Drag is freedom,” says Prateek Sachdeva, a young dancer from Delhi. On weekend nights, Sachdeva, who also holds a degree in hospitality management, puts on his makeup, his most glamorous dress, his tallest heels, and hits the clubs. He is part of a cohort of new-age queens, female impersonators in a country with a long tradition of men impersonating women. Much of this history can be traced back to folk theatre, to what in Bengalispeaking parts of India is known as jatra, where men played female characters because women were barred from the stage.
The new breed of urban Indians wearing drag owes more, perhaps, to American superstar RuPaul—a 57-year-old drag queen who is so mainstream, so entrenched in the popular imagination, that she fronts her own reality show, RuPaul’s…
