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 - vice president at Godrej Industries Ltd - 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 in to 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 society at large.

Parmesh Shahani is the founder of the award-winning Godrej India Culture Lab in Mumbai, which sparks conversations about the changing face of contemporary India. A passionate advocate for LGBTQ inclusion in the corporate world, he has guided many of the country’s leading companies on their inclusion journeys. He is a member of the FICCI task force on diversity and inclusion and a board member of Khoj International Artists’ Association. Parmesh holds an MS in comparative media studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a TED Senior Fellow, a Yale World Fellow and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. His first book, Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India, was originally released in 2008 and rereleased in 2020. This is his second book.