The Psychic Life of Homonationalism

ABSTRACT In the current atmosphere of Hindu nationalist majoritarianism in India, LGBTQ activisms are increasingly being restructured through their allegiance with, or resistance to, a progressively violent imagination of a Hindu India. Within a larger climate of shrinking public freedoms, LGBTQ activisms have made some gains toward inclusive citizenship, and this has led to a false and dangerous correlation that claims Hindu nationalism is queer-friendly. As such, some LGBTQ activists promote “homonationalist” visions of a Hindu nationalist India. These narratives of “homonationalism” mete out violence against many other LGBTQ activists and communities that cannot or will not be interpellated into the Hindu nation. Reflecting on fieldwork with LGBTQ communities, in this article I demonstrate how the psychic life of homonationalism in India is rooted in postcolonial anxieties of defining an “authentic” national subjectivity. Building on theories on the politics of belonging and Lacanian psychoanalysis, I draw parallels between nationalist attachments to Hindu identity and homonationalist attachments to gay identity. In doing so, I argue that an anxious attachment to LGBTQ identity is at the root of homonationalist aspirations of belonging to a (Hindu) nation.