Camping It Up

Abstract

Rekhtī continued to be written in the twentieth century, taking different forms, but the kind of rekhtī I examine in this book culminated in the work of Jān Ṣāḥib, and it died out with his followers. Jān Ṣāḥib was the pen name of Mir Yar Ali (1817–96). Born in Farrukhabad, he grew up in Lucknow, where he published his first volume of poetry in 1845; he moved around in search of patronage and died in Rampur.

These words are used for a man whose language, dress and behavior is like a woman’s: Jān Chhallā, Khānam Jān, Begamān, Zanānī, Dīwānī, Karhāī, Bahisht kī Qamrī, Dūrpār, Khāṣī Pyārī, Jān Ṣāḥib, Maiṅ Wārī, Bījī, Bahūjī, Banno Jān, Ghūṅghaṭwalī, Pardawālī, A’e jī, Hī hī.

—Inshā, Daryā-ĕ Lat̤āfat, 110–11

We are all born naked, and the rest is drag.

—RuPaul