Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)longing in Contemporary India

Parmesh Shahani is an original. This beautifully written debut book,
Gay Bombay,

merges autobiographical, ethnographic, institutional, and historical perspectives to
paint a vivid picture of the emergence of a gay community in modern India. This book
will inspire and provoke many interested in understanding the intersections between
sexuality, globalization, and new media.

Henry Jenkins

Co-Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter De Florez Professor of Humanities at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Author of
Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide
FINALLY! Finally we have the definitive gay historical document of the city we still
lovingly call Bombay. Parmesh Shahani shows us in his quiet Indian way that being
gay in India is no Stonewall revolution.

It comes from the heart of someone who has lived in Bombay and researched his city
with love. Here is a work of academia infused with very touching personal experience.

Did you know that the word homo-sexual was coined in 1869? Or when the Page 3 was
launched by
Times of India
? Read on to get the trivia, truth and factual history.

Shahani’s
Gay Bombay
traces the modern and the old with charming first person.

This book takes you to the television studios, the editing rooms, the dance floors, the
chat rooms and the private parlours to discover gay Bombay in all its subtle victories,
intimate vibrancy and surprising diversity.

Wendell Rodricks

Fashion Designer, Goa, India

Gay Bombay
is a must-read! Shifting seamlessly through the personal, the Gay Bombay
community, the national, and the transnational, the book gives the reader a unique
understanding of what it means to be gay and Indian. Its contribution lies in giving
middle-class urban gay identity a history and context. The chapters weave scholarly
analysis with rich details and poignant accounts of gay life and identity. A courageous
and compelling book.

Jyoti Puri

Director, Graduate Program in Gender/Cultural Studies

Chair, Department of Sociology, Simmons College

Author of
Woman, Body, Desire in Post-colonial India: Narratives
of Gender
and Sexuality

2
Gay

Bombay

Parmesh Shahani has written a brilliant, powerful book that helps us understand the
nuance, multiplicity, and complexity of Gay Bombay.

Grant McCracken

Research Affiliate

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Author of
The Long Interview

Shifting effortlessly from the personal to the theoretical, from the local to the global,
Gay Bombay
is a pathbreaking study of homosexuality in modern Bombay/Mumbai
that will be essential reading for students of gender and sexuality. Parmesh Shahani’s
analysis of gay, metropolitan India is one which will be welcomed among its subjects
as well as by many other readers.

Rachel Dwyer

Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema

Head of the Department of South Asia

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Author of
All you Want is Money,
All you Need is Love: Sexuality and Romance in
Modern India

A chatty book by a new young voice on the block, combining autobiography, queer
theory, interviews with gay male Bombayites, and descriptions of gay male life and
activism in Mumbai. Easy to skim and fun to dip into.

Ruth Vanita

Professor, University of Montana

GAY BOMBAY

4
Gay

Bombay

GAY BOMBAY

Globalization, Love and (Be)longing in

Contemporary India

PARMESH SHAHANI

Copyright © Parmesh Shahani, 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First published in 2008 by

SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd

B 1/I-1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area

Mathura Road, New Delhi, 110044, India

www.sagepub.in

SAGE Publications Ltd

2455 Teller Road

Thousand Oaks, California 91320, USA

SAGE Publications Inc

1 Oliver’s Yard

55 City Road

London EC1Y 1SP, United Kingdom

SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd

33 Pekin Street

#02-01 Far East Square

Singapore 048763

Published by Vivek Mehra for SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, typeset in 10/13 pt Amerigo BT by Star Compugraphics Private Limited, Delhi and printed at Chaman Enterprises, New Delhi.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shahani, Parmesh.

Gay Bombay: globalization, love and (be)longing in contemporary India/by Parmesh Shahani.

p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Gays—India. 2. Gay culture—India. 3. Gays—India—Social conditions.

I. Title.

HQ76.3.I4S53 306.76'60954—dc22

2008

2008004281

ISBN:
978-0-7619-3648-0 (PB)

978-81-7829-794-1 (India-PB)

The SAGE Team:
Sugata Ghosh, Maneet Singh, Anju Saxena and Trinankur

Banerjee

To Riyad Wadia. And to Bombay: muse, nemesis, saviour, home.

8
Gay

Bombay

Acknowledgements
9

For Junri Shimada

Kabhii kabhii mere dil mein khayaal aata hai

Ki jaise tujhko banaaya gaya hai mere liye

Tuu ab se pahale sitaaron mein bas raha tha kahiin

Tujhe zamiin pe bulaaya gaya hai mere liye…

Kabhii kabhii mere dil mein khayaal aata hai…

Ki yeh badan ye nigaahein merii amaanat hain…

Ye gesuu’on kii ghanii chhanv hain merii khaatir

Ye honth aur ye baahein merii amaanat hain…

Kabhii kabhii mere dil mein khayaal aata hai

Ki jaise bajtii hai shahanaa’iyaan sii raahon mein…

Suhaag raat hai ghuunghat uthaa rahaa huun main…

Simat raha hai tuu sharmaake merii baahon mein…

Kabhii kabhii mere dil mein khayaal aata hai

Ki jaise tuu mujhe chaahega umra bhar yuun hii

Uthegii merii taraf pyaar kii nazar yuun hii

Main jaanta huun ki tuu gair hai magar yuun hii

Kabhii kabhii mere dil men khayaal aata hai…

Sometimes the thought crosses my mind

That you’ve been made just for me.

Before this, you were dwelling somewhere in the stars;

You were summoned to earth just for me
…

Sometimes the thought crosses my mind

That this body and these eyes are kept in trust for me,

That the dark shadows of your hair are for my sake alone,

That these lips and these arms are charged to my care
…

Sometimes the thought crosses my mind

Just as the
shehnaii
sounds on the roads,

That it is my wedding night and I am lifting your veil;

You’re shrinking from shame, blushing in my arms
…

Sometimes the thought crosses my mind

10
Gay

Bombay

That you’ll love me like this our whole lives through,

That you’ll always lift a loving gaze to me like this.

I know you’re a stranger, but even so,

Sometimes the thought crosses my mind.

—Kabhi Kabhie
(Sometimes): Sahir Ludhianvi∗

∗ Kabhi Kabhie (Sometimes): lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi, music by Khayyam. (Bombay, India: Yash Raj Films/HMV Music, 1976). Hindi to English lyrics translation courtesy Bollywhat.com.

Gender modified from original.

Contents

Acknowledgements
14

Synopsis
17

1 Introduction: The Heart has its Reasons

19

QUEEN’S NECKLACE
19

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
24

SOME BIASES ARE GOOD?
28

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 30

RESEARCH SCHEMA 35

LOVE, ACTUALLY
38

THEORETICAL DOMAINS 40

• Cyberculture Studies

40

• Gay and Lesbian Studies

44

• Globalization Studies

53

NET GAINS
59

IDENTITY 61

COMMUNITY 63

DANCING QUEENS
65

2 From this Perspective…

79

THE NOT SO GOOD DOCTOR AND OTHER STORIES
81

ETHNOSCAPE 82

FINANCESCAPE AND POLITISCAPE 88

PERFECT HUMAN
93

MEDIASCAPE 94

• Print Media

94

• Television

96

• Radio

97

• Internet

98

12
Gay

Bombay

TECHNOSCAPE 99

• Telecommunications

99

• IT

100

AFTER READING
GALATEA 2.2…

101

IDEOSCAPE 102

3 Up Close and Personal

117

SUGARLESS
117

ARRIVAL SCENE ONE: DARK STORMY NIGHT 119

ETHNOGRAPHY IN FLUX 123

PRICKED BY A THORN
128

WHEN FIELD = HOME 130

ARRIVAL SCENE TWO: POST-IT NOTES 134

ARRIVAL SCENE THREE: HOME, SWEAT HOME 142

INTIMACY 149

DEPARTURE SCENE:
KABHI ALVIDA NA KEHNA
(NEVER SAY GOODBYE) 157

WE ARE FAMILY
162

4 Media Matters

170

LETTING GO
171

PRESS COVERAGE OF GAY-RELATED ISSUES PRIOR TO 1991

172

PRESS COVERAGE OF GAY-RELATED ISSUES BETWEEN 1991–2007

174

• Being Gay in India

174

• Gay Activism

179

• Out Public Figures

184

• Changing Public Perception

186

• Globalization

190

TELEVISION COVERAGE 191

CONTEMPORARY INDIAN WRITING ON HOMOSEXUALITY 195

O BROTHER! WHERE ART THOU?
203

QUEER INDIAN FILMS 204

5 Straight Expectations

218

BEING GAY IN INDIA 219

FAMILY TIES
226

GAY BOMBAY: ACCESS AND IMPACT 228

Contents
13

COMMUNITY 231

GLOBALIZATION AND LOCALITY 234

IDENTITY AND NEGOTIATION OF SELF 240

WALLS
247

CONFLICT 248

• Straight Acting Men Versus Effeminate Men,

Drag Queens and Hijras

249

• Class Differences and Language Barriers

251

• Differing Views of Activism

253

• The Importance of Coming Out, Closeted Men and

Married Gay Men

257

• HIV

258

• Registration

259

WEEKEND REVIEW
264

THE IMAGINED FUTURE 265

6 Conclusion: Disco
Jalebi
271

WHO AM I?
271

HOW DID GAY BOMBAY COME ABOUT? 274

WHAT DOES BEING GAY MEAN IN GAY BOMBAY? 283

HOW IS IDENTITY NEGOTIATED IN GAY BOMBAY? 286

IS GAY BOMBAY A COMMUNITY? 288

IN MEMORIAM
289

MODUS VIVENDI 291

PARTING THOUGHTS 305

Appendix
314

Bibliography
318

Index

343

About the Author