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Aisle

Indian History, Sex History, Biopolitics, Post-colonization

Same-Sex Love from India: Readings from Literary and History

Author

Ruth Vanita

Genre

Anthropology, Gender, Sexuality

Theme

Drawn from Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and modern fictional traditions, these writings testify to the presence of same-sex love in various forms since ancient times, without overt persecution

Gist

This collection defies both stereotypes of Indian culture and Foucault's definition of homosexuality as a nineteenth-century invention, uncovering instead complex discourses of Indian homosexuality, rich metaphorical traditions to represent it, and the use of names and terms as early as medieval times to distinguish same-sex from cross-sex love.

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