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The Ambiguities of Recognition Young Queer Sexualities in Contemporary India Tonini, Maria The Ambiguities of Recognition Young Queer Sexualities in Contemporary India Tonini, Maria 2016 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Tonini, M. (2016). The Ambiguities of Recognition: Young Queer Sexualities in Contemporary India. Lund University. Total number of authors: 1 Creative Commons License: Unspecified General rights Unless other specific re-use rights are stated the following general rights apply: Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Read more about Creative commons licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Pr MARIA TONINI MARIA inted by Media- Tr yc k, L und University 2016 What does recognition mean for people whose sexuality has for a long T time been criminalised? Ambiguities e Recognition of In recent years, the status of queer sexuality in India has been the focus Nordic Ecolabel 341903 of legal and social contestations. This thesis analyses the everyday ne- Te Ambiguities of Recognition gotiations of young queer people living in Delhi. Focusing on a period of time where same-sex sexualities had been officially recognised for Young Queer Sexualities in Contemporary India the first time, this thesis raises questions about how recognition, sexu- MARIA TONINI ality, and subjectivity are lived and experienced in practice in a period characterised simultaneously by high hopes and pervading insecurity. DEPARTMENT OF GENDER STUDIES | LUND UNIVERSITY Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Gender Studies| ISBN 978-91-7623-777-9 Pr MARIA TONINI MARIA inted by Media- Tr yc k, L und University 2016 What does recognition mean for people whose sexuality has for a long T time been criminalised? Ambiguities e Recognition of In recent years, the status of queer sexuality in India has been the focus Nordic Ecolabel 341903 of legal and social contestations. This thesis analyses the everyday ne- Te Ambiguities of Recognition gotiations of young queer people living in Delhi. Focusing on a period of time where same-sex sexualities had been officially recognised for Young Queer Sexualities in Contemporary India the first time, this thesis raises questions about how recognition, sexu- MARIA TONINI ality, and subjectivity are lived and experienced in practice in a period characterised simultaneously by high hopes and pervading insecurity. DEPARTMENT OF GENDER STUDIES | LUND UNIVERSITY Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Gender Studies| ISBN 978-91-7623-777-9 The Ambiguities of Recognition The Ambiguities of Recognition Young Queer Sexualities in Contemporary India Maria Tonini Cover image by Eleonora Zorzi Copyright Maria Tonini Faculty of Social Sciences| Department of Gender Studies| Lund University ISBN 978-91-7623-777-9 (Print) 978-91-7623-776-2 (Pdf) Printed in Sweden by Media-Tryck, Lund University, Lund 2016 Contents Acknowledgments 9 Chapter 1. Introduction 13 Spaces of Recognition 16 Desiring normality in tight spaces 18 Policing the space of normality 20 Studying young people 21 Chapter 2. Situating sexuality among multiple hierarchies 23 The Indian middle classes 26 Young in the new India 30 The family as institution 32 Family affairs: marriage 34 Controlling gender and sexuality: the colonial context 37 Homosexuality in the postcolony 41 Queer sexuality, subjectivity and ambiguities 45 Concluding remarks 49 Chapter 3. Theoretical framework 51 Recognition and reciprocity 54 Recognition and redistribution 58 Spaces of recognition 61 The ambivalence of recognition 63 Identity and subjectivity 65 The promise of normalcy 69 Chapter 4. Collecting data in Delhi 73 Dispersion 77 A multi-sited approach 78 Temporality of fieldwork 79 Delhi: the metropolis as field 82 Meeting participants: on campus 84 Meeting participants: LGBTQ organisations 86 The Niral Club and its members 87 Dispersion: losing a field site 90 Gathering insights: interviews 92 Logging on the field: Facebook 94 Legal documents 97 Studying a vulnerable group 98 Chapter 5. Revocable Recognition: queer sexuality and the law 103 Attachment to the law 104 Section 377: a chronology 106 The Naz judgment: the right to privacy of LGBTQ persons 109 The Naz Judgment: equality, class, and identity. 110 Reactions: legally gay 113 Reactions: a retroactive awareness 114 The Koushal judgment 117 The Koushal judgment: a quantitative approach 120 The Koushal judgment: a different class 121 No going back 123 Concluding remarks 127 Chapter 6. Keeping it all together: queer sexuality and family relations 129 Introduction 129 Coming out 130 Restrictions and affections: the family 132 The hardest thing 133 Responsibility and reciprocity 135 Prospects for the future: education and career 140 Getting married, getting a ‘normal’ life 142 Daughters and sons; lesbians and gays 144 Affection and closeness 149 Representing the family 153 Petitioning for recognition: families as societal agents 155 Concluding remarks 158 Chapter 7. The Niral Club 159 A safe space 160 LGBTQ activist groups in India 163 Normalising queerness: Niral Club as heterotopia 165 Nowhere to go 168 Social media 171 Queering normality 173 The struggle is real 178 A leisure space 180 Are there any normal gays out there? 183 Concluding remarks 187 Chapter 8. Conclusions: between law and life 189 Ambiguous recognition 191 The ambiguities of legal recognition 192 Recognition, acceptance and the family 194 Spaces of reciprocity: the Niral Club 196 Situated approaches to sexualities and recognition 197 Endnotes 201 References 217 Acknowledgments Many people have supported me in different ways and different moments during my doctoral journey. I want to thank my supervisor Helle Rydstrom for her unfailing support, guidance, and constructive criticism; she has taught me how to refine my focus, and has always encouraged me not to give up. Thanks to my co-supervisor Diana Mulinari for her productive comments on many early drafts and for enriching and encouraging conversations over the years. The people at the Department of Gender Studies deserve many thanks for their support and for continuously striving to create a workplace informed by solidarity and respect. Thank you (in no particular order) Sara Goodman, Lena Karlsson, Jens Rydström, Kerstin Sandell, Irina Schmitt, Helena Gyllensvärd, Irene Pelayo, Matilda Svensson- Chowdhury, Marta Kolankiewicz, Rebecca Selberg, Marco Bacio, Merel Van Mansom, Mikael Karlsson, Chia-Ling Yang, Maja Sager. The journey of a doctoral student is often a solitary enterprise. Therefore I wish to thank my doctoral colleagues Lovise Brade Haj, Ina Knobblock, Kristin Linderoth, and Katrine Scott, for providing peer support and solidarity and for being, generally speaking, amazing people. When I was just beginning my doctoral studies I met Anindita Datta from the Department of Geography, Delhi University: over the years she has been my local supervisor in India and a wonderful mentor. Thank you Anindita, and thanks to the Department of Geography at Delhi University for their warm hospitality during my visits. This thesis was made possible also by the generous funding from the Vetenskapsråd/Sida research project 'Recognition and Homosexuality: The Socio-Cultural Status of Same-Sex Relations in India and Vietnam' (SWE-2010-041) led by Professor Helle Rydstrom and to which Dr. Paul Horton also participated. I want to thank Paul for his friendly support and many interesting conversations. This research would not have been 9 possible without the help of a number of organisations in Delhi: I am very grateful to the Naz Foundation (India), TARSHI, and Sangini. Besides my supervisors, other people have commented on earlier drafts of my thesis. I want to thank Tiina Rosenberg for thought-provoking ideas in the initial phase of my research; Catarina Kinnvall for her inspired and relevant comments on my mid-seminar manuscript; and Don Kulick for a thorough assessment of my work at several stages, including in his capacity as opponent on my final seminar. Special thanks to SASNET (Swedish South Asian Studies Network) for supporting and aiding research about South Asia; thanks in particular to SASNET’s director Anna Lindberg for her enthusiasm and interest in my research. My scholarly interest in India developed many years ago thanks to Mariola Offredi at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice: it was her speech about the beauty of the Hindi language that convinced me to immerse myself in the study of the subcontinent. Thank you professor Offredi. There are many kinds of support one needs when writing a doctoral thesis. One of my main support systems has always been music: thanks to Mike Patton and his numerous musical projects for providing a corroborating sonic platform to rely on in the last months of writing frenzy. The other support system I couldn’t do without is the love of my dearest friends: thank you Eleonora, Giulia, Giulio, Sara, for your invaluable support over these years. My deepest gratitude goes to my family. My parents, Gianni and Tosca, and my brother Luigi have always supported me in my choices and have always been there for me when I needed an encouraging word. My partner Robert has patiently listened to me and held my hand over these years, never once losing faith in my abilities: thank you Robert, we’ll celebrate soon! My daughter Viola has been involved in this research already before she was born as I travelled through Delhi to meet people; her presence in my life is pure joy.
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