Page 56 - Tehelka Issue 13 - July 15, 2018

Indian courts. This is why they also re- use by celibate ascetics and students. the other instances in the book is that of
fused to take on board international What is so powerful about paan? Are hair. We think of hair as deeply “normal”
best practices in terms of jurispru- there any other everyday objects of and “natural,” yet how long or short it
dence on subjects of sexuality. But what erotic appeal that are used by many, is, whether we leave it loose or tie it up,
they seemed to forget is that Section and yet, hidden? what colour it is are all closely linked
377 was a British imposition on an Paan is an everyday substance but it also with questions of desire.
Indian culture that did not criminal- provides extraordinary pleasure. It is
ise same-sex desire. Indeed, I like to ubiquitous on the Indian landscape, and A very interesting chapter in the
joke that every single sculpture in the we often take it for granted, not giving book is about grandparents’ desires.
temples of Khajuraho represents a sex it a second thought. But this is precisely As a society, have we silenced
act that is now illegal in India. the treasure trove that I have mined their desires and portrayed them
The third gender has been a part of for Infinite Variety — everyday objects in a stereotypical way of either
Indian culture in various ways —spir- that we do not associate with desire but caregivers for the family or leading
itual, pedagogical and musical. Yet, that are nonetheless deeply associated spiritual lives? Why is there a culture
the British criminalised their exist- with it. There are several examples of of silence around grandparents’
ence by the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871. this quotidian extraordinariness. One of desires, travel and companionship
How do you reflect on their chang- needs?
ing fortune in light of the Supreme The silencing of the desires of older
Court’s NALSA judgment and the cur- people seems to point to our collapsing
rent bill pending in the Parliament? sex into reproduction. And when we
How would you explain the duality in make that collapse, we assume that only
our relationship with hijras — on the people who are of child-bearing age
one hand, we revere them and on the should have sex. Ergo, older people who
other hand, we criminalise them? can no longer reproduce should not have
Our attitude to hijras is very similar to sex or sexual desires. This is an extremely
our attitude toward homosexuality. The shortsighted view on our part because it
British criminalised hijras for doing drives older people to feel shame about
things like singing and dancing in public their desires, to suppress them, and
that they had done for several centuries; never to act on them. And all for what?
despite our so-called independence Because we are becoming increasingly
from the British, we have taken prescriptive about who should feel what
on that stigmatisation and made kind of desire and when. Such a narrow-
it our own. This adoption and ing of our sexual horizons does not bode
spreading of stigma means that photo: tehelka archives well for us as a culture.
we lose touch with the high regard in
which hijras have historically been ‘The British What are the future research
held in the Indian subcontinent. Even the projects that can be explored in the
very term hijra — deriving as it does from criminalised hijras history of desire in India? Will you
the term for the Prophet’s flight from for doing things like contemplate a second edition of
Mecca to Medina in 622 AD — suggests this book?
that hijras are a noble people fleeing singing and dancing In my Introduction to the book, I have
from unjust persecution. In their case, the in public that they listed several other locations that can
persecution is the straitjacket of gender. and should be mined for their histories
They have historically been worshipped had done for several of desire — medicines, halwa, widows,
for rejecting that straitjacket. But in our centuries; despite call centres, sarees, to name only a few. I
current scenario, where we are trying to also think we should produce a sustained
outdo Victorian England in sexual moral- our so-called study about the intersections of caste
ity, we see something sinister about the and desire in India over the centuries.
refusal to conform to the rules of one independence from As for a second edition of this book, I’d be
gender alone. the British, we happy to! Since change is the principle of
desire, what better project could there be
The paan or the betel leaf is an have taken on that than to follow desire down the different
everyday consumable item and yet, stigmatisation and bylanes in which it moves?
it has very important erotic appeal.
It has historically been forbidden for made it our own’ letters@tehelka.com

Tehelka / 15 july 2018 56 www.Tehelka.com

54-56 Q&A Neha Kirpal.indd 4 03/07/18 4:08 PM