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Writing children’s books about homosexuality does not seem too easy anywhere in the world, let’s imagine in a country where homosexuality is considered a crime. And yet, in her absorbing stories for youngsters, the Indian writer Payal Dhar depicts some unforgettable gay characters, described with great spontaneity, serenity and respect. The fantasy trilogy for young adults “A Shadow in Eternity”, published between 2006 and 2009 by Zubaan, is set in a parallel world without homophobia, inhabited by Jan and Stephen, a same-sex couple. In “Slightly burnt”, published last year by Bloomsbury India, the main character, a 13 years old girl, has to face his best friend’s great secret: he too likes boys. Il grande colibrì interviewed this interesting author.

How did you get the idea of introducing the theme of the respect of LGBT people in “A Shadow in Eternity”, a trilogy addressed to younger readers?

It wasn’t all planned and sorted as your question makes it seem! But it happened because of two things. One, I was dead against the idea of talking down to children, and was keen to portray an inclusive and diverse world. We are quite a traditional society and not particularly comfortable with talking about complex things with children. Yet the surfeit of information means they are exposed to a variety of new ideas that they have no clue how to process. There was a certain amount of resistance from some people I knew when I spoke of including alternate sexuality in these books. The usual response was, “But it’s a book for children!” But kids don’t live in a vacuum, do they? Nor are they stupid – they see and hear things, and it is only fair that they may be allowed to understand them.

And the second reason?

Ironically, most fantasy fiction is guilty of depicting exactly the same kind of world that we live in – rigidly patriarchal and heteronormative, replicating the same gender roles and stereotypes, the same social structures and the same power dynamics. This is really sad because it is the one genre that can break free of the existing limitations of our reality. To try something different, I created a parallel world that has a different set of “social evils” and homophobia (among other things) is not one of them.

Did you have any trouble finding a publisher for “A Shadow in Eternity”?

No, not at all. The children’s publishing industry in India is currently quite small and it’s not that difficult to have an idea of who will be receptive to what kind of book. I was lucky to work with Young Zubaan, an imprint of the feminist publisher Zubaan, and one of the very few who were open to looking beyond the traditional, to push boundaries. Interestingly, a few years down the line, a young editor I worked with for one of my later books with a well-known publisher was rather uncomfortable with a character of ambiguous sex and asked me to make sure I divulged the “real sex” of that person was later on!

From 2006 to today, did things change?

Yes, the young adult publishing scene has changed a whole lot. There are now many publishers who are actively shying away from bringing out preachy, didactic books for young people and taking their reading audience seriously, thinking about what they might want to read. given the kind of books that are coming out, it’s clear that times have changed.

“Slightly burnt”, published last year, not only will appeal to young readers, but also tells the story of a gay teenager, the best friend of the protagonist …

LGBT children are an invisible segment in India – no one wants to admit they exist and they have virtually nowhere to go to for advice and support. In fact, leave alone homosexuality, we are not comfortable talking about sexuality in general with youngsters. The changes in the law (commonly known as Section 377), which criminalizes sexual acts “against the order of nature”, coupled with existing social mindsets makes for a hostile environment for alternate sexualities.

How have you dealt with the issue of homosexuality from teenagers’ point of view?

“Slightly burnt” is the story of a teenager who starts to look at the world differently because her friend comes out as gay; to start to question what we consider “normal” and “convenient”, and even analyse how and why we take certain things for granted. Through the perspective of the best friend, I could explore the whole journey from shock to disbelief to anger to acceptance – and then anger at a world where her friend needs to hide who he is. Along the course of coming to terms with the big revelation, the narrator also realizes that sometimes we confuse our real opinions with what we feel we are supposed to think – and the distinction is not always easy to make.

What is the readers’ reaction to your books?

Feedback has come from two distinct quarters – the target audience (teenager readers), and reviewers and bloggers (adults). The young people have been kinder than the reviewers and critics. For my “Shadow in Eternity” series, I’ve had a tonne of encouraging feedback from Turkish readers (the series is published by Carpediem Kitap as “Maya” in Turkey), so much so that I’m seriously considering a new book in the series. The reaction of the young audience matters a lot to me because that’s who I address.

For Slightly Burnt, one sixteen-year-old girl said I had captured the “voice’ perfectly and this was the highest praise I’ve got – it would have been terribly embarrassing if teenagers felt that I was a 40-year-old trying too hard to sound with-it! Another reader, a boy, said that he identified with both the narrator and her brother, making this a book about relating to people, irrespective of their gender, sexual orientation and so on. High praise indeed and highly cherished!

Who are your readers? For example, do they belong to a specific social class?

Well, since I write in English, my audience is limited. My books are available to a very small section of society, a privileged and affluent socio-economic section who can afford to buy books for entertainment. I would say maybe 10 per cent or so of the population.

In Italy some fundamentalist Catholic and fascists groups are multiplying the protests against schools that discuss freely about sexual orientation and gender identity, and act to curb homophobia and anti-gay bullying. Some children’s books about homosexuality were burned in the streets…

I wonder if at the heart of all intolerance there is a real lack of empathy towards anyone who is different or if it is a fear of anything that is different. Or maybe it’s a mix of the two. Any deviation from the what is believed to be the norm is seen as a perversion – and goodness, don’t we want to shut our children’s eyes and ears from that sort of thing?! In India, religious fundamentalists believe that it is a “decadent Western culture” that is leading young people astray, including putting ideas into their heads about homosexuality and so on, conveniently forgetting the historical tradition of alternate sexualities as depicted in ancient texts and art.

And even a lot of “unexpected” people believe that these issues are not suitable for children and teenagers…

The fundamentalists and right-wingers have their own agendas, of course, but the prevailing benign bigotry that the rest of us are sometimes capable of showing is also to blame – the “those people” syndrome, if you know what I mean, which applies not just to LGBT people, but anyone who doesn’t fit into our convenient definitions of “normality”. In my opinion, a lot of damage comes from “good people doing nothing”. It fuels the fear that youngsters must be protected from coming to know exactly how diverse the human race can be, lest they end up being different themselves.  Ignorance breeds fear, and fear makes us do stupid things sometimes.

 

Pier
©2015 Il Grande Colibrì

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