Engendered Poetry
Sukrita Paul Kumar
GENDER, SEX AND THE CITY: URDU REKHTI POETRY, 1780-1870 by Ruth Vanita Orient Blackswan, Delhi, 2014, 322 pp., Price not stated
March 2014, volume 38, No 3

This book draws one into the world of rekhti (Urdu) poetry in the late 18th and 19th centuries and brings to attention the ground issues of gender and sexuality in those times. The colonial dismissal of diverse sexuality present in the societyhad led to the creation of a homogenized ‘mainstream’ that pushed many other realities into the margins. Delving into rekhti poetry brings out what is missing in Urdu poetry written and fashioned to the tune of the ‘high poetics’ of Persian of the times, both in form and content.

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