Queeristan

About the Book

A STEP-BY-STEP MANUAL FOR BUILDING INCLUSIVE WORKPLACES-AND A LESS UNEQUAL WORLD.

The reading down of Section 377 by the Supreme Court in 2018 has led to a fundamental shift in the rights of India's LGBTQ citizens and necessitated policy changes across the board-not least in the conservative world of Indian business.

In this path-breaking and genre-defying book, Parmesh Shahani draws from his decade-long journey in the corporate world as an out and proud gay man, to make a cogent case for LGBTQ inclusion and lay down a step-by-step guide to reshaping office culture in India. He talks to inclusion champions and business leaders about how they worked towards change; traces the benefits reaped by industry giants like Godrej, Tata Steel, IBM, Wipro, the Lalit group of hotels and many others who have tapped into the power of diversity; and shares the stories of employees whose lives were revolutionised by LGBTQ-friendly workspaces.

In this affecting memoir-cum-manifesto, Shahani animates the data and strategy with intimate stories of love and family. Even as it becomes an expansive reference book of history, literature, cinema, movements, institutions and icons of the LGBTQ community, Queeristan drives home a singular point-in diversity and inclusion lies the promise of an equitable and profitable future, for companies, their employees and the society at large.

About the Author

Parmesh Shahani is an award-winning author, curator, public speaker and inclusion consultant, who has guided many of the country's leading companies on their LGBTQ inclusion journeys. Until recently, he served as Vice-President at Godrej Industries Ltd and head of the Godrej India Culture Lab, a unique experimental ideas space which he founded and ran between 2011 and 2021.

Parmesh's first book, Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India (Sage Publications) was first published in 2008, followed by an updated edition in June 2020. Queeristan: LGBTQ Inclusion in the Indian Workplace (2020) won the C.K. Prahalad Prize for Best Business Book of 2021 and also the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity for 2021.

Parmesh holds an MS in Comparative Media Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a TED Senior Fellow, a Yale World Fellow, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a member of the FICCI taskforce on diversity and inclusion, and on the board of KHOJ International Artists' Association and Breakthrough.