgression within a seemingly monosexual society and analyses the aspects of the struggle of being queer in a repressive environment.

This book comprises of three fundamental aspects of queerness relevant to us in India today—theory, culture, and politics, which has been primarily analysed through literature and film. The literature here includes references to the author’s own work as a practicing writer, as well as to that of other contemporary writers. It is an attempt to delink alternative sexuality from gender and establish it as an autonomous category.

This book would be useful to the students, researchers and teachers of women and gender studies, sociology, history, economics, political science, and other interdisciplinary courses in social sciences. It will also be valuable reading for those interested in South Asian studies, especially post-colonial contemporary Indian society.

R. Raj Rao is a writer, poet, and teacher of literature and ‘one of India’s leading gay-rights activists’. His 2003 novel, The Boyfriend, is one of the first gay novels to come from India. Rao was one of the first recipients of the newly established Quebec- India awards.

R. Raj Rao is the author of almost a dozen books of poetry, fiction, plays, biography, and criticism. His book, Whistling in the Dark: Twenty-one Queer Interviews, co-edited with Dibyajyoti Sarama, was published by SAGE in 2009. He is former Professor and Head of the Department of English at the Savitribai Phule Pune University.