Accepted Panels

Associating the protracted journey of the term Queer, we see it traces back to 1508 in Scotland when it was popularly associated with ‘strange or peculiar’ as the established meaning; with time the meaning somewhat progressed to ‘spoil or ruin’ by 1812. It was like after the practice of nearly a hundred years that the term came to be associated with ‘homosexuality or homosexuals’ in 1935. Now, the issue here stands that although the term now meant an ‘identity’ within the political domain of representations, it nevertheless remained ‘unchanged’ in its initial meanings. Judith Butler in an interview titled “The Desire for Philosophy” stated what ‘queer’ meant for her- “My understanding of queer is a term that desires that you don’t have to present an identity card before entering a meeting. Heterosexuals can join the queer movement. Bisexuals can join the queer movement. Queer is not being lesbian. Queer is not being gay. Queer is an argument against certain normativity, what a proper lesbian or gay identity is” (Butler). The Queer history of India dates back to the ancient days, and is as archaic as the Vedas. Several manuscripts of Indian cultural past had explicitly presented the fluid category of sexuality and gender identities. Few popular scriptures that explained homosexuality and fluidity of sexuality include- The Narada-Smriti, The Sushruta-Samhita, and the Kama Sutra. The implanted concept of the queer identities as an outside idea and “unnatural and/or foreign” gets a strong blow when these texts not only describe how transgender and homosexuals are conceived while having ‘procreative sex’, but also showcases the fluidity of sex/gender/desire in multiple forms. Hence, my paper would apply an empirical methodology with a queer-post-structuralist feminist theory to re-tell how Queer identity in India existed through the history and is not an ‘out-sided’ disease.