“Queer Clan”: Territorial Politics and Queer Kinship in Assam

Building upon queer theorisation, this paper explores social and kinship formation as a new approach to queer politics. Based on Assam, one of the northeastern states in India, this study explores new forms of kinship patterns within queer politics. By using "queer clan" as a terminology, the paper investigates the process of clan formation that is deemed necessary for marking the transformation and the changes occuring in queer politics. The term holds multifaceted meanings, built upon spatial, regional and ideological grounds, and to distinguish different politics. Drawing inspirations from Kath Weston's 'Families We Choose' (1991) that presents the idea of kinship practices among gays and lesbians in the U.S. and form alternative kinship based on friendship and community networks. For that, sexuality is a ground of common experience via frienship networks, recognition and togetherness (Weston 1991). Queerness challanges the status quo and resist not only gender and sexual normativity, but more. Queer clan is, thereby, territorial as it underlines the importance of stretegic choice of places for queer performace and politics, including a careful choice of clan members. In that sense, clan is an extension of family and community. Clan formation is strategic and primal in nature, and by that queer politics is not simply limited to sexual identity politics. The paper unravels the process of queer leadership, membership and institution building in order to carry out various activities. Following that, it further explores the process of initiation of members into the larger clan network. Understanding such practices offer a space to deliberate the diverse positionality within queers and queer politics, which is often left out in discussions. The process of institution building for queer advocacy is notably signficant for queer activism and policy making.