The value of hearing LGBTQ+ inclusion from Mohan Bhagwat

Sometimes, who says something matters more than what is being said. Last Sunday, Mohan Bhagwat stated that the LGBTQ+ community should not be ostracised from society, and that 'there's a place for them within the vast tapestry of social life'.

This was not some Gen Z voice at a 'pride' gathering. It was an RSS sarsanghchalak at a Hyderabad event organised by Vishwamangalya Sabha, a sociocultural organisation focused on empowering women and promoting traditional motherhood. Not only is Bhagwat's call for inclusiveness welcome but it's also valuable, coming as it does from someone Hindu conservatives and traditionalists listen to with respect.

This isn't the first time Bhagwat has spoken about 'mainstream-ising' homosexuality. In 2019, he approvingly cited characters like Shikhandi from the Mahabharat to highlight that gender and sexual diversity has long been part of Indian culture.


In 2013, when Pope Francis famously asked, 'Who am I to judge?', and a decade later permitted Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples, he was not speaking to the choir. By dint of the value his voice bore in the Catholic world, Francis softened the church's public stance towards LGBTQ+ without being accused of heresy.

Similarly, when a leader of a Hindu institution reiterates its inclusive stance on sexual diversity, it sends out a powerful message to adapt in accordance to our own inclusive culture.

That India, and India's Hindus, should reject a lingering colonial mindset - Victorian attitudes cemented in British laws like the 1885 Labouchere Amendment criminalised male same- sex sexual acts (lesbianism was seen to be too fantastical to even exist) - bears far more traction coming from Bhagwat than from more 'traditionally progressive' quarters.