Deciphering Lesbian Relationships, Marriage and Homophobia in Abha Dawesar’s Babyji

Abstract

Abha Dawesar’s famous novel Babyji is a real kaleidoscope of themes that touch on political tensions, caste and class issues, school atmosphere, urban life, abuse, marriage, and Indianness, all interlaced with a lesbian story of a sixteen-year-old girl. Published in 2005, the period where in India, homosexuality was still under the veils of criminalization. This essay will analyse the representation of the main character, her early lesbian relationships in adolescence, the experiences of other characters in marriage, and how straight people feel about non-heterosexuality in relation to the chosen literary stance. This article is an effort to critically examine the portrayal of lesbian identity by Dawesar which is far from the theoretical and fictional implications of other Indian as well as Indian diasporic writers. It tries to shed light on the author’s intention to re-examine the societal norms, stratification, class distinction and other factors that press women’s independence, especially their sexual autonomy.