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Secret Writings of Hoshang Merchant$
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Secret Writings of Hoshang Merchant

Hoshang Merchant and Akshaya K. Rath

Print publication date: 2016

Print ISBN-13: 9780199465965

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: August 2016

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199465965.001.0001

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PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (oxford.universitypressscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2022. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use.date: 01 July 2022

A Gay Lexicon

A Gay Lexicon

Chapter:
(p.191) A Gay Lexicon
Source:
Secret Writings of Hoshang Merchant
Author(s):

Hoshang Merchant

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199465965.003.0019

Before we discuss sexuality in the Indian context, we have to define Indian terms for homosexuality that can be used in the international discourse. Most of these words are abuses or derogatory but just like the word ‘queer’ or ‘black’ in the West, these old words are used proudly by India’s liberated gays to gain self-respect. This section introduces the words yaraana, ardhanarishwar, koti/panti, hijra, laundébaaz, and positions them in modern queer narratives.

Keywords:   gay lexicon, Christian guilt, IPC 377, homoeroticism in Hindi films, homosexuality vs samalingan, gay NRI movements, postmodernity–bisexuality, slave-ships’ sex-changed gods, boy-love, origin of hijras at Mecca

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