Pride Month 2024: Artists and activists on what they would like to read more of in Indian literature

  Fair and inclusive representation in Indian literature continues to be a distant dream, say the artists and activists

KARTIK CHAUHAN

Despite frequent engagement with ideas of representation and diversity, we are far from their balanced applications.

The arrival of Pride Month sends a rainbow-coloured shockwave through corporations and cultures globally, as brands change their logos and devise woke marketing campaigns. Over the last few years, a lot has been written about this sudden and temporary awakening. But despite our frequent and critical engagement with ideas of representation and diversity, we are far from their balanced applications. In most representations of queer identity, a sameness pervades.

In the introduction to their ground-breaking anthology of queer poetry from South Asia, The World That Belongs To Us, authors Akhil Katyal and Aditi Angiras write about the need to “disperse” and “splinter” the word ‘queer’. “People live their lives through a maddeningly complex slew of names, identities and gestures. ‘Queer’ only pretends to signpost them all, but it is precisely that, a convenient pretence, meant for book covers, not for all its contents.”

The challenge of representation, it seems, is its inability to incorporate a spectrum. We ask queer activists, voices and personalities about their vision for the way forward, and the queer stories, narratives and representation they’d like to see more of in literature. Edited excerpts:

Courtesy:  The Hindu

Note: This news was originally published in thehindu.com and was used only for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, particularly for human rights.