Desi Queers

Churnjeet Mahn is Professor of English Literature at the University of Strathclyde. Her research focuses on experiences of racism and homophobia in travel writing and accounts of displacement. She has worked on a range of creative research projects related to post-Partition memory, and queer displacement. Rohit K. Dasgupta is Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality at the London School of Economics. He researches queer cultures, digital media and cultural industries in South Asia. He is also Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. DJ Ritu is a pioneering EDI activist, international turntablist, Rough Guides contributor and BBC Radio presenter. In the 1980s, she established Shakti Disco at the London Lesbian and Gay Centre, before co-founding both the legendary Club Kali, in 1995, and the queer SWANA (South-West Asian and North African) music club Hoppa. In 2023, Ritu was awarded an MBE for services to music and broadcasting.

'An important contribution to the study of queer movement in Britain and diasporic struggles. It challenges dominant narratives and nudges the reader to see desi queer history embedded within broader racial and queer struggles in Britain and globally.'

• List of Illustrations Introduction 1. Black, South Asian and Queer in 1980s Britain 2. Shakti Disco to Club Kali: Queer Nightlife 75 in the British South Asian Diaspora 3. Shakti Khabar: Networks and Newsletters 117 for Queer South Asians 4. Queer Art and Visual Culture in the Desi Diaspora 5. Contemporary Queer Cultural Activism Conclusion Postscript: Researching Desi Queer Lives Acknowledgements Notes Index