The land of Khajuraho and the Kamasutra seemed to have come a long way from the delightful frankness of its past. With the approval of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2008, as also the judgment of the Delhi High Court 2009 decriminalising homosexuality, a small recovery was shown. But the landmark judgement of the apex court (2013) hit the nail on the head by declaring that gay sex is a crime.

The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision revisiting its 2013 verdict to declare that gay sex is no crime was a welcome step. But the apex court’s latest judgment refused to accord legal recognition to same sex marriages under the Special Marriage Act leaving the issue for Parliament to decide though it was agreed that queer couples have their right to live together unhindered and undisturbed.

In a country where it is still news when a model’s dress slips off her shoulder and scantily dressed cheerleaders at IPL cricket matches still stir a moral debate and provoke critics perhaps because there are deemed as violations of Indian culture, the recent decision is hopefully a step forward in holding that homosexuality is a part of the human experience and one has to accept it rather than look at it as abnormal or indecent.

It is ironic that homosexuality, which originated as a crime in the colonial era, has been decriminalised in England for over 50 years albeit partially. Although its moral dimension has often been questioned at different times, it is absolutely certain that homosexuality is a very ancient form of intimacy between same sex persons. In Greek mythology, Anacepator of Thessalonica summed up the elusiveness of an erection by saying: “Now no one’s round, wretched, hard and sinewy too!

But yesterday ~ no life at all in you”. A poem ascribed to Virgil curses the penis for letting him down at the moment of ecstasy with the pretty boy in his bed. Andre Gide, the unconventional French novelist became controversial for his book on homosexuality.

Michelangelo, the famous Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of Renaissance is believed to have been a homosexual. In English, there are many famous names associated with this practice. In Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva is depicted as “Ardhanarishwara” ~ a man and a woman split into two halves merged within the same body.

The homosexual is considered one of the images of “Ardhanarishwara”. In Bhakti literature, Kabir and Jayasi visualized themselves as women in love with their male gods. Ismat Chugtai, the celebrated Urdu writer dealt first with a lesbian relationship in ‘Lihaf ’ in the 1940s. It was certainly ‘Lihaf ’ that inspired Deepa Mehta to make ‘Fire’.

References to homosexuality figure in the works of Nirala and Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh. More realistically, a Mughal painting named ‘The Perfumed Garden’ unequivocally depicts two women kissing and embracing one another. Farzana Doctor’s story of the relationship between a Portuguese Canadian widow and a queer university student, ‘Six Metres of Pavement’ won the literary award in 2012, an international award presented to writers exploring LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) themes.

Westland also published the same year ‘Close, Too Close: The Tranquebar Book of Queer Erotica’ and Penguin came out with ‘The Man Who Would Be Queen’. “Bombay Dost’ and ‘Last Pages’ came up successfully as gay magazines. The Kamasutra describes four or five ways in which a woman can seduce another.

The lesbian is called a “saivrni” and the book mentions that women in the king’s harems had sex with one another. Way back in 1991, ‘Debonair’ magazine conducted a survey which revealed that nearly 37 per cent of the male respondents were gay. The same year a Kolkata survey exposed that 2 per cent of the city population was gay while 160 out of 22000 female respondents admitted that they were lesbians. Interestingly, it has been assumed that in 1887 an Austrian clinical psychologist coined the word “homosexual” to suggest same sex relations.

It was Cary Grant who used the word “gay” for the first time in a Hollywood movie, Bringing up Baby. Indian films like Sholay and Subah subtly acknowledged the presence of the gay. Rahul Rawail’s ‘Mast Kalander’, KR Reddy’s ‘Veeru Daada’ and Mahesh Dattani’s play ‘On a Muggy Night in Mumbai’ came forth with a bolder mindset on the subject. But it was Karan Johar’s ‘Dostana’ which gave homophobic India a new turn. Then came Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘Fashion’ casting a gay fashion designer.

Farhan Akhtar’s ‘Honeymoon Travels Private Limited’ had a similar subplot. Sanjay Suri’s ‘My Brother Nikhil’ also portrayed gay lovers. Mahesh Dattani also dealt with the similar subject in ‘Mango Souffle.’ Gay characters have made their appearance in Hindi films for decades now, but Hansal Mehta’s ‘Aligarh’ ~ the story of a male professor in an intimate relationship with a rickshaw puller ~ marked a new beginning.

There came over 100 Hindi films with LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) characters in pivotal or minor roles. Admittedly, gays are not quite so taboo in society any more. The success of award winning gay films such as ‘The Pink Mirror’, ‘Yours Emotionally ‘and ‘68 Pages’ prove the fact.

Now Indian gay websites report events being held exclusively for them. Understanding the potential of gay travel in India, travel operators have also begun to devise customised travel programmes for gays who wish to visit the country. Also in the fray are organisations run by Indian gay communities offering luxury gay packages for male travellers; they organise everything ~ from gay-friendly hotels to gay-friendly chauffeurs. So, things have changed.

Homosexuality, which continues to be taboo in our country, has been viewed and reviewed by the Supreme Court. Section 377 of the IPC prescribing punishment for homosexuals, drafted by Lord Macaulay in 1883, says: “Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

The law was, however, affected by the King James’ Bible where Leviticus warned, “Thou shalt not sleepeth with a man as thou sleepeth with a woman.” Since the Netherlands became the first country to legalise same-sex marriages in 2001, more than 30 countries around the world have followed suit. Estonia became the first ex-Soviet bloc country to legalize the practice ~ in 2023. Andorra’s Parliament voted in 2022 to extend civil marriage to same-sex couples.

Same sex marriages were legalized following a referendum in Cuba in 2022. Australia’s Parliament voted to legalize same sex marriages following a postal survey that showed citizens were largely in support of the change. The US Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that same sex couples have a constitutionally protected right to marry. Though not declared criminal in Argentina, homosexual acts are discouraged in public with police harassment very common. Sex between men is punishable in Sri Lanka whereas the concept of lesbianism is not even acknowledged in the penal code.

While Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal have repressive laws on homosexuality, the situation in Pakistan is much worse. There is almost unanimous medical and psychiatric opinion that homosexuality is not a disease or disorder and is just another expression of human sexuality

A K GHOSH The writer, a former Associate Professor, Department of English, Gurudas College, Kolkata, is presently with Rabindra Bharati University