Queer Literature in Tamil and other Indian Languages
Complete interview of me for the article by Ruth Dsouza Prabhu Queer literature in India: Son, are you Mohanaswamy? published in The Hindu.
- From your perspective how has LGBTQ literature in regional languages evolved over the last decade?
Firstly i’ll avoid using the term ‘regional’ language. Every language is confined to a certain region or has origin from a region. Some languages are used widely and terming other languages ‘regional’ by comparing to the widely spoken language takes away the importance of the language that is labelled ‘regional’. So, I am going ahead and answering the question based on my understanding that you are asking about non-English Indian languages. In my case specifically Tamil.
There isn’t much queer literature in India; even Indian English queer literature isn’t easily available. The ones that are available are mostly limited to specific experience and does not reflect the diverse experience of queer lives in our country. In the case of queer literature in Tamil; there has been efforts solely by queer identified individuals to bring out books about our lives. Most of the books are self-published. And there are instances where some books are later picked up by visible publications. Similar to the queer movement in India, it is the trans women community that paved way by documenting their lives through literature. And to my knowledge there is only one “out” gay identified writer in Tamil. Apart from queer persons, there has been short stories written by writers like Ki Ra in the 60s (mentioned in the link provided in one of the answer below). There are only handful of writings by non-queer identified writers that are positive or empathetic. Other than that queer identities are used by writers for shock factor or to display their “writing skills”. Rajeshkumar, Lakshmi Saravanakumar are some of the bad examples of Tamil writers who use queer characters for shock factor and negative representation.
In the past decade the language of queer activism and the queer discourse has vastly changed. You can also see that difference in the literature that are published today. Also, since there considerable amount of discussion around queer issues today as compared to ten years ago, the interest to read queer literature among non-queer readers can also be noticed. But this is not a wide spread phenomenon. There is a small demography that seeks out for queer literature.
- What is the importance at such a stage for more books and literature for gay community in regional languages.
Literature reflects the lives and the society that we live in today. And they are also important in being a documentary evidence of queer lives. The conversation around gay rights and lives of gay men are mostly limited to urban spaces, and visibly limited mostly to ‘upper’ caste gay men, and especially among the English speaking population. This also kind of enables the misunderstanding that identifying as a lesbian, bisexual or gay person is a urban phenomenon. But in reality most of us who are advocating for LGBT rights grew up in tier 2–3 cities or from rural parts of Tamil Nadu. The voices of working class gay men and Dalit-Bahujan gay men are sidelined even by the media which looks for an ‘ideal’ gay man whom they think represents the community. City enables us and the anonymity city provides helps us to be more visible and vocal.
I strongly believe that if the conversation around LGBTQ rights will spread beyond urban centres (even within urban centres) only if we speak in the language of the people. Also, literature and resources and positive representation of queer lives in Tamil would validate queer persons who speak only Tamil.
Today we also have quite a few gay folks who would like to publish their works in Tamil; and the publishing houses are still clueless about our lives and hence they do not see our stories as literature since it does not confine to what they perceive as accepted language/narrative in Tamil literature.
More of my thoughts in this article on why media representation (including queer literature is important):
- Such literature are few and far in between, why do you think haven’t more authors in regional languages come out with pertinent work — this especially when the community is working so hard for their rights. Or do you feel there is more happening in the genre right now.
Let me ask you, how many out queer writers do we have in India who write in English? If you give me 10 names, i’ll be able to give you 10 names of queer writers in Tamil. Like i said earlier, there is a lack of queer literature in our country. And the reason behind it is that the big publishing houses are not open to publish our works — English and non-English Indian languages. They either have editors who are clueless about queer lives. When a person does not have knowledge about queer lives, how can they even edit or work on that literature or with the author? The question for me is, when will our publishing industry in india be inclusive of queer persons? Even at this stage some of us are challenging the ‘normativity’ and mis-representation’ of queer lives in literature. Queer Chennai Chronicles was started exactly for this reason. Because we realised that the existing publishing houses and literary space wanted to confine our stories into their existing boxes.
- What areas do LGBTQ literature need to deal with and what is the approach you think needed?
Just any area ‘straight’ literature deals with.
Queer literature is literature. I’ll tag a literature queer because we are living in a time where the world is cis-het centric and the literary space is dominated by cis-het literature. And to counter this domination is why literature by LGBTQIA persons need to be labelled as queer literature. Else there is more to the literature generated by queer persons which can be enjoyed and also relatable to cis-het persons.
- What is the kind of support from establishments such as Queer Chennai Chronicles and even general readers that is needed to encourage the genre?
Funds. Queer Chennai Chronicles is completely sustained by our own investment which we earn from our day jobs. The Chennai Queer Literature Festival which we organised in 2018 — first queer lit fest in India — was done through crowd funding. Even this year’s queer littlest in September would be done through crowd funding.
For readers I would say that book stalls play a major role is taking the book to the readers. Luckily we have quite a few book stalls across Tamil Nadu that stock queer literature. These are mostly progressive spaces and they really help us.
- Have you faced a negative backlash for your work — anything in particular and how have you dealt with it.
Like I said earlier, most are unaware of queer lives. At times, the mere existence of queer persons itself will shock people. And hence our stories and how we see the world will for sure shock people. People who seek out for queer literature are niche. So far I haven’t faced any major backlash. But I am aware someday it would be there, when some bigot wants to pick on us. Apart from that there are everyday queerphobia which I keep hearing in the name of criticism or sharing thought.
I was in a meeting with a woman who takes care of the art and cultural department of a foreign cultural organisation in Chennai. She kept saying that she doesn’t agree with the term “Queer” and kept saying that she doesn’t understand why our publishing house is called “Queer Chennai Chronicles”. She is a cis-het woman. Now this is an org that wanted to do a queer inclusive event and invited us and the very first question was to tell us that she doesn’t agree with the name of the brand. The question for me then was whether to go along and make use of the opportunity or to not engage with them. I chose the later.
- Does the challenge of language itself play a role — considering we have so many languages in the country and not enough writers in each language coming forth with work — does translation of works then play a role or should play a role?
I don’t think so. But I do believe the English literary space and publishers should have better mechanism to identify books to translate and not just pick famous authors. And this is not limited to queer literature. I believe translation helps is bringing in diverse narratives. Just like how the ‘mainstream’ literary space operate.
- What has been the role of e-platforms in encouraging the genre and reaching out to more readers. What role do you think it will have going further.
Internet plays an important role in queer movement at large. A lot of queer persons who have access to internet use it to communicate with other persons and also consume blogs, social media posts related to queer stuff. It greatly helps us to identify queer writers whom we would otherwise not able to identify. Currently there are very less physical space that caters to queer literature. Internet fills that gap. The queer littlest was organised to overcome that shortage. I believe even in the coming years, internet will for sure help us network and find more queer writers and translators.
