Papers by Abhijit Maity
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics
The article explores the problematic issues that arise between Bollywood films projecting homosex... more The article explores the problematic issues that arise between Bollywood films projecting homosexual relationships and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) filtering their contents. Queer popular cultural representations in India face challenges to get release certification because of their inherently debatable contents including ‘non-normative’ sexual relationships which are largely identified as a potential threat to the existing heteronormative, majoritarian culture. By giving reference to two queer films, Unfreedom and Angry Indian Goddesses, this article explores the politics of censorship in the light of Foucauldian power relations and the discourse of knowledge production. I argue that by proscribing representations of queer sexualities in films, the CBFC has acted on behalf of the state in decelerating the formation and proliferation of a counter cultural movement to balance homophobia discursively and to peddle majoritarian power politics, and thus the notion of h...
Media Asia, 2023
In 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists published a report, which reveals data on journalis... more In 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists published a report, which reveals data on journalists and media workers murdered and imprisoned from 1992 to 2022. The report presents that an average of 80 journalists were killed every year across the globe (RSF, 2022). In the last three decades, we have seen a significant number of cases in which media personnel in India were attacked, imprisoned, and murdered (Ali, 2021). How do media personnel, broadcasters, artists, writers, and actors, whose profession largely depend on various forms of "mediums', respond to this ongoing crisis? How does popular culture represent the issues of sustainability and security of media personnel? This review reflects on a Netflix-released web series Scoop (Patil & Routray, 2023), which projects one of the most unfortunate incidents happened in the 2010s. It reveals how a female journalist is victimized and framed into a nexus of media, politics, police, and the Mumbai underworld.
Research article, Jul 10, 2023
The article explores the problematic issues that arise between Bollywood films projecting homosex... more The article explores the problematic issues that arise between Bollywood films projecting homosexual relationships and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) filtering their contents. Queer popular cultural representations in India face challenges to get release certification because of their inherently debatable contents including ‘non-normative’ sexual relationships which are largely identified as a potential threat to the existing heteronormative, majoritarian culture. By giving reference to two queer films, Unfreedom and Angry Indian Goddesses, this article explores the politics of censorship in the light of Foucauldian power relations and the discourse of knowledge production. I argue that by proscribing representations of queer sexualities in films, the CBFC has acted on behalf of the state in decelerating the formation and proliferation of a counter cultural movement to balance homophobia discursively and to peddle majoritarian power politics, and thus the notion of heterosexuality as compulsory form of sexual behaviour is popularized and consolidated in Indian society.
Southeast Asian Review of English, 2022
In Sexuality and Gender Diversity Rights in Southeast Asia, Anthony J. Langlois offers new perspe... more In Sexuality and Gender Diversity Rights in Southeast Asia, Anthony J. Langlois offers new perspectives on the nature of implementation of laws, the necessity of rights claiming and the prevalence of violence and discrimination around the lives of LGBTIQ+ people. This book is a call for new public policy and social norms to be (re)formed in Southeast Asian regions for those who are sexually non-conforming, and hence, are treated as second (read lower) class citizens. On the face of rapid socio-political changes and multiple preventive measures taken by the international human rights regime, the book argues that “most Southeast Asian states do not recognise the need for such rights” (1). However, in response to such incapacitated geo-political frameworks, this book considers many civil organisations and their political participation in rights claiming for the “people of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC)”. This book also attempts ...
Article, Nov 22, 2022
His research interests include gender and sexuality studies, as well as identity politics in Sout... more His research interests include gender and sexuality studies, as well as identity politics in South Asian Literature.
Book Reviews by Abhijit Maity
Journal of Postcolonial Writing (Routledge), 2023
Book review, 2023
Even after seventy years of his assassination, Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, remains ... more Even after seventy years of his assassination, Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, remains a character of mystery within intellectual debates of the socio-political history of India. Surrounding Gandhi's sudden assassination, there emerged an array of critical but inconclusive narratives which go on to unravel the pits of conspiracy. The Murderer, the Monarch and the Fakir by Appu Esthose Suresh and Priyanka Kotamraju brings up a new perspective on the nation's most surprising 10 murder by collecting evidence after evidence and every detail of investigation around the murder. By doing so, the authors, keeping one step ahead of others, attempt to trace not only the origin of such conspiracy but also the political intersections or discontents that stayed unabated silently behind the loud cries of freedom movements as well as the investigative interstices soon after the assassination. Taking advantage of being an investigative journalist, Suresh nosed into the 'scat-15 tered' files from various archives, libraries, reports, unattended notes, interviews, documents, etc. that have so far remained under the dust, unconnected. The book ensures that Gandhi's assassination is not 'the handiwork of a lone wolf [Nathuram Godse] or a few fanatic members of the Hindu Mahasabha © but the result of an ongoing ideological clash between the leaders of Indian National Congress and the followers of Hindu Mahasabha, and the outcome of a collective feelings of being 20 betrayed' (p. 187). Apart from the prologue and epilogue, the book is divided into three books covering observations on each part of the title and leading onto a major question: which part of Gandhi was killed. The major portion of this research revolves around the airy question of how 'a disgruntled refugee' could have undertaken such a daring act. The first book delves into the investigative narratives 25 behind the second successful attempt of Gandhi's murder, and locates traces of an alternative political power based on Hindu masculinity as opposed to Gandhian effeminacy. It throws light on the August Conspiracy, which, beginning from August 1947 to 30 © January 1948, revolves around many secret meetings among the leading members of the Hindu right conveying clues to the murder. This part also scrutinizes every detail behind the failure of the first attempt to kill Gandhi 30 by Madanlal Rahwa and others on 20 January 1948. In Book II, the first chapter unfolds the investigative gap during the trail, which might have led to the mastermind (hinting at Vinayak Damodar Savarkar) behind such planned murder: 'The failure to stop Gandhi's assassination despite prior "actionable" information remains perhaps the biggest intelligence lapse in the history of India' (p. 86). The second chapter examines the intelligence 35 reports carefully revealing the other acolytes of Savarkar including Dr. Narayan Bhaskar Khare, Gopi Krishna Vyas, Girishar Sharma and some other important officials of the princely state Alwarall of whom remained unnoticed, albeit passively participated into the conspiracy, and had successfully escaped 'from the radar of intelligence bureau' (p. 98). The authors' investigation has established a clear ideological connection between the princely states and the Hindu 40 Mahasabha. Both of them wished to be an important part in the post-independent governance but were highly disheartened by the decision-makers of the Indian National Congress as well as by Gandhi. Gandhi opposed the idea of distributing power among those bureaucratic princely states and the Hindu extremists, and thus, there emerged an ideological clash: 'In the mêlée of Hindu-Muslim conflict and the partition politics, an unnoticed war was being waged between Gandhi and 45 the princely states, even as the ideologues of Hindutva courted the princely states' (p.
Asian Journal of Women's Studies (Routledge), 2023
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Papers by Abhijit Maity
Book Reviews by Abhijit Maity