Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)longing in Contemporary India (51 page)

Conclusion
297

counselling services, safe shelters, larger legal teams to analyze laws that impact their lives as well as to represent them in times of need, more targetted health services, a much wider and more sustained HIV prevention drive, creation of viable job opportunities for marginalized communities like
hijras
and so on. Efforts should be ongoing to fulfill these and other needs, with as much zeal as the efforts to change the law.

In the words of Narrain (2004)—

The premise of change with respect to sexuality is as much a change in societal mores as it is about legal change…. Since Section 377 is not purely a legal issue, the way we tackle it cannot be through the court room alone. One cannot expect judges to decide on Section 377 positively, if we have not started a process of public education about queer rights.

If we want the courts to give us a decision like Lawrence versus Texas, then there is no way out of the difficult process of building a campaign based on queer visibility.53

(
d
)
The media should be co-opted and used in the process of

building

visibility

We have seen in this book how the English media has served Gay Bombay’s interests as an ambassador for gayness at large. My respondent Cholan echoed Narrain’s words when he said that judges and politicians are also part of the world. They read the newspapers and watch television and can be as influenced from these as the general public. Thus, the media should be consciously co-opted and made a part of the larger queer struggle. Moral panic must not be allowed to be created at all cost by the bigots and if it occurs, it must be countered immediately and forcefully. The success enjoyed with the English media needs to be broad based further so as to include the vernacular media. Here is a wonderful step in this direction. The Chennai and Calcutta based NGO SAATHI has initiated the
SAATHII Rainbow Film Awards
for positive representation of LGBT people in Indian cinema. At the first such awards ceremony held in conjunction with Pride week in Calcutta in 2005, filmmaker Onir was honoured for his direction of the sensitive gay-themed
My Brother Nikhil
.

The organizers plan to expand the reach of the Rainbow Awards to include other categories, following the example set by GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) in the US.54

298
Gay

Bombay

(
e
)
Indian queer histories and tradition should be emphasized

I more or less agree with the hypothesis that once a certain visibility threshold is crossed and the battle for recognition and acceptance really enters the mainstream, it might lead to more pronounced homophobia.

We have seen through different incidents recounted earlier (such as the protests over the films
Fire
and
Girlfriend
) that the attack may well be framed as an overall attack on Westernization—being gay will be added into the ‘well defined yet adaptable arsenal of “Western Evils”—

divorce, drinking alcohol, eating meat, or drug abuse’. (Shah, 1993)55—as something that needs to be prevented from happening to the impres-sionable young men and women of the country. The Lucknow incident in 2006, already noted earlier in this book, where the police framed, victimized, arrested and then humiliated a group of gay men is an indication of the direction in which things could go. The police allegedly arrested one man who they had deduced was gay and forced him under torture, to call up some of his gay friends on his cellphone, telling them that he was ill and needed their help. When his friends reached him, they too were arrested, citing Section 377 as justification for the arrests and the police then called a press conference to declare that they had broken up a homosexual network and arrested men who were caught having sex in public. The impunity with which the police seem to have broken several human rights laws and their smugness that they were doing society a favour with their actions, is frightening.56 There have also been several cases recorded of parents disowning or even legally dis-inheriting their children when they reveal their homosexuality to them.57 Groups like the VHP and RSS are only too happy to jump on the

‘anti-Indian culture’ bandwagon at any given time, as their comments indicate.58

It is imperative therefore, to emphasize the localness and situated-ness of India’s queer sexual identities as a part of our
modus vivendi.

This might be done in three ways. First, it should be emphasized that gayness has a history in India and its own historical Indian traditions, (as documented in the books by authors like Ruth Vanita and Devdutt Pattanaik) as well as its own icons and heroes (as documented via events like Humsafar’s Icons exhibition at WSF 2004 or Gay Bombay’s visit to Bombay’s National Gallery of Modern Art for the Bhuppen Khakar Conclusion
299

retrospective after the artist passed away in 2003). Second, contemporary traditions should be created for the community to increase and foster a community spirit. Gay Bombay’s creative appropriations of
Bhishma Ashtami
59 and pan Indian festivals like
Holi
celebrated by members of Gay Bombay and Humsafar are excellent examples of

this ideal in practice. As Giddens writes, ‘traditions are invented and reinvented’60 constantly, according to the need of the hour. And finally, it should constantly be emphasized that queerness is not a threat to the strength of the family system in India. We have seen in this book what an important status my respondents assigned to family in their lives.

A Gay Bombay event like the Parents’ Meet unfailingly gathers the highest number of attendees—the one held in July 2006 for instance, had 103 participants (including nine parents).61 Thus, every outreach effort should emphasize this inherent
Indianness
of queer individuals and their deep commitment to the institution of family and to
Indian
traditions.

I contend that among the several reasons why
My Brother Nikhil
came and went along without much of a hullabaloo, as opposed to
Fire
, is that
Fire
threatened the family, while
My Brother Nikhil
was all about gaining acceptance by one’s family. Like the mainstream blockbuster
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
62
and all its clones of the 1990s,
My Brother
Nikhil
implied that the child’s happiness is not complete, unless his or her parents accept him completely. In this world, rebellion is futile; how can you rebel against tradition and your family? The right path lies in living your life the way you want to (so Nikhil did not give up being gay, or dump his boyfriend) but within the ambit of parental approval (or of constantly seeking it). I am certain that this suggestion will be attacked with accusations of pandering to ideals of hetero-normativity and assimilation tendencies—and I happily plead guilty to these charges.

Within this
modus vivendi
orbit, I feel that this is a small price to pay and the issues at stake are much larger.

(
f
)
The west should not be vilified

I am in agreement with Jackson that queer resistance ‘must always be locally modulated. In one place, the dominant form of resistance may be street marches and agitation for law reform, in another place, the most important form of resistance may be avoiding arranged marriage’

300
Gay

Bombay

(Jackson, 2000).63 Clearly, a Western style agenda is unsuitable for India, but at the same time, one should realize that
the West
is not the enemy of the Indian LBGT movement.

Vanita critically notes that ‘it is usually those who have already obtained most of their basic civil rights and liberties in first world environments who object to the use of these terms in third world contexts’.64 (These are, of course, the same people who have no qualms in accepting Western grant money!). The West has been a very good source of information for the gay community in India. Lots of queer health and political programmes operational in India are funded by Western agencies—for example, Lawyers Collective and the Humsafar Trust.

Thus, I feel that travelling to and fro and appreciating the positive aspects of Western style activism, need not necessitate replicating its institutions or practices. We should learn from these, of course, but freely adapt them to our needs. For instance, copying Gay Pride might not be such a good idea for all cities at this point, but having an institution like Fenway from Boston help out with HIV counselling and related services might be significant and relevant.

(
g
)
There should a realization that change is not just coming in from the

West but also from other parts of the world

One can and indeed, must find inspiration from non-western societies.

For example, South Africa’s new constitution, adopted on 10 December 1996, had an express non-discrimination clause against homosexuals, making it the first country in the world to do so (Narrain, 2004).
65
Fiji (2005) and Hong Kong (2006) have recently decriminalized same-sex acts between consenting adults. Examples like these are wonderful not just as models to emulate, but also to counter the notion that any progress made in terms of queer rights in India would indicate a tendency towards
aping the west
.

(
h
)
Ideas for change can also be found from within other Indian/

Asian cultural contexts

Perhaps, the leaders of the Indian gay movement might wish to study the rise of Dalit politics within the Indian democratic system, especially the rise of the politician Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party in Conclusion
301

Uttar Pradesh. By establishing themselves as stakeholders in the political process, the party has been able to effect social changes that would not have been possible otherwise.66 There have been several emails posted on the politically conscious Lbgt-India Yahoo! Group that have explored this idea in detail. There have also been suggestions of learning from and furthering ties with the women’s movement. Another idea proposed has been to study the models formed by
hijra
societies in India, as well as other Asian transgender societies and then adopt these for the larger queer population. Here is an excerpt from a message sent by Ashok Row Kavi to the Lbgt-India list that fleshes out this idea—

The paradox of
hijras
or transgender is that on one hand they are the most visible of the sexual minorities under the LGBTs umbrella and yet they are the most marginalized of our brethren by the patriarchal ordered heteronormative society. They live on a razor’s edge all the time. However, I must give you an instance. Some years ago when I went to attend an Amnesty International conference in Australia, I was invited for an Australian Transgendered Conference in Syndey. What I saw was a pervasive fear of hetero-normative mainstream society. Violence was so purposeful, wilful and direct that many trans could not even walk down streets, sometimes even in gay areas, without being beaten up, killed or in some way harmed or hurt in all of Australia. Just north in Philippines or Indonesia, Bakhla or Waria were not just accepted as a ‘third sex’ but were organizing actively and were nearly as empowered as our
kothi
or
hijra
groups. And there was enough evidence that they were the most empowered of the LGBT

populace. So what does that tell us? That trans seem to have such a huge cultural source of energy in different cultural settings. From here we can proceed a bit further. What and how do we use current cultural constructs and see them for what they are. I think the case of Familia was the best example. She was empowered by education to take matters in hand. Her erudite knowledge of English and the way she deployed it were constant indicators to me that we needed to emulate her and follow her example. One important fact about
hijras
is they were big bankers in the old days. They were also the repository of cuisine; I learnt my Hyderabad
dum-biryanis
from a
hijra
who worked in the Nizam’s kitchens there! Is it possible to put the two together to start something new? Yes! We are getting there with some of those talents. In Mumbai, a little under 40 per cent of the people are single and have to depend on eating houses or dining rooms to keep body and soul together. Why not fill that niche using
hijra
skills and then open non-financial banking organizations?

302
Gay

Bombay

If you want, you can visit us in Mumbai to have this explained by one of our directors who is a financial manager of our credit society.

Once a credit society goes over say rupees one crore, you have a massive interest accruing which becomes a capital base in itself. Invested in straight sound and safe government bonds, the interest alone becomes capital for micro-credit. The rest will depend on how well they manage the money.

I firmly believe that there is no hope in heterosexual society; everything they do is geared to serve the social units of biological family. We need to set up our own
gharanas
like the
hijras
have done, start off banking and credit societies and get a parallel social support system going that is more oriented towards our own culture. Trying to challenge heteronormative society is no use because they will never accept us. Take that for granted and start from there. Though they are not our enemies, they are not friends either. Each minority has social resources like peers, heritage and tradition to buttress support for the younger generation. We have none and each generation evolves its own traditions.67

(
i
)
The diaspora, the closeted and non-queer identified groups should be

co-opted in the struggle

The queer and non-queer diaspora should be co-opted and strategically used and this is already happening to some extent. Remember that
Trikone
began in 1986, before
Bombay Dost
; the
Khush
-List was started before Gay Bombay; Indians marched in New York pride for many years before Calcutta pride… A lot of the success of the activist work in India has been due to the beneficial interaction of the movement with the Indian queer diaspora.