Sanjay Srivastava | Natives, Citizens, Consumers: On the Cultures of Masculinities, Sexualities, and Modernity

This talk will explore recent histories of masculine cultures in India. The discussion will proceed through outlining some specific sites where discourses of masculinities and sexualities have been produced, taking for granted the inextricable link between the two topics. Working its way through the colonial, the immediate post-colonial as well as the contemporary period, the talk will end with a discussion of ‘Modi-masculinity’. Through tracking narratives of Indian modernity that draw upon diverse contexts — such as colonial discourses about natives,
‘nationalist’ sexology and post-colonial discourses of economic planning, ‘liberalization’ and consumerism –the talk will explore the multiple locations of masculinities and sexualities. Further, the exploration of relationships between economic, political and social contexts also seeks to blur the boundaries between them, thereby initiating a methodological dialogue regarding the study of gender and sexualities.