ABSTRACT
Situated strongly in outlining the solidarities and fissures in queer politics in India, this chapter is a detailed tracing of how contemporary queer politics emerged in different parts of India. This history is told largely from the perspective of lesbian, bisexual, and transmen groups across India, and particularly influenced by my work with groups in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. This chapter narrates how lesbian and bisexual women voiced their queerness from within the women’s movement, while simultaneously asserting their difference from it. It discusses differences because of gender between lesbian and bisexual women on one hand and gay men on the other, while also detailing their alliances based on queer sexuality. In the second part of the chapter, the relation between neoliberalism, globalization, development, culture and queer politics in India is examined critically. In sum, this chapter maps a history of queer activism in India that highlights its major discursive themes and debates, while also elucidating the debate of what it means to be ‘queer’ in India’s post-colonial context.
