Fractured Desires and Framing Histories

Sayali Shankar  | 20 September 2025 

At the heart of (Hi)Stories of Desire: Sexualities and Culture in Modern India lies a central proposition that sexuality in India cannot be understood through a single narrative, theory, or lens. The volume foregrounds fragmentation, contradiction, and multiplicity as its analytic ethos rather than imposing coherence. It argues that approaches to theorising sexuality in India have frequently oscillated between applying abstract global categories and clinging to narrowly defined cultural particularisms.