Posted On: 2024-06-14 12:13:56
Pride Month is currently happening, and parades are being held worldwide, including in India. India has a rich queer history which most of us are not aware of. Indian mythology is filled with queer figures. This continues in the medieval era. In Baburnama, Emperor Babur talks about his desire for a man named Baburi. Babur writes in his autobiography;
‘I maddened and afflicted myself’ for a boy in the camp-bazar, his very name, Baburi, fitting in. Up till then I had had no inclination for any-one, indeed of love and desire, either by hear-say or experience, I had not heard, I had not talked.’
So queerness isn’t anything new in India and is certainly not a Western import as some would like to say. In fact, Western colonisation increased the stigma against queer people in India. In 1871, the British government labelled the Kinnar or Hijra community as an ‘unlawful tribe’. Section 377 which criminalised homosexuality, which was outlawed in 2018, was also a law introduced by the British.
So to talk about LBTQ representation in India, we are going to look at some major queer figures.
A member of an honorary royal family in Rajpipla, Gujarat, Manvendra Singh Gohil is the world’s first openly gay prince. His parents arranged a marriage for him in January 1991 but his wife filed for divorce a year later. His marriage was unconsummated. About his marriage, he said ‘It was a total disaster. A total failure. The marriage never got consummated. I realized I had done something very wrong. Now two people were suffering instead of one. Far from becoming normal, my life was more miserable.’ He publicly came out in 2006, which made headlines and was a huge scandal. Today, he is the chairman of Lakshya Trust, which primarily works on various issues addressing and advocating the social, economic, legal, psychological, spiritual and health aspects of sexual minorities (Gay, Bisexual and Transgender population) in the Western Indian state of Gujarat.
When the Indian Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in 2018, Dutee Chand gained the confidence to open up about her sexuality. She revealed that she was in a same-sex relationship, becoming the first Indian athlete to openly identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. However, she faced significant backlash from her hometown in Gopalpur, Odisha, with the villagers calling her announcement "humiliating" and her eldest sister threatened to expel her from the family.
Vikram Seth is a celebrated Indian author who has penned many famous books like The Golden Gate (1986), A Suitable Boy (1993) and An Equal Music (1999), for which he has received numerous accolades. He is also openly bi-sexual and was in a relationship with a French violinist Philippe Honoré, to whom he dedicated the novel, An Equal Music (1999).
Anjali Ameer was born into a conservative Muslim family as Jamsheer but soon realised that she was a woman trapped in a man's body. Taking jobs as a model to save money, Anjali took a gender reassignment surgery to transition into a woman. She took up a career as an actress and has so far worked in films like 'Peranbu', 'Ammu', and 'Suvarna Purushan'.
Shabnam Mausi was born as intersex baby. Her father, a police superintendent, gave her away to protect his image. But she soon rose up from the ashes and became the first transgender person to be elected to public office in India, as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. She was an elected member of the Madhya Pradesh State Legislative Assembly from 1998 to 2003.
Filaantro along with Child Help Foundation has conducted ration kits distribution for transgenders to support their community.
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AUTHOR: Adil Sayyad
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