Gay activism in 1990s India
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 6 August 2021
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the early 1990s, when homosexuality was still a criminal offense in India, a group of gay men and lesbian women set up the Counsel Club in the city of Kolkata. It was one of the first queer support groups in India. Their first meetings took place in secret at the home of one of the members. Later, the group campaigned for gay rights in India and helped other gay people with family problems or anxieties over coming out. Mike Lanchin has been speaking to Pawan Dhall, one of the club's founding members.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Jayanta Shaw
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service, |
| 0:47.0 | first-hand accounts of events that have shaped our world. |
| 0:50.0 | I'm Mike Lanchin. |
| 0:52.0 | Today we're going back to the early 1990s when activists in the Indian |
| 0:56.5 | city of Kolkata set up one of the country's first support groups for gays and lesbians. I've been speaking to |
| 1:03.9 | Pawanhal, a founder member of the so-called Council Club. |
| 1:12.1 | When I was around 17 I was in school and miserable I wasn't enjoying my studies and my |
| 1:18.7 | elder brother was going to get married and I was terrified that one day I would grow up and I would have to |
| 1:26.0 | get married too which I didn't want to. It was in the late 1980s that |
| 1:30.7 | Pawan summed up the courage and broke the news to his parents that he was |
| 1:35.0 | was gay. You know, they were not the thought who would have thrown me out of my home. |
| 1:38.5 | And so when I brought up the subject, they were definitely, they were were shocked but my mother was a little |
| 1:44.4 | more appreciative because she said that this often happens when you are in |
| 1:49.4 | Adolescent and it's not a big deal it's going to go away and and your father my father was more |
| 1:56.5 | skeptical and his thing was I should focus on my studies what else did they say to you they |
| 2:02.4 | had all these questions about why suddenly, what made you think about this? And then I gave them the background that I have been feeling this attraction for the last few years and I know that there are other people like me |
| 2:16.3 | so you can't tell me that this is a sickness I wanted to tell you so that's why I have brought |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.