Queer Intersectionality is a comprehensive exploration of the complexities and diversities of the queer communities and their lived experiences in South Asia. By focusing on the intersectional lenses of gender, caste, class, religion, and regional identity, it presents a nuanced understanding of queer lives in South Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan. The volume draws on a wide range of theoretical, cultural, and social perspectives while offering a critical analysis of how queer identities are shaped up and resisted in different regions and subregions of South Asia. The chapters explore not only the challenges faced by queer individuals but also their resilience, resistance, and creative strategies for survival and empowerment. By bringing together voices from activists, scholars, and community members, the book highlights the dynamism of queer intersectionality in South Asia and challenges the dominant narratives of sexuality and identity in the region. The volume will be essential reading
for students of South Asian Literature, Gender Studies, and LGBTQ Studies.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Queer-ing South Asia SECTION-I Queer Embodiments: Identity, Politics and Ethics 1. Metaethics and Aesthetic Nuances of the Transexual: A Critical Re-reading of Select Mythological Narratives of Hinduism 2. The Kitsch and Aesthetic: Masculinity, Authenticity and Class in Crocodile Tears: New & Selected Stories 3. Beyond the Binary: Sex Change and Gender Fluidity in Buddhist Narratives 4. Neo-Liberal Queer Subjectivities in the Bangladeshi Pedagogy: An Exploration of the Transgender Politics in Bangladesh 5. Re-visioning Willful Subject: Mapping the Genealogies of Pakistani Trans Queer Identity/Sexuality in When the Moon was Ours 6. Intimate Partner Violence: Its Abundance and Absence in Lesbian and Queer Storytelling SECTION-II Queer Imaginaries: Representations in Popular Culture and Digital Media 7. Code of Courage: Precarity, Queer Narratives and the Political field 8. Examining LGBTQIA+ Lived Experiences in South Asia: A Computational Text Mining Analysis 9. Queer Movements and Politicisation in India: Navigating through Digital and Socio-cultural Histories 10. Desensitising the Indian Queer Body: Strategies of Queerbaiting in Contemporary Malayalam Cinema 11. The Evolving Representation of Lesbian Identities: South Asian Queer Narratives in Post-2000 Bangla Cinema SECTION-III Queer Transgressions: Undoing Boundaries and Spaces 12. Transcending Spaces and Blurring Gender-ed Binaries: Re-configuring Queer Identity in Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy 13. The Dilemma of Public Space VS Gender Neutral Toilet in India: A Case Study of #NoMoreHoldingMyPee Campaign of Assam 14. Queer Resonances in Haroon Khalid’s From Waris to Heer 15. Redefining Desires: The Cultural Quandaries of Queerness in R. Raj Rao's The Boyfriend 16. Beyond the Gender Bounds: A Study of Infinite Gender Positions in The Pregnant King by Devdutt Pattanaik 17. Transformation and Liminality in Nepali Queer Literature : Reading The Land Where I Flee and Between Queens and the Cities 18. Negotiating Identities: Queer Activism and Faith-based Resistance in Contemporary South Asia 19. Masculine Vulnerability: Exploring Queer Experiences and Intersectionality in The Carpet Weaver; Afterword: In the Rubble of the Text, We Still Find Each Other: An Epilogue
About the Author :
Nizara Hazarika is an associate professor in the PG Department of English, Sonapur College (Autonomous), Assam. Some of her areas of interest are Literature, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Women’s Writing, Disability Studies and so on. Her latest book is Reclaiming Narratives: Identity, Environment and Resistance in Indian Literary Studies and Beyond, 2025. Her most recent articles include “At the Interstices of Disability and Gender: Narratability, Disability and Motherhood in Geetali Borah’s Antaratam” (2025).
Namrata Pathak is an associate professor in the Department of English, North-Eastern Hill University. She has an MPhil and a PhD from English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. Her latest books are Indira Goswami: Margins and Beyond, 2022 and A Reader on Arun Sarma, 2024. Pathak was a Charles Wallace Fellow (India) at SOAS-University of London, 2023. Her areas of interest are Performance Studies, South Asian Studies and
Writings from India’s North-East.
