Sexual States

Jyoti Puri is Professor of Sociology at Simmons College and the author of Encountering Nationalism.

"[A] knowledge of the myriad ways in which power works helps us to arm ourselves in our fight for social justice, individual rights and democratic freedoms. Puri's book gives us the helpful ammunition we need in our struggle." - Ratnabir Guha (Telegraph India) “Sexual States is deftly crafted.… Puri employs multiple methods with aplomb and to excellent effect.”- Joseph J. Fischel (Journal of the History of Sexuality) "[Puri] not only adds to a growing corpus of literature highlighting the necessity of a theoretical and political alliance in resisting state surveillance and brutality among those persecuted as ethno-religious minorities and those persecuted as gender and sexual minorities; she also draws attention to the Indian context, and by extension post-colonial contexts more broadly, as a theater of knowledge production in its own right, with its own intersecting and divergent histories of governmentality, biopolitics, and, sexuality. This should be considered required reading for any scholars interested in the Indian state, postcoloniality and sexuality studies." - Lars Olav Aaberg (New Books Asia) "Puri’s book is an important addition to the critical sociological literature on sexualities, state, law, and biopolitics, not only for its theoretical sophistication but also for its empirical depth and rich ethnographic insights." - Chaitanya Lakkimsetti (Contemporary Sociology) “Sexual States is a well-written book that will be important not only for how it makes us rethink sexual justice in India but also for the transnational framework it provides to understand the intricacies of sexuality, the state, and neoliberal processes.” - Nishant Upadhyay (GLQ)

• Acknowledgments  viiPart One. Introduction1. Governing Sexuality, Constituting States  32. Engendering Social Problems, Exposing Sexuality's Effects on Biopolitical States  24Part Two. Sexual Lives of Juridicial Governance3. State Scripts: Antisodomy Law and the Annals of Law and Law Enforcement  494. "Half Truths": Racialization, Habitual Criminals, and the Police  74Part Three. Opposing Law, Contesting Governance5. Pivoting toward the State: Phase One of the Struggle against Section 377  1016. States versus Sexuality: Decriminalizing and Recriminalizing Homosexuality in the Postliberalized Context  126Afterlives  150Notes  165Bibliography  193Index  211