Book Review: Exploring Queernormative In India바카라�s Tribal Folktales

Queer stories have remained suppressed for far too long. It바카라�s only recently that they바카라�ve started enjoying a place in the mainstream. But mainstreaming the marginalised comes at its own cost: cultural selection. It바카라�s always one over the other. Who gets to choose what stories must be told? And by whom? Such are the questions facing an individual looking to tell LGBTQ-centric narratives. 

Though in the first two chapters of his book Queering Tribal Folktales from East and Northeast India (Routledge, 2021), Kaustav Chakraborty addresses these questions, principally he studies tribal folktales 바카라�mainly from the Toto, Rabha, Lepcha, and Limbu cultures바카라� to 바카라�establish a counter-discourse of an indigenous queer바카라�. 

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An assistant professor in the Department of English, Southfield (formerly Loreto) College, Darjeeling, Chakraborty바카라�s psychological reading of tribal folktales is a work of unparalleled scholarship. When we read these stories as is, his writing seems to serve what doesn바카라�t meet the eye: his aim was to ensure that what remained amiss in the silences and subliminality of the text comes alive in his assessment. 

Chakraborty argues that Indians accepted some social norms as acceptable (바카라�mainstream바카라�), ignoring their longstanding histories of queerness. He invokes Foucault to highlight that the 바카라�normal바카라� came first and 바카라�the norm바카라� was deduced from it. Propagation of compulsory heterosexuality, disgust towards same-sex and non-normative desires, and marriages as a legit social contract are but a few things that the colonisers considered 바카라�normal바카라�. And it is this inheritance that most of the mainland India continues to celebrate.

Through this book, Chakraborty attempts at reviving the 바카라�oral performance of storytelling바카라� by creating a record of the 28 folktales that disappeared or were 바카라�laid aside out of sight바카라�. As a framework, he has considered 바카라�the queernormative moments of the past that are relevant for my dialogic understanding of the modern self through an-other바카라�. Countering the mainstream sexuality discourse that polices desires located outside the strict caste-hetero-patriarchal constructs, he interprets the bizarre, grotesque, flamboyant, and the erotic in these tales through a queer lens. 

There are four Toto folktales in this book that discuss intimacy between a grandmother and grandson. The Orphan Boy, in particular, outshines others as it renders the 바카라�orphan protagonist바카라�s queer intimacy for heteronormative conjugality, similar to ensuing homoeroticity of a man바카라�. In almost all the tales, the 바카라�queer motif wins바카라�. 

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In yet another story, there are 바카라�hints at the togetherness of two males with two kids, which indeed for two tribal queers, as the story suggest, is a happy gay family for a peaceful life바카라�. The tale Seven Brothers and One Sister explores incest. Chakraborty takes this as an opportunity to prophesise that in 바카라�the hegemonic settler colonialism, incest had to be negated by regulating it as a taboo in order to counter tribal individuality바카라�.

Limbu folktales especially challenge the 바카라�ideal woman바카라� syndrome: Savitri-Draupadi-Sita-glorification. For example, in Four Brothers and a Sister, the sister바카라�s 바카라�incestuous desire is symbolically conveyed by the sister바카라�s quest for her brothers and the consequential offering of garlands to them바카라�.

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Assessing these tales makes Chakraborty conclude that queerness in Indian history 바카라�is the outcome of misrepresentations disseminated by colonialism바카라� and that the 바카라�homophobic anxiety cannot be done without trying to excavate the alternative historical queernormative norms of the undocumented time when desires other than heterosexuality were not censored바카라�.

Though the principal goal of the author to 바카라�queer바카라� tribal tales is achieved in the book, two things are concerning. First, in the introductory chapters, the author renders several philosophical arguments to defend his position as a researcher and ethnographer. He isn바카라�t a tribal person. This makes the reader question whether he accurately understood, translated, and interpreted these stories. But because he was armed with an array of resources and translators, we can be assured that this shouldn바카라�t worry us. 

However, the repetitive explanation that he is an 바카라�outsider바카라� assessing the 바카라�othering바카라� makes one question: Why indulge then? Sample the apologetic undertone of this sentence, for example: 바카라�Authorship cannot be dictated by experience; rather outsiders can formulate theorisation by virtue of their distance from experience.바카라� While distance is required for any authorial exercise, the first-hand experience not only renders authenticity but also in the telling stories of the marginalised it바카라�s quintessential. 
This should make one sceptical to continue with this work, but it바카라�s appreciable that Chakraborty clearly lays out his politics: who he is, where he바카라�s coming from, and what he바카라�s doing with the material. It바카라�s also notable that he doesn바카라�t claim a 바카라�strict neutrality바카라� or 바카라�uninvolved position바카라�.

While all this isn바카라�t problematic, suggesting that queer people could collectivise themselves as 바카라�neo-Bahujans바카라� as a political category is troubling. Chakraborty writes, 바카라�Reconsidering Dalit as not exclusively a birth-based natural identity, queer Indians should forge an intimate bond with the Dalit Bahujan tribals by politically positioning themselves as neo-Bahujan in order to fight against a common adversary.바카라� 

It seems that Chakraborty is forgetting that we bear and exercise multiple identities when faced with different situations. An oppressor-caste queer person like me definitely enjoys more privileges than a Dalit queer. Clubbing both as neo-Bahujans will not only overlook privileges of an upper-class and -caste person and create a fake equanimity but will also label the 바카라�centre바카라� as the 바카라�margin바카라�, and that바카라�s certainly not 바카라�mainstreaming바카라� marginality. And it바카라�s far from queering. 

(Saurabh Sharma is a Delhi-based queer writer.Instagram/Twitter: @writerly_life.)