“That’s what we think of as activism”: Solidarity through care in queer Desi diaspora

Abstract

This article examines a framing of solidarity as both activism and community care work in diasporic South Asian (sometimes referred to as “Desi”) communities in the US and the UK. From the vantage point of the researcher as a pansexual Indian-American activist herself, this article draws conclusions based on ethnographic research and interviews conducted with lesbian, gay, queer, and trans activists during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and Black-led uprisings against police and state violence in the US and the UK. These conversations and this article particularly examine the participation of Desi activists and their peers in these movements, and their explorations of different modes of solidarity, from joint struggle to allyship to coconspiratorship and community transformation. They ultimately argue that queerness in Desi diaspora fosters solidarity through care that nurtures relationships across and between the diverse groups that make up LGBTQ + communities and the Desi diaspora, as well as between Desi, Black, and other racialized and diasporic communities. By examining lesbian, gay, trans, and broadly queer South Asian activists’ relationships to each other and to other racialized groups in struggle, this article conceptualizes a framing of solidarity and Black and Brown liberation together that transcends difference, transphobia and TERFism, and anti-Blackness through centering kinship and care. Through the intimacies borne out of months and years on the frontlines of struggle together, this article argues that deepening an understanding of activism, kinship, and care together in Desi diasporic organizing is key to building a solidarity that imagines and moves toward new and liberated worlds.

Keywords:

• Social movements
• activism
• multiracial
• South Asian
• queer

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

1 Seva is a term in Sikhi as well as in Hinduism that refers to acts of service that are based on selflessness and faith.

2 SALGA, or the South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association of NYC, was one of the first explicitly queer and South Asian American organizations in the US, alongside Trikone, founded in San Francisco in 1986 and with chapters in Chicago and other cities. In one prominent incident explored by Kukké and Shah, as well as Sunaina Maira (in Desis in the House), Monisha Das Gupta (in Unruly Immigrants), and Vijay Prashad, SALGA was excluded from the 1995 India Day Parade, alongside Sakhi, an anti-domestic violence shelter and support space. While the India Day organizers explicitly said this was because the two organizations were South Asian, not Indian, many interpreted this as a Hindutvadi, misogynist, queerphobic, and Islamophobic exclusion. SALGA is still active in organizing in NYC today, convening spaces for South Asian and Indo-Caribbean queers alongside being active in other struggles for justice alongside likeminded comrades.

3 Urvashi Vaid was a lesbian Indian-American activist who campaigned across a host of issues, including in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, for prison reform, and for LGBTQ + rights. Vaid led the National Gay and Lesbian task force in the 1980s, was a member of SALGA in the 1980s and 1990s, and advocated for transformative queer liberation. Vaid was also the aunt of Alok Vaid-Menon, a prominent nonbinary and queer Indian-American author and performer. Urvashi Vaid passed away in 2022. For more on Vaid, see, for example, “The Prolific Activism of Urvashi Vaid” in The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/news/postscript/the-prolific-activism-of-urvashi-vaid.

4 TERF refers to “trans-exclusive radical feminists,” but it is important to note that many transphobic campaigners may not necessarily identify as feminists and may not self-identify as TERFs.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Maya Bhardwaj

Maya Bhardwaj (she/they) is a queer community organizer, activist, musician, artist, facilitator, and scholar currently based at the Sociology Department of the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She has roots in the US and the South of India, and has spent multiple years living alongside and supporting movements in Latin America, Asia, South Africa, the US, and the UK. Contact at [email protected] or [email protected].