Using a combination of multi-sited ethnography, textual analysis, historical documentation analysis, and memoir writing, the author provides macro and micro perspectives on what it means to be a gay man located in Gay Bombay at a particular point in time. Specifically, he explores what being gay means to members of Gay Bombay and how they negotiate locality and globalization, their sense of identity as well as a feeling of community within its online/offline world. On a broader level, he critically examines the formulation and reconfiguration of contemporary Indian gayness in the light of its emergent cultural, media, and political alliances.
Key Features
Key Features
- Offers an exciting path breaking ethnography, which combines a large macro sweep with an intensely personal narrative. The author's memories flow in and out of the main narrative to create a distinct reading experience.
- Presents a unique and timely look at urban contemporary Indian sexuality
- Provides an integrated approach that illuminates how new media technologies, the media industry, audiences, and broader socio-historical contexts shape gay identity in contemporary urban India
- Gives a different perspective on globalization in post-liberalization urban India, as India re-positions itself as a global superpower. How are its minorities being treated? How are they asserting themselves in this new imagination of the nation-state?
- Weaves in personal experience that helps us understand male same-sex desire in relation to customary experiences in a city like Bombay
