RICE UNIVERSITY The Closet in the Colony: British Colonialism, Indian Nationalism and (Re)Definitions of Gender and Sexuality by Shubha Joshi A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE Doctor of Philosophy APPROVED, THESIS COMMITTEE: ? Betty Joseph, Xssociaté Professor, Chair English Collgén Lamos, Associate Professor ie Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Professor and Department Chair Religious Studies HOUSTON, TEXAS MAY 2007UMI Number: 3256703 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality ilustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscrist and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized ‘copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion UMI UMI Microform 3256703 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 ‘Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346ABSTRACT ‘The Closet in the Colony: British Colonialism, Indian Nationalism and (Re)Definitions of Gender and Sexuality by Shubha Joshi My thesis challenges the influential theory that the formation of a nation is conditional on its ability to marshal normative sexual/gendered citizens: I argue that nation-formation (and the end of the British rule) in India was contingent to a large degree upon mobilizing and resignifying non-normative sexual/gender subjectivity. T begin by suggesting that accusations of “going native” and of having interracial homoerotic intimacies were related concems, both seen as perversions of upright British masculinity. Further, I suggest that the anxiety about racial purity and miscegenation that fed into the heterosexual narrative of rape is also attendant upon the unease surrounding same-sex intimacy between an English and a native male, With this critical lens in mind, I provide a new reading of two canonical texts, A Passage to India and Burmese Days. Next, I navigate the link between Indian independence and queemess, rereading key colonial moments (like the incorporation of the anti-sodomy statute in the Indian penal code, the bowdlerization of native literature, the Hindu reformist movement), texts (such as Anandamath and Gora) and personages (M. K. Gandhi) within this new interpretive schema, I seek to fill a critical interstice in the work on Gandhi: there is, 1 suggest, an enormous potential for a new queer perspective in understanding Gandhi, and—because his politics and life informed each other—also Gandhian nationalism