Like the West, India and many other countries outside Europe are struggling and debating the issue of gay relationships and marriage. This video comes from the Indian YouTuber Keerthika Govindhaswamy, responding to the arguments of the conservative Indian right that legalising same sex relationships and marriage will somehow destroy Indian culture. As Indian culture goes back millennia, and the country has more than a billion inhabitants, I think it’ll take more than gay marriage to destroy its culture. Govindhaswamy herself has some extremely provocative views. In one video, for example, she blames the horrendous pollution contaminating the Ganges on Hindus no longer feeling any connection, and therefore any need to care for their immediate natural environment. A change of attitude which she blames on British colonialism. Another video talks about how Gandhi slept with two of his nieces as part of a supposed experiment to test his celibacy, while another one suggests Nehru may have been a British agent. Obviously highly contentious subjects.
In this video, she goes through the deeds and epics about the Hindu gods to show that several of them had relationships with deities of their own sex. This includes a transgender warrior, who was born a girl but brought up as a boy and had a wife. She notes that the Kama Sutra discusses the existence of of strong, independent women who pursued relationships with others of their sex. She also talks about the possible gay relationship between one of the Muslim rulers of Delhi and one another prince or official.
She ends thee video with a plea for gay marriage and marriage equality, so that gay couples would have the same legal rights and privileges as heterosexual couples.
Clearly, this is an argument for the Indians themselves, but I do find it very interesting that this subject is being tackled and discussed in the world’s largest democracy, and how there are voices in favour of it in what I always thought was an extremely conservative society.
Beastrabban\'s Weblog 