Kolkata, June 29, 2024: In 1999, a Secunderabad-based newspaper observed with considerable alarm that “gay men are taking over” the entire city of Hyderabad. Would its reaction have been just as visceral to 15 queer individuals and allies taking out the ‘Friendship Walk ‘99’ on the streets of Kolkata in the same year on July 2? And 25 years later, how would it have reported the Bengal Gallery of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) bustling with queer people and their creativity to mark the silver jubilee of the walk over the last two days?

‘Futures of Prides Past’ exhibition poster. Artwork credit: Mihir Seth

On the evening of June 28, there were the old and the young, all waiting in anticipation for four guests to start speaking at a panel titled ‘In the Footsteps of Friendship’ at the ICCR. Designer Aditya Mohnot, writer and archivist Pawan Dhall, artivist Rudra Kishore Mandal, social worker and educator Shreosi, and human rights lawyer and academic Debjyoti Ghosh, the moderator, sat like old friends and spoke of a time when communication was not as easy as it is now. Stories took time to reach the right audience, queer individuals were criminals under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, and awareness in a heteronormative society was even sparser than it is in the current time.

July 2, 2024 will mark the 25th anniversary of ‘Friendship Walk ‘99’, considered to be the first rainbow pride walk of South Asia. It took place in Kolkata and was embarked upon by 15 people, of whom two, Aditya and Pawan, were present for the panel discussion. Aditya, Pawan and Rudra, who also stepped into queer community mobilization in Hyderabad in 1998-99, called themselves the ‘99ers’ and recalled their youth and experiences. Aditya’s house had been a safe space to gather. Pawan spoke about letters and greeting cards as the primary means of communication between queer people and queer support groups like the Kolkata-based Counsel Club. Rudra’s first interactions with the queer community was through a long letter he had written to Saathi queer support group in Hyderabad, which eventually led to them reaching out and asking him to join meetings the community used to hold at the back of a horticulture garden in the heart of the city.

For Shreosi, who has been an important figure in Sappho for Equality, the reality of youth was different. Girls from decent homes were supposed to go to school or college to study and immediately come back home. Moreover, owning a mobile phone was completely out of the question. After moving to Kolkata, she claimed with a chuckle, she would willingly run into trouble just to witness for herself how the police, courts and hospitals run. Sappho for Equality too turned 25 this year on June 20. The nature of their work, as Shreoshi said, has changed since the Internet boom and the COVID-19 pandemic. “Virtual networks have led to interventions being possible, preventing many deaths among queer people. Therapy has become more accessible to those in need,” she explained as a 40-50 strong audience cheered and applauded.

Speakers for the panel ‘In the Footsteps of Friendship’ on June 28, 2024 – from left to right – Aditya Mohnot, Shreosi, Debjyoti Ghosh, Pawan Dhall and Rudra Kishore Mandal

The panel was followed by questions, observations, and much reflection on the present state of the queer communities in a deeply hierarchized society. While queer people have been decriminalized and trans rights have progressed, the recent legislative changes brought about in the form of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita have scrapped any legal protection that was available to men who are victims of sexual abuse. This is yet another example of how queer people are denied their right to exist with dignity and peace. The panellists though were not despondent and said that adversities have always brought the queer communities together despite all differences. It is this struggle that binds queer people together in the priceless bond of friendship, which does not demand uniformity of opinion and expression, but rather supports and accepts individuality.

* * *

The panel on June 28 was part of the opening act of the 25th anniversary celebrations – a two-day art exhibition aptly titled ‘Futures of Prides Past’ curated by Debjyoti Ghosh, Rudra Kishore Mandal and Aditya Mohnot. June 28 was chosen as the starting date because it marked the 55th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots of New York, a landmark event in queer histories. With Varta Trust and The Rainbow Room as the primary hosts, the exhibition displayed artworks of a number of queer artists and creators from different walks of life. A large number of the submissions were contributed by artists who had participated in a preparatory workshop titled ‘Memories of Prides Past’ organised by Varta Trust on May 26, 2024. The exhibition showcased a number of pieces on the theme of friendship and bridge building, which was the essence of ‘Friendship Walk ‘99’ and, in keeping with the current fractured sociopolitical environment and need of the hour, also the leitmotif of the 25th anniversary celebrations.

The works assumed a multiplicity of forms like multimedia pieces, acrylic artworks, photography, and mandala art. Ashish Singha’s live demonstration, an extension of his short film The Box, was a piece of performance-based art about body politics which garnered immense praise from the audience (see adjoining photograph). Other interactive pieces included a colouring sheet for the visitors to fill in, and a cardboard post box for visitors to put postcards in with messages about how they saw their future as queer persons.

The exhibition also put on view a few media pieces – an audio diary by Tanvir and the trailer of a documentary The Journey We Made by Dwaipayan Banerjee. The documentary includes interviews conducted by The Rainbow Room founder Mahua Seth with eight of the 15 ‘99ers’ – snippets from the interviews have been strung together in a medley of key issues like the experience of organizing the ‘Friendship Walk ‘99’, the barriers faced by the organizers, and its impact.

The exhibition had a section devoted to letters written by queer people in the 1990s – these were drawn from the Counsel Club Archives maintained by Varta Trust. The archives provide a rich insight into Kolkata and India’s recent queer histories. An In Memoriam section was dedicated to Tamaghno Tapasidhya, a queer individual who died recently. As tragic as Tamaghno’s death has been, the sensationalist manner in which some sections of the ‘mainstream’ media covered the incident has been extremely disturbing and insensitive. Some of the trans networks in West Bengal have conducted a signature campaign to protest the callous reporting. Tamaghno’s story is a reminder of the precarious nature of queer lives, which receive scant attention and respect from almost all the institutions of society – in life and in death.

* * *

A colouring sheet for the exhibition visitors to fill in – a creation of Aryan Goel

Today, June 29, the second evening of the exhibition, saw many eminent faces and an even bigger flock of audience. The evening started with a poetry recitation Bichitro Choritro by Komalika. A second panel had journalist Sandip Roy, theatre writer and editor Anjum Katyal, actor Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee, poet and ‘99er’ Owais Khan, and, filmmaker and podcaster Suchandra Das as the speakers. Debjyoti posed them the question: “Where are we in the Global South situated with representing queer characters in the media when it comes to their portrayal as contrary to the Global North?”

The invisibility of queer South Asians in the media goes back a long time. Sandip recalled working for Trikone Magazine (1986-2014), a pioneer among queer publications in the South Asian diaspora that was published from the San Francisco Bay Area in the USA. He would notice that the literature, screens and bars lacked all-rounded queer persons of colour. Sujoy brought up the inclusion of queer characters in Bengali cinema and theatre. What he and the other panellists focussed on was that currently there is an act of ‘reimagining’ taking place. From the days when queer characters were token clowns, the film and television industries now oscillate between token queer characters to avoid accusations of non-inclusivity and showing them in a more genuine light as human beings in all their complexity. In this context, the names of Jatra stalwarts Chapal Bhaduri and Janardan Rani, female impersonators par excellence, were mentioned as positive examples to draw from in the sphere of Bengali theatre.

Suchandra, who organises workshops and courses to educate people on gender and sexuality, has seen a surge in the number of content creators who have enrolled themselves for her course to sensitise themselves.

After the second day’s panel on June 29, 2024 – ‘Reimagining the Queer in Literature and Social Media’ – from left to right – Aditya Mohnot, Anjum Katyal, Debjyoti Ghosh, Sandip Roy, Owais Khan, Suchandra Das and Rudra Kishore Mandal

In the literary sphere, queer individuals have been characters, authors as well as muses. Owais Khan brought up the poetry of Urdu poet Mir who wrote his shayari addressing a mehboob, a male or an androgynous lover. Same-sex love has existed since time immemorial and across the globe. Love and desire have never adhered to a fixed set of norms. Anjum, too, spoke about the complex nature of queer desire in Saikat Majumdar’s book The Remains of the Body which explores a childhood friendship that blossomed into a one-sided erotic longing for a non-reciprocative muse. The panellists emphasized that sex is still largely talked about in hushed voices, but is an integral need for many people. Trikone Magazine had once taken interviews of queer individuals asking them how they perceived sex. While the men spoke explicitly about sexual acts and pleasure, somehow in the women’s section “everybody was eating mangoes,” quipped Sandip.

As the intense session ended with questions and observations from the audience, the two-day long event also drew to a close. Though the walls of the gallery soon became bare and the halls fell silent, the venue had seen deeply felt queer joy and celebration.

Band of volunteers who worked with the exhibition curators and artists to make the event a reality running against time

The exhibits and the panel discussions received critical feedback from the audience. One visitor to the exhibition described it as “exhilarating” and how it had helped them gain a dynamic perspective towards queerness through so many different lenses. Another member of the audience was in high praise of the panel held on the first day, detailing how the panellists’ recollections of the past had moved her. For her, as someone who had only recently discovered her queerness, the entire event had become a safe space to exist as her own self without any compromise. Someone who attended the second day’s panel described the discussion as illuminating, especially the dialogue on the representation of queer people in pornography.

* * *

The exhibition and the panels are part of a series of events from May to August 2024 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of ‘Friendship Walk ‘99’. These events are a collaboration among a number of queer support forums and their allies. A wide range of expressions around ‘friendship as a mobilizer for queer movements’ are being covered through fine art, music, dance, theatre, films, literary explorations, conversations around neurodivergence, talks about the future of the queer movements, and walks down memory lane – both literally, as in a queer heritage walk and through recounting of recent queer histories.

In addition to spanning generations, the festivities are attempting to encompass the diversity among queer people in terms of sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, religious identity, caste identity, class, and geographical location. Apart from South Kolkata, several events are to be held in Dumdum in North Kolkata, Alipurduar, Balurghat, Kalyani, and Konnagar in West Bengal, and Moirang in Manipur.

July 2, the anniversary of the ‘Friendship Walk’, will witness the pilot of a queer heritage walk beginning from Park Circus Maidan, ground zero for the walk in 1999, and a commemorative cultural evening at Sujata Devi Smriti Sadan on Hazra Road in South Kolkata.

The bets are out if it will rain again as it did in 1999 during the walk. After all, there is no rainbow without rain!

For further information on the events, please click here. Read more about ‘Friendship Walk ‘99’ here. Also read Celebrating 25 Years of Friendship, Pride and Diversity in the May 2024 issue and ‘Bees Saal Baad . . .’ in the June 2019 issue of Varta – Editor.

About the main photo: A cardboard post box for visitors to the ‘Futures of Prides Past’ exhibition to put postcards in with messages about how they dream of their own queer future. Created by Debjyoti Ghosh with inputs from volunteers. All photographs courtesy the ‘Friendship Walk 25th Anniversary’ organizing team

Share: