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Beneath The Colony, A Non-Binary Mosaic

While LGBT people were tortured and killed for centuries in Europe, India’s history is very different (see Same-Sex Love in India, ed. Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai). The Victorian ­administrators who instituted Section 377 in colonised countries also ­introduced the idea of homosexuality as an unspeakable crime to be hidden. Educated Indians internalised shame and guilt about many Indian practices, from polygamy and matriliny to same-sex sexuality. However, earlier traditions did persist, often underground.

In some pre-colonial Indian ­communities, same-sex unions were formalised and recognised. For ­example, late 18th century Lakhnavi writer Sa’adat Yar Khan ‘Rangin’ (1755-1835) described how two women would form a couple by eating and feeding each other ­various items, after which they would be known as one ­another’s dogana, zanakhi or ilaichi. Rangin wrote, “Then they get married among their female companions, and these are called ilaichi.” Several Urdu poets of the time wrote poetry about such unions ­between women. In her novel, Memory of Light, released in July by Penguin, Ruth Vanita tells the story of one such couple, Nafis, a poet, and Chapla, a dancer.

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