Early history
400 BCE - 200 BCE
- Sculptures on temples and artwork from around 500 BC in Lanka depict liberal views on sexuality and homosexuality. [6]
- Vatsyayana's The Kama Sutra devotes an entire chapter to homosexuality with explicit detailed instructions on how to perform homosexual acts. [7]
3rd century BC to c. 4th century AD
- Tamil Sangam literature refers to relationships between two men and explores the lives of trans women in the Aravan cult in Koovagam village in Tamil Nadu. [8]
~1529
- Emperor Babur's memoirs, the Baburnama, include a recollection of his erotic love for a teenage boy. [7]
1530s
- The Fatawa-e-Alamgiri of the Mughal Empire mandated a common set of punishments for homosexuality, which could include 50 lashes for a slave, 100 for a free infidel, or death by stoning for a Muslim. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]
1750-1830
- Emergence of Rekhti chapti-namahs, or female non-sexual homosocial same-sex narratives, in Urdu poetry. [16]
1861
- Anti-sodomy section of Offences against the Person Act 1861 imposed on entire British Empire, that says "Whosoever shall be convicted of the abominable Crime of Buggery, committed either with Mankind or with any Animal, shall be liable, at the Discretion of the Court, to be kept in Penal Servitude for Life or for any Term not less than Ten Years." This section is credited with giving birth to the controversial Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. [17]
1871
- Hijras labeled a "criminal tribe" under the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871, meaning they could be arrested as criminals anywhere in British India. [18]
1897
- Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 amended, with the subtitle "An Act for the Registration of Criminal Tribes and Eunuchs", ordering that "criminal" eunuchs "dressed or ornamented like a woman in a public street… be arrested without warrant" and imprisoned. [19] [20] [21] [22]
1918
-
Earliest known records of South Asian MSM in North America, as Tara Singh and Jamil Singh are separately arrested for interracial sodomy in Sacramento, CA. [23]
1922
- Poems Written in Prison by Gopabandhu Das, a freedom fighter and Gandhian, is published. At least two poems address male friends and co-workers, and the author describes these relationships in terms that are intense and erotically charged though not overtly sexual. These poems are sometimes included in Odia language literature textbooks. [24]
1924
- "Chocolate", a short story in Hindi written by nationalist and social reformer Pandey Bechan Sharma (under the penname Ugra), is published in the nationalist newspaper Matvala. Ugra's crusade against male-to-male sex sparks debate in Hindi newspapers and magazines, resulting in perhaps the first public debate in Hindi on homosexuality. [24] [25]
1929
- Mahatma Gandhi speaks out against same-sex relations in a Young India letter, in response to queries on "unnatural vices" in schools. [24]
1936
- Urdu poet Firaq Gorakhpuri writes an essay defending the Ghazal form of poetry that includes a defence of homosexuality, citing philosophers, poets and other renowned figures across the East and the West who were homosexual or had expressed homosexual desire in well-known works. [24]
1942
- Ismat Chugtai's short story "Lihaaf" is published.
1944
- Ismat Chughtai faces obscenity trial for "Lihaaf". [26]
1945
- Ismat Chughtai publishes her semi-autobiographical Tehri Lakeer ("The Crooked Line"), an Urdu novel that does not shy away from sexuality and depiction of same-sex attraction. [24]
1962
-
Rajendra Yadav, a leading Hindi novelist, publishes his story "Prateeksha" ("Waiting") that depicts a homosexual relation between two women without censure and in detail. [24]
1968
- Bhupen Khakhar, a successful painter and writer of Gujarati fiction, and one of the few who is openly homosexual, writes an untitled story depicting bisexuality in a quotidian, lower middle-class context. [24]
