Fire: Homosexuality and the Prejudice
Recently, I happened to chance across this movie, Fire(1996), written and directed by Deepa Mehta. Apparently, it was one of the first mainstream Indian movie to explicitly showcase a romantic homosexual relationship.
I was pretty touched and happy to see Ms. Mehta take this step(at that point of time, i.e. late 90’s) and talk upon the subject of homosexuality, which is still, sadly, a raging debate across our beloved nation.
Of course, this movie was met with severe backlash, mainly from “pro-Hindus”, who considered this piece of “immoral and pornographic media” a sacrilege against the “Indian tradition and values”. Uh hello? Did you guys just about forget the various sculptures in Khajuraho and Konark, depicting, no, celebrating the human sexuality and one of the most ancient forms of symbolising love? And let’s not forget Kamasutra, which is “an ancient Indian Hindu text widely considered to be the standard work on human sexual behaviour in Sanskrit literature written by Vātsyāyana.” Contrary to popular beliefs, this book is not only about sex(actually hardly 20% of the book is about it), but also talks about a man’s duties towards a woman(I can proudly say feminism is truly an Indian concept), and proper social conduct.
It is very disheartening to see our society deviating from it’s original values, losing it’s broadmindedness and the ability to think freely over the course of time. Coming back to the topic homosexuality, the term “homosexuality” and the laws prohibiting ‘unnatural’ sex were imposed across the world through imperial might. Though they exerted a powerful influence on subsequent attitudes, they were neither universal nor timeless. They were — it must be kept in mind — products of minds that were deeply influenced by the ’sex is sin’ stance of the Christian Bible. With typical colonial condescension, European definitions, laws, theories and attitudes totally disregarded how similar sexual activity was perceived in other cultures.
Our vibrant history and culture showcases us as a society of freethinkers. There are several instances of homosexuality throughout. Have you guys forgotten the story of Mohini and Shiva? Mohini is actually Lord Vishnu in female form, and Shiva’s consummation with Mohini resulted in Lord Ayyappa, a much revered deity in South India. In the Mahabharata, Drupada raises his daughter Shikhandini as a man and even gets ‘him’ a wife. When the wife discovers the truth on the wedding night, all hell breaks loose; her father threatens to destroy Drupada’s kingdom. The timely intervention of a Yaksha saves the day: he lets Shikhandini use his manhood for a night and perform his husbandly duties. I could go on and on, but I think I got the point across.
We all talk of “aping the West”. In reality, the West adopted various ideas and notions from us(read: legalisation of gay marriages in various countries), thus progressing themselves, while our society regresses to Western medieval times and their ideologies. It is rightly said that India lags USA by 30 years in terms of development in society- while they succeed in making gay marriages legal throughout the country, we are still stuck fighting for equality between men and women.
