Damanpreet Kaur
@authordaman · 1:03
"Same Sex love before Modern India🤔"- In conversation with Ruth Vanita
Hello. Good evening. I hope you all are doing great well today. We are all aware about the LGBT movement everywhere in the world. But what before that era did not people of same gender fall in love with each other before? Was there none of her lesbian or a gay? Of course not. Right. Those people too prefer homosexuality. But because of the societal factors and pressures they were forced to suppress their feelings and most committed joint society
Ma'am because often it is being reported that child has committed suicide because he was being bullied in school by his classmates. That's my question. Thank you. Ma'am best wishes to you. Lots of success
Ruth Vanita
@ruthvanita · 0:20
About bullying in schools. Now, many schools have started Sensitization programs to educate the teachers and the children about same sex relationships and about LGBT. So hopefully that will help kids. Also, the Internet is available where they can find out, get more information. So I hope that the situation will improve
mannya nayar
@shesalliwannabe · 1:21
Hello mom. Good evening and I'm so glad this topic is brought up. This is a very important topic that needs to be discussed and it should not be tabooed. It's something which is accepted. This should be widely accepted or despite the acceptance consented by the government and making it lawful, people are not ready to accept this community
Ruth Vanita
@ruthvanita · 0:50
Well, many people also are accepted. In the book that I wrote, loves right. I found many, many couples who did get married. They were married officiated by priests. Their families were there and their families accepted the marriages. So it's not all death and doom and gloom and suicide. That's not true. Ever since 1987, when two policemen and Madhya Pradesh got married, there have been many more marriages after that
Damanpreet Kaur
@authordaman · 0:55
Hello and good evening. How are you? I expect you all were quite desperate for this conversation on same sex love with Ruth Vanita. Before getting into the conversation, let me introduce you to her. Ruth Vanita taught English at Delhi University for 20 years and is now a professor at university of Montana. She was the founding coeditor of Manushi, which is India's first nationwide feminist magazine
Ruth Vanita
@ruthvanita · 0:09
Hello. Can you hear me? Thanks for the introduction. Dharma Pritz. I hope you can hear me, so I'm just trying to record an answer. Thank you
Ruth Vanita
@ruthvanita · 0:28
Hello. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for the introduction and for welcoming me. How did I start writing? I started writing because then I was educated at Delhi University. Same sex relations were never mentioned in the classroom for the five years that I did the B and the Ma. So I wanted to educate myself on the history of this topic in India. And so I started reading. And I and my coauthor, Saleem Kadwai. We started reading. I read Mahabharapa, all the Pura
Damanpreet Kaur
@authordaman · 0:38
Good evening, ma'am. Nice to hear from you. That's interesting. I personally am really fascinated from all those authors who have got a spark of writing from our ancient inscriptions and documents, as you mentioned, of Mahabhar and other puranas. That is really interesting when we get a spark from our historic cultures. And this is even interesting to know that you got the inspiration to write about homosexuality when you were in your college. So, coming to my next question
Ruth Vanita
@ruthvanita · 1:51
It's a religious marriage. And so there have been so many since then, more and more continuing till date. Okay? And so this my book, Loves Right, how would I differentiate it from
Ruth Vanita
@ruthvanita · 0:49
I also wanted to add that in this book, I also record interviews with some of the Hindu priests and the swamis who who officiated at these marriages. And most of them say that when two when two souls are drawn to each other in this way, it means that they were connected in a previous birth. Therefore, you cannot suppress this attachment which comes from a previous birth
Damanpreet Kaur
@authordaman · 0:55
Their religion addresses the phenomenon of being together and even justifies the love between the same gender by giving the consents of rebirth and even explaining the soul attachment from previous birds. This is amazing. So Ma'am, in what ways do you believe that your book serves as an eye opener for the world? In what ways do you perceive the world should have your book? And how significant of a contribution do you think your books make to the society?
Ruth Vanita
@ruthvanita · 2:56
They signed the joint contract saying that they are together. They went to the court and tried to get their marriage registered, but they were refused. So they garlanded each other in front of the court. Yani Jay Malapanaya Ikbusreko and so if you listen to these videos I want the judges to see the faces of these women and to listen to these videos and to look at my book and realize that this is not a Western idea, not an upper class uppercast idea
Damanpreet Kaur
@authordaman · 0:58
Indeed, Indian history also includes homosexuality. It isn't only about the Western culture and Western people. And even it is not the idea of any upper caste people from India. But a human is genetically supposed to be a homosexual, bisexual or transgender. So it is very appreciable that your book has changed lives of so many people and made people aware about this. A great thanks and credit goes to you from all those people
Ruth Vanita
@ruthvanita · 2:38
And then there's a play on the word rite and R-I-G-H-T so that word gets both are said in the same way. Similarly, in Indian literature and the Karmasutra and the Kathasa Ritzagara, I found descriptions of relationships. For instance, a woman's intimate female companion is called Haswambarasaki and a man's intimate companion is called his Swambara Sakha. So I get the mantra is that the kind of a joy that I have found in these discoveries and finding all these wonderful stories both in English and in Indian literature
Ruth Vanita
@ruthvanita · 0:56
Hello. Also, I wanted to add that I have a lot of hope because India is a democracy, the largest democracy in the world. And I have a lot of hope that things are getting better. We have already the Supreme Court has removed the criminalization of homosexuality, and I have a lot of hope that there will be further developments with giving more equality and freedom to all Indians as citizens, including LGBT Indians who are citizens. And we just want the same right as other Indians do
Damanpreet Kaur
@authordaman · 1:28
I do not want to end the conversation, but I respect your time. So would you please like to give an advice that you consider most relevant for today's younger generation to follow? Once again, I am very much obliged for your valuable time. May you have a long and healthy life ahead and with a great literature success. Thank you so much. Have a great life
Ruth Vanita
@ruthvanita · 0:51
Hi. I thought I answered this question, but I think it didn't get posted. So my answer is that for young people, not that I have a lot of advice to give, but sort of respecting everybody's liberty in speech, not in as long as the speech doesn't as long as one doesn't harm anyone physically. I think one should respect everyone's speech
Hello ma'am. This is Chandrika Devi. And listening to the amazing book you have written about same sex marriages and taking a stand for people who let their love go beyond the customized social standards of society is really amazing. And listening to this just makes me so happy. So yeah, there as a country in is very difficultly. Accepting there are people who are genuinely trying to understand how this all works and figuring out how to keep their friends who want to come out comfortable
Ruth Vanita
@ruthvanita · 3:17
So it depends on how these people bring the children up, not on their own arrangements and stability is, of course, very important. So for children, you don't want boyfriends and girlfriends and wives and husbands walking in and out, which happens a lot more these days where somebody divorces, remarries and then the child then there's conflict between the parents if there's no conflict, it's fine. But if there is conflict, it's bad for the children, even in a two parent household