Delhi: As the din of celebration spills onto the streets during pride month every year, one question continues to haunt many young queer Indian students – when will our campus open up to such festivities?
Though India’s Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in 2018, acceptance remains an uphill battle, especially within educational institutions meant to nurture young minds.
The recent years have seen a handful of institutes like Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala and the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, Hyderabad setting trends through gender-neutral initiatives. However, for LGBTQIA+ students of numerous universities and institutions in India. the scenario is starkly different.
On several campuses across the country including that of Delhi University (DU), the largest state university in India, it is difficult to find institution-officiated or recognised student groups representing queer communities organising pride events.
A few collectives function independently but their system is much different than that of their counterparts in other college societies. Ansh* who is part of both Nrityangana, the cultural dance society, and Women Development’s Cell (WDC) at Shri Venkateswara College, DU, says, “It was a lot of pressure when WDC hosted the queer pride on campus but it’s always so easy to just get up and dance on the stage for any event we want as part of the cultural society.”
The same is true for many institutes and several prestigious public and private colleges. On January 14 Indradhanu, IIT Delhi’s (IITD) queer collective, organised the annual pride festival titled Vibhinn 2024. Vaivab Das, one of the founding members of the collective, recalls how difficult it was to get Indradhanu officially recognised by the university. “When a letter was sent to the head of the university eleven years ago to launch Indradhanu as a queer resource centre, it was never even opened. Now, after a long struggle, Indradhanu is here.”
This is not only IITD’s or Das’s story, it’s a constant battle for almost all the queer collectives in the country where queerphobia and discrimination are rampant, often tending to more than just microaggressions.
Aryan*, who identifies as non-binary, a third-year student at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharm College, from the DU South Campus, says, “I wish there was a community I could turn to on campus, people who understand the unique issues we face. I am tired of living in fear that I might get thrown out if I speak my truth.”
His college professors, while generally supportive of Aryan’s individually, have denied requests to start an LGBTQ group or host queer events on campus, citing potential backlash from more conservative students and parents.
A glimpse of Vibhinn 2024 held at IIT Delhi
Officials of the Delhi University colleges, who were reached out to for responses, declined to comment. One of the professors who works as an ad-hoc at one of the colleges under DU and is the convener of a Women Development Cell, remarked, “Abhi to North Campus pride bhi hota hai, ab kya mein hijre laake nachau college campus mein representation ke liye?” (Now North Campus even hosts a pride, should I now bring hijras [often used a slur] and make them dance in the college campus for representation? )
Similar stories echo across the country’s top-tier campuses, despite the growing visibility of queer Indians in pop culture and media. Many administrators and faculty members still consider queer identities too radical for their elite institutions
Battling bureaucracy and bias
Sayantika Majumder, a graduate of Christ University, Bengaluru, shared recently how she became nostalgic about her past experiences with the silence of the taboo topic of being queer. “When I was invited to judge a queer event conducted by the psychology association of Christ University at Aroha, the intercampus fest, memories of my old days at college flooded back. When we were in college, we could not have imagined talking about LGBT issues at a college event or even saying “I am a lesbian” without gathering a few frowns, if not worse. We couldn’t have dreamt of an LGBT event as part of the official college fest and a community of fellow queers in college.”
An ex-assistant professor at Christ University, Bengaluru, recounts, “The university is often careful of how they tackle these events but with a growing need for it, and the privilege of us being in a metro city with a diverse crowd, does help make them happen at times.”
While the accessibility and the number of events related to queer awareness and celebration may have increased, it is a hassle for organisers to conduct them by bypassing authoritative control, censoring from the administration or worse any kind of tussle or disturbance.
Talking at a recent queer collective meet, Ajit*, a student at Deshbandhu College, Delhi, shared the struggles queer collectives face. “I still remember how our principal wanted us to cancel a queer speaker’s event in our college premises at the last minute despite permitting it way back because he was facing some kind of external pressure. After a lot of persuasion, he told us that we should bear the consequences if there were any and that he wouldn’t grace the event with his presence. He didn’t turn up.”
The organisers also have to be careful about creating any kind of defamation to the college from publishing the event proceedings. “We don’t invite the media due to the same fear. Anyone can pick up anything and then create a ruckus that can destroy the little sanctuary we have made,” says Ajit. “It not only puts our teams and members at high risk but also makes it really difficult for the college authorities.”
A core team member of Vibhinn 2024 elaborates how conducting an event of such magnanimity takes several gears and chains to function properly. “We had to first screen and pass the speakers through the administration, and ensure that we were ready to face the aftermath of anything shared on stage. Conducting the event and sourcing funds for it is also a large task that takes a lot of head-banging for the team,” they said.
The scene is not much better for the queer or pride clubs in Pune and Kolkata, the city that hosted the first-ever pride march in the country. At Calcutta University, students explain that queer identities still make campus authorities careful of the boundaries they can step in and out of.
Photo : Sahil Pradhan
“Though I see my peers and classmates at external events like Kolkata Pride March, I don’t see many of them being open on the college campus. Even professors, who have done their gender studies and researched on gender spectrum and more, censor their opinions heavily,” says Anubhav*, a queer student at CU.
When conversing with a female professor from Calcutta University who belongs to and resides in the city, and who doesn’t want to be quoted or named, it was evident that intensive gender studies and opinions on alternate sexual identities create many aftershocks that neither the university body not the professor themselves want to take the onus of.
“Generational change is happening slowly,” said Rishi*, a third-year student at Hindu College and member of the Hindu College Queer Collective, “But expecting entrenched social prejudice to disappear overnight is unreasonable – we still have major opposition from conservative professors, staff, parents and alumni.”
‘Focusing on academics, not sexuality’
At premium institutes, known globally for academic rigour, administrators often cite excellence in education as a reason to avoid controversial topics like queer identities. “We are focused on research and academic achievement – students’ personal lives or sexuality have no place here,” said a professor at IIT-Delhi whom we conversed with before the pride event.
Insiders say outdated hostel rules also constrain queer expression on India’s top tech campuses. Many housing policies segregate students by gender, and this leads to uneasy situations for the queer people.
“Rules made decades ago to discipline hostel residents make it impossible to create safe spaces for queer students to freely express themselves. There are rules on dress code for classes, coding for what one should use, common washroom rules, dressing room rules and so much more,” said Paayal* Kapur, 20, a transgender student who chose not to go to an IIT fearing harassment in the institute’s binary divided dorms.
But, there is some light too. Some campuses have given a small glimmer of hope in the endless darkness that queer college students face on campus.
In 2018, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai marked a significant milestone by establishing the first gender-neutral hostel, a result of persistent efforts by the Queer Collective, an informal student group. This initiative designated the ground floor of a women’s hostel for gender non-conforming students.
“I had queer friends on the campus, and even if they couldn’t be themselves openly, I think the strong sense of community at TISS and the safe spaces, however minimal it might have been, gave us much hope,’’ Surabhi Malhotra, an alum,
Following suit, the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law in Patiala and the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) in Hyderabad also implemented gender-neutral hostels.
NALSAR’s Queer Collective, advocating for approximately 80 queer students, successfully secured a gender-neutral floor in the girls’ hostel, and is currently working on a trans-inclusive policy. The legal focus of universities like NALSAR often facilitates better understanding of landmark judgments and supportive faculty members. Conversely, the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences has a policy supporting transgender and gender-diverse individuals, ensuring hostel allocations align with preferences and establishing gender-neutral clusters.
Despite these positive steps, challenges persist. In 2017, Panjab University proposed a hostel for trans persons, but progress remains stagnant. Dhananjay Chauhan, a trans alumnus, highlighted previous initiatives like free education and a dedicated toilet for the third gender but laments the lack of action on the crucial front of affordable and safe hostel accommodation, emphasising its vital role in supporting trans individuals in their pursuit of education.
The concluding remarks of Vaivab at Vibhinn 2024 too highlight the need to have an inclusive environment on campuses that provides a sense of community and promotes overall well-being and academic success.
“In an institution of eminence like IIT, equality should persist, and collectives like Indradhanu are a step towards them. There’s no eminence without equality. Not to just fight against discrimination but against all kinds of inequality.’’
(*Some names have been changed to protect privacy)
