Abstract This essay examines the role of literature in exposing the entanglement of law, nationalism, and gender in British India and in shaping discourses about “obscenity” in literature. To this end, it analyzes Ismat Chughtai’s “Lihaaf,” a short story about same-sex female relationships for which she was put on trial in the Lahore High Court in 1944, and Chughtai’s own account of the “obscenity” trial. Chughtai’s description of the court proceedings enables a complicated understanding of how expectations about women’s appropriate roles and behaviour pervaded courtroom discussions to facilitate alliances and complicities among local and colonial power groups. Such alliances expose the paradoxical underpinnings of regulatory controls over literature and show that attempts to censor “Lihaaf” ultimately served the interests of a masculine nationalism that imagined the nation’s women as “good” wives. Read together with “Lihaaf,” her account of the trial shows that while nationalism allowed room for transgressive masculinities, the space of transgressive femininity, especially for middle-class women, remained limited. Additionally, it shows how the centrality of the middle-class woman’s question in the courtroom overrode attention to the complicated power relationships that play out across class, gender, and children in “Lihaaf.”

中文翻译：

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审查、“淫秽”和法庭戏剧：阅读 Ismat Chughtai 的“Lihaaf”和“The 'Lihaaf' Trial”

摘要 本文考察了文学在揭露英属印度的法律、民族主义和性别之间的纠葛以及塑造文学中关于“淫秽”的话语方面的作用。为此，它分析了 Ismat Chughtai 的“Lihaaf”，这是一个关于同性女性关系的短篇小说，她于 1944 年在拉合尔高等法院受审，以及 Chughtai 自己对“淫秽”审判的描述。Chughtai 对法庭诉讼程序的描述使人们能够复杂地理解对妇女适当角色和行为的期望如何渗透到法庭讨论中，以促进当地和殖民权力团体之间的联盟和共谋。这种联盟暴露了对文学的监管控制的矛盾基础，并表明审查“Lihaaf”的企图最终符合男性民族主义的利益，这种民族主义将国家女性想象为“好”妻子。与“Lihaaf”一起阅读，她对审判的描述表明，虽然民族主义为越轨的男性气质留有空间，但越轨的女性气质的空间，尤其是中产阶级女性，仍然有限。此外，它还显示了法庭上中产阶级女性问题的中心地位如何压倒了对“利哈夫”中跨阶级、性别和儿童的复杂权力关系的关注。越轨女性气质的空间，尤其是中产阶级女性，仍然有限。此外，它还显示了法庭上中产阶级女性问题的中心地位如何压倒了对“利哈夫”中跨阶级、性别和儿童的复杂权力关系的关注。越轨女性气质的空间，尤其是中产阶级女性，仍然有限。此外，它还显示了法庭上中产阶级女性问题的中心地位如何压倒了对“利哈夫”中跨阶级、性别和儿童的复杂权力关系的关注。