Through an examination of texts, films, poetry, this book analyses and cracks the codes of sexual (mis)conduct in contemporary India, giving short histories of the fate of several gay writers and explaining the difficulties of ‘coming out’.

Preface Acknowledgements Queering India Introduction Book I: Book of the Self — Introduction 1. Subterranean Sex in the Subcontinent: Is Homosexuality ‘Indian’? (Personal Essay) Appendices : (a) Homosexual/ Dalit Literature (b) Transforming Pedagogies: (c) Gays with Critical Disability Book II: Book of the World — Introduction 2. Indian Narrativity: Fiction, Film, Theatre 3. Urdu Gay Literature: Poetry 4. Hindi Gay Literature 5. Gay Theatre 6. Gay Films Appendices (a) The Eunuch Festival of Aaravan (b) Transsexual Hosts on TV Talkshows (c) The Pakistan Poet as Eunuch: Ifti Nasim (d) Gender-fuck in Namdeo Dhasal’s ‘Gandu Baghicha’ (e) Jameela Nishat: Muse as Poet (f) Rukmini Bhaya Nair’s ‘Hermaphrodite’ (g) Satish Alekar’s Begum Barve Book III Book of the Soul — Introduction 7. Sultan Padamsee: A Pioneer Gay Poet? 8. The Strange Case of Jehangir Bhownagary (1921–2004) 9. Adil Jussawalla and R. Raj Rao: The Politics of the Avant-Garde 10. Agha Shahid Ali’s Gay Nation 11. The Anxiety of Coming Out: Vikram Seth 12. Suniti Namjoshi 13. Dinyar Godrej and Ian Iqbal Rashid 14. The Art of Bhupen Khakhar Afterword: My Poetry Postscript: A Note on the Structure of this Book