Sexuality Abjection And Queer Existence In Contemporary India

This volume explores existing and emerging sexual cultures of contemporary India and the predicaments faced by abjected and sexual marginalities. It traces the sexual politics within popular culture, literary genres, advertisement, consumerism, globalizing cities, social movements, law, scientific research, the Hijra community life, (alternative) families and kinship and sites that define the cultural other whose sexual practices or identities fall beyond normative moral conventions. The chapters examine a range of connected sociological and political issues including questions of agency, judgments around intimate sexual relationships, the role of the state, popular understandings of adolescent romance, notion of legitimacy and stigma, moral policing and resistance, body politics and marginality, representations in popular and folk culture, sexual violence and freedom, problems with historiography, structural inequalities, queer erotica, gay consumerism, Hijra suicides and marriage and divorce. The volume also proposes certain transformative possibilities towards envisioning and (re)scripting sexual equalities. This interdisciplinary book will be important for those interested in sexuality studies, queer studies, gender studies, cultural studies, sociology, law, history, literature and Global South studies as well as policymakers, civil society activists and nongovernmental organizations working in the area.

While sexual violence is an area that is well mapped by feminist scholarship, this volume focuses on transgresive and marginalised sexualities. It brings together writings on India that highlight the transgression of norms-of heterosexuality. Of geminist and mascline behaviour, of recognisably gendered bodies-that declare ungovermed desire to be illegitinate. Sexualities also includes a selection of campaign documents from diverse sexuality movements in the country.

Illustrating the collective power and relevance of feminist theory today, Mary Caputi and Patricia Moynagh have carefully selected a diverse international range of leading scholars and activists to critically assess key social and political challenges in the twenty-first century. This Research Handbook demonstrates a variety of feminist analyses that offer compelling insights into an array of topics, including police brutality, the carceral state, racial and sexualised violence, trans rights, climate change, and the denial of reproductive rights.

This book aims to be a comprehensive resource that will apprise readers of the complex dynamics of the psychological interiors of women and others in the sex and gender spectrum, as they grapple with sociopolitical and cultural constraints. Going beyond the ambit of mainstream psychology, this volume draws from interdisciplinary fields of women’s/gender studies to highlight power imbalances, their intersectional nature, and the ways in which they shape the psychology of gender relations. The book illuminates three focal themes of identities, well-being, and relations, which illustrate the psychological, contextualised in the backdrop of social, political, and cultural developments in contemporary India. The first theme explores the building of identities in the changing dynamics of work–family interfaces, non-normative sexualities, and genders and the intersections of caste, gender, and social hierarchies. The second theme focuses on the gendering of mental health, including the intervention of feminist counselling. The third theme highlights conceptualisations and practices of masculinities and the role of agency, empowerment, and collective action in the pathways to equitable gender relations and social transformation. This book will be of interest to students, teachers, researchers of psychology, and of women’s/gender studies. It will also be useful for anyone who is interested to learn about recent psychological scholarship in India, informed and imbued with a feminist perspective on women as well as other genders.

This book presents a broad overview of the challenges posed by COVID-19 in India and its neighboring countries. It studies the differing responses to COVID-19 infections across South Asia, the variegated impact of the pandemic on its societies, communities and economies, and emerging challenges which require an interdisciplinary understanding and analysis. With a range of case studies from India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, this book, Analyses the socio-economic impact of the pandemic, including the structural challenges faced by farmers in the agricultural production and migrant workers in the informal sectors; Examines the shifting trends in migration and displacement during the pandemic; Explores the precarity faced by LGBTQ+, transgender, Dalit, tribal, senior citizens, and other marginalized communities during the pandemic; Discusses the gendered impact of the pandemic on women and girls, combining with multiple and intersecting inequalities like race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, age, geographical location, and sexual orientation; Sheds light on the position of health infrastructure and healthcare services across different countries, and the transitions experienced in their education sectors as well, in response to COVID-19. A holistic read on the pandemic, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of sociology, medical anthropology, sociology of health, pandemic and health studies, political studies, social anthropology, public policy, and South Asian studies.

Following the 2011 wave of revolutions and protests in North Africa and the Middle East, new discussions of individual freedoms emerged in the Moroccan public sphere and human rights discourse. A segment of the public rallied aroundthe removal of an article in the penal code that punished sexual relationships outside of marriage. As debates about personal and sexual freedom gain momentum, love and intimacy remain complex issues. Moving between public, clandestine, and online interactions, Quest for Love in Central Morocco explores the creative ways young women navigate desire and morality. Menin’s ethnography focuses on young women living in the low-income and lower-middle-class neighborhoods of a midsized town in Central Morocco, far from the overt influence of city life. At the heart of the book, Menin draws upon ideas of "love" as an ethnographic object and source of theoretical examination. She demonstrates that love, as a complex cultural and historical phenomenon shaped through intersecting socioeconomic and political developments, is crucial in thinking through generational changes and debates in Morocco and the Middle East more broadly. What is at stake in the quest for love, she argues, is not only the making of gendered selves and intimate relationships, but also the imagination of social and political life.

Beginning with the 1990s, the subject of caste has seen a profound increase in interest among scholars. What was until then approached as a fossilized tradition of the ritual-obsessed Hindus refusing to see the progressive spirits of the emerging world and studied as a branch of anthropology, suddenly began to be seen as a complex reality deeply embedded in a range of institutions and social practices, attracting scholars from a wide range of disciplines—sociology, political science, history, literature, and even economics. Underlying this opening of the subject of caste were many factors: epistemic, empirical, and political. Caste is no longer approached through the classical binaries of 'traditional' and 'modern'; the 'East' and the 'West'; or the 'closed' and 'open' systems of stratification. With the growing consolidation of caste-based identities among those ranked lower down in the hierarchy since the 1990s, raising questions of citizenship and dignity, the subject has acquired a new salience. As the emerging research shows, the realities of caste on the ground have always been diverse across regions, often contested and ever changing. This Handbook presents a wide range of essays written by authors representing diverse academic disciplines and perspectives, bringing together the emerging trends in the research, imaginations, and lived realities of caste.

This volume provides a comprehensive account of the linkages between environment and sustainable development in society from an interdisciplinary perspective. With its case studies from across the world, including countries such as India, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the United States, Croatia, Italy, Brazil, Japan, and Kenya, it explores critical environmental issues concerning energy justice, queer ecology, mountain cultures, incarceration, energy strategies, mining tourism, pollution control mechanisms, social impacts of oil and gas production, contract farming, gender mainstreaming, climate change, and droughts and adaptation strategies along with literacy, leisure, well-being, development, sexuality, sustainability and environmental education. The book examines several dimensions within global environment of the adverse impact of developmental activities, discusses sustainable development activities undertaken in contemporary times, and underscores the importance of a just, people-centric policy framework in promoting sustainable development. Lucid and topical, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of environmental studies, development studies, sustainable development, political studies, sociology, and political economy. It will also interest policymakers, development practitioners, NGOs and think tanks working on environment and sustainable development, climate issues and SDGs.