Overview

In December of 2012 in Delhi, India a woman was gang raped, tortured, and inflicted with such bodily violence that she died as a result of the injuries. The case caused massive public protests in Delhi and throughout the Indian subcontinent. These large scale public mobilizations lead to attempts to change national laws pertaining to sexual violence. One year after this case, The Supreme Court of India made the contentious decision to uphold Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Section 377, instituted by British colonizers dates back to 1860 and criminalizes sexual activities deemed to be 'unnatural,' namely queer sex and queer people. In December of 2013, massive protests also occurred throughout India regarding this decision. Both these cases received worldwide media attention and lead to public demonstrations and debates regarding sexual politics throughout Asia and globally. There was a resilient refrain heard at many of the political protests that took place: A¯za¯di¯. A¯za¯di is loosely translated into freedom. Drawing on interviews done in the Indian subcontinent, this book suggests that while colonial violence haunts postcolonial sexualities, anti-colonial resistance also remains, echoing in the streets like the chorus of an old song ~ A¯za¯di¯.

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9781926452999

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Reviews

?Atluri provides a stunning contrapuntal analysis of gender and sexuality at the crossroads of feminist, queer, transnational, and postcolonial studies. Focusing on the political resonances across multiple sites of gender and sexual regulation, the author makes a compelling case for ?precarious feminism as a critical response to postcolonial nationalism, global neoliberalism, and Western discursive hegemony. Atluri opens up the concept of ?A?za?di?, ? through a rich and constant scrutiny of what we have come to know as ?gender? and ?sexual? politics. A?za?di? challenges us to recognize ourselves in this global reconfiguration and promises nothing but an ever-contingent political field for thinking beyond the powerful fictions of neoliberal modernity.? ?Amar Wahab, Coordinator, Sexuality Studies Program, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, York University, Canada ?A?za?di? offers impressive insights into the interlinkages between, and nature of, gendered violence, activism, and neoliberalism in contemporary India, including a compelling exploration of the ongoing role of colonialism in shaping the nature (and horrific extent) of embodied violence in contemporary India.? ?Deana Heath, Department Director of Post-graduate Research, Department of History, University of Liverpool

Author Information

Tara Atluri has a PHD in Sociology. Between 2012-2014 she held the position of post-doctoral researcher with Oecumene: Citizenship After Orientalism at the Open University in the United Kingdom. She joined Oecumene as part of a project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. During her time as a post- doctoral researcher, she conducted research in India regarding the 2012 Delhi gang rape protests and the 2013 protests that followed the decision by the Supreme Court of India to uphold Section 377 of the Indian penal code, criminalizing diverse enactments of sexuality in the Indian subcontinent. The protests that emerged were remarkable examples of postcolonial sexual politics that inspired the writing of this book.

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