Disco Jaleb/: An Ethnographic Exploration Of Gay Bombay by Parmesh Shahani Bachelor of Commerce (1996) University of Mumbai Mumbai, India Bachelor of Education (2003) University of Mumbai Mumbai, India Submitted to the Program in Comparative Media Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Comparative Media Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology September 2005 © Parmesh Shahani 2005 All Rights Reserved The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly Paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or part. Signature of Author Program in Comparative Media Studies WI July 27, 2005 a : Dr. Henry Jenkins Ill Professor and Director Comparative Media Studies ‘Thesis Supervisor oo Se Dr. William Uriechio g) _ Professor and Director Comparative Media Studies Certified by Accepted by LIBRARIES LIBRARIES4 Disco Jalehi| Parmesh Shahani | © 2005Disco Jalebi| Parmesh Shahani | © 2005 Disco Jalebi: An Ethnographic Exploration Of Gay Bombay by Parmesh Shahani ‘Submitted to the MIT Program in Comparative Media Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Comparative Media ‘Studies Abstract Gay Bombay is an online-offiine community (comprising a website, a newsgroup and physical events in Bombay city), that was formed as a result of the intersection of certain historical conjectures with the disjunctures caused via the flows of the radically shifting ethnoscape, financescape, politiscape, mediascape, technoscape and ideoscape of urban India in the 1990. Within this thesis, using a combination of multi-sited ethnography, textual analysis, historical documentation analysis and memoir writing, | attempt to provide various macro and micro perspectives on what it means to be a gay man located in Gay Bombay at a particular point of time. Specifically, | explore what being gay means to the members of Gay Bombay and how they negotiate locality and globalization, their sense of identity as well as a feeling of community within its online/offine world, On a broader level, | critically examine the formulation and reconfiguration of contemporary Indian gayness in the light of its emergent cultural, media and political alliances. | realize that Gay Bombay is a community that is imagined and fiuid; identity here is both fixed and negotiated, and to be gay in Gay Bombay signifies being ‘glocal' - it is not just gayness but indianized gayness. | further realize that within the various struggles in and around Gay Bombay, what is being negotiated is the very stability of the idea of Indianness. | conclude with a modus vivendi — my draft manifesto for the larger queer movement that | believe Gay Bombay is an integral part of, and a sincere hope that as the struggle for queer rights enters its exciting new phase, groups like Gay Bombay might be able to co- ‘operate with other queer groups in the country, and march on the path to progress, together. Thesis Supervisor: Henry Jenkins Il Title: Professor and Director of Comparative Media Studies