Over the top

Ahmed Yusuf writes about the recent assassination of BNP-M Secretary-General Habib Jalib Baloch, and the life of his namesake.

Habib Jalib Baloch, the secretary-general of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), was gunned down on 14 July in Quetta, in what is believed to be a targeted attack. The incident took place in broad daylight, when Baloch was dropping his children off to school en route to work where he was to plead a case before a court of Pakistani law. (more…)

Sunil Pant is a member of Nepal’s Constituent Assembly and the founder and executive director of the Blue Diamond Society (BDS), a grassroots organization working for gender and sexuality minorities in Kathmandu, Nepal. The work of BDS covers many issues of political representation, non-discrimination, health, community building, and human rights. In the second part of this two-part interview, he spoke to Kaveri Rajaraman about the consequences of the Supreme Court ruling and in favour of third gender and other sexual minorities, and  the progress of the CA in writing a historic constitution with explicit provisions for the recognition and protection of the LGBTI community.

PART 2

How did you get that idea of running for parliament and how did you pick the platform and party with which to run, and in what ways do you think it has helped?

After the Supreme Court decision, the Interim Constitution was formulated, and we were very disappointed that the suggestions we gave were not even tabled. The Interim Constitution did not mention anything and we remember that we went to the Secretariat where they were accepting recommendations from different communities. They took it and they registered that they had received it. But somebody within the Secretariat, after we left, must have thrown it out into the dustbin, because we talked to the other people in the drafting committee. They said they never heard of this, they never saw any suggestion coming from us. So, knowing that, we thought it was time to maybe ask the parties to also give us backing, as we had supported them in the second populous movement. So we were going to all the small or big parties asking them to include LGBTI rights into their party manifesto, and some parties readily agreed. The first party was the Maoist party, to our surprise, because I’d heard some of the senior leaders were very negative beforehand, but I was glad that it was not the entire party’s policy, and that there were gay friendly people in the parties. So they were the first party, and then the Nepali Congress followed, and many other smaller parties followed. This party called CPN (United) were very supportive. One of the leaders was following our work through the net, through the media and was also coming to our events and supporting gay rights on a low, low scale. The Constituent Assembly election was declared and then the nomination date was finalized, so we were intensifying our delegations to the parties. And on the last day of nominations for the personal candidates list, I heard from this tiny communist party, CPN (United), at 9 o’clock – ‘OK, we would like you third gender and gay communities standing on our party’s behalf’. It was a big surprise for us. It was the last day and they had to finalize the name by the party by 11 o’clock, as 1 o’clock was the last hour when they had to submit it to the election commission. We just had basically two hours to decide. So we were running around saying ‘OK, what do we do?’, talking to people, ‘Should we go for it?’ I said, ‘Look as we don’t have any expectations, we have nothing to lose. We do not expect to win this, but this probably will show how committed we are to support this constitution-building process. So let’s go for it. This is a good opportunity, and the by-product would be some media campaign which would be good’. So I took several names to the party. But then we realized that a citizenship ID was needed, which many didn’t have, which also had to be matched to the voting list. So this was very difficult with the third genders and others, since the name didn’t match. It was already late and so the party asked, ‘So why don’t you at least give one name?’ So I gave my name and citizenship ID. They matched my citizenship ID name to the voter list and it was fine. So that’s how I got nominated into the list, and then we had another three days for the direct candidacy. The party didn’t have enough candidates to all the electoral areas, so they were happy, where ever they didn’t have candidates for us to take them. So we found another 11 candidates to contest. We only had offices, networks in 15 districts then. So the party was closely monitoring, how many votes they were receiving in each district, and they were surprised that they did receive most of their votes from those 15 districts where we had offices. So it was pretty obvious to the party that this was from our efforts, from our votes. We also received a lot of votes from the women’s security forces wing – a lot of lesbians and transgenders are there. We didn’t reach out to them, but the media helped, and those people who are closeted gays and lesbians were voted for us. The party did not have a stronghold anywhere else, but they secured enough votes for five seats. There were enough seats for five candidates and without any debate the whole party was happy to approve my name. That’s how I got into politics. I had no such plan. It’s not because of the philosophy I believe in or something. It’s somehow like the way I started the Blue Diamond society, without a plan.

I’ve been very happy for the last one and a half years. It has been very exciting, to be able to sensitize the entire Constituent Assembly and parliament on sexual minority rights issues. The draft that has been formulated around minority community rights and fundamental rights has fantastic language, ensuring gay, lesbian and transgender rights. This citizenship issue is covered there, as are marriage rights, property rights, the non-discrimination clause, social security, pay and pension. All those things are there for everybody including gays, lesbians and transgender people. As we’ve finished drafting and handed this over to the Constituent Assembly, the last six months have being a bit boring as we don’t have a job, but I can give more time to Blue Diamond Society.
I also started this youth movement over the last six months, realizing that the older generation has done a good job during the first and second popular movement, but that now the autocracy, the hierarchy in the party system, and the mistrust in one other, and not letting the new generation take the lead, are all big problems. So we think that now the younger generation, educated, intelligent, hard-working and I think much more honest, to themselves and to the country, should take the lead. I’ve been organizing the youth movement and have formed a youth caucus in the parliament, across parties. One benefit is that since I do not belong to any strong political ideology, people trust me from across parties. The second thing is that I do not belong to a big party. That also helps me bring together younger politicians from bigger parties. So we did a signature campaign pressurizing the senior leaders to come to consensus, and demanded that younger politicians must be allowed to play a meaningful role drafting or finalizing the constitution. This was a big success but still we haven’t been able to organize effectively and time is too short for the 28^th May deadline. So we will strategize better once the CA tenure is extended and we’ll play a much more effective role, meaningful role and equal role in finalizing the constitution. So today, later today, we have a meeting of some key young leaders, and tomorrow we’ll invite a broader group of younger leaders, and basically we’re taking the lead.

So I’m curious as to how alive, right now, the process of writing the constitution is. Are your meetings mostly about strategizing about what will happen if and when the CA tenure gets extended, or are there already drafts of the constitution circulating?

There’s no formal business now being done by the CA altogether or by any committees. All the committees have finished drafting their own chapters. But the problem is there are some different issues among the major political parties which they have yet to agree upon, and they’ve been, you know, doing marathon meetings for the last six months, not being able to move a single step forward. So there is no business, basically, but it’s all about talk, talk, talk, and then nothing happens. The only thing they agree upon is to meet again, the next day. The way the party system works here is very hierarchical, and the senior leaders are very party-centric. That’s what I think is causing the problem. I also think they’re not capable of taking the lead in sensitive and critical issues. They’re good, they’re good, but we need more than good.

So, in have any of the chapter drafts incorporated LGBTI rights yet, to your knowledge?

Most of the chapters, especially those dealing with fundamental rights issues, have been formulated with a great deal of discussion for inclusivity, and for LGBTI rights I was part of the committee. So it’s very good language being drafted, and we don’t have any concern about this, because most of the things that we want are reflected there. We also did not want too much affirmation or reservation etc. Non-discrimination, equal opportunity ensured, we are perfectly capable, and those who need affirmative action could fall into other categories, for example, caste-based or something. So we don’t think we need a separate quota for gays, lesbians, for education, for health, for jobs or for pension or anything.

In the draft of the constitution itself, is there any explicit provision around third gender?

Yes, yes. The gender definition has been extended to third gender – the categories are men, women, third gender, very clearly written. The chapter for citizenship ID rights has subarticles saying every citizen has the right to have a citizenship ID according to their gender identity, and on a explanatory note it explains these can be men, women and third gender. So it’s mentioned there, and in a lot of places – on social security, for example, the third gender and sexual minority communities are mentioned explicitly. So it’s mentioned a lot of times, over and over, in many places.

Does this also then leave it open for people to not identify as third gender, but to identify in some other way, and then have official documents come out in any gender identity they chose? Or is it still within these three categories that they have to chose?

Within these three categories. You are defined as men, women or third gender.

And is there a provision either within the Supreme Court directive, or within again this constitutional process, of that official identity being changeable? So for example if someone identifies at some point as male, and then changes their gender identity, is their ID flexible?

I believe yes, you can change it one time… I think the citizenship ID is given when you are sixteen, so you’re pretty much sure who you are by then. Before that nobody has any ID. People do identify as a boy or girl, but now a lot of them may know but not identify publicly at school age or at an early age. I think, now, those who already have their ID as a man but they are third gender, can change it, but for the new generation, I don’t think it will be a problem.

Hopefully! What about progress along the other directives of the Supreme Court ruling? So for example what is the status of the committee around marriage?

They are drafting this. They have done thorough studies, consultations with communities, with the media, with professors, with government departments, with security forces, with religious groups. They traveled to eight major cities and did wide consultations while drafting it, and as far as I know they are supportive of recognizing same-sex relationships. They’re probably still not sure what they would like to call it, whether marriage or something else, but there is no doubt about the rest. I was invited to a couple of meetings, for example, with religious leaders, and they suggested that we shouldn’t call it marriage, but still they believe that these relationships must be recognized.

What is the provision then for third gender marriages… I mean, essentially once you create a third gender concept, you can’t stick by this male-female marriage definition any more any way.

Absolutely, absolutely. That’s why in the draft on fundamental rights, the right to marry, marriage, is between two persons.

How many people have so far been able to avail of this third gender identity card?

Many wish for it, many have applied for it, but only five got it. The home ministry is pretty transphobic and that’s why he’s been the one causing delay. Otherwise, the home ministry’s secretary, staff and bureaucracy are fine with it. They have prepared their files a long time back, but it’s stuck at the minister’s table. But even though the minister ordered a phone call circular to not issue ID, the five CDO offices have been issuing ID. So five third genders have proper ID, with their identity written as third gender.

What about rules around adoption? Are people of any gender status able to adopt?

I think anybody can adopt here, whether you’re a married couple or single. The good thing is it doesn’t say whether you have to be a straight couple or gay couple. So we don’t want to even touch that, because it’s pretty inclusive and gender neutral.

What of the Supreme Court directive to overhaul any rules made by the legislature that were in contravention of conveying full rights to LGBTI communities?

This the law ministry is drafting now. There is a bill being drafted on gender equality. They were only focusing on women issues at first. We went and said, ‘Look, this could be the perfect bill that could include all gay and transgender rights issues,’ and they said, ‘Oh, the same sex marriage committee is still working, so we can’t do this’. But we said, ‘OK, you can leave out the marriage part and incorporate other rights issues.’ So they are working on it. Hopefully they will table the gender equality bill to the parliament soon, because women are pushing and we are pushing hard. They were asking for comments back from the different ministries, so we already saw the letter from the Prime Minister’s office – it’s very supportive, positive about including us into this gender equality bill.

How are the different people and parties in parliament responding?

Well, largely positive. I’ve only heard so far 2 lawmakers out of 601 who had concerns about where this would lead us, and so on. But otherwise other leaders are publicly supporting the rights of third genders, gays and lesbians and almost all the parties have now LGBTI supportive policy, 100%. In the first six months I went to the parliament with my laptop, I made powerpoint presentations and gave one-on-one or group presentations. People had questions. So, that helped a lot, and we also organized programs and meetings and invited CA members here. With our delegations, we go continuously to the parties. About five months ago the Nepali Congress granted active membership to some of the transgenders and gays and lesbians, and the UML has already followed. The Maoists want the same – after all, for parties it is the votes that matters.

How are the police being impacted by this and what is the real impact on the lives of the LGBTI community? Functionally, on the ground, how have all these legislative and judicial changes really affected people?

The violence has gone down dramatically today, especially from the security forces, and I think we used to face the most violence from the security forces, not from the general public. So that has been solved, especially after the Supreme Court decision. Now the police invites us for sensitization trainings, they ask us if we need any protection when we organize anything. At the ground level, a lot of LGBTI are pretty confident, proud about themselves, they accept themselves and carry themselves beautifully with dignity, and their families are supporting them now. The education ministry is, I think, already including in some higher-level education curriculum a chapter around homosexuality and transgender.

How about rurally? The impact on rural areas, where there is less connection with the city, maybe even less awareness of the judgment and so on? How strongly has this filtered there?

No, no, they are pretty aware, it has filtered through. The media is quite strong especially the FM radios and papers, you know. The political organizations are everywhere. So, for example, if the Maoists decide something at the headquarters, it immediately trickles down to the villages the next day. So people are aware and they read newspapers, they talk, you know. So I guess maybe it’s not 100%, but people are aware, that OK, these are people in our neighborhood or in our families and we should respect them.

How has the impact on the lesbian community been compared to maybe the gay male community?

I think it’s pretty different, the way the LGBTI movement here compares to other countries. We have the very visible third genders, both male to female and female to male, and then the lesbians. So in a way the gays are marginalized in Nepal, less visible.

Stories from Himal on Nepal’s Peace Process and Constituional writing

June Issue Polarised polity by Bidushi Dhungel A week-long general strike called by Nepal’s Maoists was significant in its control and composure, but was called off before it could deliver the planned results – the fall of the Madhav Kumar Nepal government.

March Issue View from the cantonment by Kiyoko Ogura The talk drags on in Kathmandu about integration, rehabilitation and the future of the Maoist combatants. Writer’s block by Bipin AdhikariThe hundred-day deadline has just passed for the promulgation of Nepal’s long-awaited new constitution. But there is little optimism that this date will be met.

Among the transgender community are there many more MTF [male-to-female] transgenders, or female-identified or more-female-identified transgenders, compared to FTM [female-to-male], in terms of the out or visible community?

I think the numbers should be equal but since biological females, who are seen as daughters, are more policed and kept and have less movement and less mobility, they tend to be less visible unless it’s really obvious and problematic to the family to keep or to have them – in which case they have to come out. Whereas, you know, male-to-female transgenders, are for their families still seen as boys for many years, so they have more flexibility, to run away at least, from the home.

Finally, do you have any words of advice, or suggestion or encouragement to all the LGBTI people of Southasia who are also struggling and want to make a change and specifically, what aspects of the strategies you’ve used here have made sense, in terms of the engagement with mainstream politics, forming alliances, the strategy of how open and visible and public you are? What ideas do you think have worked for you out here?

First, I do not believe I am the right person to advise anybody. Second, different movements have different culture, different issues, different policies, different governments, and different religions impacting them. So the strategy we have taken forward and been successful with, if copied, may not work as well. So I only can express my full solidarity, and I am available if anybody needs me anywhere. I think being persistent, honest – that’s the only strategy I think that works for everyone.

Kaveri Rajaraman is a biologist and activist based in India, working on issues of class, heteropatriarchy and ecology. You may contact her at kaveri.rajaraman@gmail.com.

Sunil Pant is a member of Nepal’s Constituent Assembly and the founder and executive director of the Blue Diamond Society (BDS), a grassroots organization working for gender and sexuality minorities in Kathmandu, Nepal. The work of BDS covers many issues of political representation, non-discrimination, health, community building, and human rights. In December 2007 the Supreme Court of Nepal made a historic ruling in favor of Mr. Pant and three other petitioners on behalf of the gender identity and sexual orientation minority community, mandating a revision of all laws concerning fundamental rights so as to apply to third gender citizens and ensure no discrimination against LGBTI citizens, granting a third gender option for citizenship and identity documents, and ordering the formation of a government committee to examine the question of same-sex marriage (See Himal March 2008, ‘The state of homosexuality‘). As a member of the Constituent Assembly (whose tenure was just extended until May 2011), Pant has worked tirelessly from this position to help incorporate LGBTI rights into the new Nepali constitution. He spoke to Kaveri Rajaraman on May 19, 2010 about his personal journey, his organising and activism (Part 1), the consequences of the Supreme Court ruling, and the progress of the CA in writing a historic constitution with explicit provisions for the recognition and protection of the LGBTI community (Part 2).

PART 1

I wanted to start by asking you about the history and trajectory of Blue Diamond Society, and how you personally got increasingly involved in both the LGBTI rights issue work as well as activist work in other areas.

I grew up in Gorkha district and finished my schooling there, and I didn’t have any question about my sexuality. It was not a debate, nobody was asking questions. In fact, still, largely, in the countryside of Nepal – and you can see this even in the cities – socialization is very gender segregated. It’s very gendered, men playing together, girls playing together, so I thought everyone was like me! So, you know, it was not a problem.

Then I came here [to Kathmandu], did my college, and then went to Belarus for higher studies, where we did a one-year language course. As a student you have to go through a thorough medical examination every year. The first year we didn’t realize much because we couldn’t read the language, but in our second year we could see a board hanging there saying ‘Beware of gays’, or something like that. So that was the point at which questions arose – ‘What is it?’ and ‘People have different sexualities…’. I also could read later on about a lot of police raids on the underground gay scene there, people being charged and arrested and imprisoned. But I couldn’t ask anybody and there was no way that I could get any information. It was very difficult then. I couldn’t read any books about sexuality, I couldn’t talk to anybody, so I started pretending like I was a straight guy. Then I finished my Master’s degree there and then went to Japan to do volunteer work in the environmental area, and I did some volunteer work for 15 days. But I had another two and a half months there, so I thought maybe I’d do some odd jobs to make some pocket money and bring gifts back home. So I was looking for a job in Tokyo. I didn’t know much Japanese, but I was asking for any shops or restaurants where I could get a job. I saw a bookshop, and bookshops usually attract me, so I went there and picked up a book and found it to be very different. I left that book and picked up another one that had semi-nudity and gay elements, so I looked around, feeling like everyone was watching me. I looked around at the calendars, all those things, and it was a little bit odd for me. I was scared and ran away from there. But that made me do a lot of thinking and I couldn’t sleep, and after three days I went back, thinking maybe this was the place where I would find more information. So I went back there, talked to the shop owner and he explained that this is a gay bookshop and this whole area is a gay neighborhood. And he explained that these are the sections: gay history, Stonewall history, you can find books on Hinduism and homosexuality, or Buddhism and homosexuality, the Japanese tradition in homosexuality, Chinese homosexuality, everything. So I stopped looking for a job, started learning more about myself, more about gay, lesbian and transgender history and science.

So the days wore on, and then on the last day of my visa I just flew back to Nepal. I didn’t know what to do, as there were not many jobs in computers here in those days. It was 1997. So I thought I’d need to do further studies. So I applied and got a scholarship to Hong Kong Science and Technology University and went there for an M. Phil. in computer science. It was fine, the gay scene there was much smaller compared to Tokyo, but I didn’t like it, because it was just one-night stands, there were no relationships. It made me think – is this the gay life? Also, Valentine’s Day was approaching and the students asked me who was my valentine. I said, ‘I’m new to the city, and I’m gay’. I thought it would be perfectly fine, and that the people of Hong Kong would be open. But then silent prejudice and exclusion started from the next day. People started not sitting at the same bench I was sitting. The teachers started talking more in Cantonese. Probably people were gossiping, and so, it was hard. So I didn’t continue, and I left Hong Kong, came back, and went to Orissa, in India, because the super cyclone had hit at that time, 1999, and a lot of people had been killed. I thought, Oh, I should go to help people, and I thought I would go for a week or two weeks. But I ended up staying for ten months because the need was great. I learned Buddhism there. I met a lot of good people in the remote countryside of Orissa.

And then after ten months I came back to Nepal.  I worked with single women, widows, basically, from Gorkha district. We opened a handicraft center and made a connection with the New York designers. They would send samples, the women copied and produced them, and then we sent them the production. They would send a salary to the women. In between I had to come back and forth to Kathmandu. I had always wondered and been very curious as to whether there were other gays and lesbians in the country, what was the culture, what was the situation, etc. but I didn’t have much clue as to how to recognize other gays and how to meet them. But I’d read that in Tokyo, where homosexuality is illegal, people meet usually in public places. So, hoping to meet other people, I started going to Ratna Park, which is a tiny park in the center of Kathmandu, and started talking to people. I met more than 500 people in just two weeks. There were so many gays, just dying to talk and get new information. So I was telling them all about the history of Stonewall, about gay culture in Egypt, homosexuality and Hinduism, about Japanese gay culture in the past, and also about how there are cross-gender or genderfluid roles even in Nepal, like the Maruni dance, or the Gaijatra, and made a link between all of these things. I told them about the South African constitution, about the European countries legalizing gay marriage, all of those things. In three months, I met so many – over 5000 people.

On the fourth month, I met a transgender who was dancing at a restaurant, because in those days, you couldn’t find girls working as dancers. She was dancing as a woman. She was a regular visitor to Ratna Park, and after 7-8 o’clock, she’d go to the dance bar, dance until late night, and then go home. One day her brother came to the same restaurant as he used to dance with his friends, for beer, and he recognized her. So he abused her, beat her up, and she committed suicide on the third day. It was a very big turning point.  It was very difficult. Then another two weeks later, another gay man from Gorkha district, who was renting a place near Baudhanath was found. Police found his body, naked, lying under the bed. His stomach was slit, his throat was slit, he was cut all over, he was raped, he was naked. It was murder, after rape. I heard that news and talked to my friends, saying ‘Let’s go, we should probably document this and then bring out the facts’. But a lot of other friends suggested otherwise, ‘No no no, we shouldn’t link to these things. We will be outed and we will be blacklisted.’ That was a big turning point, learning how difficult it is for people. You couldn’t even talk about these human rights violations, at the level at which they were going on. But I couldn’t stop. Then the idea came, that we must organize. I told them that’s how the transgenders fought, during Stonewall. I told people that without standing, without organizing, without demanding, nobody would give us our rights. There are a lot of prejudicial myths against us. We must demystify and clarify that we are natural people and capable people. We are not in any way less than that.

So then the organization meeting process started. I organized a training session. The best way to do this was around HIV, since we also were concerned about health issues, because none of the government programs and other NGO programs were talking about HIV-risk among men and transgenders. So I organized a three-day training. Two days were about HIV and sexually transmitted infection. The other day was about understanding gender, sexuality and human rights. So I trained eighteen people and then from the next day six people were volunteering with me, and I had already contacted a New York-based organization which was sending condoms and lubricant. So we were distributing condoms and lubricant, us seven people from the next day.

Then in early 2001 we started drafting the constitution for the new NGO. I drafted it and then went to the Patan local government office to register it. They refused it, saying ‘We cannot allow an organization for homosexuals. It would be illegal’. I didn’t know the law then, that there’s no law that prevents this in Nepal. We didn’t even have Article 377 [an article of law criminalizing ‘unnatural sex’, a colonial hangover in many South Asian countries]. But we didn’t know the law. And then I remember the officer asking us, ‘You should change the goal, if you want to work on homosexuals, making them heterosexual, then we will allow this.’ But that was not the purpose. So we changed some terminology, took out the words homosexuals and homosexuality, and just put in ‘organization for general human rights and health’. So they agreed. Then I needed at least nine IDs, photocopy, and passport-sized photographs and so I talked to the community members I knew. They said ‘Oh oh yes, yes, we will give you these. We will bring them tomorrow.’ But in three weeks they never did bring them. I can understand. They were afraid. So I asked my family, friends, and relatives about them sitting on the board and they agreed. So we registered. Then we organized another bigger training session. We still didn’t have an office, we were still meeting in small tea shops, or the corner of the park, next to the Pashupati temple, or Darbar Square, wherever. Then in late 2001 we got a small amount of funding for four months. That’s when we were able to rent a three-room office, put up a signboard and start working, with a drop-in center, regular trainings, counseling, and outreach work. So it was going very well, a lot of people, especially the transgenders, enjoyed the safe space. They came here, heard everyone’s problems, started writing stories and documenting the violence, but they were also allowed to change their getup and make up and dance, and express themselves fully. So the next renewal came, and then I asked them ‘Now, we were not raided with this office, we are fine, and nobody has been arrested, so you can come sit on the board now’, and they said ‘OK we will.’ So they brought their IDs and photocopy and photographs, and I asked my relatives and families to resign and replaced them by community members.

Then in mid-2002, we were talking and saying, ‘We should go to the media. We should slowly bring these matters out, let the people know, and the media is the best tool.’ I said ‘We will talk to the media, but we will ask a journalist who is sensitive, who will not take photographs, will not reveal anyone’s true identity, etc.’ So on that condition people agreed. So we had about 20 people here, but when the journalist came, there was nobody. People were jumping outside from the back door, people were hiding in the toilets. I looked so stupid. I said, ‘Look, there were twenty people just half a minute ago. And they are hiding’. So she understood and then she interviewed me and took my photograph and it came into English newspapers. So that’s the first time I came out. But it was in English, so not many people read it. My family, none of them read it. I was still not out to my family.

Then in 2003, a state of emergency had been declared and security forces were everywhere. Two transgenders were arrested in front of Bir Hospital, next to Ratna Park, at 8 o’clock in the evening. Their hands were tied, their faces were covered and they were beaten up brutally by twelve policemen. They were taken to an isolated place and then raped by these twelve policemen. They were thrown out into the bush and presumed dead. They regained sense in the morning and then came to the Blue Diamond Society office. There were bruises all over, bleeding, and their hair was chopped off and clothes were torn up, so it was pretty horrible. So that’s when, for the first time, I called up the media and documented it in a proper way and then circulated the information because we thought that human rights activists or the UN or the rest of society should know what’s going on in Nepal. The media didn’t understand about homosexuality, but they didn’t understand why the police was committing that kind of atrocity, rape and murder of people. There was no crime that these two transgenders had committed. So the media disliked the police treatment – if homosexuality was wrong, the police supposed to take them through a proper legal procedure, not beat them, rape them and murder them. So then we started a thorough proper documentation, circulation, and reporting mechanism. Until 2006 it was a very hard time for us. There was not a single week that I wasn’t going to the police station. I was going to the police station – usually the police make arrests in the evenings, and so anytime from 9 o’clock to 1 o’clock – whenever I heard that somebody was arrested, I’d go and visit, just to make sure that they wouldn’t get abused in detention. When the police know that somebody educated who knows the law is coming, they commit less violence. Just for that reason, I would go every week, every day, whenever. Then we were able to create a lot of attention. I remember those activists in India suggesting otherwise. ‘Oh, you’re being too public, that’s why you got this backlash. You should just remain under the radar of HIV, or just health issues, but not take on human rights’. I was telling them, ‘No. You must respond to human rights abuses. OK, you can wait and start 20 years later, but when you start raising human rights issues and being public, you will always face some backlash. We’d rather get over this sooner and then get our rights early’. We were right.

So after the king’s direct ruling, the populous movement was picking up and I remember the king was introducing a code of conduct for civil society, for how we should function. It pretty much paralyzed civil society functioning. So we were the first organization to oppose this. There were big organizations that couldn’t do it by themselves but when they heard that we were doing it they came to us. So we also went to the street, training the public wherever we could. The people’s movement was successful and we thought the leaders would hear many marginalized voices. They heard a few, but not everyone’s. Our activism, our movement has always been peaceful. So we couldn’t organize blockades, or strikes, or vandalize anything. The only way remaining was to take the government to court.

 So we took the government to the court in early 2007. It was April 18 when we filed a writ petition against the government, and in December already we had a decision – a fantastic decision – from the Supreme Court. The court gave 100% of what we asked for, recognizing third gender people and gays, in a beautiful statement – saying we were natural persons, deserving equal rights.  They ordered the government to issue citizenship IDs to the third gender according to their gender identity, to amend or scrap discriminatory law policies against LGBTIs and also to form a same-sex marriage committee. It also issued a legal note to the Constituent Assembly (CA) to recognize LGBTI rights while drafting or making the new constitution. So it was a fantastic decision for us, a big victory. That was a major, major turning point for the larger political parties and civil society – the Supreme Court, very decisively saying it’s a perfectly natural thing to be gay and lesbian and transgender and ordering the government to ensure pretty basic rights! So they thought there must be something good about Blue Diamond Society. So they started meeting and speaking to us, and we were also very rapidly growing. I think that one of the approaches we took was creating visibility, not in an arrogant manner, but not getting shy or being afraid of being out. After all we thought that if we were honest to ourselves – and we must become honest to our families and society and to the country – that means that we have got to say that we are here, and we are citizens, and we have a lot of credibility, talents, and capacity to contribute back. We just need respect and opportunity. We don’t want to remain a burden, because if the state marginalizes us, then we cannot be productive.  And a lot of people said, ‘OK, but people do not come out as heterosexual’. And I said ‘They don’t need to, because nobody questions them. There is no problem. Heterosexuals have all their rights, the whole system ensures that they don’t need to say it’, and that’s the way I think we need to get to that point. Maybe we won’t need Blue Diamond Society in 20 years and we won’t need to raise these issues, because we will be accepted, as heterosexuals are. But since we don’t have similar attitudes, similar responses and similar acceptance from the state and from society, we should speak up about who we are.

The interview continues in Part 2 where Pant discusses the constitutional-writing process and inclusion of the rights of minorities.

Kaveri Rajaraman is a biologist and activist based in India, working on issues of class, heteropatriarchy and ecology. You may contact her at kaveri.rajaraman@gmail.com.

Himal’s newly updated, fully detailed 18 x 20 in. ‘right-side-up’ map of the region is finally available for purchase. To quote ourselves, “This map of Southasia may seem upside down to some, but that is because we are programmed to think of north as top of page. This rotation is an attempt by the editors of Himal  to reconceptualise ‘regionalism’ in a way that the focus is on the people rather than the nation-states. This requires nothing less than turning our minds downside-up.” Also, profundities apart, it looks pretty neat.

But after the agonising and meticulous work for an office, some of whose denizens are so directionally challenged that they  have trouble navigating out of an open door, the map has generated some pretty hilarious in-house ribbing, much of it, unfortunately,  unfit for print. “Southasians on top!” you’ve probably thought of. How about: “India: Pile-driving into China, WWF-style!” as one cheeky intern put it? That one is gold.

So how can you get your your own copy? Get sarcastic, maybe even a little nasty.  Come up with a tweet that pokes fun at “Southasia”, Himal, or the map itself. Or you could go the way of getting cheeky about  Southasian life and politics, in a way that reflects on the map. The funniest,  most apposite tagline wins 5 copies of the Right-Side-Up Map of Southasia. Lateral thinking and irreverence are actively encouraged.

You’ll need a twitter account, of course, and your entry should include “#himalmap ” (without the quotes) which leaves you 130 characters for your masterstroke of comic genius (and attach this shortened link to this page if you fit it — http://bit.ly/bbl9ne). Don’t forget to follow Himal on twitter (www.twitter.com/himalistan), while you are it at, or we’ll likely won’t pick your entry.

Not funny? You can have your own print the old-fashioned way — buy it!

Kanak Mani Dixit’s speech at the The Prince Claus Award ceremony at the Patan Museum, 23 February 2010 :

[audio:http://himalmag.com/blogs/files/2010/02/Kanak-Mani-Dixit-speech.mp3|titles=Kanak Mani Dixit speech]

Audio from the Ceremony’s musical program by Madan Gopal Singh and his troupe — Deepak Castelino, Pritam Ghosal and Gurmeet Singh featuring Shyam Nepali on the Sarangi :

[audio:http://himalmag.com/blogs/files/2010/02/Madan-Gopal-Singh-Troupe1.mp3|titles=Madan Gopal Singh Troupe]

Afsan Chowdhury writes a tribute to Himal Southasian editor Kanak Mani Dixit on the occasion of the Prince Claus Award. Audio of Mr. Dixit’s speech and a selection from the music program from the award follows the text.

An appreciation  by Afsan  Chowdhury on the occasion of Prince Claus Award:

There are many people who dream but few can turn dreams into action. Kanak Mani Dixit is one of those very few whose dreams are endless and whose actualisations are many – a man whose actions have impacted far beyond his own native land and influenced the way many think about South Asia, its people and their historical purpose.

Kanak’s core background is journalism, and his success in this chosen field is above question. Steering the Himal publication, he has set editing and publishing standards for entire South Asia, in content planning, editing perspectives, and magazine design and graphics as well. Kanak has demonstrated that South Asian focal points don’t have to be located in the big countries of the region but can be anywhere that an idea is alive and can be nurtured. In doing so, he has also showcased what Nepal can do and made it look shinier than ever before.

In Nepal Kanak Dixit is known for the many activities that he pursues that express his multiplicity of interests and spirit of excellence. It’s this track record of success in so many diverse fields that makes him so special. He manages a string of media outfits with the same interest and love that he runs his restaurant. His Film South Asia is now an international event. It has given South Asia a global profile and has made people from all over not only enjoy but celebrate documentaries as an evolving form of information art. And Kanak Dixit gave birth to this institution with almost no resources save his energy, imagination and organising skill.

People often speak about his zest for living – he seems to be having fun in an unthrown but never ending party called life. That is true, but he has also taken the stones on his back and has the lumps to prove it. For decades he has been one of the leading human rights activists of Nepal and, during the uprising against the Nepalese monarchy, his non-violent protest landed him in jail several times, while his criticism of extremist violence made him a target of the Maoists as well. Kanak Dixit brings to the socio-political space the objective of sup porting civil liberty and justice against all odds and in all conditions. His willing ness to follow the unpopular path often draws criticism but ultimately vindicates the legitimacy of legality, constitutionality and rule of law in public life in any society. In a region where it’s almost taken for granted that such values are ‘politically unaffordable’, he has battled for them ceaselessly.

His interest in increasing the horizons of civil society activities has gone on and on. Kanak has invested time and resources to revive ancient forms of painting, resurrected horse stables to turn them into lecture halls, preserved archival documents, organised international seminars and events, and introduced Nepal to the rest of the world like few have before him. And there are so many more actions and achievements in that list. Kanak Dixit has even fallen off the mountain but instead of killing him, it motivated him to devote his energy to setting up the spinal treatment centre in Kathmandu that serves hundreds who suffer from injuries like he once did.

All these parts can’t sum up the total person that Kanak Dixit is or will be as he walks into his future. He is a sum of many entrepreneurs and individuals, visionaries and activists, organisers and connoisseurs, ensuring that the past and present of Nepal is accessible to all and cherished by all.

But Kanak Dixit’s outstanding achievement may be in his just and humane vision of a regional identity that doesn’t ignore the political states that make up South Asia. It focuses on the socio-cultural identity that holds more than a billion people together. This has been asserted most actively in his writings, lectures, media products and events promoting South Asia. By creating a space where writers and intellectuals from the region and elsewhere can meet on the common pages of a common vision, he has shown everyone a glimpse of a brave new region, where every citizen enjoys the respect of others and a sense of dignity. That is his greatest triumph.

Kanak Dixit’s most famous literary creation is a frog called Bhaktaprasad Bhyaguto, who traveled all over Nepal and learnt about his homeland in an enchanting and entertaining manner. In a way Kanak Dixit is the wise frog of Nepal, who has set out to bring not just Nepal to the Nepalese but South Asia to the South Asians. There can be no nobler venture than this and few can carry out this difficult but wonderful task better than the person honoured today with this Prince Claus Award.