Policing Sexual Agency: Wives, Paramours and Transwomen

How does monogamy function as a tool through which states can police and control bodies?

What was marriage like in 18th century South Asia? Was it built on sex, attraction and intimacy? What did non-marital intimacies look like? What was the society’s view on queer desires and bodies? What was the society's views on polyamory?

Join me as I navigate through 18th century families, where wives, widows and paramours lived together under the same roof. This presentation shall also investigate the impact of society’s adoption of colonial morals on the perception queer desires and non-monogamous relationships.

We will also attempt to decolonize dominant assumptions about monogamy by examining how it came to be framed as the social ideal. Rather than a universal norm, its rise is closely tied to the political needs of emerging nation-states.