Remembering the legacy of Bhupen Khakhar
It’s a dismal truth that LGBT; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and intersex people in India have to deal with too many social and legal difficulties while they yearn to breathe free air in their own country. Though there has been a drastic change of mindset among people especially in urban India, things are yet to look up for them when it comes to equal status. In India, sexual activity between people of the same gender is illegal and same-sex couples legally cannot marry or obtain a civil partnership.
During the Mughal empire, a number of the pre-existing Delhi Sultanate laws were combined into the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, that mandated a common set of punishments for Zina (unlawful physical relations). These could include 50 lashes for a slave, 100 for a free infidel, or death by stoning for a Muslim. Then the British Raj criminalized homosexual activities under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which entered into force in 1861. This made it an offence for a person to voluntarily have physical relations of any nature with the same gender.
Bhupen Khakhar was India’s first openly gay artist, and he chose to speak his mind through his art. Khakhar was renowned for his unique figurative style and insightful observations of class and sexuality. He played a pivotal role in modern Indian art and was a prominent international figure in 20th century painting. Starting from the 1980s, he made alternative sexuality his dominant subject, through which he articulated the everyday life, fantasies, anxieties and aspirations of the homoerotic self. It seems completely ludicrous to discuss the question of Bhupen Khakhar’s legacy in a country that legally regards the most defining aspects of his life and art as criminal behavior.
“Khakhar skillfully camouflaged the radical and transgressive nature of his art in the disguise of lucid eccentricity or the stylishly coltish whimsicality which he witnessed every day. He asserted the liberty of the individual to fashion his or her own life in defiance of existing laws and norms, and kept challenging the stability and viability of such norms through his work.
He confronted provocative themes ignoring the social innuendo. He spoke about his sexuality, with sensitivity and wit,” writes Ranjit Hoskote for the symposium “Remembering Bhupen.” Haunting portraits of ordinary men and last works describing his struggle with cancer express an unusual humanity. This artist sure deserved more respect from his society, to which he dedicated all his art.
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