SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This chapter explores recent histories of masculine cultures in India. It further suggests that masculinity and sexuality are intertwined topics. The discussion proceeds through outlining the most significant sites of the making of masculinity discourses during the colonial, the immediate postcolonial and the contemporary periods. Through constructing a narrative of Indian modernity that draws upon diverse contexts – such as colonial discourses about natives, anti-colonial nationalism, and postcolonial discourses of economic planning, ‘liberalization’ and consumerism – the chapter illustrates the multiple locations of masculinity politics and its articulation with ideas of sexuality. The chapter also seeks to point out that while there are continuities between the (colonial) past and the (postcolonial) present, the manner in which the past is utilized for the purposes of the present relates to performances and contexts in the present. Finally, it suggests there is no linear history of masculinity, but rather one that describes the uses of the past in the present, allowing us to understand the prolix and circular ways in which the present is constituted.