Gay Gandhi? Hardly

Last year I attended a short orientation to prepare me for work in rural India. Facing a year in the closet, I asked what I could expect from men in my community in rural Rajasthan:

"You might see some men holding hands like homosexuals in the west."

As a westerner I may have jumped to conclusions about two men holding hands. Certainly in London, you can guarantee that two men holding hands are probably gay or bisexual.

Here in India, I’ve spooned in a single bed with men, I’ve shared my dinner with men, and I’ve had men lie on my lap while we watch the TV. I’ve even been told by men that they love me, and that I am their heart. My phone is full of text messages from men confessing their love and that they miss me.

But do not mistake me as a celebrated as a gay icon. None of these interactions have any sexual context. My relationships with men in my community are entirely platonic. Simply, these men are not gay (I don’t doubt, however, that some in my community live in the closet).

So what happens when a westerner with a western lens on social interaction has the opportunity to interpret male social behavior in India? Well, Gandhi gets called bisexual and the Gujarat State Assembly convenes an emergency session that unanimously bans a comprehensive biography on India’s founding father, a biography they haven’t even read.

Joseph Lelyveld’s book, ‘Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India’ is not itself alarming, nor does it reveal anything that was not already known. Let’s be clear, Lelyveld is not Salman Rushdie and ‘Great Soul’ is not the Satanic Verses (although I, like the Gujarat Assembly, have not read the book). Safe to say, for now, Lelyveld will not be the target of an Indian fatwa.

Reviews of the book have put Lelyveld on the defensive though. In a WSJ review Andrew Roberts suggests that the book labels Gandhi bisexual. Roberts says that Gandhi’s true love is Hermann Kallenbach, a German bodybuilder, because it is written that Gandhi “has a portrait of Kallenbach in his bedroom”, because Gandhi said that Kallenbach had “taken possession of Gandhi’s body”, and because Gandhi had asked Kallenbach “not to look lustfully upon any woman” (never mind that this was in strict adherence to his vow of celibacy).

The review was widely quoted. In the British Daily Mail, an article ran under the headline: "Gandhi 'left his wife to live with a male lover' new book claims". The Mumbai Mirror, carried the story on a front page headline, “Book claims German man was Gandhi’s secret love” (ironically the article remarks how gleeful western reviews have pounced on the few lines relating to sexuality, failing to note that their story was itself smeared gleefully across their front page).

Lelyveld, judging by various reviews, has included a marginal section on Gandhi’s relationship with Kallenbach in his book, but stops short of judgment on the nature of the relationship.

But ‘Great Soul’ has nonetheless caused uproar in India, where the WSJ review – shot-gunned to the public by a lazy Indian media - has been read ahead of the book, meaning the book and content have been framed in the eyes of Roberts and other discerning (I kid) westerners. Gujarat is only the first of a pack of baying state assemblies in line to ban the book.

I have two problems with this; firstly, that the entire assembly of a state representing sixty million people could be so disgusted by the suggestion that Gandhi is gay, and secondly; that the entire assembly of a state representing sixty million people would base legislation on an erroneous review without even considering to pause and assess the evidence.

So that’s a lazy media, homophobia, and gross misjudgment. If I could convey a sigh of disapproval (should that be – quelle surprise?) at India, this is it (in the wake of their Cricket World Cup victory, nonetheless).

Homophobia in India is still rampant, but it’s manifested in ignorance rather than hatred. At any rate, there’s a long way to go before the question of Gandhi’s sexuality fades into irrelevance, and there are plenty more battles to be fought before it becomes acceptable to call Gandhi’s founding father bisexual (a term that many ‘phobes’ might perceive as more threatening than being called gay).

The race to ban ‘Great Soul’ on a whim of hysteria would be more believable had it happened under the Taliban. But in a country known for its morbidly slow legislative process, the decision to pass a hurried vote during an emergency session is a betrayal of democracy.

The gross misjudgment and unquestioning disgust caused by the suggestion that a book might have supposed Gandhi bisexual says more about the need for action to challenge homophobia – even in an ‘enlightened’ state assembly – than it does the content of Gandhi’s character.

Gujarat (soon to be joined by the state of Maharashtra, home to Bombay) has bought a great deal of shame not just to itself, but to millions of gay Indians who have begun to come out of the closet since homosexuality was decriminalized in 2009. The whole milieu - from an ignorant review seeking sensationalism, to a sloppy media doing the same, to lazy and captivated state assemblies – is a train-wreck of impotence.

Was Gandhi bisexual? I don’t know. But on the basis of this irrelevant evidence I wouldn’t count on it.

Then again, like the Gujarat State Assembly, I haven’t read the book.

By Simon McNorton. You can read more of Simon's thoughts at simonmcnorton.com.

Weekly Mix Masala

Nepal signs onto UN's 1st Gay Rights Statement -- America remains disturbingly silent.
The Advocate
Pink News

Pro IPC 377 government: Gays, not lack of education, should be blamed for HIV
Times of India

Trans in Trinidad, an interview with Jenny Jagdeo.
Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, Allsexuals, and Gays (JFLAG)

Gay Westerners travel to India in search for surrogate mothers.
Times of India

2nd Edition of Vanita's Same Sex Love in India released -- desi queer message more applicable than ever
Wall Street Journal

Mayor of Pune lends an ear to trans woes
Times of India

John Abraham speaks again on Dostana and shockingly reveals large gay populations in San Francisco, LA, and Miami!
But sadly, he misses the mark on gays:

“This is an option people have chosen for themselves or are born with; we should respect that.”

Times of India

Weekly Mix Masala

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Terrorist Attacks on Mumbai
||26.11.08 - 29.11.08||
Summary of Attacks -- Wikipedia
Sequence of Events -- BBC News
Recent Developments -- NYTimes
Wear White on 12/1 in Solidarity -- Facebook Event
================================================


Gays in India fear rules, blackmailers
The Washington Post

AIDS Sutra released this week, watch readings via webcast
SAJAforum

Dostana is (still) shaking up Bollywood
Bollywood films enter brave, gay world
Straight.com

Dostana in Pakistan
Pakistan Paindabad

John Abraham asks men to step it up
XPress


More Bollywood Gay News
Amisha Patel defends boyfriend's sexuality -- and no one cares
Bollywood News Blog

Konkona Sen Sharma jumps on the rainbow bandwagon
India Forums


Prop 8 News
Minorities fear trend from CA gay marriage ban
Reuters

A queer desi reaches out to LGBT Mormons
2015Place.com


Something Inspiring
All-girl rock band shakes Saudi Arabian establishment
NYTimes
Accolade's MySpace

Queer South Asian Cinema

Below is the trailer for The Ode, Nilanjan Neil Lahiri's adaptation of Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla's novel, Ode to Lata:



While the film looks compelling enough, I'm a little disappointed with this trailer. Ode to Lata is, in my opinion, one of the most important books by a desi writer in a long time. Part of the book's strength is Dhalla's unwillingness to allow Ali's story to become mere soap opera. Rather, Dhalla weaves together a complex literary narrative that relies heavily on tropes of contemporary Indian cinema--Ode to Lata is a most cinematic piece of literature. When I heard that an adaptation was in the works I was excited by the prospect of a desi film that tackled the issue of queer film spectatorship. Imagine the creative possibilities of a film about a queer Bollywood cinephile! Yet, from what I can tell from the trailer above the film adaptation has removed any and all reference to Indian cinema, including the 'Lata' of the title. Seems like a missed opportunity to me. We'll have to wait and see.

Queeristani Book Club

Queeristanis, be on the look out for an unique anthology of stories based on people living with HIV/AIDS in South Asia. AIDS Sutra is a collaborative product of some of the greatest writers found in the subcontinent. The publication has been funded by Avahan, India's leading AIDS initiative of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desi, and Vikram Sheth are only a few of the many contributors to this anthology. Nobel Prize winner and noted social activist, Amartya Sen, has penned the book's foreword. A total of sixteen writers have travelled the across the subcontinent, exploring the impact of HIV/AIDS in countless cross-sections of society. The end-result is no doubt a groundbreaking commentary on the growing situation in South Asia.

AIDS Sutra will be released this fall, look out for it in bookstores in October. And if you are a bit antsy like myself, go ahead and pre-order it at Amazon.com here!

Weekly Mix Masala

Just like always, taboos about sex prevent HIV prevention. This time, in Pakistan.
New York Times

Bombay High Court aquits two Britons of charges on pedophilia
Times of India

In Australia, a lesbian couple tries to sue their doctor when their in vitro results in two babies instead of one...
Times of India

When Kiren Met Karen review. After all the hype before the movie, this reviewer finds the movie disappointing
AfterEllen.com

New book sheds light on gay life in the Muslim world.
PRWeb

Because I Have a Voice

For those of you interested in learning more about the queer movement in India, this book is a great place to start: Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India, edited by Arvind Narrain and Gautam Bhan. This is an informative collection, comprised of academic essays, activist accounts, and personal narratives. Narrain and Bhan’s introduction is especially useful in delineating the uniqueness of South Asian sexuality studies in relation to postcolonial studies, legal battles, and debates over terms and definitions. Alok Gupta’s essay on class dynamics in the queer movement opens up a series of questions about the influence of globalized gay identities and (limited) access to queer resources. Nivedita Menon offers a powerful polemic about the need for South Asian feminists to take up compulsory heterosexuality as a founding structure of patriarchy. Gautam Bhan looks at Section 377, and the need for legal reform to be included in the larger political movement of queer activism. The personal narratives, though often brief, are moving accounts of queer life in India. Highly recommended.

Because I Have a Voice is published by Yoda Press, a wonderful publisher based out of New Delhi. Recently, they've introduced a new book series called "Sexualities," which includes a number of very interesting titles. Check out Gayatri Reddy's With Respect to Sex as well; it's a deeply moving ethnography of hijra communities living in and around Hyderabad. You can access the website for Yoda Press here.

Weekly Mix Masala

Sholay's Desilicious Love Ball -- 5/17 at Webster Hall
a celebration of the theatrical release of A Jihad for Love
SholayEvents

A Jihad for Love reviews/interviews
Bay Windows
New England Blade

Review of The English Game -- a state-of-England play out of a cricket match; look for the gay Hindu!
The Guardian

Love, actually -- an interview with Gay Bombay author, Parmesh Shahani
Financial Express

SF's Bibi Chic benefit raises over $2K for Middle Eastern LGBT charity
IndyBay

Indian Man Killed by Wife's Female Lover -- yea it caught our attention, too
EDGEBoston

My film shows gender issues -- interview with Pankh director, Sudipto Chattopadhyay
Rediff.com

India's Transgendered: the Hijras -- a well balanced piece and a good read
The New Statesman

Weekly Mix Masala

• Trikone's Kulture Kulcha 2008. Tonight, Friday May 2nd! Trikone, San Fransisco
• Ethnography Gone Wild: a review of Parmesh Sahani's Gay Bombay Tehelka
• LGBT film festival, Boston. Screening several South Asian films, including A Jihad for Love
• Parvez Sharma, of A Jihad for Love, blogs about his journey as he screens the film globally Director's Blog
• A review of gay, Hindu, hip-hopper D'Lo and Ramble-Ations:A One D'Lo Show Asian American Press
• Irshad Manji vs. Ayaan Hirsi NYTimes, Jezebel
• A story covering the journey of a couple as a the husband transitions to female NYTimes
• And a debate whether it really is a sign of a good marriage that the couple is still together Jezebel
• Meanwhile, a prize racehorse refuses to mate with the ladies. Maybe he's just gay? NYTimes
• Young gay marriages in the US (well, Massachusetts at least ) NYTimes (Is it like LGBT month at the Times or something?)
• Andrew Sullivan + Obama's approach to the American LGBT movement The Daily Dish
• A symposium cancelled due to concerns from psychiatrists & activists that ex-gay's views would be propogated and considered healthy Queerty

Bollywood Screen Queens

Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla's Ode to Lata is a deceptive book. When I first stumbled across it, almost four years ago, I did not realize that I had found that rare breed of fiction that so subtly works its emotional resonances on the reader. Although I found the book likable on first read, it was only on subsequent rereadings that I was able to recognize the depth and wit of Dhalla's narrative voice.

Ode to Lata is the story of Ali, a desi queer man living in Los Angeles, whose quest for love is leading him down a self-destructive path of loneliness, cynicism, and anger. In writing Ali's struggle for self-acceptance, Dhalla addresses issues of cultural displacement, racialization, intergenerational conflict, coming out, queer activism, and the search for community. It's a lot to take in, but well worth the effort.

Perhaps the most charming--and most provocative--aspect of the novel is Dhalla's reliance on Bollywood cinema and filmi songs to characterize Ali's sense of identity (the 'Lata' of the title is Lata Mangeshkar):

I've known, much to my dismay, that in situations both turbulent and trivial, I've always played the role of the victim, the heroine in plight...I've avidly watched the melodrama unfold in Hindi cinema through my youth...And now my life has become just that.

Images from those Hindi films often flashed through my mind. As a waited for Richard to satisfy himself with yet another trick and return to me, spent but just a little more tender, I became Jaya Bachhan in Silsila, lamenting in song until tall and handsome Amitabh comes back to her from carousing with his mistress...Faces of actresses whose names I knew so well. Scenes from movies, the titles of which are long forgotten...And those songs. Yes, those filmi songs with the poignant lyrics that epitomize the suffering of love and that only Lata can sing.

They are all there in their pomp and melodrama. Directing me. Reminding me. Unfurling within me their systematic chaos. How can I help but heed their systematic direction?

This engagement with Bollywood cinematic tropes is not only a clever narrative device, but more importantly, it suggests a deep seeded connection between pop culture and our queer desi identities.

Highly recommended.

Weekly Mix Masala

Sahran Abeysundara, a queer activist from Sri Lanka, is named as the third grand marshal in Vancouver's pride parade
Vancouver Courier

Can Singapore handle Rose?
The Electric

"My dream role is to play a prostitute" - Bobby Darling
NowRunning

On Bobby Darling's upcoming films: "I even have a kissing scene with a Pakistani actor in one of my movies and I felt nice doing the scene"
Now Running

Reviews on Indian paperbacks, including the Pregnant King and the newly translated Dance.
The Telegraph - Calcutta

Who says Bush is homophobic? (NSFW: Not Suitable for Work)
Fleshbot

Sacramento area gays face increasing tension from influx of the growing evangelical Slavic community
LA Times

Fitna, the controversial short-film by Geert Wilders, has been released. No, we are not going to post the video, nor are we providing a link.

Weekly Mix Masala

Snehithan: social & support group for GBTTQQ of the Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhala, Tamil, and Telegu speaking communities.
snehithan.ca

Dosti: a Toronto based site for desi men who have or want sex with men. Browse to meet others and keep abreast of the latest news with Munnibai, the safer-sex queen.
dosti.ca

Blue Diamond Society of Nepal receives international recognition for their LGBT Human Rights work
International Gay and Human Rights Commission

Pregnant Transmale! Guess men can get pregnant
Jezebel

Review of Kari, a graphic novel about a lesbian copywriter in Mumbai
Newsindpress

Candlelight vigil in Kolkata for three members of the transgender community and the community explores the connection between the hijra and transsexual community
Express India

Martin Manalansan, an anthropologist specializing in South Asian diaspora studies, belongs to growing cohort of scholars that have recently moved "queer critique" aggressively into the domain of critical race theory
Brooklyn Blues Blog

Bipasha on Begum Nawazish's fawning over John: "Compliments for John are always welcome. Whether the compliments are from a lady, a man or from a gay person"
Times of India

Namaste: Building the South Asian GLBT community locally with KhushDC
MetroWeekly

The Pregnant King

Finally! The queerness that saturates Hindu mythology is given center-stage, instead of being miserably repressed into the background. The Pregnant King, a perfect title for such a gender-bending book, is by Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik and it focuses on certain stories of the Mahabharata. Easy to relate to in today’s queer world (note: a pinch of imagination needed as well!), are stories of machismo warriors being castrated, FTM able to father children with borrowed penises, and of course, a king that’s preggers!

Now, as a medical student, I am forced to go off on this tangent. How possible is male pregnancy? Surprisingly, it is theoretically achievable (warning: science babble ahead). With in vitro fertilization, the zygote may be transplanted ectopically (outside of the uterus), and can attach onto abdominal organs like the liver or colon. The zygote, not only develops into the fetus, but is also the source of part of the placenta, which nourishes the fetus; thus the placenta is able to grow in the abdomen as well. So, fetuses should be able to grow in males, right? Well, easier said than done. The right hormones need to be thrown into the mix, the male’s body needs to be able to adapt to the extra strain, and, don’t forget, guys don’t have a vagina – the baby would have to be caesarean sectioned!

OK, in summary: Check out the book. And don’t be too surprised if you see some daddy-mommas in the future.