The Muscular Body in Public Space

Abstract Discussing my long-term research involvement in the world of fitness trainers and bodybuilders in India, I frequently get asked if these men's bodies resonate with a potentially toxic sense of masculinity. Horrific rape cases, dowry deaths, and the more general problem of eve-teasing or the harassment of women in public spaces have all contributed to the idea of the Indian male as entitled and with a deeply problematic masculine self. This article seeks to upset this idea by focusing on the trajectories of interlocutors hailing from new or lower middle-class backgrounds. Focusing on a bodybuilding federation where men of the gujjar-caste form the majority and a small neighborhood gym where the trainers are from an ‘urban village’ in Delhi dominated by the jat-caste, it centers on men who actively engage with their socioeconomic status in society and the way their “transformed” muscular bodies are perceived in urban space. Having been expected to follow in their fathers’ footsteps and/or join the family business, their journeys deviate markedly from that of their peers. Working out and developing their bodies therefore marks more than mere bodily transformation. It also entails a process whereby they need to rework their sense of (masculine) self and their place in society.