Religion and Sex in the Subcontinent

Abstract

When taking account of how sex was represented in literature, in addition to contextualizing such portrayals to changing religious discourses and the colonial context, one must take into account the internal dynamics of literary modes. I argue that throughout this period theatrical representations of the subcontinent allowed for the possibility of interracial relationships to exist by the end of the narratives as long as such a relationship was empowering for the white British colonizer. In contrast to novels and poems, Indian lovers are either presented as passing conquests before the protagonist meets a white Briton, or are alternatively killed off by the end of the narrative to prevent the possibility of an interracial relationship occurring. However, when one examines novels and poems located in the subcontinent, a historical shift can be outlined in the way they represented indigenous religions and sex. Indian religions posed no real menace to the British psyche in the earlier of the eighteenth-century texts. Brahmins were either depicted as being a mild and gentle race or devious corrupt charlatans, who were similar to Catholic priests in Europe. In either case, they were conceived of within a European theological framework. While Islam is represented as despotic, it contains no real threat to the power of the British colonizers.