Sexuality Studies

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Sexuality, in all societies, pervades every aspect of social existence, and has always been an enigmatic theme of research in the social and human sciences. In India, especially, the overwhelming diversity in language, ethnicity, community, caste, and class; the multitudes of value systems; and the unique and dynamic confluence of its history, modernity, and tradition, render the study of sexuality a challenging endeavour mandating interdisciplinarity and multiplicity of analytical frameworks. This volume, a valuable compilation of fresh research in the field, bridges this gap, and provides a nuanced, spectral view of sexual cultures of India. The essays draw from a wide range of deeply analytical and theoretically potent research. They deal with a host of themes, ranging from colonial sexologists and pulp literature to family courts; development discourses to queer imagery in Hindu nationalistic imagination; laws on perversion and prostitution to romance and the Indian media; and, above all, the established patterns of research on sexuality in India. Together, they explore the interconnected dimensions of history, legality, sexual cultures, power politics, community and values, race, and class, and engage with the cognizance of these dimensions in the prevalent discourse on Indian sexuality. Outlining the contours and main themes of sexuality studies in India, this volume will provide a strong foundation to this immensely important field. Salient Features Part of the new series Oxford India Studies in Contemporary Society Identifies relevant issues constituting 'sexuality studies' in India Fieldwork based on historically grounded and ethnographically researched locations Contributors are well-known scholars in the field About the Author Sanjay Srivastava is Professor of Sociology, Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi.

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Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Scripting Pleasures and Perversions: Writings of Sexologists in the Twentieth Century 2. Wanton Women and Cheap Prints: Farces, Other Genres, and the Reading Publics in Colonial Calcutta 3. Beyond Equivalence: Body and Language in Family Courts 4. Bodies Gone Awry: The Abjection of Sexuality in Development Discourse in Contemporary Kerala 5. Queer Formations in (Hindu) Nationalism 6. Decriminalization as Deregulation? Logics of Sodomy Law and the State 7. True Sex and the Law: Prostitution, Sodomy, and the Politics of Sexual Minoritization in India 8. The Object of Attention: Same-sex Sexualities in Small Town India and the Contemporary Sexual Subject 9. Queering Subjectivities: On the Praxis of Outing Gender, Race, Caste and Class in Ethnographic Fieldwork 10. Street, Footpath, Gated Community: On the Cultures of Indian Pornography 11. Love Attacks: Romance and Media Voyeurism in the Public Domain 12. But I Can't Carry a Condom! Young Women, Risk and Sexuality in the Time of Globalization Notes on Contributors Index