Same-sex Desire in Indian Culture ― Representations in Literature and Film 1970-2015

Oliver Ross explores representations of same-sex desire in Indian literature and film from the 1970s to the present. Through a detailed analysis of fiction and poetry by authors like Vikram Seth, Kamala Das and Neel Mukherjee, and films from Bollywood and beyond, including Onir's My Brother Nikhil and Deepa Mehta's Fire, it argues that an initially Euro-American homosexuality is reinvented when it comes into contact with different elements of Indian culture. The book dismantles the conception that enlightened Western gay and lesbian politics oppose a sexually conservative India, analysing the importation of ideas of homosexuality as an abnormal identity into South Asia by the British Empire in the nineteenth century, as well as the many terms which exist in all the indian languages to describe love and sex between men and between women. An invaluable resource for general readers and scholars alike, the book also contains a concise history of representations of same-sex desire in Indian literature and film from the early 1900s.

Oliver Ross is a Teaching Fellow of English at the University of Cambridge, UK.