The Oxford Handbook of Global LGBT and Sexual Diversity Politics Michael J. Bosia (ed.) et al. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673741.001.0001 Published: 2019 Online ISBN: 9780190673758 Print ISBN: 9780190673741 CHAPTER https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673741.013.18 Pages 216–232 Published: 04 October 2019 Abstract Keywords: LGBT politics, LGBT movement, underground movement, South Asia, hijra, public space performance, homoempire, coming out Subject: Regional Political Studies, Politics Series: Oxford Handbooks 14 LGBT Politics in South Asia: Ground Rules, Underground Movements Ahmad Qais Munhazim LGBT politics in South Asia is rooted in both the history of colonialism and what the author of this chapter calls the “underground movement” of the LGBT South Asian communities themselves. O|ering a critique of coming out, the chapter argues that South Asian states carry the burden of colonial violence to this day. Therefore, embracing Western coming out culture for these states is antithetical to the process of decolonization. This chapter moves from a state-centric understanding of LGBT politics to an everyday people–focused conceptualization and practices of LGBT politics and movements that cross geographical, cultural, religious, and political boundaries in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Employing a feminist autoethnographic approach, the chapter argues that public space performances of hijras on the streets, trains, buses, and homes in South Asia are the most authentic, indigenous, decolonial, and antipatriarchal drives in creating space for LGBT communities in the region. This movement troubles gendered and heteronormative public spaces while also claiming the rich history and diversity of gender and sexuality in South Asia. ON September 6, 2018, the LGBT community in India celebrated a historic victory when the Supreme Court of India ruled out Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalized consensual adult sex between people of the same sex. This Supreme Court decision marked the end of a 158-year-old colonial law imposed by the British in 1860 (Dutta and Roy 2014). British colonialism turned a country that was known for its sexual diversity and practices as the land of Kama Sutra into a state where not only sexual practices but also sexual desires were surveilled, sanctioned, and punished by law (Bose 2014). Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28222/chapter/213247492 by University of Pennsylvania Libraries user on 06 January 2023