Juno Felecia
The Delhi High Court, when giving the verdict for the legalisation of same-sex marriage, said, “a marriage in India necessarily depends upon age-old customs, rituals, practices, cultural ethos and societal values”. In reading down the provision of Section 377 of the IPC covering homosexuality, the Supreme Court had only decriminalised “a particular human behaviour” but “neither intended to nor did legitimise the human conduct in question”. But what are these age-old customs and traditions? Many Indian texts recognise and validate same-sex relationships, genderqueerness and genderfluidity. They also illustrate the existence of the queer community thousands of years before the British imposed Section 377. The attempted erasure of people’s identities has worked exceedingly well, as have its repercussions in postcolonial India. Thus, we as a nation must learn from the rich texts and works that showcase the queer acceptance inherent in our roots and ingrain them into our present; they are our true cultural ethos unmarred by colonialism.
One of the most prominent texts portraying cultural acceptance of Queerness is the Kama Sutra. This book has gained popularity and a reputation for being a heteronormative sex manual due to the Orientalist lens of Richard Francis Burton, a British explorer. He modified it to be more acceptable to Victorian society. Their view of the Oriental was overly sexualised, and over-feminised, which they believed was malfunctioning. But the original text was full of complexities that spoke of love, courtship and seeking pleasure amongst people of all gender and sexual identities. It is a book and aphorism of kama, an educational text about sex, romance and love. It discusses the need for female pleasure and the use of sex toys to make the act of sex pleasurable for both parties. It also sheds light on consent, queerness and androgyny, called ‘Tritya Prakriti, meaning third nature.
The book discusses queerness in the chapter ‘Amorous Advances’, where lesbian and gay sex are spoken of. It also speaks of the reversal of gender roles and behaviours between partners and people who adhere to their assigned gender. In chapter 8, women are described as virile and sodomising their male and female partners at length. Women who were not conventionally feminine are defined as ‘Svairini’, which loosely translates to lesbian. It depicts how sex toys, fruits, bulbs and roots, fingers, touches and kisses are used to have sex between women.
In many other texts, men who do not fall under the conventional masculine definition are often cited as ‘kliba’ or ‘eunuchs’ in a pejorative manner. However, in the Kamasutra, they are described as men who do not behave like men or as third nature. The text speaks of how one seduces the other through massages and lives as courtesans in harems. The following chapter also describes men in the closet performing oral sex.
It speaks of bisexuality in passing remarks, such as when messengers praise ‘the man’, one who is from a high class rich upper-caste family; one so well accomplished that even men desire them. It also speaks of the women living in harems who only have one husband, so they often have sex with one another to fulfil their needs and desires. The text also includes men who did not identify themselves as third nature yet performed fellatio out of love for certain men.
Although the text mentions binary genders, it also notes men who do not dress like men as a subset of women. Many men who dress unconventionally and identify with the third nature are referred to with she/her pronouns, indicating their genderfluidity. The book does not condemn nor talk of them in a derogatory manner but showcases the many ways of understanding and achieving kama, one of the four purusharthas (proper aims of human life).
Thus, the Kamasutra showcases how misogyny, the patriarchy and a colonial mindset has erased a significant text showcasing the richness of Indian queer history. It has been eroded through the Oriental lens of perversion, hypersexualisation and heteronormativity. Modernisation needs to be accompanied by an appreciation for our culture and heritage, accepting of all people, no matter who they love.
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