Be the change #AgainstSection377

FOR HOW LONG WE”LL CONSIDER HOMOSEXUALITY UNNATURAL UNDER THE FALSE PRETENCE OF “INDIAN TRADITION”?

A Senior BJP leader challenged the High Court verdict in Supreme Court saying homosexuality is illegal, immoral and against the ethos of Indian Culture.

Indian Culture? What a funny term.

A culture where marital rape is not a crime that deserves punishment, while consenting sex between two adults is. A culture that is so weak that it needs to be protected by religious organizations and a motley bunch of astrologers and yoga gurus. A culture so insecure that it’s purity is validated by a colonial law - a western imposition of what Indian culture can and should permit and tolerate. A legal culture that refuses to examine the constitutionality of a law which is precisely what the courts are supposed to do in the first place.

A political, misogynist culture that hasn’t yet approved of the women’s reservation bill, forget decriminalizing homosexuality. This issue will soon get buried under political battles and vote bank politics. This culture is exploitative, regressive and so rigid that it will dismiss the furor surrounding homosexuality as an “elitist rant”, not knowing anything about the minorities which are marginalized everyday in rural areas.

But you know, what is the funniest thing about this term ‘Indian Culture’? It’s not remotely close to what these moral police rant about!

I present to you a few examples from religious texts-

Mahabharata- In the Mahabharata, as the result of a curse he was compelled to honor, the hero Arjuna takes a "vow of eunuch-ism," that is, to live as the third sex for a year: "O lord of the Earth, I will declare myself as one of the 'neuter' sex…” (Vrihannala was the name taken by him)

Another important character, Shikhandi is born female, but raised as a boy. Sihkandi's father, King Draupada, had begged the god Mahadeva to give him a son, to which Mahadeva replied: "Thou shalt have a child who will be a female and male. Desist, O king, it will not be otherwise." When Sikhandi comes of age and marries, Sikhandi's wife "soon came to know that Sikhandi was a woman like herself, refusing him." Fleeing from the unnamed wife's enraged father, Sikhandi encounters a male Yaksha (nature spirit) in the forest, and they agree to swap sexes. Now in a male body, Sikhandi proves to his father-in-law that he is truly male, after the latter sends "a number of young ladies of great beauty" to Sikhandi to test him. They report back that he is "a powerful person of the masculine sex," and Sikhandi becomes a skilled and famous warrior, playing a pivotal role in the war.

Ramayana- In some versions of the Krittivas Ramayana, the most popular Bengali text on the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra (an incarnation of Vishnu), there is an interesting narrative of two queens that conceived a child together. When the famous king of the Sun Dynasty, Maharaja Dilipa, died, the demigods become concerned that he did not have a son to continue his line. Lord Shiva therefore appeared before the king's two widowed queens and commanded them, "You two make love together and by my blessings you will bear a beautiful son." The two wives, with great affection for each other, executed Shiva's order until one of them conceived a child. Unfortunately, however, the child was born boneless, but by the blessings of a sage, Astavakra, the child was restored to full health and continued the dynasty. Astavakra accordingly named the child “Bhagiratha" – he who was born from two vulvas. Bhagiratha later became a king and is credited with bringing the Ganges River down to earth through his austerities.

Also, we’re the country that produced Kama Sutra, an ancient text dealing with kama or desire (of all kinds), which in Hindu thought is one of the four normative and spiritual goals of life. The Kama Sutra is the earliest extant and most important work in the Kama Shastra tradition of Sanskrit literature. It was compiled by the philosopher Vatsyayana around the 4th century, from earlier texts, and describes homosexual practices in several places, as well as a range of sex/gender 'types'. Although homosexual acts are treated as wrongful, the author acknowledges that these relations also involve love and a bound of trust.

So, all the Hindu Parishads, All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Baba Ramdev- Your supposed interpretation of Indian culture is “Your version”. Don’t you dare impose it on us.