Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: Part 1: Colonial Transitions -- 1. The Politics of Penetration: -- Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code -- Suparna Bhaskaran -- 2. Sultan Mahmud's Makover: -- Colonial Homophobia and the Persian-Urdu Literary Tradition -- Scott Kugle -- 3. Doganas and Zanakhis: -- The Invention and Subsequent Erasure -- of Urdu Poetry's "Lesbian" Voice -- Carla Petievich -- 4. Alienation, Intimacy, and Gender: -- Problems for a History of Love in South Asia -- Indrani Chatterjee -- 5. Eunuchs, Lesbians, and Other Mythical Beasts: -- Queering and Dequeering the Kama Sutra -- Michael J. Sweet -- Part 2: The Visions of Fiction -- 6. Loving Well: -- Homosexuality and Utopian Thought in Post/Colonial India -- Leela Gandhi -- 7. "Do I Remove My Skin?": -- Interrogating Identity in Suniti Namjoshi's Fables -- Anannya Dasgupta -- 8. "Queeresses All Mine": -- Same-Sex Desire in Kamala Das's Fiction and Poetry -- Rosemary Marangoly George -- 9. Homophobic Fiction/Homoerotic Advertising: -- The Pleasures and Perils of Twentieth-Century Indianness -- Ruth Vanita -- 10. What Mrs. Besahara Saw: -- Reflections on the Cay Coonda -- Lawrence Cohen -- Part 3: Performative Pleasures in Theater, TV, and Cinema -- 11. A Different Desire, a Different Femininity: -- Theatrical Transvestism in the Parsi; Quiarati, -- and Marathi Theaters, 1850-1940 -- Kathryn Hansen -- 12. Queer Bonds: -- Male Friendships in Contemporary Malayalam Cinema -- Muraleedharan T. -- 13. "I Sleep behind You": -- Male Homosociality and Homoeroticism -- in Indian Parallel Cinema -- Thomas Waugh -- 14. Queer Pleasures for Queer People: -- Film, Television, and Queer Sexuality in India -- Shohini Ghosh -- 15. On Fire: -- Sexuality and Its Incitements -- Geeta Patel -- 16. After the Fire -- Monica Bachmann -- Notes on Contributors -- Index.