Queer Indigeneity and the Simulacra of Normativity: Gender, Resistance, and Cultural Erosion in Adivasi Chhota Udepur

ABSTRACT This critical ethnographic study explores the negotiated visibility and resilience of queer individuals within Adivasi communities in Chhota Udepur, Gujarat. Prompted by the 2023 Supreme Court's assertion that queerness is not limited to urban elites, the study investigates how queer subjectivities are recognized and negotiated within a socio‐cultural milieu—shaped by Brahminical patriarchy, colonial legacies, religious homogenization, and modernization. Drawing on Jean Baudrillard's theory of simulacra and Maria Lugones' concept “coloniality of gender,” the study examines how sexual binarism has been normalized over time as the hyperreal norm through overlapping structures of caste, religion, and colonial legacies, which overshadow the historically embedded relational fluidity in the region. Using semi‐structured interviews with 10 queer and 40 heterosexual participants and field visits, the paper reveals a terrain where queerness co‐exists with subtle forms of normative disciplining. Rather than framing Adivasi queer existence as marginalized, the study foregrounds the subversive acts of religious reappropriation—wherein queer individuals assume spiritual roles, thereby gaining symbolic authority and communal acceptance. This critical study fills a gap in Indian queer and indigenous scholarship by centering tribal queer Adivasi voices and highlighting their exclusion from within dominant queer politics. In line with Nandy and G. N. Devy's critiques of epistemic colonialism, the study advocates the integration of tribal queer knowledge systems in larger discussions about sexuality, identity, and rights.