ABSTRACT
This chapter will attempt to identify and explore some of the ways in which the Queer is articulated in the Konkani linguistic and socio-cultural universe, specifically focusing on Roman Catholic communities. Being ‘non-normative’ or seen as deviant in the eyes of heteropatriarchal Catholicism, what are the slurs and slang expressions used in the Konkani universe to describe non-normative behaviour surrounding gender and sexuality? Do these words originate in Konkani, or as a language that is constantly in conversation with other languages, is there borrowing? Does the absence of vocabulary suggest a historical absence of queer identities? What are the ways in which non-heteropatriarchal identities are lived and articulated? Or are they articulated at all? What role does migration to urban centres like Mumbai, Pune or Bangalore, or the Middle East play in realizing queer identities, and if there is silence surrounding them in Konkani, how to individuals think of these identities and articulate them in new contexts? Located in my own Konkani Catholic experiences, I propose to ‘search’ for the Queer in Konkani through interviews with LGBTQ+ individuals located across Mangalore, Goa and Mumbai, secondary work of scholars of Konkani and lived experiences.
