R. Raj Rao | |
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| Born | (1955-04-06)6 April 1955 (age 70) |
| Occupation | Writer, professor of literature |
| Alma mater | University of Bombay University of Warwick |
| Genre | Poststructuralism,LGBT literature |
| Notable works | The Boyfriend |
Ramachandrapurapu Raj Rao (born 6 April 1955)[1] is an Indian writer, poet and teacher of literature who has been described as "one of India's leading gay-rights activists".[2] His 2003 novelThe Boyfriend is one of the first gay novels to come from India.[3][4] Rao was one of the first recipients of the newly established Quebec-India awards.[5]
R. Raj Rao was born inBombay, India. He earned a PhD in English from theUniversity of Bombay in 1986 and received the Nehru Centenary British Fellowship for his post-doctoral research at the Centre for Caribbean Studies,University of Warwick, UK[6] He attended theInternational Writing Program,Iowa, in 1996.[7] His works includeSlide Show (poems). He has edited Ten Indian Writers in Interview and co-editedImage of India in the Indian Novel in English (1960–1980). He works as a professor and head of the English Department at theUniversity of Pune. Rao is openly gay.[8] On the recurring themes of homosexuality in his works, Rao says: "I am myself a poet, novelist, playwright and writer of non-fiction. Similarly, my teaching and research interests in queer theory and queer literature are a direct and natural outcome of my being gay and imaginatively tackling the subject in my fiction, poetry and plays."[6] His poems appeared in many prestigious poetry anthologies likeThe Dance of the Peacock besides other noted journals and anthologies.[9][10]
Poems from Rao's BOMGaY collection served as the basis forRiyad Vinci Wadia's filmBomgay (1996),[11] said to be India's firstgay film.The Boyfriend was his first novel.[12] It was released with fanfare by Penguin India all over the country in 2003. Filled with irreverent, dry humour and devoid of sentimentality,The Boyfriend is a tragi-comic love story set in the jumbled up heart of Mumbai. According to a blurb, "[The Boyfriend] also deals with unsparing irony the realities of caste, class, religion, masculinity and the gay subculture in India".[13] It created quite a stir when it first appeared and was discussed in many prominent magazines as a guide to the then underground gay subculture in Bombay.[14][15] It went on to be used as a model for the queer scene in India in researches in the field of queer studies.[16][17][18]
Rao published the non-fiction workWhistling in the Dark in 2009, the novelsHostel Room 131 in 2010 andLady Lolita's Lover[19] in 2015.
Following the success ofThe Boyfriend, Rao founded the Queer Studies Circle at Pune University.[20] Rao was one of the first to offer a course onLGBT literature at the university level inIndia.[21] Rao first offered it in 2007, after years of resistance on the part of his academic superiors. He said: "It's strange how the academic fraternity that has always been quick to accept all kinds of literature — Marxist, feminist, Dalit — had a huge reservation when it came to queer literature. For years, the Board of Studies refused to let us start the course saying that 'Indian students do not need it'. Finally we clubbed it with Dalit literature and started it under the genre of Alternative Literature."[22]
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