On the Edge 100 Years of Hindi Fiction on Same-Sex Desire

Afirst-of-its-kind collection of short stories and extracts from novels centered on theme of same-sex desire, translated from the original Hindi.

The sixteen beautiful and provocative stories featured here (published between 1927 and 2022) include classic works by Asha Sahay, Premchand, Ugra, Rajkamal Chaudhuri, Geetanjali Shree, Sara Rai and Rajendra Yadav, among others.

An important anthology, On the Edge shifts the focus on stories and characters who have, for far too long, remained in the shadows and brings them (and us) into the light.

Ruth Vanita taught English at Delhi University for twenty years and is now professor at the University of Montana. She was founding co-editor of Manushi, 1978-90, India's first nationwide feminist magazine. She is the author of several books, including Memory of Light; Love's Rite: Same-Sex Marriages in Modern India (2005); Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India 1780-1870 (2012); and Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema (2017). She is the co-editor of the pioneering Same-Sex Love in India: A Literary History, and has translated many works of fiction and poetry from Hindi and Urdu to English, most notably Chocolate: Stories on Male-Male Desire by Pandey Bechan Sharma 'Ugra' (2008). She divides her time between Missoula and Gurgaon.