Queer Literature In India: LGBTQIA+ Books by Indian Authors

It’s simple, we want to highlight queer Indian literature. Apart from the Global West, it is rare for books from other parts of the world to receive the same amount of recognition. So, to celebrate pride month and make sure that the stories of the queer community are heard, we have compiled LGBTQIA+ books that will help you understand, relate to or empathise with ‘queer’ life in India by Indian authors.

The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

The Booker Prize winning author and an Indian gem, Arundhati Roy pens yet another fascinating book. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on a journey of many years – the story spooling outwards from the cramped neighbourhoods of Old Delhi into the burgeoning new metropolis and beyond, to the Valley of Kashmir and the forests of Central India, where war is peace and peace is war, and where, from time to time, ‘normalcy’ is declared. Anjum, who used to be Aftab, unrolls a threadbare carpet in a city graveyard that she calls home. A baby appears quite suddenly on a pavement, a little after midnight, in a crib of litter. The enigmatic S. Tilottama is as much of a presence as she is an absence in the lives of the three men who love her.

A Life in Trans Activism by A. Revathi

Revathi is an activist, theatre-person, and author who works at Sangama, a Bangalore-based human rights organisation dedicated towards helping individuals who belong to sexual minorities. She became well-known when her sensational memoir, The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story, was released in 2011. It narrated her own life experiences as a transwoman. This book, published in 2016, explores the changes in her life after becoming a recognized authority on trans issues due to the success of her memoir. Revathi describes her life, her fight for the rights of transpeople, and how she rose in the ranks at Sangama. She also talks at length about the experiences of transmen, whose stories perhaps don’t get discussed much compared to those of transwomen. The book provides a glimpse into the life of an extraordinary person and the reader is challenged to think beyond simplistic gender and sex binaries.

Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai

Born in Colombo to a Sinhalese mother and a Tamil father, Shyam Selvadurai and his family were forced to leave Sri Lanka and migrate to Canada in the aftermath of the ethnic riots of 1983. In 1994, the writer published his debut novel, Funny Boy, partly based on his memories of growing up as a young gay man in a time of conflict. Arjie Chelvaratnam, the novel’s eponymous “funny boy”, is part of a wealthy family in Colombo, is attracted to boys, and does not conform to the rigid codes of masculinity that are expected of him. Told through six stories, we witness Arjie’s recognition of his sexual identity, the first flushes of love and the eccentricities of his extended family as tensions simmer and the characters hurtle towards inevitable tragedy. A deeply sensitive and intimate coming-of-age story, a novel about the peculiar vagaries, joys and sorrows of a childhood that deviates from the norm turns into a vividly realised portrayal of a land torn apart by violence in Selvadurai’s deft hands.

Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar

Sachin Kundalkar is a Marathi film director and screenplay writer. Recipient of two National Film Awards, he has also written for theatre. Cobalt Blue, originally published in 2006 and translated into English in 2013, was his debut novel which he started writing at the age of 20 and finished at the age of 22. It narrates the story of two siblings, a brother and sister, who fall in love with the mysterious young man staying at their home as a paying guest. Both of them develop feelings for him individually, without the other being aware. Kundalkar has wonderfully explored middle-class aspirations and the blurred nature of human transgressions. Told from the sibling’s perspectives as a set of monologues, it is an engrossingly tender story of longing and heartbreak.

A Life Apart by Neel Mukherjee

Neel Mukherjee’s Man Booker Prize Shortlisting and Crossword Award-winning work is a lot more than just a ‘queer story’. It is layered, complex, and transverses across sections of societies as well as of time. A life apart tells two stories. Ritwik, twenty-two and orphaned, escapes from a devastating childhood of abuse in Calcutta to what he considers to be a new world, full of possibilities, in England, where he has a chance to start all over again. A young Ritwik goes to Oxford to study, but spends more time ‘cruising’ in public men’s toilets, Mrs. Gilby lives in an India that is transitioning from Colonial rule to independence and Mrs. Cameron deals with the death of her gay son. Combining multiple storylines into one stunning novel, A Life Apart, deals with issues of Colonial India, the violence faced by homosexuals as well as the problems of gay sex work in current times, amongst other topics.

Kari by Amruta Patil

Amruta Patil was born in Goa and holds the distinction of perhaps being the first-ever Indian female graphic novelist. Kari, her 2008 debut, begins with the eponymous protagonist and her lover, Ruth, attempting suicide by drowning. Both of them survive but the incident leads to their parting, resulting in a profound sense of loss in Kari’s psyche. Her sexual orientation is kept hazy and pitted against the hyper-heterosexual visage of the city she inhabits. It is an exploration of feminine subjectivity, and how society shackles unbridled gender expression in women by promoting heteronormativity.  The artwork is visually arresting and the predominantly monochromatic palette complements the story magnificently. 

My Father’s Garden by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar is a medical officer and writer from Jharkhand. He belongs to the Santhal tribe, one of India’s Adivasi (indigenous) groups, and his works are inspired by his rich heritage. Told in three parts, the unnamed protagonist in My Father’s Garden is a young Santhali doctor navigating his sexuality, his Adivasi identity, a desire for companionship, and his father’s legacy – the confounding, arduous journey of a young person trying to figure out their place in the world. Gritty and vulnerable, the novel is at its most powerful in the first section, “Lover”, which vividly exemplifies how most male sexual relationships in India fall outside the neat boundaries of defined identities. “A kiss is for someone special,” our protagonist is told by his lover, Samir, whose relentless appetite for sex with the young doctor stops short when it comes to this final threshold of tenderness and acceptance. 

The Man Who Would Be Queen by Hoshang Merchant

Hoshang Merchant is considered as the first openly gay poet of independent India and Yaraana, edited by him, is perhaps the first gay anthology published in the country. His stunning poetry encapsulates the gay Indian experience in striking imagery and wild shifts of phrase. The Man Who Would Be Queen, published in 2011, is a provocative lyrical autobiography moving from his dysfunctional childhood in Mumbai, to his time abroad in Palestine and Iran, and finally, to his old age in Hyderabad. His many personas intermix in this narrative, among them are Hoshang, the famous homosexual and Hoshang, the celebrated poet. It is the unabashed life of a true bohemian man, full of joie de vivre and heartbreak in unequal measures. 

Red Lipstick: The Men in My Life by Laxmi

Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, known simply as Laxmi, is an activist and classical dancer from Mumbai. Assigned male at birth, she embraces a hijra identity for herself. It is the generic blanket term used for eunuchs, intersex, and transgender people in the Indian subcontinent. They are constitutionally recognized as belonging to the “third gender” in countries of this region. Laxmi is the first transgender person to represent Asia Pacific at the United Nations and she was even a participant on Bigg Boss. In Red Lipstick, written in collaboration with Pooja Pandey and published in 2016, Laxmi provides a no-holds-barred account of her remarkable life with its ups and downs. 

Mohanaswamy by Vasudhendra

Vasudhendra is a fiction writer, publisher and queer rights activist who writes in Kannada, one of the many regional languages of India. Mohanaswamy, first published in 2013, is a collection of interconnected short stories that revolve around the eponymous protagonist who is homosexual. The book begins with Mohanaswamy’s long-time partner leaving him for a woman which leads him to wonder about the colourful life he has lived, the array of different choices he has made, and everything else that has brought him to this point. His only desire is to lead a peaceful existence with dignity and at least ignore, if not stop, the rampant homophobia he has faced frequently since his youth. It also highlights human hypocrisy and how society views gay men.