Customer Reviews

Made in India: Decolonizations, Queer Sexualities, Trans/national Projects (Comparative Feminist Studies)

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The cover shows one-half of two different faces. One half-face is obviously that of a gender-typical Indian man. The other is a person made up in Indian makeup and accessories, but one doesn't know if it's a woman, a hijra, or a guy doing drag. I think the point is that gendered and sexual identities are in flux on the subcontinent.

Unfortunately, that's about as far as I can go in terms of saying positive things about this book. I think this may be an example of too many cooks spoiling the soup. Suparna B. is trained in anthropology but her heart lies in cultural criticism. I am not quite sure if the two disciplines can complement each other. This book breaks down into an anthropology chapter, a gender chapter, a gay male chapter, and a lesbian chapter. I think separately these chapters will be helpful to students and activists. Surprisingly, there is no conclusory chapter here; maybe she wanted to cut the fat and stick to the meat. Still, this text is a miss and not a hit.

This book is all over the place. In the anthropology chapter, she condemns "Lone Ranger" anthropology where outsiders come in rough shod and act as if they are the be-all-to-end-all, but she also critiques anthropologists that identify with their subjects and try to "empower" them. She does not do a good job in explaining what a third path or synthesis should be. The lesbian chapter is scant. It reminds me of Paula Gunn Allen's scant lesbian chapter in "Sacred Hoop" which (homophobe?) Ward Churchill critiqued.

Yes, the author is bright and will probably do well in academia. Still, much of this book could be written by anybody who can interview Indian activists and has access to research libraries. The author goes on and on about how Indians are pushed to study India, rather than other regions, and anthropology graduate students are encouraged to live somewhere for two years and just write about it. Here, the author does not really prove that she spent years talking to real people. She mentions frequently "virtuality" and I think someone could have written this book entirely over the Internet. She does a ton of summarizing facts or newspaper articles. This is needed since readers probably don't have the facts, but it still eats pages and reduces the amount of time that she can focus on analysis. I wonder if many dissertations-turned-books are all over the place like this. Hopefully, Suparna B. will concentrate more when she writes as she advances in her career.

What is great is how she positions homosexuality on the subcontinent. She is very mindful in explaining how economics and the Indian superstructure affect gay male, lesbian, and transgendered identities. Many gay male and lesbian activists of color have lamented how homophobes will label same-sex love "a white disease." Here, the author states that some Indian bigots may assert that, but she also states that some Indians say they do what they feel at the moment and thus gay identity, not gay sex, is the Western phenomenon. This book does promote social constructionism in ways that most gay and lesbian studies experts would applaud.

Like all progressives, I want more works that don't treat identities in isolation. I want sharp thinkers to juggles issues surrounding race, gender, sexuality, and nationality. However, this book has good intentions that fail. I was expecting to love this book and I did not.