Anthology planned to understand ‘Queer India’

The decriminalisation of homosexual relations among consenting adults seems to be doing a lot more than getting the community to come out of its closet.

Literature too seems to be slowly evolving from the earlier expression that was largely related to sexuality and looking to capture the life lived by the community in India. 

If things go as per plan, within six months, there could be an anthology of diverse, contemporary queer stories.

“There are other anthologies but they are almost 10 years old and outdated," said Shobhna Kumar, owner of queer-ink.com, an online queer bookstore. "We are asking people to write personal stories and will be compiling them so that not just the world but, to some extent, even we know about the life and experiences queers face across India.”

The initiative aims to find a common ground of learning, experiencing and relating to different lives. It will seek submission of selected stories in regional languages that will be translated in English. “We will first come out with an English book followed by books in regional languages,” said Kumar. 

Mahesh Natarajan, who held a reading of his recent book Pink Sheep, claimed its content was moving in such a direction. “Earlier, literature was centred on sexuality and exoticising being a gay. It was about shining the spotlight on gay issues. Though fiction, my book talks about being gay as a part and parcel of life. It is celebrating joy and everyday life in Bangalore of a gay and what he goes through. It is about showing him in the mainstream and within the regular Indian construct of family, religion, society and community.”

Kumar said, “We still feel that not as many books are available as per the ratio of queer population — only 100 books for a population of around 7%. On the internet, many blogs are there, but few publishers take interest as they do not see profit. With the anthology, in the current global India, we are trying to understand Queer India and its diversity.”