Queer Lineages, Colonial Shadows: Trans Autobiography and the Revival of Gender Plurality in India

Abstract

This paper examines the transformative power of transgender autobiographical narratives in contemporary India, positioning them as crucial interventions in the struggle for recognition, dignity, and systemic change, and centres on the life writings of A. Revathi (The Truth About Me), Living Smile Vidya (I Am Vidya), and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi (Me Hijra, Me Laxmi), the subjects of this study, which explores how these texts function not merely as personal accounts but as political acts that challenge entrenched hierarchies of caste, gender, and sexuality. By drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity and Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower, the research analyses how these narratives subvert normative frameworks and re-signify the meaning of gender identity in the Indian context. This research was conducted to interrogate the colonial and postcolonial erasure of non-normative identities and to demonstrate how trans autobiographies serve as counter-narratives to dominant discourses. The colonial imposition of Section 377 and Victorian moral codes pathologized queer existence, embedding heteronormativity into India's legal and cultural institutions. Although legal victories, such as the NALSA judgment (2014) and the decriminalisation of Section 377 (2018), mark significant progress, they remain insufficient without a concurrent cultural reckoning. This study therefore emphasizes the need to read autobiographical acts as modes of resistance that transcend juridical frameworks. Ultimately, these narratives articulate what Gayatri Spivak calls subaltern speech, not from the margins seeking entry but from a space of epistemic authority. They reimagine the boundaries of kinship, nationhood, and citizenship, offering a new cartography of belonging rooted in lived experience and cultural hybridity. In doing so, they resist the forces of erasure and enact a future already being written by queer lives at the intersections of caste, gender, class, and faith. These autobiographies are not just stories of survival; they are blueprints for a radically inclusive and decolonized social imagination.