With respect to male-male kama (desire), an active/passive dichotomy is apparent in the historical record as well as in present day thought. The male passive partner takes the receptive role in sex, and is more stigmatized. There is less stigmatization of an active partner in such a relationship, and in modern India the passive partner in male-male sex is called by different terms than an active participant.

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The Muslim Conquest of India

Many aspects of Indian life, including sexuality, were changed by the Muslim conquest of South Asia that began in the eighth century. Islamic rule spread into modern-day India in the early eleventh century and culminated with the tenuous conquest of most of South India in 1707. The introduction of Islam had a more profound effect on North India, which was held mostly under Muslim rule until the nineteenth century.

While anal intercourse between men is forbidden in the Quran (4.15), the punishments prescribed are less severe than those in the Old Testament. Male-male desire is not taboo; however, acting upon such desire is prohibited. It is also worth noting that Islam is not a uniform religion, and a liberal form of Sufism in India called for contemplation of God's bounty through pleasure.

Indo-Islamic poetry suggests that men had sex with one another despite prohibitions, and there were only slight attempts to curb this activity. One poem is particularly revealing: "He is the king in Delhi who lies under the lover" (trans. Rahman). Indo-Islamic love poetry is usually written from the point of view of the older, sexually active (penetrating) male, but often indicates that the younger man in such a relationship held the power of rejection and was perhaps not as passive as his denoted sexual role might otherwise indicate. Less is known about female-female sexuality in Muslim India, though some illustrations and poetry are illuminating.

European Colonialism

European colonialism began with the Portuguese, ca 1500, and culminated with direct British rule of India in 1857. Not only did the British introduce anti-sodomy legislation, but Judeo-Christian social attitudes towards homoeroticism and gender variance as well.

Women who dressed in men's clothing and served as bodyguards and porters were noticed by English colonials prior to 1857, but disappeared with the decline of Indian court life. Male-male homoerotic poetry ceased to be published. Although some poetry discussing love between women, called rekhti, continued to be written in the late nineteenth century, it was eventually suppressed as well.

India Today

Today, homosexual behavior in India consists primarily of acts performed with great discretion, with the partners usually adopting rigid sexual roles. Open, Western-style gayness is not something that has taken root in India, outside a few large cities. The family is still the source of economic security, and many men and women who engage in homoerotic acts also marry because of parental pressure, economic necessity, and the need for children to provide geriatric care. As a result, exclusive same-sex relationships are rare in India.

The lack of a public social security system, poverty, and compulsory heterosexual marriage may indeed be the most oppressive aspects of everyday life in India for individuals who identify as glbtq. Consequently, those who do adopt a Westernized gay, lesbian, or transgendered identity often migrate to large Indian cities or live abroad as part of a larger, worldwide South Asian diaspora.

In Bombay, Delhi, and other large cities, a small glbtq culture that includes bars, magazines, organized parties, support groups, and activist organizations (often organized around AIDS issues) has begun to emerge. This phenomenon, in addition to the appearance of gay and lesbian characters in contemporary Indian film and literature, as well as very recent developments in the Indian academy to incorporate Queer Studies, represents the beginnings of a civil rights movement within Indian society.

It could be said that those who identify as bisexual or heterosexual have an easier time living in contemporary India than lesbians or gays, but such a statement risks enforcing Western categories in a multicultural, multiethnic country where sex, sexuality, and gender are often understood and lived very differently. Even less categorizing terms--such as men who have sex with men or women who have sex with women--may deny the complexities of reality in India, where active/passive contrasts are still very strong and native terminology generally reflects the nuances of Indian life better than Western identities.

The recent popularity of Asian films with English-language audiences has allowed Western audiences a glimpse of Asian gay and lesbian identities and gender ambiguities in high-profile queer films.

The dominant religion of modern India, Hinduism is no longer as tolerant of same-sex sexual relations as it seems to have been in the past.

Not only is sexuality celebrated in Indian art, but many of India's gods also consider gender to be a fluid affair, sometimes manifesting as androgynes and sometimes switching gender altogether.

Despite religious prohibitions against same-sex sexual relationships, Islamic societies generally extend tolerance through a pattern of collective denial.

Although the treatment of homosexuality is rare in South Asian literatures in either the ancient or the contemporary period, the South Asian diaspora has recently produced a number of both gay and lesbian writers.

The Hijras--men who dress and act like women--have been a presence in India for generations, maintaining a third-gender role that has become institutionalized through tradition.