Lotus Of Another Color: An Unfolding of the South Asian Gay and Lesbian Experience

by Rakesh Ratti (Editor)

Book by

Genres: LGBT, Nonfiction, Queer, Lesbian, History, Gender, Anthologies

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1993

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

In full disclosure, I must admit that I am one of the authors of this anthology, edited by Rakesh Ratti.
I believe that it was a pioneering book, encapsulating the voices of several queer South Asian voices from across the diaspora.
I wrote a section in the book, entitled “Things aren’t that primitive back home / Sex Bombay”.
Having just migrated from India to the US, my article was capturing the queer scene back in my home city of Bombay, which I had just left.
Unfortunately this book “Lotus Of another colour” has been out of print for decades. I have repeatedly offered to have it published, at my expense, but Rakesh Ratti has yet to take me up on this offer.
I may be contacted at kim_singh@yahoo.com
Phone and Whatsapp +91 9987821640

[Sarah Ross]

“Our therapist was a white [middle-class woman]...and she misrepresented herself when she claimed to be culturally sensitive. She placed no emphasis on my cultural background; how could she understand me without it? Rather, she conveniently put us under the model of codependency. In principle, I understand this concept; it is inherent to both Hinduism and Buddhism. The self has to be taken care of first. But ultimately, you surrender that self. There is a fine line between codependency and nurturing and other cultural variables have to be examined before either label is placed.
The therapies did not realise that Indians, for the most part, get their sense of self through their bonds with others; we have an extended sense of self. She didn’t appreciate how inappropriate and destructive her approach was when it ignored our cultural differences. Take care of the self is fine, but getting stuff in that mode leads to selfishness.’
- *Meera, A Lotus of Another Color

[Daphne · Rating 4 out of 5]

most of the essays are stellar but in some the weird politics of 90s queerdom shines through. the essay on the Hijras in the middle-ish of the book just replicates transmisogyny from the perspective of a cis man

[Vanessa (V.C.) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 1993, Lotus of Another Color was and still is an own-voices treasure. Not surprisingly, this anthology is as groundbreaking and important now as it was then, as to this day, there still isn't a lot of focus on the lived-experiences of gay, lesbian, and bisexual South Asians. Just like the way the queer South Asian community felt back in the 90's, queer South Asians today are still often ignored and taken for granted by both the Western queer community and their own South Asian community, queer or otherwise. There are many reasons why this work is rare and so special: where most anthologies centering on people of color typically have a white editor, this was written by and for South Asians, where the editor himself, Rakesh Ratti, is a queer South Asian, and all the contributors are South Asian with experiences that are far from monolithic, they range from traumatic and devastating to positive and reassuring. Never does this feel like it was written with a white audience in mind, this anthology was a call for action, a plea for visibility, and ultimately, a warm and loving embrace for unity, acceptance, and freedom, by and for the community. With exception to pioneering British/Indian-African filmmaker, Pratibha Parmar, there are no well-known and privileged writers here either, which adds even more to this anthology's authenticity: even though some of the contributors are writing under a nickname or pseudonym (signified by an * mark) out of shame, stigma, privacy, or a myriad of other understandable reasons, these are just every-day people expressing their identity through poetry, essays, interviews, excerpts, and personal stories. This anthology also highlights LGBT South Asian organizations, such as Trikone (which still exists) and the long-gone Anamika, Shakti, Shamakami, and AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA). While once in a while this anthology does educate on queer terminology , what defines a South Asian, and on meaningful cultural and religious mythology, even then it never feels like it's talking down at the reader nor does it feel like it's pandering to a non-South Asian audience. It's all so remarkably fresh, and even though it was published 28 years ago (!), it's current. Remarkably, the whole anthology, every submission, reads as if it was written and published in 2021. That's why it's tragic that this anthology has long-ago been out of print and the publisher long-ago defunct: it's hard to tell how much of an impact this project made in its time or if the anthology was a success, but one thing's for sure, we still need Lotus of Another Color, because it was ahead of its time. It still needs to be read by South Asians. It should be mandatory reading for everyone in the queer community. Lotus of Another Color, above all, is an evergreen reminder that Queer South Asians deserve better.