Chocolate, and Other Writings on Male-Male Desire

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The first public debate on homosexuality in modern India occurred in the 1920s, in the thick of the movement for national independence. It was sparked off by a collection of Hindi short stories entitled Chocolate (1927), by Hindi nationalist writer Pandey Bechan Sharma, better known by his pen-name ‘Ugra’ (extreme). The stories created such an uproar that almost every major public figure, from Premchand to Gandhi, joined in the debate. This first-ever English translation of Ugra’s work raises issues as salient today as eight decades ago: the interpretation of text, the role of fiction in relation to society, and the morality of same-sex erotic relationships. Ugra’s writings provide a window on nationalist constructions of Indian identity, especially in relation to ideas of India’s past; of gender, masculinity, and sexuality; and of Hindu-Muslim and Indian-foreign relations. Many of the prejudices and ideas bandied about in the 1920s still hold centre stage, and resurface in debates about sexuality, obscenity, censorship, and the civil rights of gay people. In her introduction, Ruth Vanita, who has extensively studied the pre-modern and modern history of same sex relationships in India, discusses the book’s ambivalent portrayal of homosexuality and the debate it sparked off among Hindi litterateurs and nationalists. General readers interested in the history of same-sex relations in India, modern Indian fiction, and early twentieth-century India, as well as teachers and scholars of English literature, translation studies, gender studies, Indian history, and sociology will find this volume engaging.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ruth Vanita

Ruth Vanita, Professor, University of Montana, former Reader, Delhi University, India, was founding co-editor of Manushi, India's first nationwide feminist journal, from 1978 to 1990. She is the author of several books, including sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same-Sex Love and the English Literary Imagination; Love's Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West; Gandhi's Tiger and Sita's Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History. Her latest book, Gender; sex and the city: Urdu Rekhti Poetry 1780-1870, appeared in 2012.

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Bibliographic information

Title
Chocolate, and Other Writings on Male-Male Desire
Author
Edition
1st ed.
Publisher
ISBN
0195674863
Length
xii+103p.
Subjects