Queer Intersectionality Voices, Struggles, and Identities in South Asia

List of Contributors
Foreword
KAZIM ALI

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Queer-ing South Asia
NIZARA HAZARIKA AND NAMRATA PATHAK

Part I
Queer Embodiments: Identity, Politics, and Ethics

1 Metaethics and Aesthetic Nuances of the Transsexual: A Critical Re-reading of Select Mythological Narratives of Hinduism
RITU RANJAN GOGOI

2 The Kitsch and Aesthetic: Masculinity, Authenticity, and Class in Crocodile Tears: New & Selected Stories
HUZAIFA PANDIT AND TAKBEER SALATI

3 Beyond the Binary: Sex Change and Gender Fluidity in Buddhist Narratives
DRISHTI KALRA

4 Neo-liberal Queer Subjectivities in the Bangladeshi Pedagogy: An Exploration of the Transgender Politics in
Bangladesh
KAZI ASHRAF UDDIN

5 Re-Visioning Willful Subject: Mapping the Genealogies of Pakistani Trans Queer Identity/Sexuality in When the
Moon Was Ours
KHAMSA QASIM

6 Intimate Partner Violence: Its Abundance and Absence in Lesbian and Queer Storytelling
DEBOLINA DEY AND RAJORSHI DAS

Part II
Queer Imaginaries: Representations in Popular Culture and Digital Media

7 Code of Courage: Precarity, Queer Narratives, and the Political field
SEUTY SABUR AND MASHAEKH HASSAN

8 Examining LGBTQIA+ Lived Experiences in South Asia: A Computational Text Mining Analysis
YOWEI KANG AND KENNETH C. C. YANG

9 Queer Movements and Politicisation in India: Navigating through Digital and Socio-Cultural Histories
SIDDHARTH DUBEY AND TANUPRIYA

10 Desensitising the Indian Queer Body: Strategies of Queerbaiting in Malayalam Cinema
SONY JALARAJAN AND ADITH K. SURESH

11 The Evolving Representations of Lesbian Identities: South Asian Queer Narratives in Post-2000 Bangla Cinema
SRIJA SANYAL

Part 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
ABHILASH KAUSHIK

13 The Dilemma of Public Space vs Gender-Neutral Toilet in India: A Case Study of #NoMoreHoldingmyPee
Campaign of Assam
KAUSTAV PADMAPATI

14 Queer Resonances in Haroon Khalid’s From Waris to Heer
DHURJJATI SARMA

15 Redefining Desires: The Cultural Quandaries of Queerness in R. Raj Rao’s The Boyfriend
DHARMENDRA KUMAR

16 Beyond the Gender Bounds: A Study of Infinite Gender Positions in The Pregnant King by Devdutt Pattanaik
FATIMA SYEDA

17 Transformation and Liminality in Nepali Queer Literature: Reading The Land Where I Flee and Between
Queens and the Cities
SILBA RANGSA MARAK

18 Negotiating Identities: Queer Activism and Faith-Based Resistance in Contemporary South Asia
JAMIL AKHTAR

19 Masculine Vulnerability: Exploring Queer Experiences and Intersectionality in The Carpet Weaver
SANJANA CHAKRABORTY AND DHANANJAY TRIPATHI

An Epilogue: In the Rubble of the Text, We Still Find Each Other
MOON CHARANIA
Index



Biography

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.