Queer and the Vernacular Languages in India

Kaustav Chakraborty is Associate Professor in the Department of English, Southfield (Loreto) College, Darjeeling, India. He has been a Fellow at Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. His areas of interest are Queer Studies, Indigenous Literatures and Cultures, Folklore, Culture of Nationalism, Philosophy of Intimacy and South Asian Literatures. His major publications include Indian Drama in English (edited volume, 2014), Tagore and Nationalism (co-edited with K. L. Tuteja, 2017), Indigeneity, Tales and Alternatives (2017), The Politics of Belonging in Contemporary India: Anxiety and Intimacy (edited volume, 2020), Queering Tribal Folktales from East and Northeast India (2020) and Nations and Nationalisms: A Short Introduction (2021).Anup Shekhar Chakraborty is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Political Studies at Kolkata’s Netaji Institute for Asian Studies and a member of the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (MCRG). He received the IPSA National Young Political Scientist Award 2020; the IDRC, DEF, and IDF “India Social Science Research Award 2009”, and the “C.R. Parekh Fellowship (2011-2012)” at the Asia Research Centre of the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has published numerous works about the Zo/Mizo people. His most recent works include Braided Entanglements of Identities, Religion, and Politics in Mizoram (2020); Religion and Politics in Mizoram (2019); and Death and Dying in Northeast India: Indigeneity and Afterlife (co-edited with P. Sen, 2023). He serves as one of the Guest Editors for the Special Issue on “LGBTQ+ People in Situations of Forced Displacement”, Oxford Journal of Refugee Studies.

• List of tablesList of ContributorsPrefaceIndian Vernaculars and the Queer: An IntroductionKaustav Chakraborty and Anup Shekhar Chakraborty Part I: Vernacular Vocabularies and Expressions of the Regional Queer1. Laingik Alpasankhya and Queer Identities in the Present-Day Marathi LanguageParesh Hate2. Queer in Karnataka: Exploring Male Same Sex Sexualities in the Non-metropolitanKiran Bhairannavar3. A Hidden Language that Reveals a Distinct Culture: Revisiting the Lingua Franca of the Hijra CommunitySibsankar Mal and Grace Bahalen MunduPart II: LGBTQ+ and the Regional Literature4. Precarious Lives, Fraught Selves: Tirunangai Autobiographies in TamilKiran Keshavamurthy5. ‘They’ are Queer: Transgressing Gender Normativity in Vernacular Assamese LiteratureTonmoyee Rani Neog and Rimpi Borah6. Urdu and the Queer ConsciousnessOmar GhazaliPart III: Performing the Vernacular Queer Offline, Online and on Screen7. Mawngkuahur in the times of E-Love: Sexualities, Regimentation, Control, Display and the Zo QueerAnup Shekhar Chakraborty8. The Many Bodies of the Vernacular: Negotiating Queer Identity in the Public and Virtual Domains of AssamAmrita Pritam Gogoi9. Queer Assam on Celluloid: Locating Queer Characters in Bulbul Can Sing and Fireflies-Jonaki PoruaAnupom Kumar HazarikaPart IV: Queer Invisibility and the Linguistic Community10. The Many ‘Queer’ Silences – Competing Masculinities in KashmirHuzaifa Pandit11. In Search of the Queer in (Catholic) Konkani: Silence, Slurs and the SpectacularKevin Frank Fernandes Part V: Making the Queer Visible in the Vernacular Culture12. Exploring Queer Literature in Nepali from the Hills of Darjeeling and SikkimAnil Pradhan and Pema Gyalchen Tamang13. Voices of Survival: LGBTQ+ Representations in Literary/Cinematic/Creative Texts in BanglaHimadri RoyIndex