No Savarna Saviors: Nepal’s Dalit Queer + Trans Movement

Toward a trans politic of love and claiming the thirunangai identity

A. Revathi is a writer, performer, activist and a thirunangai-hijra-trans woman from southern India. Revathi’s books are now part of academic curricula in India and elsewhere and her work has been vital in the context of trans rights and LGBTQ activism in India. Mikail Khan speaks to Revathi about her early life history, how sex work and begging are still prevalent among thirunangai, hijra and transfemme communities in India and South Asia, inclusion of trans men in transgender discourses, and why its important to link trans rights conversations alongside other interconnected struggles. Many thanks to Annirudh for kindly doing live Tamil and English interpretation on this episode!

No Savarna Saviors: Nepal’s Dalit Queer + Trans Movement

Rojan Pariyar (he/him) is a Dalit transgender man from Khotang district Nepal. He currently serves as a program associate at Samari Utthan Sewa and is an active member of Dalit Queer Nepal. 2023 witnessed Nepal's first Dalit Queer Pride which was led by Rojan and his comrades amidst a largely Savarna LGBTQ+ pride parade in Nepal. Mikail Khan speaks to Rojan about how Brahminical patriarchy follows the life cycle of Dalit trans and queer individuals, the nuances of transgender men’s voices, interrupting Brahminical benevolence in social justice movements, and the clarion calls for accountability, redistribution of resources, and rights for an emerging generation of Dalit queers in Nepal. Many thanks to raji manjari for their interpretation work on this episode!

Defying Nationalist Logics: Bangladeshi Adivasiqueer Insistence Through Art

Anika Nawar Ullah is a Bangladeshi-American and Adivasi/Indigenous Marma transdisciplinary artist and ecological activist whose artistic work traces relationships between transnational/intergenerational bodies, identities, memories, trauma, displacement, joy, technology, and living ecologies. Mikail Khan speaks to Anika about Adivasi resistance and queer futures in Bangladesh and the diaspora, especially on how it relates to animism, the repetition of cycles of war and anti-indigeneity, and how the work of caretaking for the earth needs to be done through caring for our own bodies.

Retellings and Reimaginings: Rejecting Brahminical patriarchy as a thirunambi (திருநம்பி) artist

Nabi Ali is a visual development artist and illustrator based in Los Angeles, California. His personal work often deals with religious themes, particularly centered around figures from Shi'a Islam, Dravidian folk religion, local saints and deities, as well as from anti-caste liberation theology and philosophy. Mikail Khan speaks to Nabi on how he is challenging casteist ideologies within the larger Savarna-infused art world and working alongside/platforming Dalit, Bahujan and caste oppressed Muslim people’s works in the process.

Nonbinary Finery and Dreaming Anti-Caste Futures

Manu Kaur (they, them) is an anti-caste community organizer, educator, and advocate based in California in the United States. In 2024, Manu curated the historic show, Dalit Dreamlands, one of California’s first queer art exhibitions centering the experiences of Dalit, Adivasi, Bahujan, Afro-Indian, Indo-Fijiian, Indo-Caribbean, and Muslim communities of South Asia. Mikail Khan speaks to Manu about this ambitious exhibit and their involvement in anti-caste organizing spaces in the U.S.