Out of Time ii Oxford Studies in Gender and International Relations Series editors: J. Ann Tickner, American University, and Laura Sjoberg, University of Florida Windows of Opportunity: How Women Seize Rewriting the Victim: Dramatization as Research Peace Negotiations for Political Change in Thailand’s Anti- Trafficking Movement Miriam J. Anderson Erin M. Kamler Women as Foreign Policy Leaders: National Equal Opportunity Peacekeeping: Women, Peace, Security and Gender Politics in Superpower and Security in Post- Conflict States America Sabrina Karim and Kyle Beardsley Sylvia Bashevkin Gender, Sex, and the Postnational Gendered Citizenship: Understanding Gendered Defense: Militarism and Peacekeeping Violence in Democratic India Annica Kronsell Natasha Behl The Beauty Trade: Youth, Gender, and Fashion Enlisting Masculinity: The Construction of Gender Globalization in U.S. Military Recruiting Advertising during the Angela B. V. 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Ann Tickner Shepherd The Political Economy of Violence against Women Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies: A Jacqui True Gendered Analysis of Women in Combat Queer International Relations: Sovereignty, Ayelet Harel- Shalev and Shir Daphna- Tekoah Sexuality and the Will to Knowledge Scandalous Economics: Gender and the Politics of Cynthia Weber Financial Crises Bodies of Violence: Theorizing Embodied Subjects Aida A. Hozić and Jacqui True in International Relations Lauren B. Wilcox Out of Time The Queer Politics of Postcoloniality Rahul Rao 1 iv 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Rao, Rahul, 1978– author. Title: Out of time : the queer politics of postcoloniality / Rahul Rao. Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019047243 (print) | LCCN 2019047244 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190865511 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190865528 (paperback) | ISBN 9780190865542 (epub) | ISBN 9780190865559 Subjects: LCSH: Gay rights— Uganda. | Gay rights— India. | Gays— Uganda— Social conditions— 21st century. | Gays— India— Social conditions— 21st century. | Homosexuality— Law and legislation— Uganda. | Homosexuality— Law and legislation— India. | Homophobia— Uganda. | Homophobia— India. | Postcolonialism. | Great Britain— Colonies— Social conditions. Classification: LCC HQ76.8.U33 R45 2020 (print) | LCC HQ76.8.U33 (ebook) | DDC 323.3/ 264096761— dc23 LC record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2019047243 LC ebook record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2019047244 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Paperback printed by Marquis, Canada Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America for Naina vi CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xiii Prologue xv 1. Introduction: The queer politics of postcoloniality 1 2. The Location of Homophobia 33 3. Re- Membering Mwanga, Mourning the Martyrs 75 4. Spectres of Colonialism 107 5. Queer in the Time of Homocapitalism 136 6. The Nation and Its Queers 174 Epilogue: Conjugating like a State 213 Bibliography 225 Index 255 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Sometime after Bangalore’s Sirsi flyover was built in 1999 but before I had graduated from National Law School of India University in 2001, Arvind Narrain asked me— as we whizzed over K. R. Market on his bike— ‘How do you identify?’ I’m not sure I understood the question. ‘I don’t know. Marxist? It depends on the context,’ I replied evasively, shouting over the wind and the din of traffic. I don’t know if it was the answer Arvind was looking for, but to his credit he accepted it without demur. In the years since that delightfully failed exchange, he has become a friend and trusted interlocutor. Sometime in 2008– 2009, Arvind and other members of the queer law collective that edited Law like Love invited me to contribute a chapter, setting me off on a journey of which this book is one result. Although I’ve had doubts about whether International Relations offered the most hospitable disciplinary terrain for that journey, Cynthia Weber has persuaded me otherwise. I am grateful for her friendship, scholarship, and mentorship, which have made place in the discipline for something that we are now beginning to call queer IR. Like countless others, I have been inspired by the work of Jasbir Puar. Terrorist Assemblages gave us a formidable theoretical arsenal with which to make sense of what was, till then, an inchoate sense of disquiet with queer liberalism. Jasbir’s friend- ship and support have been invaluable in bringing this project to frui- tion. My thanks also to my doctoral supervisor Andrew Hurrell, who has remained a steadfast source of encouragement. David Kato was the first person with whom I made contact in Uganda when I began to research controversies around homosexuality in the country. I will never forget the shock of hearing about his murder in 2011, especially as I had received one of his characteristically energetic emails only a few days before. His loss is irreparable, but I’m moved by the courage and resolve that his comrades have demonstrated in its aftermath. I am grateful for the time that Frank Mugisha has given me over the last nine