A Brief History of LGBT+ India

In September of last year crowds of Indians cried out in celebration as Justice Indu Malhotra of the Indian Supreme Court told a packed courtroom that “history owes an apology to the members of (the LGBT+) community and their families … for the ignominy and ostracism that they have suffered through the centuries. The members of this community were compelled to live a life full of fear of reprisal and persecution.”

And with that, Section 377 of the penal code was struck down and for the first time in centuries the LGBT+ people of India saw a future without persecution. 

Section 377 of the penal code has existed on the subcontinent since its drafting by Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1862. Macaulay was the head of the Law Commission and was installing anti-sodomy laws that criminalised any form of sexual activity “against the order of nature,” as the British were doing in all of their claimed colonies.

“History owes an apology to the members of (the LGBT+) community and their families."

The British Raj (British Empire in India) justified their existence as a “civilising” force, imposing their Victorian-era morality on Indians.

At the time there were a vast array of cultures and attitudes throughout India, all with differing views on homosexuality. 

“Suggesting there was a monolithic and singular attitude to anything was misleading. In contrast, there was a rich diversity in the ways in which sexuality was understood,” writes Ibtisam Ahmed, a Doctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham.

“Even in socially conservative areas, same-sex intimacy was simply a part of life.”

"In India, there was a rich diversity in the ways in which sexuality was understood.”

Ancient India is full of stories of LGBT+ people. Awadh (present day Lucknow) had a ruler who would live as different genders and take on different sexual partners. Late 19thcentury Bengali novels detailed lesbian relationships. Sufi Muslim books described romances between two men. Even the Kama Sutra had advice for consensual homosexual intercourse.

The Koovagam Festival traces its origins back to the third century BCE with the ancient myth ofKrishna who took the form of a woman to marry Aravan before the battle of Mahabharata. Their marriage is still celebrated today, with the Koovagam Festival becoming one the largest annual gatherings of trans people in India, or Hijra as they’re called.

Even further back, researchers estimate it was around 3102 BCE that homosexuality became recognised as “tritiya-prakriti” a separate and third gender.

Puri and Tanjore temples constructed between the 6thand 14thcenturies have graphic images of same-sex intercourse on its walls. Causing mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik to write: “One invariably finds erotic images including those that modern law deems unnatural and society considers obscene.”

Ahmed argues it was this diversity of attitudes that meant there was no united resistance to the anti-sodomy laws the British began imposing: “The lack of a united narrative about homosexuality across India meant that there was no singular dissenting voice against the forced implementation of Section 377 in 1860.”

The laws were not originally intended to explicitly target homosexuals, just any sexual acts that were not for procreation. As time went on, however, they were used more and more as a tool to oppress LGBT+ Indians.

After the partition of India in 1947, the penal code was retained in both the newly formed Pakistan and India. The same when Bangladesh gained its independence in 1971.

During the 157 years of Section 377 the LGBT+ community of India suffered terrible atrocities. There are countless accounts of blackmail, police brutality and gang rape, the raiding of HIV/AIDS centres on the grounds they were promoting illegal acts, abductions and murders of gay men, and lesbian women beaten to death.

“The lack of a united narrative about homosexuality across India meant that there was no singular dissenting voice against the forced implementation of Section 377 in 1860.”

In 2003 the Indian government refused to decriminalise homosexuality, claiming it would “open the floodgates of delinquent behaviour.” While in 2013 the Supreme Court turned down a challenge to Section 377, arguing LGBT+ people were only a “minuscule minority” seeking “so-called rights”.

Just a few months before Section 377 was overturned a lesbian couple leaped to their deaths, leaving only a note that reportedly read: “We have left this world to live with each other. The world did not allow us to stay together.”

The overruling of Section 377 marked a day of long-awaited celebrational and sombre remembrance for LGBT+ Indians.

“Out of context, the words used in today’s judgment, like privacy, dignity and equality, can seem anodyne. In fact, they lie at the core of what it means for our communities to survive,” wrote Mayur Suresh, a former Dehli lawer and lecturer at Soas, University of London.

“Today’s judgment makes it possible that people may no longer see fear in the future, but hope.”

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