Same-Sex Love in India: Readings in Indian Literature by Ruth Vanita

Same-Sex Love in India: Readings in Indian Literature Reviews

• 
  Vipin Sirigiri

  The motivation to pick up this book was the often mention of it in Shikhandi - a collection of mythological stories depicting the gender and sexual fluidity in ancient India.
  
  Ruth Vanita takes on a broader collection of such literature - encompassing from mythology, poetry, religious texts and scriptures, plays to recent magazine articles - most of which have been introduced and translated for the first time. The collection of these stories are divided into ancient, medieval and modern times with analysis of homosexuality and homophobia at the beset of culture and traditions then.
  
  The ancient period relies heavily on Hindu scriptures and commonly told stories; medieval on Persian, Arabic and Urdu poetry besides life of few Sufi saints whereas modern literature consists of short stories, newspaper columns and plays. The societal acceptance seen through most of the literature in ancient and medieval times surprise you to the extent of questioning (and perhaps firmly believing!) whether homophobia was just a colonial disease brought by British.
  
  At a time when the LGBT society in India is being discarded as a western influence, the book demonstrates that same-sex love has a long and complex history in the Indian subcontinent and cannot be eradicated by violence or wished away by neglect.
• 
  Saurabh Sharma

  A work of monumental research, none of the contemporary writers have dared to produce a work as this one! My heartiest congratulations to Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai to assimilate the literary history of sexuality ranging from the beginning i.e. Vedas to modern day India. It's however a pity that our country still penalises any intercourse against the order of the nature (by it, whatever they mean!), it is interesting to learn how open and amazingly liberal we have been in the past. It makes me wonder that homophobia is, in fact, a western influence and not homosexuality.
  
  I enjoyed reading this book thoroughly, most importantly, I loved the anthology of stories, poems and condensed form of literary works depicting and/or exhibiting homosexuality, bisexuality etc., and that too in regional languages. I highly recommend reading this book.
• 
  Julie Bozza

  A present from my awesome sister! This is so perfect for my writerly research... ♥
  
  ...And I've just read the last entry, two months later. Huzzah! This is quite a weighty tome, and I don't suppose collections of extracts can really be read from cover to cover all at once, so it took me a while in between other books. (My attention span was not helped by the poor choice of font for the commentary, though the extracts themselves were perfectly readable.) There is heaps of great stuff in here, both fiction and non, organised sequentially from Ancient through Medieval to Modern.
  
  If you feel like reading or browsing through 2000 years of literature showing that human nature is human nature, then you'll love this. (Thanks, sis!)
• 
  Aastha

  It's a great book to read to understand how gender is not just male-female but there is a third nature involved too. The book is loaded with facts maybe that's what makes the read extremely slow. I had to concentrate a lot while reading this book. It wasn't an easy-breezy read. There are chunks of the book where you might get bored. But I have given it a 4 star because it is worth a read despite the troughs.
• 
  Shubhaangi

  I love me a book which debunks our long standing ideas about homo sexuality and homoeroticism. A book of monumental research, filled with brilliant insights. An outstanding array of writings on same sex love spanning over two thousand years.
• 
  Kyle

  A stupendous collection of memorable translations in a realm seldom explored by literature scholars.
• 
  Amit Bagga

  No transliterations; no Hindi/Persian/Urdu script -- no linkage between actual diction and meaning; just English interpretations. Disappointing - very clearly directed (almost insultingly so) towards non-South Asian audiences.
• 
  Nomii Brown

  no i no think about this
  just sex and sex
  just sex and enjoy ur life
  you better enjoy with any aunt
  when u sex aunty u more enjoy