Hindu Nation and its Queers: Caste, Islamophobia, and De/coloniality in India

Interventions International Journal of Postcolonial Studies ISSN: 1369-801X (Print) 1469-929X (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riij20 Hindu Nation and its Queers: Caste, Islamophobia, and De/coloniality in India Nishant Upadhyay To cite this article: Nishant Upadhyay (2020) Hindu Nation and its Queers: Caste, Islamophobia, and De/coloniality in India, Interventions, 22:4, 464-480, DOI: 10.1080/1369801X.2020.1749709 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2020.1749709 Published online: 13 Apr 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 65 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=riij20  HINDU NATION AND ITS QUEERS: CASTE, ISLAMOPHOBIA, AND DE/COLONIALITY IN INDIA Nishant Upadhyay Department of Ethnic Studies, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA ..................The 2018 Indian Supreme Court judgement decriminalizing homosexuality has been marked as a “decolonial act.” Section 377, which criminalized caste homosexuality, was a colonial law introduced by the British in India, de/coloniality which the postcolonial state maintained till 2018. The judgement may be “decolonial” in intent, but there are other simultaneous processes at play Hindu nationalism which are not so decolonial in praxis; this essay argues these processes are Islamophobia colonialism, brahminical supremacy, and Islamophobia. Caste-based violence is integral to Hinduism and intertwined with other matrices of sexuality oppression, making caste foundational to any claims of Hinduism as queer, ................. trans and gender nonconforming friendly. Studying recent Hindu nationalist responses in favour of decriminalization of homosexuality in India, this essay traces how the Hindu Right deploys queerness to propagate its Islamophobic, casteist, and homohindunationalist agendas. The essay argues decolonizing the law, state, and sexuality would also mean annihilating caste and brahminical structures. ....................................................................................................... interventions, 2020 Vol. 22, No. 4, 464–480, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2020.1749709 Nishant Upadhyay Nishant.Upadhyay@colorado.edu © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group  ............................ 465 H I N D U N AT I O N A N D I T S Q U E E R S : C A S T E , I S L A M O P H O B I A , A N D D E / C O L O N I A L I T Y I N I N D I A Nishant Upadhyay “This isn’t India becoming ‘westernised’. It’s India decolonising.” This was Shahmir Sanni’s tweet on the historic Supreme Court of India judgement decriminalizing homosexuality in September 2018. Sanni, a diasporic Pakistani from the UK, was not alone in reading this judgement as a decolo- 1 The tweet had over nial act.1 Much of Indian and global media reported the ruling as decoloniza- 3,500 retweets. tion, and celebrated the ushering of India into the league of other liberal countries where homosexuality is no longer criminalized; with the next stop 2 Examples include gaining same-sex marriage rights.2 The judgement struck down Section 377 Dhillon (2018), of the Indian Penal Code – a repressive act introduced by the British in Dudney (2018). 1861, which criminalized sexual activities “against the order of nature with 3 The law dates back any man, woman or animal.”3 In 2013 an earlier ruling of the Supreme to the English Court deemed the section as valid and constitutional, which went against Buggery Act of 1533 and similar laws can the 2009 Delhi Court reading down of the Section. The 2013 judgement in be found in over effect recriminalized homosexuality and stated: “both pre and post Consti- thirty ex-colonies of tutional laws are manifestations of the will of the people of India.” Homopho- the British Empire. India maintained the bia was thus justified as rooted in precolonial and postcolonial processes. The law as part of its judgement may be “decolonial” in intent,4 but there are other simultaneous colonial inheritance processes at play which are not so decolonial in praxis; this essay argues but seldom enforced these processes are colonialism, Islamophobia, and brahminical supremacy. it. The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 Brahminical caste structures dictate and shape all contemporary political, was another colonial legal, social, cultural, and economic violence in India.5 Caste structures and law that specifically violence are integral to Hinduism, and intertwined with other matrices of targeted hijra communities by oppression. However, to fight violence against queer, trans, and gender non- deeming them conforming communities,6 Hinduism is often invoked to demonstrate how criminals. The law precolonial Hinduism was accepting of peoples of diverse genders and sexua- was repealed in 1952; however, legal lities. This is used as a framework to ground queer and trans genealogies and legacies continue, contemporary subjectivities, and usually caste is erased from these narratives. such as the The following works, for instance, invoke Hindu scriptures and mythologies Karnataka Police Act as a Hindu – read always as Indian – queer, trans, and gender nonconforming 36 [A] of 2011, which allows police to archive: Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai’s collection of literary pieces Same- register all hijras; the Sex Love in India: A Literary History (2000),7 Devdutt Pattanaik’s fiction The Supreme Court Man Who Was a Woman and Other Queer Tales from Hindu Lore (2000), Judgement of 2014 on transgender Shikhandi: And Other Tales They Don’t Tell You (2014),8 Vivek Shraya’s persons; and more novel She of the Mountains (2014), and Nandini Krishnan’s non-fiction Invis- recently the ible Men: Inside India’s Transmasculine Networks (2018).9 Universalizing Transgender Persons Bill. and imposing Hindu narratives provides a limited understanding of the con- 4 As a scholar based temporary experiences of queer, trans, and gender nonconforming peoples, in North America, more so for those who are further marginalized through the axes of caste, reli- conversations around gion, ethnicity, nationality, and class. Moreover, these revisionist narratives decolonization are inherently linked to reduce homophobia to colonial legacies. Strategically, on the one hand, it Indigenous lands may be important for the queer rights movement to reclaim Hinduism in its currently under quest for justice;10 on the other hand, for some on the Hindu Right,11 who in ter v enti ons – 2 2:4 ............................ 466 occupation by the were blatantly homophobic until recently, this has become a key strategy to United States and claim homophobia as a colonial inheritance and establish dominance of Canada. I specifically draw from Tuck and Hindu ideologies over their Others.12 Yang’s (2012) What is claimed as Hindu culture is dominant caste culture. Any assertion argument that of Hinduism as queer, trans, and gender nonconforming accepting, is not only decolonization should not be used as an oxymoron, but also a normalization of caste violence. In this essay I deploy a metaphor; rather, critiques of caste to unmask brahminical and Islamophobic formations in decolonization would queer India and the Indian diasporas.13 Gee Imaan Semmalar (2016) argues require the return of lands to the Indigenous nations. relying on Hindu myths to affirm our identities gives rise to … a regressive kind of As I theorize the trans identity politics that does not take into account the brutality of the caste limits of “formal” system that finds its origin and sanction in the same Hindu religion. decolonization in the Indian context in this essay, I fully support Thus, dominant caste queer, trans, and gender nonconforming folks who the need for locate their queerness through Hinduism as cultural, historical, and religious decolonization of the stolen Indian lands praxes are complicit in this caste violence.14 As structures of brahminical here and in all other cisheteropatriarchy predate colonialism in the Indian subcontinent, decoloni- occupied territories, zation is not possible in India without “annihilation of caste” (Ambedkar including current Indian occupation of 1936). Kashmir, and parts of This essay explores the intersections of caste, sexuality, and coloniality by North East and focusing on the Hindu Right and its queer, trans, and gender nonconforming central India. peoples, and the ways in which queer Hindutva discourses are mobilized to 5 Hinduism divides Hindu society into propagate casteist, Islamophobic, and nationalist agendas.15 The first four varnas, castes: section provides a conceptual framework of homohindunationalism to theo- brahmins (priests), rize how Hindu nationalists are appropriating queer and trans struggles. The kshatriyas (warriors), vaishyas (traders) and second section studies the pro-decriminalization responses of the Hindu Right Shudras (laborers), to Section 377 and how Hindu queer and trans peoples engage in homohin- with each group dunationalist praxes. The examples explored are from within India as well further subdivided as from Hindu Indian diasporas to highlight how Hindu nationalism is a into multiple jatis (subgroups). The first transnational project. The concluding section calls for the decolonizing of three groups are the law, state, and sexuality, along with annihilating caste and brahminical dominant caste supremacy. communities, whereas Shudra peoples (Bahujan is a Caste, Islamophobia, and homohindunationalism widely used term by caste-oppressed Dalit feminists have long demonstrated the critical intersections of caste, communities), Dalit gender, and sexuality (e.g. Pawar and Moon 2008; Stephen 2009). They peoples (a term used by erstwhile show how gender and sexual relations are fundamental to the broader ideol- “untouchable” ogies of caste. Caste structures are maintained through heteropatriarchal communities, those endogamy, the practice of marrying within the same caste, to control outside the four-tier women’s sexuality. Thus, caste and gender hierarchies are the organizing  ............................ 467 H I N D U N AT I O N A N D I T S Q U E E R S : C A S T E , I S L A M O P H O B I A , A N D D E / C O L O N I A L I T Y I N I N D I A Nishant Upadhyay caste structures) and principles of the brahminical social order and are closely interconnected. Adivasi/Tribal/ Cynthia Stephen (2009) elaborates: “Dalit woman as the OTHER is … gener- Indigenous peoples are caste-oppressed ated by ingrained patriarchal and Brahminical values at all levels in society, peoples. Further, which in turn causes the high level of exclusion, invisibility and structural caste is not limited to and domestic violence.” Rejecting dominant caste feminisms and their compli- Hinduism, but also practiced in other cities within brahminical patriarchies, Stephen calls for a Dalit womanist religions like praxis that dismantles all structures of caste and patriarchy. Buddhism, Sikhism, Centreing the intersections of caste, gender, and sexuality, Dalit and Islam, and Christianity. Bahujan queer, trans, and gender nonconforming writers argue sexual/ Moreover, caste queer/trans liberations are impossible without the annihilation of brahminical structures are also cisheteropatriarchy (see Banu 2016; Jyoti 2018; Kang 2016; Vidya 2014). replicated within While many caste oppressed activists and writers work within/alongside atheist, secular, and progressive queer and trans movements in India, they argue these movements have main- communities. tained dominant caste hegemony by centreing urban upwardly mobile domi- 6 Within South Asia, nant caste queer cis-men identities, and invisibilizing all caste oppressed words like queer and trans are often seen as peoples. Living Smile Vidya (quoted in Ahmad 2015) writes: “Our gender imperial impositions identity is linked to caste in such a way that it is impossible to separate the of the global North two at all … We also critique Brahminism … which is linked similarly in inse- and the English parable ways in India.” Similarly, at the Delhi Queer Pride in November language, while for others these are 2015, Dhrubo Jyoti (2015) declared: “We bring caste up because caste is words used to everywhere and in my everything … Caste is in my sex. Caste is in my being describe their own and Caste is in every part of you too!” In other words, homophobia, hijrapho- identities. Across regional, religious, bia, and transphobia in India are not just a byproduct of British colonialism, caste, class, and but are also a manifestation of brahminical endogamic structures. Thus, linguistic positions, addressing the intersections of caste and colonial violence needs to be there are many “local” words that central to queer and trans struggles in India. people use, including Similarly, caste is key to understanding the Hindu nationalist project, as it is Hijra, Kinnar, cisheteropatriarchal, brahminical, and Islamophobic. The main aim of the Aravani, Kothi, nationalist project is to create a unified Hindu rashtra, a nation which is Thirunangai, Jogappa, and Khwaja Hindu majority/dominant. The rashtra can be tolerant of all-Others as long Sara. These identities as they assimilate within the Hindu fold. The project considers Hinduism as often challenge the the main religion of India, and Christianity and Islam as “foreign” religions; singular definitions in circulation in the and Hindi is the national language. Hindu rashtra is also invested in the con- global North. I will tinued occupation of Kashmir and Adivasi, and Tribal territories in the North be using queer, trans, East and centre of India. Further, Islamophobia is manifested through the con- and gender nonconforming tinued oppression of Muslim communities across India, occupation of mostly, as these Kashmir, commitments to the “War on Terror”, and anti-Pakistan national- words are frequently ism; targets of all are conflated into one another and rendered as “terrorists”, used as umbrella while India remains the victim. terms to include all gender and sexual Hindu nationalism posits itself as counter to the “official” secular national- nonconforming ist discourses; however, caste unravels the commonalities between these not- peoples. so-different ideologies. Writing about dominant caste anticolonial national- ism in colonial India, M. S. S. Pandian (2002, 1736) critiques the conflated in ter v enti ons – 2 2:4 ............................ 468 7 This is now a construction of Hinduness and Indianness: “What gets encoded here as Indian canonical text within culture is what is culture to the brahmins/upper castes.” Moreover, queer Indian writings. It is a B. R. Ambedkar (1936) argued there is not much difference between secular collection of queer and practicing dominant caste Hindus because of their shared positionalities. narratives and While it is important to see Hindutva as extremist Hinduism, following examples spanning over two thousand Ambedkar and Pandian, it is also critical to make clear that caste structures years of precolonial, are inherent to Hinduism and Hindutva, and that all dominant nationalist colonial, and projects in India remain brahminical. postcolonial literature. Needless to Paola Bacchetta (1999) argues the intersecting logics of queerphobia and say, the framing of xenophobia are essential to the Hindutva ideology. The Hindu right India as a coherent deploys “xenophobic queerphobia” to see homosexuality as a British geographical entity import to India, rendering queerness as always non-Indian and always for centuries is flawed. However, outside of the nation (143). Further, “queerphobic xenophobia” posits mythological Hindu Others of the nation, specifically Muslim men, as the queer Others (144). writings from the Muslim men are rendered hyper-masculine and queer simultaneously. Else- collection are often cited as examples of where, Bacchetta (2013, 122) demonstrates how Hindu queers “are found the openness of not only on the ‘They’ side of Hindu nationalism’s ‘We vs. They’ binary as Hinduism to gender might be expected, but also on the ‘We’ side as well.” I build on Bacchetta’s and sexual nonconforming critiques to demonstrate the emergent queer paradoxes within the Hindutva practices. The project and the role of brahminical supremacy and Islamophobia. While collection also exiling queers was essential to the twentieth-century Hindutva project, I includes several argue that in the last few years, the Hindu nation needs its queer, trans, narratives from Islamic traditions, and gender nonconforming Hindus to increase demographic numbers. and these are critical Indeed, it is welcoming back queer and trans Hindus into the fold, quite lit- examples of erally following the “ghar wapasi” propaganda. Ghar wapasi “produces queerness before colonialism through and enforces notions of a primordial religious identity, whereby all and every- which many South one are declared Hindus” (Gupta 2018b, 100). It seeks to “welcome back Asians trace their home” those Hindus who have historically converted to Islam and Christian- genealogies. ity and reconvert them. As the rahstra needs its “ex” Hindus to come back 8 Pattanaik would fall within the Hindu into the fold, it also needs those whom it previously excluded due to their non- nationalist camp, as a conforming identities. lot of his work seeks In the last three decades, the Hindu Right has become mainstream, with to erase and/or justify caste structures. multiple government tenures across the country; primarily led by the Bhara- 9 Krishnan’s book tiya Janta Party (BJP), Indian Nationalist Party, which serves as the politi- has been critiqued for cal/populist medium for the Hindutva agenda. During the same period, its gross appropriation and there has been unparalleled visibility and recognition of queer and trans transphobic peoples and their struggles, culminating in the recent judgements and engagement with the bills.16 Further, within the same period, the Indian economy has also been lives of trans men in unprecedentedly neoliberalized. Needless to say, these three processes are India. One of the many critiques argues deeply intertwined, and neoliberal processes have enabled both the rise of Krishnan has the Hindu Right as well as the rights of the queers.17 imposed a While, arguably, the rashtra remains anti-queer, these intertwined processes homonationalist have also given a platform to Hindu Right queers and trans voices. This essay  ............................ 469 H I N D U N AT I O N A N D I T S Q U E E R S : C A S T E , I S L A M O P H O B I A , A N D D E / C O L O N I A L I T Y I N I N D I A Nishant Upadhyay Hindu-centric lens to explores this neoliberal queer assimilation within the Hindu nation. These non-Hindu paradoxes are central to the project of homohindunationalism (following communities, like the Nupa Maanba Jasbir Puar’s [2007] formulation of homonationalism).18 For Puar, homona- community in tionalism is a key logic of US nationalism, whereby white queer bodies can be Manipur (Bose assimilated within the white supremacist imperial settler state. Over the last 2019). 10 I do not seek to few decades, white queer subjects have become indispensable to the nation- negate the spiritual state, while other queer bodies have been excluded through the logics of and affective relations white supremacy, colonialism, Islamophobia, neoliberalism, and imperialism. with Hinduism of Similarly, the Zionist Israeli state uses homonationalism as a tool to project hijra and other gender itself as queer-friendly and Palestine as queerphobic, and to erase its own nonconforming illegal occupation of Palestine (Puar and Mikdashi 2012). communities. In Drawing upon Puar, I argue certain Indian (a.k.a. dominant caste, North India, for instance, this spiritual upwardly mobile Hindu) queer and trans bodies can also be willingly included relationship enables within the Hindu nationalist project to uphold brahminical supremacy and hijras to earn a Islamophobia. This assimilation is homohindunationalism,19 and these are livelihood in exchange for its four interrelated logics: first, Hinduism is projected as a queer, trans, blessings (which the and gender nonconforming friendly religion. Second, Islam and Christianity trans bill, discussed are deemed as homophobic and causes for homophobia in India. More specifi- above, has cally, Hinduism is projected as liberal, and Islam is reduced to being a homo- criminalized now). Access to education phobic, barbaric, and violent religion. Third, dominant caste Hindu queer, and the formal trans, and gender nonconforming folks are welcomed within the Hindutva economy is still very project as long as they partake in its brahminical and Islamophobic ten- limited for most gender dencies. And fourth, all Hindu/Indian Others – Dalit Others, Bahujan nonconforming Others, Adivasi/Tribal Others, Muslim Others, Kashmiri Others, North peoples. Eastern Others,20 Christian Others, Sikh Others, etc. – are simultaneously Bhattacharya (2019) argues “the state rendered queer as well as queerphobic.21 On the one hand, logics of queerpho- effects of the way bic xenophobia (Bacchetta 1999, 2013) render all Others as queer, that is per- transgender labor is petually outside of brahminical cisheteronormativity. On the other hand, addressed by Indian simultaneously queer Hindutva discourses see all Other communities as law undermine the meta-narrative of the queerphobic and Hinduism as queerphilic. Others are always queerphobic, complicities of violent, and oppressive, while Hindus are always open, tolerant, and welcom- transgender ing. Dalit and Muslim communities are always seen as heteropatriarchal movements with Hindu nationalism.” through these logics.22 Thus, at the face of Kashmir is a prime example often marked as the queerphobic Other of the violence, if religion is Indian state.23 In mainstream Indian media following narratives of Kashmiri used to authenticate gender queer and trans people are common: “The LGBT community in the … nonconformity, then Kashmir Valley has almost no voice due to religious and cultural orthodoxy, Hinduism is essential which assume radical nature following the outbreak of the Islamist militancy for survival. in 1989–90” (Singh 2018). Accounts such as these are not only deeply Islamo- 11 I use Hindu Right, Hindu nationalism, phobic, they also obfuscate the ongoing occupation of Kashmir. The “Islamist and Hindutva militancy” is not terrorism, as the Indian state portrays it; rather, it is the interchangeably. resurgence of Kashmiri movement for azadi, sovereignty, from the Indian occupation. in ter v enti ons – 2 2:4 ............................ 470 12 I use “Others” to Sayan Bhattacharya (2019) warns against totalizing narratives of Hindutva signify that others – queer politics and homohindunationalism and asks for “closer attention to those oppressed along the axis of the complex ways in which the imaginary of the Hindu nation is also intensely caste, religion, resisted and contested by queer and transgender communities.” Anti-Hin- nationality, dutva queer and trans contestations are indeed critical and urgent as they indigenity, and ethnicity – make up defy any singular claims over queer, trans, and gender nonconforming lives the majority in India. in India. In consideration of Bhattacharya’s critiques, my analysis of homo- 13 Within Indian hindunationalism is limited to those on the Hindu Right. As I expand North American below, while it is important to critique dominant caste-sexual formations diasporic contexts, caste structures are as across the political spectrum, in this essay I focus solely on Hindutva queer present and and trans politics. The next section explores such queer assertions from the invisibilized as in Hindu Right. India. While sociocultural and economic processes Hindu (right) queers and their others in the diaspora have changed caste The 2018 judgement on Article 377 was in response to petitions submitted to formations, they have the Supreme Court by gay elite celebrities. These petitions marked a clear dis- not eroded them. For instance, in terms of juncture from the last few decades of queer activism in India. While there are cultural, social, and many critiques of the dominant caste, cis, urban, global/English centric queer spiritual practices, movement, the Delhi High Court judgement of 2009, the first judgement caste is everywhere in the diaspora. See reading down Article 377, marked a significant moment for queer rights in Soundararajan postcolonial India, as it was a result of decades of grassroots organizing by (2012), activists across the country. However, akin to dominant caste feminist move- Soundararajan and Varatharajah (2015). ments, dominant caste queer, trans, and gender nonconforming activists often 14 As a brahmin, erased caste. queer, non-binary As I argued above, along with the more liberal, albeit mostly brahminical, person based in queer activism of the last few decades, in recent years there has also been an North America, 377 has had little effect on escalation of dominant caste right-wing Hindu articulations of queerness and me. My experiences claiming of superiority to Muslims and caste Others. The Hindu Right has of gender and sexual come a long way from its protests in the 1990s against the film Fire for its marginalization, in India and within the depiction of queer intimacies between sisters-in-law in a middle-class Hindu diaspora, are household. The Hindu Right argued lesbianism goes against Indian values produced and and wanted the film to be banned. The protest against the film was a simultaneously protected through pivotal moment for the Hindu Right to come out as homophobic in the caste, class, racial, open. Until recently, both the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and diasporic (RSS), National Volunteer Organization, Hindutva parent organization of privileges and the BJP, maintained their support for keeping homosexuality criminalized. complicities. 15 This is not to For instance, in 2013 Rajnath Singh, BJP ex-chief spoke in favour of exempt liberal/ Section 377, stating “homosexuality is an unnatural act and cannot be sup- secular/progressive ported” (Singh 2013). That same year, a BJP source added: “It is a flawed dominant caste assumption that ratifying homosexuality is equal to being progressive and  ............................ 471 H I N D U N AT I O N A N D I T S Q U E E R S : C A S T E , I S L A M O P H O B I A , A N D D E / C O L O N I A L I T Y I N I N D I A Nishant Upadhyay queer, trans, and broad-minded. The present discourse has been largely generated by a niche of gender the elite, which reflects the Bharat-India divide” (Ramseshan 2013). Bharat is nonconforming Hindus, as I/we/they a Sanskrit/brahminical name for India; it is often invoked to binarize between are equally complicit “authentic” rural India versus the “elite” mostly urban India. The above state- in brahminical ment reduces queerness as an urban, elite, and “western” issue, whereas the violence irrespective of our/their relation rural is rendered traditional and heterosexual. The RSS, in 2014, reiterated to Hinduism. It is its opposition to homosexuality, and stated it would not compromise on vital to theorize “moral values, social system and traditions in the name of individual dominant caste queer complicities across freedom” (Singh 2014). the political In 2014 the BJP came into power at the national level under the leadership spectrum, and it is a of Hindutva ideologue Narendra Modi. This was an unprecedented victory failure of this essay to for the BJP and marked a significant ideological shift to the right. In May not do so. 16 I am not claiming 2019 Modi came into power again, with a higher victory margin than that visibility and 2014. This second victory has further entrenched Hindutva ideologies and recognition are escalated violence against all oppressed communities in India. At the same always good, as the case of the trans bill time, there has been an escalation of Hindutva support for queer rights. illustrates. On queer Prior to the judgement and since, gay bhakts (supporters of Modi) have and trans movements rejoiced that their great leader has “liberated” them from colonial homopho- in India, see Narrain bic clutches. Needless to say, during the court proceedings in 2018, the BJP and Bhan (2005), Revathi (2016). mostly remained silent and deferred the judgement to the court, while simul- 17 On taneously maintaining deeply heteropatriarchal, homophobic, and transpho- neoliberalization and bic positions.24 In fact, in 2017 India rejected a UN resolution on abolishing the queer movement in India, see Tellis the death penalty for queer people (Prasad 2018), and in 2018 the government (2013), Rao (2015). dropped “sexual orientation” from workplace discrimination guidelines 18 I am not claiming (Gupta 2018a). Indicative of state-sanctioned transphobia, instead of declin- authorship of the ing, violence against the trans community escalated within weeks of the decri- term “homohindu- nationalism”, as it is minalization judgement (Rastogi 2018). Further, within a few months of the already widely judgement, the Indian government proposed a draconian Transgender circulated by Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill in December 2018, what Grace Banu academics and activists. called a bill “meant to kill the trans people” (Dharmadhikari and Gopinath 19 While similar 2018). The Bill went against all the demands that the trans and gender non- processes are at play conforming grassroots activists had been making with regard to gender self- in the United States, Israel, and elsewhere identification and determination, reservation (positive affirmation) policies, where certain queer equal punishment for sexual violence against trans people as against bodies can be women, and decriminalizing sex work and begging.25 Amidst country-wide assimilated within trans-led protests against the bill, it was stalled in parliament. However, dominant nationalist formations, it is with the reelection of Modi’s government, the bill passed without much dis- important to name cussion in November 2019.26 The gap between the BJP’s lack of support the differences as for queer and trans rights and the gay supporters of the BJP speaks to the well. In the United States, unconditional faith of the latter towards the BJP. homonationalist Surprisingly, the RSS supported the judgement in 2018. In the last few processes work in years, different RSS leaders have supported decriminalizing homosexuality tandem with white on the grounds of Hinduism’s acceptance, but with caveats such as it is still in ter v enti ons – 2 2:4 ............................ 472 supremacy and settler a “psychological case” and queer relations are “not compatible with nature” colonialism, where (Sethi 2018). After the judgement, the RSS chief declared that LGBTQ peoples white queer people can partake in the are part of society and should not be isolated. Paradoxically, this affirmation state’s colonial and of queer desires has happened at the same time as the Hindu Right has esca- imperial processes. In lated its attack on inter-caste and inter-religious heterosexual love.27 The con- Israel the state and non-state actors tradictions and ambiguities between support shown by the RSS, the invoke Zionist state- calculating silence of the BJP, and the unconditional support of gay Hindutva making processes to supporters all attest to the fact that queer and trans desires can be assimilable mark their queer friendliness as within the Hindu fold as long as these desires emulate neoliberal, casteist, Isla- opposed to the mophobic, and nationalist agendas of the Hindutva project. assumed Notable dominant caste Hindu queer and trans activists like Ashok Row homophobia in the Kavi and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi have come out vehemently in support of rest of the Middle East. Homohindu- the Modi regime by being openly casteist, Islamophobic, and nationalist. nationalism works by Ashok Row Kavi, one of the first openly gay activists and founder of the relying upon NGO Humsafar Trust, has long been a supporter of the BJP and the RSS. precolonial and pre- Islam notions of Kavi has been known for his Islamophobic and Hindu nationalist politics. Hinduism as a queer In 2001, Bharosa, a NGO working on HIV-AIDS in Lucknow, was raided positive religion, by the local police and its employees were charged under Section 377 (this without much “formal” state incident became one of the main catalysts for the queer rights movement). participation. It is In response to this incident, Kavi wrote an article against Bharosa’s partner, critical to the Naz Foundation International (the prime organization behind the mobil- acknowledge that ization that led to the 2009 decision), claiming that a Muslim of Anglo-Ban- Islamophobia cuts across all these global gladeshi origin (Shivananda Khan) was the founder of Naz (Menon 2007). processes. Over the decades, Kavi has maintained that in Hinduism, unlike Christianity 20 Conflation of all and Islam, homosexuality has never been a sin. For him, Christianity and communities across the North East as colonialism are the root cause of homophobia in India (Singh and Rampal “North Eastern” is 2018). Thus, within the Hindu Right, both homosexuality and homophobia limiting and reduces are simultaneously western imports. Such contradictions are an inherent the differences and part of the Hindutva project, and are deployed rather arbitrarily on the diversity in the region. basis of varied oppositional stances to Christianity and Islam. Further, Kavi 21 In naming believes Muslim and Dalit queers asking for queer rights as Muslims and different Dalits are diluting the movement and stands against all pro-minority rights, marginalized communities, I do not except queer rights. In an interview he questioned Muslim queer activism: seek to erase “Now these queer Muslims are creating their groups because they say that differences in their their religion doesn’t permit homosexuality and Hindus hate them. Where histories and experiences, and that will the activism go with such belief?” (Singh and Rampal 2018). Vikramadi- some may have more tya Sahai points out, “For people like Row Kavi, the pride is an imagination of power than others the cis-Hindu upper class, upper caste gay male, and all the other kinds of within brahminical queer people don’t exist” (Singh and Rampal 2018). hierarchies. 22 On the Laxmi Narayan Tripathi is a renowned Kinnar (Sanskrit word used by experiences of queer some Hijras) activist and celebrity. She has openly claimed that within Muslims, see Kinnar communities there is no caste or religion (Bhain 2016), even though her own name consists of two brahmin last names. In 2016, when Indian  ............................ 473 H I N D U N AT I O N A N D I T S Q U E E R S : C A S T E , I S L A M O P H O B I A , A N D D E / C O L O N I A L I T Y I N I N D I A Nishant Upadhyay Rahman (2018), forces crossed the Pakistan border to attack Pakistan’s sovereignty, Tripathi Toor (2011). appealed to the Modi government to start a “kinnar battalion” that would 23 I am thankful to Kashmiri feminist help erase Pakistan from the world map. Bhattacharya (2019) notes: scholar Huma Dar “While Laxmi’s proclamation chimes in with the jingoist climate currently for insights on dominating India, this invocation of nationalism as a trope to claim Indian Kashmir and homohindu- citizenship and thus legibility in the Indian polity is similar” to other videos nationalism. depicting hijras signing national anthems and participating in drills for Inde- 24 While the pendence Day marches. More recently, in 2018, Tripathi publicly supported government remained the Hindutva call for the construction of a temple at the controversial site in silent, its solicitor- general Tushar Ayodhya where, in 1992, Hindu mobs destroyed a sixteenth-century mosque, Mehta argued against the Babri Masjid. The destruction of the mosque unleashed anti-Muslim com- decriminalization as munal violence across India, and since then the construction of the temple has it would promote incest, bestiality, and been central to visions of Hindu nation-making. A group of trans, gender non- sadomasochism conforming, intersex peoples and collectives and their allies signed a statement (Rautray 2018). (2018) critiquing her stance: Invoking the Hindu Marriage Act, Mehta cautioned against Tripathi, a dominant-caste brahmin trans woman, has been appealing to the Hin- extending marriage dutva ideology and justifying the existence of the caste system in India ever since rights to queer she began aspiring for the political position within the current ruling party. Her pos- peoples. This highlights the ition negates the politics of communal harmony that is espoused by Hijras and government’s own Kinnars … [Her] position idealizes a mythical past … supports the right-wing poli- contradictions and its tics of communal hatred in the guises of ‘we were always accepted’. insistence on maintaining heterosexual, As the statement argues, Tripathi has mobilized her caste positionality to align arguably endogamic, herself with Hindutva forces and become a dominant Kinnar voice in propa- marriages. gating Islamophobic, brahminical, nationalist state violence. 25 Additionally, after the decriminalization In 2018 many pro-homosexuality Hindutva articles appeared online. These judgement, the court included a piece by an RSS member claiming: “It is a fact that ancient Indian and the government attitudes and mores were receptive to the idea of homosexuality” (Awasthi have passed other rulings and bills 2018). Citing the RSS’s acceptance of homosexuality, the author asks which affect caste Muslim and Kashmiri leaders to change their homophobic stances on homo- oppressed sexuality. Calling other religions anti-queer and positioning Hinduism as a communities further. For instance, the queer friendly and liberal religion is a common Hindu pinkwashing or saf- Supreme Court fronwashing tactic.28 Another author argues Christianity and Islam have turned an appeal to always been against queer rights as compared to Hinduism, as the latter reconsider does not have any scriptures prescribing anti-homosexuality (Didolkar reservations in job promotions; the 2018b). Elsewhere, the author blames the imposition of Christian and government created a Islamic homophobic moralities for homophobia in postcolonial India new reservation (Didolkar 2018a). He accuses the homophobic faction of the Hindu Right quota for poor communities, giving for following Christian and Muslim leaders, as the Hindu Right is “actually advantages to joining hands with [Muslim and Christian] bigots and extremists” (Didolkar specifically poor 2018a). Along with blatant Islamophobic and brahminical discourses, cri- dominant caste tiques of Left politics comprise another common strategy deployed by in ter v enti ons – 2 2:4 ............................ 474 communities; and the Hindutva queers. For instance, the same author critiques the Indian Left for more recent politicizing queer rights in India, and calls for the “masses among LGBTQ judgement in favor of building a temple in to protest the political appropriation of their voices for political gains” the contested city of from the left (Didolkar 2018b). He calls on the homophobic Hindu Right Ayodhya. to learn from the failures of the American Christian Right, as 26 Analysis of this bill is beyond the scope of this essay. the perception of the American right as anti-LGBT is so well-formed that in spite of The postcolonial state the left supporting Islam, a religion equally if not more harsh on the LGBT commu- has disguised the bill nity, the LGBT community has largely remained in the left’s fold. (Didolkar 2018a) as for the welfare of trans communities, yet is taking away the According to another article, published before the 2018 judgement, the dignity and self- reason that India, as a liberal country open to same-sex relationships, had determination from trans peoples and not yet decriminalized homosexuality is “owing to the malaise of intersec- ignoring their tionality” (Iyer-Mitra 2018). The author elaborates that the Left has political will. That created a “mythical enemy” and failed because of its tendency to bring this and the current Kashmir crisis is all in together all kinds of issues, including the Naxalite resistance and Kashmiri the name of struggles for self-determination. Another author claims that under Modi democracy and giving gay Indians will feel less discriminated from “left liberal” queers as rights to those “people from the Hindu Right wing are routinely made to shut up by the marginalized, speaks to the intersections of ‘Left liberals’ as they would crack jokes about Modi” (Rampal 2018). coloniality and caste These articles demonstrate what homohindunationalism, with its saffron- this essay highlights, washing, Islamophobic and neoliberal anti-left tendencies, looks like. Domi- and that when the postcolonial state is nant caste queers can so easily deny occupation of Kashmir, Islamophobia, indeed the colonial neoliberal, and brahminical caste violence, but continue to believe that the state, no BJP and the RSS can liberate them. decolonization is possible. Similar strategies are deployed by Hindu nationalist forces in the diaspora. 27 Heterosexuals In 2017 the US-based Hindu American Foundation (HAF) came out with a couples who defy solidarity statement with LGBTQ communities demanding inclusive and equi- caste and religious table representation in California’s school textbooks. Since 2005, the HAF structures often face violence, some of has been at the forefront in seeking changes to history and social science text- which results in death books to depict Hindus and Hinduism positively.29 The HAF contends that through honor talking about gender, caste, religious, and class violence in India makes killings and lynching targeting specifically Hindu students vulnerable to racism and bullying in schools. Along with Muslim and Dalit asking for unbiased representation of Hinduism in textbooks, it collaborated men. For instance, the with the FAIR Education Implementation Coalition to advocate for more Hindutva campaign against what it calls LGBTQ inclusive curricula in Californian schools. In a policy brief, “Hindu- the “love jihad” is an ism and Homosexuality,” the HAF (n.d.) proclaims Hinduism is an LGBT attempt to protect friendly religion and allows for equal rights for people of all sexualities and Hindu women from genders, and is supportive of same-sex marriage. Blaming colonialism for Muslim men, as the latter are imagined/ homophobia in India, the HAF call for an acceptance of LGBT peoples blamed to convert within Hindu society, and “Hindus should not reject or socially ostracise Hindu women to LGBT individuals, but should accept them as fellow sojourners on the path Islam through to moksha” (Venkataraman and Voruganti 2018).  ............................ 475 H I N D U N AT I O N A N D I T S Q U E E R S : C A S T E , I S L A M O P H O B I A , A N D D E / C O L O N I A L I T Y I N I N D I A Nishant Upadhyay trickery and marriage Their alliance with LGBTQ groups is troubling given how the HAF has (Gupta 2018b, 85). been asking for Hindu inclusion from a casteist brahminical, Islamophobic Needless to say, these claims are unfounded and Sikhophobic stance and seeks to sanitize Hinduism of its violent practices. and Islamophobic Denying caste, gender, and religious violence, while propagating a myth of imaginations of the queer, trans, and gender nonconforming friendliness, is part of the same saf- Hindu Right. 28 Pinkwashing as a fronwashing ideological framework. As discussed above, following global practice is often anti-Islamophobic homonationalist formations in the United States, Israel, associated with and elsewhere, Hindus are also mirroring these processes. Responding to Israel’s attempt to the HAF’s solidarity statement on the killing of queer activists in Bangladesh create an image of Israel as “gay haven” in 2016, Farhat Rahman (2017) writes: “In doing so, it cynically uses queer and the rest of the Muslim deaths … to justify and uphold American imperialism. HAF is not Middle East as concerned about homophobia and transphobia as evidenced by its utter homophobic, and to obfuscate its ongoing silence on the violence and extremist violence faced by minorities in India.” occupation of These alliances allow the HAF and Hindutva queers to align themselves Palestine (Puar and with other Islamophobic global powers to assert their superiority to Islam. Mikdashi 2012). In a similar vein, In August 2019 India escalated its occupation of Kashmir by abrogating saffronwashing is Article 370; the article allowed Kashmir to maintain a semi-autonomous when Hinduism is status and to have its own constitution. For Kashmiris, this is a direct depicted as a religion attack on their sovereignty.30 However, the government claims this was free of gender, caste, and anti-Muslim done to integrate the state into India and give Kashmiris full and equal oppression (Zwick- rights as other Indians. The state and many Indians, including those in the dia- Maitreyi 2017). spora,31 claim this revocation will bring rights to those oppressed within 29 For more on the HAF and California Kashmir, including queer and trans peoples. They maintain that since the textbook case, see Indian constitution can directly be applied to Kashmir, Kashmiri queer and Zwick-Maitreyi trans peoples can be “liberated” like their Indian counterparts. Queer (2017). Hindu Alliance, a Hindu queer group, on the day of the abrogation, 30 Since then the Valley continues to be tweeted a picture of a map with the entire Kashmir region part of India, an open-air prison saying: “From Kashmir To Kanyakumari, India Is One.” The Kashmir without access to region on the map had a saffron turban tied around it. Such pinkwashing information, communication, claims are false, as there are no special laws in Jammu and Kashmir’s consti- food, and medical tution which criminalize homosexuality, and the Supreme Court’s 2018 facilities. Already the decision applies to all state High Courts (Stand With Kashmir 2019). Further- most militarized region in the world, more, Kashmiri queer and trans peoples continue to suffer like other Kash- Kashmir has seen miris under the communication blackout, curfew, and sustained state additional violence (Bhat 2019). Bund (2019) argues the Indian response always deployment, taking already stereotypes Kashmiris as homo/trans/phobic and terrorists, and the total to one million personnel. further: Several Kashmiris have been killed by It is an attempt to dehumanize Kashmiri LGBT community by reducing their exist- the army; many have been wounded, ence and the human need for identity, intimacy, security and development to only electrocuted, and sex. The motivation is to rebrand a violent masculine military state as champion tortured; thousands of women and LGBT rights. have been arrested, in ter v enti ons – 2 2:4 ............................ 476 including children Thus, homohindunationalism is rooted in Islamophobia, brahminical supre- and pro-India macy, and the occupation of Kashmir. Kashmiri leaders; Beyond caste and coloniality journalism has been The above sections demonstrate the need to study brahminical supremacy to curbed using all state understand queer and trans struggles in postcolonial India. Further, I contend powers, and multiple the claims to “decolonization” need to be revaluated due to the intersections incidents of sexual violence have been of colonialism and brahminical supremacy. To conclude, I engage with deco- reported. lonial and anti-caste critiques to emphasize that decolonization can only be 31 In October 2019, imagined if anti-caste praxis in centred in all liberation struggles. Drawing at an event on upon Aníbal Quijano’s concept of the “coloniality of power”, María Kashmir at the School of Oriental and Lugones (2010, 748) theorizes the “coloniality of gender” thus: “The African Studies (UK), gender system is not just hierarchical but racially differentiated and the a group of masked racial differentiation denies humanity and thus gender to the colonized.” Fol- protestors interrupted lowing Lugones and others, we know that coloniality shapes hegemonic con- proceedings and structs of race, gender, and sexuality. Within the Indian context, Aniruddha spread leaflets Dutta and Raina Roy (2014, 321) call to decolonize “transgender” as local identifying as “Gay nonconforming identities are rendered “as merely ‘local’ expressions of trans- for J&K.” The protestors claimed gender identity, often without interrogating the conceptual baggage.” Their the revocation of critique signals to the coloniality in the making of (trans)gender identity. Article 370 has been As agued above, brahminical supremacy has embedded caste to the logics of beneficial for the Kashmiri queer and coloniality. Pandian, quoted earlier, critiqued dominant caste nationalism in trans community. colonial India as it was established through “valorising the inner or spiritual as the uncolonized site of national selfhood” (2002, 1736). Dominant caste leaders used this binary to construct themselves as spiritually superior to the colonizers as well as the caste Others. Simultaneously, the elites aspired to whiteness and colonial power. For instance, in her study of the English language in colonial India, Shefali Chandra (2012) argues: “The normative gendered subject … [was] produced in a crucible of caste-based desires that provide[d] coherence to the English-education project” (23). These processes entrenched the caste-based gender and sexual differences between dominant caste and caste oppressed communities. In fact, these processes have been central to the ways “brahmanism came to stand in for Indian culture itself” (Chandra 2011, 148). The intersections of caste and colonialism continue to shape the postcolonial state. Chinnaiah Jangam (2017, 5) argues brahmi- nical knowledges impose “epistemic violence … to crush Dalits’ sense of self and to dehumanize their existence.” Challenging temporal dichotomies of colonialism and anticolonialism produced by dominant caste scholars, Jangam asserts that Dalit epistemologies rupture the ideas of an “ideal” pre- colonial Hindu past. These critiques destabilize the temporal and connect the postcolonial/modern/secular formation of the Indian state and brahminical supremacy as interwoven and not solely as a consequence of colonialism.  ............................ 477 H I N D U N AT I O N A N D I T S Q U E E R S : C A S T E , I S L A M O P H O B I A , A N D D E / C O L O N I A L I T Y I N I N D I A Nishant Upadhyay As well, they point out that there was never a “true” decolonial moment in India after independence. 32 Elsewhere, I have In a “casted state” like India,32 where logics of endogamy and blood purity argued Jyoti Puri’s have always been at stake in regulating gender, sexual intimacies and caste framework of “sexual state” does lines, without questioning the modalities of caste, speak to the coloniality of not capture how caste brahminical supremacy (Upadhyay and Bakshi forthcoming). The intersec- is central to the logics tions of caste and sexuality also allow us to understand the Hindutva of sexuality in India, as the Indian state is attack on desires, intimacies, and love in India – not just queer intimacies already always a but intercaste and interreligious “heterosexual love” as well. M. Jacqui Alex- “casted state” ander (2005, 100–101) calls for a politics of decolonization to be rooted in (Upadhyay 2018). erotic autonomy: “within a desire for decolonization, imagined simul- taneously as political, economic, psychic, discursive, and sexual.” Grounding the erotic in the decolonial praxis in the Hawaiian movement for sovereignty, J. Kēhaulani Kauanui (2018, 198) argues, can rectify “nationalist attempts at recolonization.” Within the Indian context, decolonizing erotics requires chal- lenging homohindunationalist tactics, along with dismantling all colonial, brahminical, and Islamophobic structures. After the 2018 judgement, we can hope, decolonizing and de-casting erotics, as moulee (2018) writes, will “de-centralise the queer movement” to make visible “the forgotten fights” of queer, trans, and gender nonconforming peoples in India. Note Shortly after the article was submitted, in December 2019 India passed anti- Muslim and anti-minority Citizenship Amendment Act, which would system- atically take away citizenship rights from Indian Muslims and other min- orities. Along with the Act, India is also in the process of creating a nation- wide population register and detention centers which would target Muslim communities specifically. This all has escalated Islamophobic violences against Muslims across the country, with state sanctioned mass shootings and incarceration of Muslims and the anti-Muslim program in New Delhi in February 2020. At the same time, India has seen unprecedented mass mobilizations against the citizenship act primarily led by Muslim students and working class Muslim women. These protests have been joined by other marginalized communities and allies across the country. Queer prides in cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and others, became active sites of soli- darities between queer, trans, Dalit, Kashmiri, and Muslim communities. However, these prides also witnessed homohindunationalist backlash from Hindu queer and trans peoples. These recent examples only amplify the need for an anti-homohindunationalist queer praxis which seeks to dismantle all structures of Islamophobia, brahminical supremacy, and colonialism. in ter v enti ons – 2 2:4 ............................ 478 Acknowledgments Many shukiryas to the DSN collective for inviting me to be part of this issue and hosting an earlier draft of this essay on their blog. Sandeep, especially, has been such an amazing mentor and friend during this process. I want to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their feedback – the essay is much stronger because of them. Final thanks to Sayan Bhattacharya and Sailaja Krishna- murti for thoughtfully reading this essay and giving me their critical insights. References Ahmad, Asam. 2015. “An Interview with Panmai, A Bhattacharya, Sayan. 2019. “The Transgender Nation Trans and Mixed-Caste Theatre Troupe from and Its Margins: The Many Lives of the Law.” India.” BGDBlog, September 28. https://www. South Asian Multidisciplinary Academic Journal bgdblog.org/2015/09/an-interview-with-panmai-a- 20), http://www.journals.openedition.org/samaj/ trans-and-caste-oppressed-theatre-troupe-from- 4930. india/. Bose, Rakhi. 2019. “‘We are not Hindus’: Manipuri Alexander, M. Jacqui. 2005. Pedagogies of Crossing: Trans Activists Outrage Against Nandini Krishan’s Meditations on Feminism, Sexual Politics, Memory, Book.” New18, January 8. https://www.news18. and the Sacred. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. com/news/buzz/we-are-not-hindus-manipuri-trans- Ambedkar, Bhim Rao. 1936. “The Annihilation of activists-outrage-against-nandini-krishnans-book- Caste.” Columbia University. http://www.ccnmtl. 1995323.html. columbia.edu/. Bund, Aijaz Ahmad. 2019. “Only Pinkwashing, No Awasthi, Raghav. 2018. “RSS has Changed its Gay Liberation in Kashmir.” Gaylaxy, November Position on Homosexuality. Can Islamic Clerics 7. http://www.gaylaxymag.com/blogs/opinion-only- Do the Same?” The Print, July 11. https://www. pinkwashing-no-gay-liberation-in-kashmir/?utm_ theprint.in/opinion/rss-has-changed-its-position-on- source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook#gs.fpl5k5. homosexuality-can-islamic-clerics-do-the-same/ Chandra, Shefali. 2011. “Whiteness on the Margins of 81529/. Native Patriarchy: Race, Caste, Sexuality, and the Bacchetta, Paola. 1999. “When the (Hindu) Nation Agenda of Transnational Studies.” Feminist Studies Exiles Its Queers.” Social Texts 61: 141–166. 37 (1): 127–153. http://www.feministstudies.org/ Bacchetta, Paola. 2013. “Queer Formation in (Hindu) issues/vol-30–39/37–1.html. Nationalism.” In Sexuality Studies, edited by Chandra, Shefali. 2012. The Sexual Life of English: Sanjay Srivastava, 121–140. New Delhi: Oxford Languages of Caste and Desire in Colonial India. University Press. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Banu, Grace. 2016. “Grace Banu on Challenges of a Dharmadhikari, Sanyukta, and Sharanya Gopinath. Dalit Transperson in Education.” Dalit Camera, 2018. “‘Equal to Killing Us’: Why India’s Transgen- July 24. http://www.dalitcamera.com/grace-banu- der Community is Rejecting the Trans Bill.” The challenges-dalit-transperson-education/. News Minutes, December 18. https://www. Bhain, Simar. 2016. “Our Community has No Caste or thenewsminute.com/article/equal-killing-us-why- Religion: Laxmi on being a Hijra.” Hindustan indias-transgender-community-rejecting-trans-bill- Times, January 29. https://www.hindustantimes. 93579. com/books/our-community-has-no-caste-or-religion- Dhillon, Amrit. 2018. “In Finally Accepting Homo- laxmi-on-being-a-hijra/story-bfqDSEjGKkKID7isZ7 sexuality, India will Return to Its Roots.” Globe mmrM.html. and Mail, July 17. https://www.theglobeandmail. Bhat, Adnan. 2019. In India, Kashmir’s transgender com/opinion/article-in-finally-accepting- community struggles to survive under the shadow homosexuality-india-will-return-to-its-roots/. of conflict.” South China Morning Post, September Didolkar, Mayuresh. 2018a. “Article 377: Getting on 28. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/ the Right Side of the Issue.” #Swarajya, August 3030655/india-kashmirs-transgender-community- 7. https://www.swarajyamag.com/politics/article- struggles-survive-under-shadow. 377–getting-on-the-right-side-of-the-issue.  ............................ 479 H I N D U N AT I O N A N D I T S Q U E E R S : C A S T E , I S L A M O P H O B I A , A N D D E / C O L O N I A L I T Y I N I N D I A Nishant Upadhyay Didolkar, Mayuresh. 2018b. “Hijacked by Elites: Why Lugones, María. 2010. “Toward a Decolonial Femin- is the Indian LGBTQ Movement Fighting a Mythical ism.” Hypatia 25: 742–759. http://www.pds25. Enemy?” #Swarajya, November 28. https://www. egloos.com/pds/201211/27/71/Toward_a_ swarajyamag.com/ideas/hijacked-by-elites-why-is-the- Decolonial_Feminism.pdf. indian-lgtbq-movement-fighting-a-mythical-enemy? Menon, Nivedita. 2007. “Outing Heteronormativity: fbclid=IwAR2kDXJNQ55OpaHQL_jxtYhYv841K- Nation, Citizen, Feminist Disruptions.” In Sexuali- 9BW9TpjlMv_hdxakcubC1UilnsHTI. ties, edited by Nivedita Menon, 3–51. New Delhi: Dudney, Arthur. 2018. “In Affirming LGBTQ Rights, Women Unlimited and Kali for Women. the India Supreme Court Struck a Blow Against moulee. 2018. “Beyond 377: Time to Pay Attention to Colonialism.” The Slate, September 10. https://www. the Ignored Fights of the Queer Community.” The slate.com/human-interest/2018/09/india-supreme- News Minute, July 11. https://www.thenewsminute. court-sodomy-colonialism.html. com/article/beyond-377–time-pay-attention-ignored- Dutta, Aniruddha, and Raina Roy. 2014. “Decoloniz- fights-queer-community-84588. ing Transgender in India: Some Reflections.” TSQ: Narrain, Arvind, and Gautam Bhan. 2005. Because I Transgender Studies Quarterly 1: 320–337. Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India. New Delhi: doi:10.1215/23289252–2685615. Yoda Press. Gupta, Ankit. 2018a. “Government Drops Sexual Pandian, M. S. S. 2002. “One Step Outside Modernity: Orientation from Guidelines to Protect against Dis- Caste, Identity Politics and Public Sphere.” Econ- crimination at Workplace.” GayLaxy, July 9. http:// omic and Political Weekly 37 (18): 1735–1741. www.gaylaxymag.com/exclusive/government-drops- https://www.epw.in/journal/2002/18/special-articles/ sexual-orientation-from-guidelines-to-protect-against- one-step-outside-modernity.html. discrimination-at-workplace/#gs.LChWpRU6. Pawar, Urmila, and Meenakshi Moon. 2008. We Also Gupta, Charu. 2018b. “Allegories of ‘Love Jihad’ and Made History. Translated by Wandana Sonalkar. Ghar Wapasi: Interlocking the Socio-Religious with New Delhi: Zubaan Books. the Political.” In Rise of Saffron Power: Relfections Prasad, Akshita. 2018. “India’s Stance on Homosexu- on Indian Politics, edited by Mujibur Rehman, 84– ality is a Major Blow to Human Rights.” Youth Ki 110. New Delhi: Routledge India. Awaaz. https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2017/10/ Hindu American Foundation. n.d. “HAF Policy Brief: indias-stance-on-homosexuality-is-a-major-blow-to- Hinduism and Homosexuality.” https://www. human-rights/. hafsite.org/media/pr/haf-policy-brief-hinduism-and- Puar, Jasbir. 2007. Terrorist Assemblages: Homona- homosexuality. tionalism in Queer Times. Durham, NC: Duke Uni- Iyer-Mitra, Abhijit. 2018. “Fighting 377, Stupidly: In versity Press. Seeking 15 Seconds of Fame, Gay Rights Activists Puar, Jasbir, and Maya Mikdashi. 2012. “Pinkwatch- Have Only Lost Valuable Time.” Daily O, July 12. ing and Pinkwashing: Interpenetration and Its https://www.dailyo.in/politics/fighting-377–stupidly- Discontents.” Jadaliyya, August 9. http://www. in-seeking-15–seconds-of-fame-gay-rights-activists- jadaliyya.com/Details/26818/Pinkwatching-And- have-only-lost-valuable-time/story/1/25427.html. Pinkwashing-Interpenetration-and-its-Discontents. Jangam, Chinnaiah. 2017. Dalits and the Making of Rahman, Farhat. 2017. “Is Queer Bangladesh the next Modern India. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hindutva Project?” Medium, January 10. https:// Jyoti, Dhrubo. 2015. “Dalit, Queer, Proud – Liberation www.medium.com/@farhat.dhaka/is-queer- Lies at the Margins of Our Intersection.” Velivada. bangladesh-the-next-hindutva-project-c87fcb2d6905. http://velivada.com/2017/04/17/dalit-queer-proud- Rahman, Rafiul Alom. 2018. “Section 377, Islam form liberation-lies-at-the-margins-of-our-intersections- a Double Bind for Queer Muslims.” Hindustan dhrubo-jyoti/. Times, July 11. https://www.hindustantimes.com/ Jyoti, Dhrubo. 2018. “Caste Broke Our Hearts and india-news/section-377–islam-form-a-double-bind- Love Cannot Put Them Back Together.” Buzzfeed, for-queer-muslims/story-OUGqMTQcHWkAu70 February 28. https://www.buzzfeed.com/dhrubo HlJYczJ.html. jyoti/will-you-buy-me-a-pair-of-shorts. Rampal, Nikhil. 2018. “Gay Modi Fans Can Finally Kang, Akhil. 2016. “Queering Dalit.” Tanqueed. Shut the Liberals Up if Section 377 is Decrimina- October 2. https://www.tanqeed.org/2016/10/ lized.” The Print, July 11. https://www.theprint.in/ queering-dalit-tq-salon/. opinion/gay-modi-fans-can-finally-shut-the-liberals- Kauanui, J. Kēhaulani. 2018. Paradoxes of Hawaiian up-if-section-377–is-decriminalised/81762/. Sovereignty: Land, Sex, and the Colonial Politics of Ramseshan, Radhika. 2013. “BJP Comes Out, Vows to State Nationalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Oppose Homosexuality.” Telegraph India, Decem- Press. ber 14. https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/bjp- in ter v enti ons – 2 2:4 ............................ 480 comes-out-vows-to-oppose-homosexuality/cid/ The Aerogram, February 10. http://www.theaerogram. 231442#.Utumava6aCR. com/caste-privilege-101–primer-privileged/. Rao, Rahul. 2015. “Global Homocapitalism.” Radical Stand With Kashmir. 2019. “Are Women, LGBTQ+ in Philosophy 195. https://www.radicalphilosophy. Kashmir Better off since India’s Revoking of Article com/article/global-homocapitalism. 370?” Medium, October 22. https://www.medium. Rastogi, Vartika. 2018. “Transgender Community Face com/@media_41618/are-women-lgbtq-in-kashmir- Increasing Violence since 377 Ruling.” The Citizen, better-off-since-indias-revoking-of-article-370–de02 September 17. https://www.thecitizen.in/index. 9ec002a9. php/en/NewsDetail/index/7/15000/Transgender- Stephen, Cynthia. 2009. “Feminism and Dalit Women Community-Face-Increasing-Violence-Since-377– In India.” Countercurrents, November 16. https:// Ruling. www.countercurrents.org/stephen161109.htm. Rautray, Samanwaya. 2018. “Government Leaves Supreme Court of India. 2013. Suresh Kumar Koushal Status of Section 377 on the Supreme Court.” Econ- & Anr v. Naz Foundation & Ors. https://www. omic Times, July 12. https://www.economictimes. indiankanoon.org/doc/58730926/. indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/government- Tellis, Ashely. 2013. “Disrupting the Dinner Table: Re- leaves-status-of-section-377–on-the-supreme-court/ thinking the ‘Queer Movement’ in Contemporary articleshow/64954926.cms. India.” Jindal Global Law Review 4: 142–156. Revathi, A. 2016. A Life in Trans Activism. New Delhi: http://www.jgls.edu.in/vol4–issue-1–2013. Zubaan Publishers. Toor, Saadia. 2011. “Gender, Sexuality, and Islam Semmalar, Gee Imaan. 2016. “Why Trans Movements under the Shadow of Empire.” S&F 9 (3). http:// in India Must be Anti-Caste.” Trans.Cafe, December www.sfonline.barnard.edu/religion/print_toor.htm. 21. http://www.trans.cafe/posts/2016/12/12/why- Trans, Gender Nonconforming & Intersex Collectives. trans-movements-in-india-must-be-anti-caste. 2018. “Trans, Gender Nonconforming & Intersex Sethi, Nidhi. 2018. “‘LGBTQ Community Part of Collectives Strongly Condemn Kinnar Akhara’s Society’: Mohan Bhagwat Keeps up with Times.” Support for Ram Temple at Ayodhya, India.” NDTV, September 20. https://www.ndtv.com/india- Round Table India, November 24. http://www. news/lgbtq-community-part-of-society-mohan- roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content bhagwat-keeps-up-with-times-1919153. &view=article&id=9509%3Atrans-gender. Singh, Sukhdeep. 2013. “BJP Wants Homosexuality Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. 2012. “Decolonization Criminalized In India.” GayLaxy, December 14. is Not a Metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, http://www.gaylaxymag.com/latest-news/bjp-wants- Education & Society 1 (1): 1–40. https://www. homosexuality-criminalised-in-india/#gs.L4V1xULU. jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/ Singh, Sukhdeep. 2014. “RSS Reiterates it will Oppose 18630. Gay Rights in India.” GayLaxy, March 8. http:// Upadhyay, Nishant. 2018. “Theorizing the State and www.gaylaxymag.com/latest-news/rss-reiterates-it- Sexuality.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay will-oppose-gay-rights-in-india/#gs.H0SdWZvL. Studies 24 (2–30): 384–387. https://www.muse.jhu. Singh, Aarti Tikoo. 2018. “SC Decriminalizes Gay Sex, edu/article/696690/summary. but J&K LGBTS Will Have to Wait Longer.” Times Upadhyay, Nishant, and Sandeep Bakshi. Forthcoming. of India, September 8. https://www.timesofindia. “Translating Queer: Re-centring Caste, Decolonizing indiatimes.com/india/section-377–pride-not- Praxis.”. extended-to-jk/articleshow/65714300.cms. Venkataraman, S., and H. Voruganti. 2018. “Section Singh, Nandita, and Nikhil Rampal. 2018. “India’s 377 No More: Evolving A Uniquely Hindu Perspec- First and Oldest Gay Rights Activist is also on the tive on LGBT Rights.” #Swarajya, September 6. Extreme Right of RSS.” The Print, July 21. https:// https://www.swarajyamag.com/ideas/section-377– www.theprint.in/politics/indias-first-and-oldest-gay- no-more-evolving-a-uniquely-hindu-perspective- activist-uses-a-brand-of-hindutva-to-fight-377/85919/. on-lgbt-rights. Soundararajan, Thenmozhi. 2012. “The Black Indians: Vidya, Living Smile. 2014. I am Vidya: A Transgender’s Dalits Across the Seas.” Outlook, August 20. https:// Journey. New Delhi: Rupa. www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/the-black- Zwick-Maitreyi, Maari. 2017. “Mythologizing indians/281938. History: How to Spot a Hindu Ethnonationalist.” Soundararajan, Thenmozhi, and Sinthujan Varatharajah. Two Circles, November 14. http://www.twocircles. 2015. “Caste Privilege 101: A Primer for the Privileged.” net/2017nov14/418324.html.