LGBT history in India

LGBT in India has been documented for different times. In recent times the unbanning of homosexuality and promotion of LGBT rights has caused large amount of researches and opinions regarding the LGBT in India.

Quotes

• Indian mimicry of British Victorian laws enacted under colonial rule has led to a contemporary controversy about gays. In traditional Indian society, there are no normative sexual categories of 'gay' and 'straight', and therefore being gay is neither banned nor formally sanctioned. It is simply left ambiguous and indeterminate for individuals to figure out for themselves in their own contexts. In the traditional Indian approach, the Western categories of gay/straight are not mutually exclusive, nor are they the permanent essences of a person. From such a perspective, questions such as whether a gay person is 'allowed' to be Hindu appear strange.
  • Malhotra, R., & Infinity Foundation (Princeton, N.J.). (2018). Being different: An Indian challenge to western universalism.

• Indian civilization, unlike the Western, has historically had no issues with the idea of homosexuality and transgender peoples. There is an inherent acceptance in the Indian psyche that this is a private matter in which society should not meddle. And there is no injunction against them in Indian religious texts... On the contrary, traditional Indian narratives have had representations of the male and female principles combined in the popular deity, Ardhanareeshwara. The iconography of this deity melds the female and male bodies, transcending the binary of gender and taking the seeker towards the realm of the limitless beyond all categories. There are also sacred stories of people changing their gender.
  • Malhotra, R. & Viswanathan V. (2022). Snakes in the Ganga : Breaking India 2.0.

• But during Mughal and British rules, the Abrahamic views on sexuality were imposed, and the Queer community was marginalized and faced harassment. Even The New York Times has grudgingly acknowledged this fact, although it blamed only the British and remained silent on the role of Muslims.... We must understand that the Western Queer/Trans movement is a revolt against the Abrahamic religions’ bigotry on sexuality.. While it is true that India needs to work harder on the upliftment of the trans community, the Western Marxist approach is counter-productive.
  • Malhotra, R. & Viswanathan V. (2022). Snakes in the Ganga : Breaking India 2.0.