A writer and booklover come together to publish India's first queer anthology on 'life after Section 377'u00a0

Minal Hajratwala, author of the award-winning non-fiction title, Leaving India: My Family's Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents, has been in India for the last one year on a Fulbright scholarship. Her next novel is on Mirabai, the saint who dedicated her life to the devotion of Krishna.


Founder of Queer Ink, Shobhna Kumar with author Minal
Hajratwala. PIC/ shadab khan

And while you'd think the author, who has lived in America since she was seven, has her plate full till the scholarship ends in July 2011, Hajratwala has taken on yet another equally daunting task in partnership with Shobhna Kumar, founder of the country's first online queer bookstore, Queer Ink.

Together, the duo will publish an anthology of queer writings from the country, the first after the reading down of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises homosexuality. This anthology also marks Queer Ink's foray into publication.

What prompted you to take up this project?
Shobhna Kumar: When I started QI, I realised there isn't much queer content available in India. The community was invisible, which got me interested in the idea of publishing. I wanted to create content relevant to India, and let the world know that the community exists.

At present, QI has only 100 titles that have been published in India. That does not reflect the 7.5 per cent of the adult population that is queer in any country.