In Queer Activism in India, Naisargi N. Dave examines the formation of lesbian communities in India from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Based on ethnographic research conducted with activist organizations in Delhi, a body of letters written by lesbian women, and research with lesbian communities and queer activist groups across the country, Dave studies the everyday practices that constitute queer activism in India.Dave argues that activism is an ethical practice comprising critique, invention, and relational practice. She investigates the relationship between the ethics of activism and the existing social norms and conditions from which activism emerges.

Through her analysis of different networks and institutions, Dave documents how activism oscillates between the potential for new social arrangements and the questions that arise once the activists' goals have been achieved. Queer Activism in India addresses a relevant and timely phenomenon and makes an important contribution to the anthropology of queer communities, social movements, affect, and ethics.

Naisargi N. Dave is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto.

"An excellent, detailed, and highly nuanced ethnography of the ethical and affective undercurrents of lesbian activism in Delhi, India, from the late twentieth century to the present. Naisargi N. Dave's focus on ethics provides a necessary intervention in the ethnography of social action and movements."—Martin F. Manalansan IV, author of Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora

"A beautifully written ethnography, offering a passionately detailed ethnographic perspective on queer politics, feminism, and social movements in India."—Kamala Visweswaran, author of Un/common Cultures: Racism and the Rearticulation of Cultural Difference