The World That Belongs To Us: An Anthology of Queer Poetry from South Asia

by Aditi Angiras, Akhil Katyal

‘A bold and necessary correction to the subcontinent’s poetry canon.’
—Jeet Thayil

This first-of-its-kind anthology brings together the best of contemporary queer poetry from South Asia, both from the subcontinent and its many diasporas.The anthology features well-known voices like Hoshang Merchant, Ruth Vanita, Suniti Namjoshi, Kazim Ali, Rajiv Mohabir as well as a host of new poets.

The themes range from desire and loneliness, sexual intimacy and struggles, caste and language, activism both on the streets and in the homes, the role of family both given and chosen, and heartbreaks and heartjoins.

Writing from Bangalore, Baroda, Benares, Boston, Chennai, Colombo, Dhaka, Delhi, Dublin, Karachi, Kathmandu, Lahore, London, New York City, and writing in languages including Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Urdu, Manipuri, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and, of course, English, the result is an urgent, imaginative and beautiful testament to the diversity, politics, aesthetics and ethics of queer life in South Asia today.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT, Anthologies, Nonfiction, India

240 pages, Hardcover

Published September 22, 2020

Reviews

[Fanna]

may 27, 2021: today's search for books has brought me here and oh so glad i am.

[Sookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buy this. Read this.
Its a gorgeous collection. Below are lines from every poem in this collection. I am so happy this exists. Thank you for bringing these poems to life.

It is the impossibility of queer love, the scholars say.
For whom the only future carved out is death.
-- Asad Alvi

Take me by the clear light of the sun
Let us forget, again, to lock the door.
-- Ruth Vanita

Till the hugs and the holding
and the inevitable story telling
made us feel you were
still smoking amongst us.
-- Shals Mahajan

Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.
-- Vikram Seth

crooning at 52 Hz, the only of his kind who can sing his poetry to you in Hindi?
-- Rajiv Mohabir

A Russian gay man
who has never travelled
beyond his village,
watches a Wong Kar Wai film.
His tears in the shower
become the Iguazu falls.

Does loneliness have no borders?
-- Gee Semmalar

My sister, she hangs by our slender thread that cannot snap
Because the long long time of waiting is never dead
-- Hoshang Merchant

Open your eyes, friend. Give up the green pretending. 
Let’s live only in the kaleidoscope of our communal dreams.
-- Minal Hajratwala

Fuck your order. Fuck your time. I realigned the cosmos.
-- Fatimah Asghar

as I wonder about the sound of the ocean
your arm encircles me and you pull yourself
-- Anahita Sarabhai

like it  so … hetero but not?
-- Sreshtha

And the voice of bygone days pulls us back, besides.
The beauteous eye continues to feed the flame of life,
-- Firaq Gorakhpuri

I have forgotten / I was marooned once / I have learned to respond to the word mehfil/ / like I do to a bird call / riding the waves, / my body becomes the sound.
-- Karuna Chandrashekhar

Teach your students trans petals and poetics, just not all death.
-- Aqdas Aftab

You’ve always been so gentle with your tools. Tougher, bolder at times.
-- Joshua Muyiwa

trace the of your navel, dip concave, disappearing, and imagine lower in.
-- Rushati Mukherjee

I haven’t even gotten to page 2 of my life and I’m probably more than halfway through, who knows what kind of creature I will become.
-- Kazim Ali

I stood paintbrush in hand all the colours of the rainbow close at heart rebuilding the immigrant dream one muddy artwork at a time
-- Unity Yamazaki

some homes look like deceit, turn into mirrors, into mines, into sunken boats, into teeth, into train tickets, into ballot boxes.
-- Chithira Vijayakumar

I can only hope that your skin, dyed congenitally
with anger and too much strength, does not sink
into your own bones.
-- Orooj-E-Zafar

People say ‘I love you’ all the time.
-- Smita V

Two make a pair, but love is between two halves that aren’t about fitting. Instead, filling out space because the other can take it.
-- Alishya Almeida

cab is still unavailable, घर जाउं कैसे?
-- Shakti Milan Sharma

I push my arms outwards Attempting to be a waterproof butterfly
-- Sneha Khaund

It is said that a son is the true successor
Of his father’s blood and race.
I therefore often ask myself,
If I am like you in every other way,
Why are my sexual desires
So different from yours?
-- Iftikhar Nasim

I’d grown up swallowing Yash Chopra movies and Mani Ratnam romances,
waiting with my whole body for a man’s hand to tug me gently onto the footboard of a moving train,
driving into a blazing forever
-- Nikita Deshpande

should I say his name
should I say each of their names
-- Dhiren Borisa

I gave you timelessness
You taught me the unpredictability
of green chillies.
-- Trishna Senapaty

Queer as in fuck you, 
queer as in secret.
-- Riddhi Dastidar

Take your non-verbal cruising, give it words, make it resistance, make every conversation into an insinuation of revolution, every wink, a portal into a new world order.
-- Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Bad brown girls always cluster in a bush
sucking fire and blowing smoke at the moon,
-- Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha

Come near me,
I want to hold you
captive, draw a line around you
with the salt of my desire.
-- Vimal Bhai

sigh! these hetero people find each other
by what chance or is it sheer numbers?
--Vqueeram Aditya Sahai

What Does It Take to Belong?

Dear brother from Kashmir You’re not the only Pakistani in Hindustan.
--Raqeeb Raza

You are epiphany
running in my veins.
-- Hadi Hussain

Once when I had tried to woo a cuckoo,
imitating its plaintive search,
you had stopped me,
saying that I was deluding the lovers.
-- Sudhentu Chattopadhyaya

Growing up is like the ache
of the attic floor which squeaks
at the slightest touch
and dissolves into a wallflower to
apologize for its insolence.
-- Abhyuday Gupta

You can’t talk about poverty/poetry, you can only live it.
-- Chanchal Gupta

We drape but
Darkness

with a little make up
-- Abhisikta Dasgupta

and I won’t blame the kids entirely
but for years after them I told people
my sexual orientation was tired.
-- Mary Ann MohanRaj

being odor-tested
for the scent of the other.
-- Chandramohan S

In that kohl-like night 
I had collected
a windowful of stars.
-- Shikhar Goel

Give me something of yours to take, you took off
your sari to wrap me in, before you could let me go.
-- Anannya Dasgupta

just like these, one day,
you and I will be lost –
to be lost is written in our stars,
to be lost is our Dhamma.
-- Kushagra Adwaita

He calls up to ask:
You, sir, are an activist?
Means you are active?
-- R Raj Rao

My loneliness and I  often ask each other: If you were gay, what would’ve been? If you were gay, what could’ve been.
--Annika

Body, even when you feel like a suffocating amount of too much
I am too afraid to mark you wrong for the fear of being lost
-- Fatema Bhaiji

This is also how a plus symbol may appear
-- Sumita Beethi

look at how
he sees a whole city 
in a home,
-- Nishant Singh Thakur

With a love so piercing, it’s a painkiller. It drowns my dysphoria.
-- Minahil Abideen

You will smile back,
A small cry of laughter in your eyes,
Underneath the hair that loves disguise
-- Sultan Padamsee

The horn-type mustache-walah asks:
‘Is that man or woman?’
The one sat next to him, strokes his beard: 
‘Will know when dead.’
-- Vijayarajamallika

One day , finally
you were able to free me.

We felt so much pride that day ,
both of us.
-- Rahul Kumar Rai

In another time, in another life,
they would call those embers, eyes
-- Barnali Ray Shukla

and tho’ sometimes you say you are there
‘brightness falls from the air’
like my hair
-- Iravi

Sometimes I think I could have been Axomiya.
-- Shruti Sareen

And when you finally decide
to pass through the purgatory
of this moment, does your mouth
not clench at the dried up sweat
that has by now chalked its mark
on you?
-- Ammar Hammad Khan

I’ve made rice. Da’ling, come.
Let me order a pair of chopsticks.
-- Agam Balooni

You take off the silver bangles, and hear
their absent clinking when you lower to tie
your shoes.
-- I. Sayed

I swear I hear the strains of reggaeton
my hips swivel into the different rhythms of
all our ancestors whispering
‘our stars in heaven hallowed be your names’
-- Amal Rana

I arch my back for you
you put me in your lap
like something to feast on
and savour me
-- Pooja and Teenasai

I am dreaming of you
but we were not perfect
almost never a calling
just an enchantment
like a leaf is to a tree
wearing warning signs
of an upcoming storm.
-- Warm Me

All of a sudden I am not my mother’s
daughter
But my
father’s son
--Sam(ira) Obeid

So we built a relationship on the road, between a restaurant and a hostel, in a car.
At midnight.
-- Dibyajyoti Sarma

This is the fight of your prison
Don’t make this a thing about my soul.
-- Sherish Rashid

I am the most beautiful of the lot – Gorgeous. Striking. Invincible. Idolized by all.
-- Santa Khurai

The trees of lineage have heavy branches; blood is thick. For instance, my eyes, and face, and mouth will all be a Striking Resemblance.
-- Ash Sal

When I revolt against this construction of gender 
I will keep my head held high

I will fly
-- Arina Alam

Some call it disaster.
Some call it ecstasy.
-- Ruhail Andrabi

They say This world isn't for you
Why was I born into it, if it wasn't for me.
-- Phurbu Tashi

when her voice breaks
like a wishbone
he will stay.
-- Akhil Katyal

Do you want to get to know me
Or the person whose body I wear?
-- Sahar Riaz

Even socks, and a jacket that kept me warm,
a jewellery box and the red camera.
All that I could, I gave back.
--- Priyadarshini Ohol

the boy
I kissed in high school
the girl
I’d named stars after
in return of a kiss
-- Shruti Sonal

My first real monsoon washes away the earth. They sit in the open.
The ground is littered with dead stalks and thorns.
-- Shaan Mukherjee Ghosh

I’m guilty of a crime
no matter what I do
when I try to forget
I remember you
-- Moksh

You’d quote me, my poems
and I’d court you, more poems.
-- Aditi Angiras

Queer is the galaxy of endless possibilities
situated just behind those prisons of the
binaries

Amma, Queer is me
I am Queer, Amma.
-- Chand

Few months after him, he caught himself
putting the phone in the shirt pocket.
The familiar reprimand was nowhere close.
Out of spite, he let the phone be.
The heart was anyway b r o k e n.
-- Gowthaman Ranganathan

‘that foolish girl jumped down the terrace
and committed suicide
girl-girl affair it seems’
-- Rumi Harish

This is a nation of selective amnesia.
-- Rajorshi Das

For it is so well understood
‘society must be defended’
knowledge must stay sacred
the body must be bound.
-- Dia B

‘Aren’t you a bit too old/overqualified/womanly for slumber parties with best friends?’
-- Tanni

Everyone says
this dupatta cannot be mine,
then why does it shine
so beautiful on my shoulder?
-- Snehashish Das

My poems are not supposed to make you feel good because I know love as revolt and not fantasised romance.
-- Riya Ghosh Ray

I am not a mausoleum, what do I need these tiny pebbles for?
-- Simple Rajrah

You wanted nothing more than to feel the
cold water on your bare skin. You couldn’t.
-- Dia M Yonzon

A dream swings like tenacity
like the promise of a weaver bird
-- Pitambar Naik

I feel I have the right to sleep on your tummy.
I still think it’s a constellation of stars.
-- Bhaskar Majumdar

I feel like I am a prostitute from the street.
But it’s better
than being chaste.
-- Shaikh Md. Mominul Islam

somewhere in me
faith still burns, survives
-- Kiran Toliya

Preeti in love I say
Ja re … they shun me away
-- Chandini

He has built for himself
– for what remains of his life –
a grave as beautiful
as epiphanies, he calls it
rooms to sleep in.
-- Ramachandra Srinivasa Siras

[Areeb Ahmad (Bankrupt_Bookworm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Will it stretch that far? Will it go round three
Continents or four, three hearts or more,
And still slide through a ring?
Worn and unravelled night and day without
A break, past two time zones, retain
Its sleek, original shape?
How many machines can we put it through,
How many phones, planes, taped voices
And still find it wearable?
Is our love elastic, or some finer,
clinging, skinlike, inward-breathing weave
To make all this bearable?"

Garment // Ruth Vanita



RATING: 3.75/5

I remember the call for submissions being put for this anthology in 2018. Akhil Katyal is a pretty well-known queer poet based in Delhi so I had been to a lot of his readings. I briefly toyed with the idea of sending my stuff but I didn't really have anything written, and I did not think I could write something was good enough to be submitted in time. Anyways, getting to the book, it was a solid collection. I appreciated the diversity in terms of location and language of the poets. I did find some of the poems subpar, but then there were other exceptional ones that made up for it. Many poets have been published for the first time. There are also selected works from the oeuvre of established poets. A few loved ones: Sreshtha, Chandrashekhar, Siras, Mohabir, Muyiwa, Vijaykumar, Orooj-e-Zafar. A lot of these poems play with language in interesting ways. Hopefully, this is just the beginning and we can get more queer writing across genres in the mainstream.

[Praneeth Kruthiventi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartwarming at times and painfully brutal at times, overall very beautiful!!

[Roshini · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s always difficult to rate and review an anthology, but overall I found this collection underwhelming. I think the concept is fantastic and the book is fairly representative, but save for a handful of poems, I didn’t really find the poems moving or revelatory. There is a clear political leaning to the collection, which is fine if it didn’t feel unnecessary at points.

Maybe I’m just not the audience for it.

[✩°｡⋆ishika⋆｡°✩]

Made it through two poems until i remembered how I've hated every poetry book i've read before this and just couldn't anymore lol but I'm still hoping to give this a second chance one day.

[isaac⁷ · Rating 5 out of 5]

if i ever wanted a tattoo, i would want the poem "what is queer?" inked on my back.

if i could give a copy of this book to every south asian queer person, craving representation, i would.

i don't fucking care if you understand poetry or not. READ THIS.

[niki ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful and brutal! what a lovely anthology.

[Mal · Rating 4 out of 5]

They say This world isn't for you
Why then was I born into it, if it wasn't for me

(Phurbu Tashi, The World Isn't for You)

In giving this anthology 5 stars, I'm steering away from my usual rating criteria. I can’t say that this book as a whole swept me off my feet – but that’s entirely an it’s not you, it’s me situation.

Reading poetry is always hard for me. Even with my favorite poets (of which there are admittedly very few, since I go for prose 95% of the time), there are usually some poems I absolutely love and, well, the rest. This definitely contributed to my rather neutral reaction to most of the poems in this anthology; it’s my own personal failing that I find it hard to appreciate this art. (In fact, if I hadn’t read this as a part of the Reading Rainbow Book Bingo, I doubt I would’ve picked a collection of poems as my second read of 2024 at all.)

That said, I’m not even attempting to judge the quality of the poems included in this tome. In the preface, Aditi Angrias and Akhil Katyal pose a very valid question – what even is ‘quality’ poetry? How does one define a ‘good’ poem – or a ‘bad’ one, for that matter? Scholars and academics who’ve spent years studying poetry might have a say in this, but I certainly don’t feel confident enough to make that call when it comes to something so raw and personal. There were a few that resonated with me, and a lot that didn’t. That alone doesn’t make any of them ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

Which brings me to the second reason why I may not have been so enthralled by this collection: in the end, it wasn’t written for me. The authors are all queer, which is one thing we have in common, but other than that, they come from backgrounds and cultures entirely different than my own. While their works give me a glimpse into their lives, their experiences are not ones I can easily understand, having only surface level context for most of them. Likewise, I can’t fully grasp the impact of publishing an anthology such as this – but I can imagine that this may be an important publication to people whose cultures are represented in the book. To me, largely unfamiliar with the complicated landscape of nationalities, ethnicities, and faiths in South Asia, the sheer representation provided by this anthology was impressive (and also quite heartwarming).

All I know about being queer in South Asia is that it can be a complex, incredibly nuanced thing, steeped in a multitude of contexts which are often unknown to the Western audience (however reluctantly I use this term for myself, being from the weird cultural spot in Central-Eastern Europe). This anthology gives Pakistani, Malay, Indian, and other South Asian authors a platform to say: we are here, being queer isn’t something that only people in the West get to be. For someone looking in from the outside, like me, it stands (proudly) in opposition to the narrative (present in some circles) that there are no queer people in other cultures – and it serves as a reminder that the fight isn’t over for a lot of us.

What these poems mean to queer Pakistani, Malay, Indian, and other South Asian readers – I can’t know, but I hope they find it.

Body, I am trying to come home to you
but you are a country my passport does
not recognize

Body, all these foreign curves beautiful on other women
is an unfamiliar geometry that does not make sense to me

Speaking of sense, I say ‘other women’ as if
it is a we
but the other is so strong I am left cold on
the outskirts

Body, you feel like a stranger occupying the same space
because I am too polite to ask you to leave

Body, even when you feel like a suffocating
amount of too much

I am too afraid to mark you wrong for the
fear of being lost

(Fatema Bhaji, Body/Lost in Translation)

PS Reading other reviews, I love how different people quote many different poems that resonated with them.

[Eduardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a necessary and brave anthology.

[Ekata · Rating 5 out of 5]

an urgent, poignant, and absolutely important anthology.

[wisteria · Rating 5 out of 5]

"eyes that spoke in bold italics brimming with kohl"
I HIGHLIGHTED TOO MANY THINGS FOR THIS REVIEW AND I'M VERY SAD I CAN'T FIT THEM ALL

[Aaditya Pandey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first anthology that I have read after I got to know about it from two people I have grown to be fond of, on social media. I have always read poetry collections of a single poet and so, I was accustomed to reading poems in a similar tone, style and theme. But this book got me curious about what I'd find in an anthology. And in no ways, I was disappointed after reading this.

The World That Belongs To Us is a one-of-its-kind anthology that has featured contemporary queer poetry of South Asia from not only well-known and celebrated authors and poets. But also, those who are lesser known and published before online or in print, and those are unknown and not published before. One of the most striking feature is that, it includes the translations of poetry from various regional poets of the subcontinent.

The intersectionality of themes varies across many categories and they evoke a range of emotions in its readers. The inclusivity of many marginalized voices in queer circles of South Asian Diaspora in this book, has reconstructed what it means to be queer and get their impeccable voices heard that requires urgent hearing.

Reading the poems, that are at times deeply personal and at others, very political, you feel like there is an intimate conversation happening between you and the poets through their imaginatively powerful poems. It will also make you search and yearn for further readings of various poets it celebrates with all their quirkiness. Just like I'm going to devour poems of Kazim Ali.

This is not the first anthology of queer poetry in South Asia but because of the various layered contexts and the question that "What is a 'Queer poem'?" makes it an essential reading for all the poetry lovers and those who want to have an essence of South Asian contemporary poetry.

[Sonam Nagpal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, I'm so glad I picked this poetry collection book to read, especially in Pride month 🏳️‍🌈
It's a great anthology of poetry from poets from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and some other countries. I wish I could read all the poems in their respective native languages, but sadly I don't know them all ofcourse. Big thanks to translators for making this work reachable to us in a common language (english in this case). I do wish to read though some of the original work in Hindi. 🙌

Some poems definitely stood out for me by Ruth Vanita, Fatimah Ashgar, Kazim Ali, Sudhendu, Marry Anne Mohanraj, Sultan Padamsee, Shruti Sareen (who is an alumni of my college only), Shaan Mukherjee Ghosh and Snehashish Das. But more than anything, I'm elated to know so many hidden gems of queer poetry of South Asian countries having read this book. I've noted already some of the recommendations of more poetry mentioned in this book by few of the poets. Quite eager to read those at some point of time. 🫶

Needless to say at this point that it's a must read collection. You can feel the raw emotions of the people in the poems of their struggle with the society to find their own place in it; the society that still, in this age, differentiates them for being "different". Who has decided what's normal and what's different for the society, we'll never know. But we can stand with these poets and strive for the change! 🏳️‍🌈

[naviya · Rating 4 out of 5]

- oh, it felt so good to read this
- i think with most anthologies, it felt like a mixed bag.
- i didn't like the translations at all. the translations made the poems seem more guache than they are in their native language.
- some fav poems: ghazal (minal hajratwala); the sonneteer gets a heartbreakers haircut, this is not yet another poem about my mother (sreshtha), exit strategy (kazim ali), table for one (anannya dasgupta), love in the time of dysphoria (minahal abideen), baidew (shruti sareen), meal planning (agam balooni), dirty laundry (riya ghosh ray)
- some fav poets: ruth vanita, vikram seth, joshua muyiawa, aqdas aftab, trishna senapati, vqueeram aditya sahay

[Parijat Bhattacharjee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 ⭐

It is hard to rate an anthology with such extensive variety. The book includes many poems which I absolutely adore, especially the one "On an Afternoon Spent Gently Unhooking Stars Caught in Barbed Wire" by Chithira Vijayakumar. Such a lovely poem! ❤️

Some of the poems were too hard for me to understand, some were nice, and some were not for me to to say anything nice about them.

[Ambica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the poems in this book will make you feel a hollow sadness like when you wake up alone after having a dream about someone you love who’s far away because for a moment you forgot about the distance.

[Charvi]

I don't know why I do this every time. I see a pretty poetry book and pick it up, forgetting that I'm not a poetry person. This is a me thing, please give the book a chance, I just couldn't enjoy it.

Dnf at 30%

[Amaavi Miriyagalla · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful poems from all corners of South Asia- especially loved the mixing of languages and little cultural references. definitely not something you see every day and that is cool. some of my favorites were Genderfuck(ed), I Know, The Pixie Cut and Dirty Laundry.

[alisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great effort. As with any poetry collection there were some misses and a few hits. The ones that hit were impactful.

[Shiv · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a decent collection of poetry. I was hoping for more passion/lust in the poems. More queerness, if that makes sense. I felt like it was lacking in queerness.

[divslibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[Srishti Magan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant, brilliant collection - difficult to find words that can sum up what most of the poems made me feel!

[Alisha Bhandari · Rating 5 out of 5]

all im gonna say is that this got me back into writing poetry. also the gay yearning i felt after this was so real.

[The Green Ship · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite reads this year!

[Uka · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful anthology.

[lyn]

Going through my to-read books

[Girnar Anand · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the finest anthologies- heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time!!

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredible anthology of contemporary poetry. I includes poetry from established voices like Hoshang Merchant, Vikram Seth, Ruth Vanita, Kazim Ali and Rajiv Mohabir. It also includes poetry from poets publishing for the first time. It has voices of people born and living in the subcontinent, people who were born in the subcontinent and are living abroad, and people who were born abroad to parent/s from the subcontinent. It has voices of people born to privilege and people from marginalised communities. It accepted submissions from people of all sexual identities, and even from allies.
The sheer range of poems makes you appreciate how broad the definition of "queer poetry" is. Is it poems by queer people on the "queer experience"? But is it fair to expect a person with a marginalised identity to write only about the experience of being marginalised- can't they write about regular stuff just like writers with non-marginalised identity do? And what about allies wanting to address queer themes? It is the diversity of poems that makes the anthology so compelling.
As in any other collection, some poems move you much more than others do. There are a few poems that may not technically "sound", but which have a depth of emotion that leaves you gasping. Some are so haunting, you keep returning to them every few hours.
If you want to read one book to celebrate #PrideMonth, you will not regret picking up this one. Do!
And, if like me, you often judge a book by the cover, this is one of those rare books, where the cover tells you exactly what you will find inside.

[Akshita · Rating 4 out of 5]

It fills your heart with joy at times and makes you feel a burn in your heart at other times. A wholesome collection!