Masculinity and Its Challenges in India

Rohit K Dasgupta is associate lecturer and doctoral student at the University of the Arts London. He lives in London, England. The late K. Moti Gokulsing was a retired reader and senior visiting research fellow, University of East London. He was the founder and co-editor of the journal, South Asian Popular Culture and lived in London.

“a very useful contribution to the existing literature on masculinities in India, but also, a very enjoyable read. The richly conversational and yet theoretically rigorous style of writing represented will no doubt make the book appealing both to undergraduates beginning to explore an interest in these topics, and to scholars researching this area”—The Royal Society for Asian Affairs; “Here is an outstanding collection which examines the nature of Indian masculinity from a rich variety of perspectives, historical, sociological, psychological. This book will become an important tool in understanding the tensions in modern Indian society and ways of resolving them”—Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics; “This collection edited by Rohit K. Dasgupta and K. Moti Gokulsing is one of the most ambitious and comprehensive stock taking of South Asian masculinity undertaken in recent times. With an attractive blend of contributions from some well known names and a number of young scholars, the book spans ethnography, history, literary criticism and culture studies to look at Indian masculinity as a contested domain, which allows the play of some of the core fantasies of society and, at the same time becomes the site of experiments with the esoteric or the arcane.”—Ashis Nandy, Honorary Research Fellow, CSDS; “This ground breaking collection provides new frames of reference for understanding South Asian masculinities in the context of colonialism, post-colonialism and contemporary consumer culture.”—Richard Allen, New York University.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsForeword—Ruth VanitaIntroduction: Perceptions of Masculinity and Challenges to the Indian Male—Rohit K. Dasgupta and K. Moti Gokulsing“Sane Sex,” the Five-Year Plan Hero and Men on Footpaths and in Gated Communities: On the Cultures of Twentieth-Century Masculinity—Sanjay SrivastavaCritical Masculinity Studies in India—Mangesh KulkarniIf Singularity Is the Problem, Could Intersectionality Be the Solution? Exploring the Mediation of Sexuality on Masculinity—Roshan das NairBearly Indian: “Fat” Gay Men’s Negotiation of Embodiment, Culture and Masculinity—Pranta Pratik PatnaikThe Nation as Mimicry: The (Mis)reading of Colonial Masculinities in India—Kama MaureemootooMobilizing for Sexual Health: The Experience of Queer Indian Men in London—David A. AnsariMasculinities of Desire, Derision and Defiance: Global Gay Femmephobia and Kothi-Hijra-Trans Heterosexualities—Aniruddha DuttaCorporal Punishment: English and Homosocial Tactility in Postcolonial Bengal—Niladri R. ChatterjeeOf Girmitiyas and Mimic Men: Alternative Masculinity in V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas—Vishnupriya SenguptaGay Writing and the Idea of Doubleness—Akhil KatyalNegotiations of Masculinity in Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition Trilogy—Tanmayee BanerjeeMasculinizing the (Post)colonial Subject: The Amar Chitra Katha Comic Book—Sayantan DasguptaRethinking the Circuits of Male Desire Across Multiple Dostanas—Dashini JeyathuraiAbout the ContributorsIndex