Paper short abstract:

Drawing from the literature on homocapitalism and informalization of the commercial surrogacy industry, we explore the pragmatic limits of the ongoing struggle of queer rights in India towards marriage equality and the right to have an offspring that exacerbates the exploitation of surrogates.

Paper long abstract:

In October 2023, the Supreme Court justices in Delhi ruled against the writ petitions for same-sex marriage equality. The five-judge bench headed by Justice Chandrachud ruled against claims by gay partners to marriage, surrogacy and adoption and inheritance and employment benefits, by adopting the liberal pretext that the fate of the queer community is to be decided by Parliamentary procedure. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has declared that the decision ‘‘to not give homosexuals the right to adopt a child is also a good step.’’ In this paper, we will explore the formation of Hindu-homocapitalist modernity as a species of cosmopolitan governmentality by exploring the ‘reproductive assemblage’ of outlawed yet flourishing surrogacy services and practices from the perspective of subaltern women. The frontiers of International Human Rights have reached a limit in India when it comes to the exploitation of subaltern women for their reproductive labour. Neoliberal rationality orders these two species of human rights: the right to reproduction through surrogacy finds validation through a queer rights industry and homonormative modernity. Appropriation of reproductive justice by gay capitalism exacerbates the marginality of subaltern women. Their decision to act as a gestational surrogate for social reproduction is rendered invisible.