Best Queer Books from India | Best LGBTQ Books from India
India is a land of fables, diversity, and acceptance. So, it is only right that I share with you poignant, inspiring, memorable, enlightening Queer or LGBTQ Books from India that are must reads. Also these are bestselling LGBTQ books, nonfiction LGBTQ books, LGBTQ books for adults, and LGBTQ books for YA/teens. So, enjoy the Pride Month by checking out and reading these Best Queer Books from India or the Best LGBTQIA Books from India in this post below.
Best Queer Books from India | Best LGBTQ Books from India
Shikhandi: and Other Tales They Don’t Tell You by Devdutt Pattanaik
Queerness isn’t only modern, Western or sexual, says mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik. Take a close look at the vast written and oral traditions in Hinduism, some over two thousand years old, and you will find tales of:
Shikhandi, who became a man to satisfy her wife, and many more such tales are shared in this book.
Devdutt Pattanaik’s new book builds on profound ideas that our ancestors shared but which we have rarely inherited.
This book has content for mature audiences. Discretion advised.
Also read these Indian LGBTQIA stories from Devdutt Pattanaik:
- The Pregnant King by Devdutt Pattanaik
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Myth = Mithya: Decoding Hindu Mythology by Devdutt Pattanaik
- The Stories We Tell by Devdutt Pattanaik
A Life in Trans Activism by A Revathi
When Revathi’s powerful memoir, “The Truth About Me“, first appeared in 2011, it caused a sensation. Readers learned of Revathi’s childhood unease with her male body, her escape from her birth family to a house of hijras (the South Asian generic term for transgender people), and her eventual transition to being the woman she always knew she was. So, this new book charts her remarkable journey from relative obscurity to becoming India’s leading spokesperson for transgender rights and an inspiration to thousands.
Read powerful life stories of people from #lgbtqindia including A Revathi's remarkable journey from relative obscurity to becoming India’s leading spokesperson for transgender rights and an inspiration to thousands on #NjkinnysBlog #LGBTQ… Click To Tweet
Also read these powerful life stories of Queer People from India:
- The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story by A Revathi
- We are not the others by Kalki Subramaniam
- A Gift of Goddess Lakshmi by Manobi Bandopadhyay
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy’s incredible follow-up to “The God of Small Things“. So, here we meet Anjum, who used to be Aftab, who runs a guest house in an Old Delhi graveyard and gathers around her the lost, the broken and the cast out. Then we meet Tilo, an architect, who, although she is loved by three men, lives in a ‘country of her own skin’. So, when Tilo claims an abandoned baby as her own, her destiny and that of Anjum become entangled as a tale that sweeps across the years and a teeming continent takes flight. . .
A powerful and emotionally rich book from Arundhati Roy, checkout the Best #QueerBooks / #LGBTQBooks from India on #NjkinnysBlog #LGBTQIndia #Pride #PrideMonth #BookList Click To Tweet
Same-Sex Love in India: A Literary History by Ruth Vanita, Saleem Kiwai
Same-Sex Love in India is the book that brought to light the long, incontestable history of same-sex love and desire in the Indian subcontinent. So, covering over 2000 years, from the Mahabharata to the late twentieth century. This book also contains excerpts from stories, poems, letters, biographies and histories in fifteen languages. Also including writings that range from romantic to analytical, playful to thoughtful, this classic work will help you see Indian culture and society with new eyes.
A book that brought to light the long, incontestable history of same-sex love and desire in the Indian subcontinent…Checkout the Best #QueerBooks / #LGBTQBooks from India on #NjkinnysBlog #Pride #pridemonth #lgbtqindia Click To Tweet
Also read these LGBTQIA Books by Ruth Vanita from India:
- Love’s Rite by Ruth Vanita
- Memory of Light by Ruth Vanita
- Queering India: Same-Sex Love And Eroticism In Indian Culture And Society by Ruth Vanita
We Are Totally Normal by Rahul Kanakia
Nandan’s got a plan to make his Junior year perfect. But hooking up with his friend Dave isn’t part of specially because Nandan has never been into guys. Still, Nandan’s willing to give a relationship with him a shot. But the more his anxiety grows about what his sexuality means for himself, his friends, and his social life, The more he wonders whether he can just take it all back. Is breaking up with dave—the only person who’s ever really gotten him—worth feeling “normal” again?.
A poignant and heartfelt #lgbtqya about two teenagers looking for acceptance…Checkout this #YARomance as well as more #LGBTQBooks on #NjkinnysBlog #LGBTQIndia #Pride Click To Tweet
You will also love reading these Indian LGBTQ Books:
A Life Apart by Neel Mukherjee
A life apart tells two stories. Ritwik, twenty-two and orphaned, escapes from a devastating childhood of abuse in Calcutta to what he considers to be a new world, full of possibilities, in England, where he has a chance to start all over again. But his past, especially the all-consuming relationship with his mother, is a minefield: will Ritwik find the salvation he is looking for?
Set in India, England and in raj Bengal, this award-winning first novel is about dislocation and alienation, outsiders and losers, the tenuous and unconscious intersections of lives and histories, and the consolations of storytelling. unsentimental yet full of compassion, and written with unrelenting honesty, this scalding debut marks a new turning point in writing from India.
An award winning #LGBTQ #HistoricalFiction about two people looking for salvation and identity…Read the Best #QueerBooks / #LGBTQBooks from India on #NjkinnysBlog #LGBTQIndia #Pride #PrideMonth Click To Tweet
You will also love reading these Bestselling Indian Queer/ LGBTQ/LGBTQIA Books:
- Kari by Amruta Patil
- The Magical Palace by Kunal Mukherjee
- equALLY: Stories by Friends of the Queer World by Srini Ramaswamy
So Now You Know: A Memoir of Growing Up Gay in India by Vivek Tejuja
Funny, poignant, heartwarming and heart-breaking all at once, this is a memoir of growing up gay in India in the 1990s, with Bollywood, books, and the Bombay sea for company. So, a book that is a definite contender for your Pride Month Reads list!
Criminal Love?: Queer Theory, Culture, And Politics In India by R Raj Rao
A hard hitting, well-researched non-fiction that gives an insight into the LGBTQIA community in India. So, this book is a must have in your Pride Reading List.
The Scent of God by Saikat Majumdar
In an elite all-boys’ boarding school run by a Hindu monastic order in late-twentieth century India, things aren’t what they look like on the surface…
Anirvan, a young student, is fascinated by the music and silence of spiritual life. He dreams of becoming a monk. But as he seeks his dream, he finds himself drawn to a fellow student, and they come together to form an intimate and unspeakable relationship.The boys sweat at cricket and football, crack science and mathematics in pursuit of golden careers, and meditate to the aroma of incense and flowers. It’s a world of ruthless discipline shaped by monks in flowing saffron. A sceptical teacher mentors Anirvan and reveals his suspicion of this vigilant atmosphere. Does the beating of the boys reveal urges that cannot be named? What is the meaning of monastic celibacy? What, indeed, holds the brotherhood together?
Against himself, Anirvan gets sucked into a whirl of events outside the walls of the monastery, in the midst of prostitutes, scheming politicians and the impoverished Muslims of the villages surrounding the school. When the love of his life returns to him, the boys’ desire for each other push them towards a wild course of action. But will that give them a life together in a world that does not recognize their kind of love?
You will also love these Queer Books from India:
-
Straight to Normal: My Life as a Gay Man by Sharif D Rangnekar
- Teething: A Story Told in Verse by Megha Rao
I hope you enjoyed this list of Best LGBTQ Books from India, and that these books helped you in preparing your Pride Month Reading List. Have any Pride Month Reads that are your favourites you want added to this list? Then comment them below and I will add them!
I love hearing from you. So, don’t be shy and leave a comment below. Also don’t forget to bookmark, and share this Indian Queer Books List with your friends!
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- A Scientific Aspect of Transgenders by Ajay Majumder, Rabin Tarafder
- The World That Belongs To Us: An Anthology of Queer Poetry from South Asia by Akhil Katyal
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