What does it mean to be queer in India today? If the answer is framed through the language of rights, then the queer experience in India is one of institutional violence. When viewed from the perspective of resistance and community, the response is one of optimism and solidarity. When filtered through the lens of intersectionality, there can be no singular answer because such a plurality of experiences cannot be reduced to a singular story.
From queer people living in small towns to those living in big cities and even outside the country, from those who experience various marginalizations due to their intersecting identities to those with caste and class privileges, the range of queer experiences in our country is endless. There is no clear answer to what it means to be queer in India.
This is the question that the anthology Queer India Now seeks to answer through portraits of dozens of queer lives. It seamlessly combines stories of invisibility, pathologization and violence with stories of silent resistance, solidarity and the radical power of community. Queer India Now is committed to diversifying common understandings of queer identity and bringing much-needed intersectionality into conversations about queerness.
From the art form of Karnataka’s Jogatis to drag parties off the coast of Colaba, from first forays into the world of queer dating to court cases where queer couples confront a system they are illegible to, the book offers a vivid and structured account of the tumultuous experience of being queer today in our cisheteropatriarchal society.
Of the Art form of yoga from Karnataka to dragging parties from the Colaba coast, from early forays into the world of queer dating to court cases where queer couples are confronted with a system they are illegible to, the book offers a vivid and structured account of the turbulent experience of being queer today in our cisheteropatriarchal society with its far-right authoritarian government, but where the spirit of resistance abounds and the zealous The desire to build a community and a more just world remains unshakable.
Beyond a singular narrative: the diversity of queer experiences
Urban, queer voices and experiences of the “upper caste” and “upper class” often occupy a central place in queer spaces and in conversations about queerness. However, the greater visibility of these experiences in society, institutions and media does not mean that queerness is limited to urban life or that it no longer exists outside its concrete and metallic contours.
By revealing the extent to which everyday queerphobia is embedded in the architecture of everyday life and permeates every aspect of personal, public and political life, the book also examines how this structural and systemic violence is experienced unevenly in the community.
Queer India Now puts these often neglected queer experiences front and center. By revealing the extent to which everyday queerphobia is embedded in the architecture of everyday life and permeates every aspect of personal, public and political life, the book also examines how this structural and systemic violence is experienced unevenly in the community.
The book begins with essays about the often invisible queer life in cities and villages that most people have never heard of. Through queer coming-of-age stories, as well as narratives of resistance and litigation, the queer lives we don’t often see are brought to the forefront.
For example, one essay deals with queerness in Kashmir. In the popular imagination, the militarization and conflict in Kashmir rarely allows for the recognition of queerness in the region or an understanding of the conflict from a queer perspective that examines how it affects queer bodies and how it further invisibilizes and marginalizes them. However, queerness still exists in Kashmir, as does queer joy and resistance.
Queer India Now uses an intersectional perspective to understand queerness. Through essays that explore caste and queerness, religious identity and queerness, and disability and queerness, the book not only highlights the importance of Intersectionality within the queer community to help make queer spaces more equitable, but also shows how in telling a unique story of queerness, we risk fundamentally misunderstanding what it means to be queer today.
Understanding the marginality of queerness is incomplete without understanding how other marginal identities interact with and influence the queer experience. Caste, class, religion and disability create complex experiences of marginality that feed into the marginality produced by queerness.
Understanding the marginality of queerness is incomplete without understanding how other marginal identities interact with and influence the queer experience. Caste, class, religion and disability create complex experiences of marginality that feed into the marginality produced by queerness.
In the mainstream, intersectionality in the queer experience is often overlooked and queerness is understood as a monolith. Queer India Now is a timely reminder that such invisibility is not just accidental but intentional. By ignoring some experiences and identities and disproportionately centering others, we make a political choice that grants the right to visibility to some while denying it to others.
Queer joy as a political act
Stories about queer lives, whether in the news, in films and television, or in books and popular fiction, disproportionately focus on the victimization that queer people experience. This is particularly true for certain queer identities, such as trans identities. While it is true that the queer experience in India is often marked by familial, institutional and political violence, queer bodies and lives are much more than just places where such violence is perpetrated.
Queer India Now explores queerness beyond such a victimization lens and discusses queer joy – the joy found in community, resistance, and the everyday aspects of a life one chooses and creates.
Through narratives of community building and solidarity and the warm embrace of select families, as well as queer parties that offer respite from the queerphobic architects of everyday life and urban spaces, Queer India Now continually reminds readers that joy is a political act; that joy is an act of resistance.
Through narratives of community building and solidarity and the warm embrace of select families, as well as queer parties that offer respite from the queerphobic architecture of everyday life and urban spaces, Queer India Now continually reminds readers that joy is a political act; that joy is an act of resistance.
While legal recognition of equal rights, the queerization of public spaces, queer-affirmative healthcare and the safety of queer children, and other social and legal struggles are all essential to building a more just world, the small joys of sharing space with chosen families, going on a first date, making art, succeeding in a chosen career, and building community are equally important to reclaiming space and visibility from a cisheteropatriarchal world. In such a world, simply existing as a queer person and experiencing joy becomes a revolutionary act.
Queer India Now can be read as an archive of queerness, a portrait of queer joy and resistance, or an account of the violence and structural failures embedded in the everyday architecture of our society and institutions. However you decide to read it or whatever you take away from the book, one thing is undeniable: Queer India Now is essential reading.
Akshita Prasad is a journalist and deputy editor at FII. She writes primarily about politics, law and policy, socio-institutional justice, gender, women’s health and culture. In her work, she critically examines how power structures and institutional norms impact marginalized groups and public discourse, and she sheds light on structural inequalities in her reporting. Her work has been published in various national publications and she received a Jury Recognition Award at the Laadli Media and Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2025. Akshita is also a Laadli Media Fellow.