ABSTRACT
In twentieth-century Indian fiction published in India, same-sex desire is almost always imbricated with notions not only of gender but also of “Indianness” and “fbreignness.” The popular myth that homosexuality was imported to India by invading West Asian Muslims or colonizing Europeans has been stated and restated by both left-wing and right-wing nationalists, from at least the late nineteenth century onward. The Shiv Sena's repetition of this myth to attack Deepa Mehtar's film Fire found some credence precisely because the myth took root during the movement for national independence.
