Siddharth Narrain
Languages of Love (and Sex)
I soon realised how central language is to our understanding of the world, and how language constitutes the limits and possibilities of our experiences and identities.
By Siddharth Narrain
July 16, 2025
Revisiting Ctrl Alt Swipe Right: Sex, Sexuality and the Internet in India
Looking back at this piece, written seven years ago, the core issues that I identified then remain significant and relevant….
By Siddharth Narrain
सोशल डिस्टेंसिंग के ज़माने में डेटिंग
ऑनलाइन डेटिंग पहली मुलाक़ात में किसी को अपने घर बुला लेने जैसा लग सकता है, लेकिन फ़र्क़ ये है कि हम फ़ैसला कर सकते हैं कि हम उन्हें अपने घर और अपनी निजी ज़िंदगी के कौन-से हिस्सों में जगह देने के लिए तैयार हैं।
By Siddharth Narrain
May 16, 2024
LOVE SEX + ROBOTS
Even with all the risks that AI poses, it seems a safer bet than humans trying to exploit dating apps to make quick money.
By Siddharth Narrain
December 18, 2023
Dating in the Time of Social Distancing
At first glance, dating and social distancing appear to be oxymorons. But, as the last few weeks have shown us,…
By Siddharth Narrain
May 1, 2020
Choice and Sexuality in Cyberspace
Consent, however, is not so straightforward in the digital world. With instances where data can be hacked into, and with deep fake technologies making it more difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is fake, we have a situation where it is difficult to completely anticipate the kinds of risks involved, and the ways in which sexually explicit material is used.
By Siddharth Narrain
March 5, 2019
Sense and Sensibility
As Sontag points out, camp is a mode of enjoyment, not judgment. It is intrinsically generous, and is a form of love for human nature, it relishes the awkward intensities of character. Central to camp is a tenderness of feeling and love that has gone into certain objects and personal styles.
By Siddharth Narrain
October 1, 2018
Freedom’s Pride: Looking Back Ten Years On
In 2008, there were two important sets of events that happened: six weeks of intense hearings at the final arguments stage in the Naz Foundation case at the Delhi High Court, where section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was being challenged, and a bunch of folks in Delhi deciding that they were going to organize a Pride March. While these don’t seem obviously connected, they were both expressions of freedom, one in constitutional terms within the courtroom, and the other, a very public expression of freedom, taking to the streets.
By Siddharth Narrain
December 4, 2017
Ctr Alt Swipe Right: Sex, Sexuality and the Internet in India
The promises of the Internet are, of course, highly contextual. The Internet will mean very different things to a person who has access to their own mobile phone in a city with a reliable and affordable broadband or WiFi connection, as compared to someone who does not have access to a reliable Internet connection or who is unable to go to a shop to exchange downloaded songs and clips through an SD card.
By Siddharth Narrain
Issue in Focus: Taking Marriage Seriously
‘Sexuality’ and ‘marriage’ are terms that we don’t instinctively think of in the same breath.
By Siddharth Narrain
March 5, 2017
Other Than Marriage and Blood
In the debates around the need to expand the rights that accrue through marriage to same-sex couples, what is often lost are the forms of legal recognition of relationships not in the nature of marriage or blood. As the nature of traditional relationships changes across India, with more people opting to live singly or with friends, we really need to begin thinking seriously about new forms of legal recognition.
By Siddharth Narrain
May 1, 2016
HIV and AIDS Prevention, LGBT Rights, and the Law
As someone who has worked on sexuality and gender related issues, HIV and AIDS has been part of the larger…
By Siddharth Narrain
December 1, 2015