Hoshang merchant autobiography in five short
Hoshang merchant autobiography in five short sentences.
Hoshang Merchant – “Politics is a passing show, while humanity endures”
What made you write Rainbow Warriors of India, which chronicles the life of 22 individuals from the Indian queer community?
Rainbow Warriors was written as a response to my belief and my lived life that political activism is not the only activism but art can also be an important form of politics.
I kept out the people at the barricades but included gay pioneers in the arts from the 1910s to 2010 who led by example.
Hoshang merchant autobiography in five short
The idea came when we had lost all hope with Justice Shah’s 2009 pro-gay judgement being overturned in 2013 by the Supreme Court but gained a new momentum in light of the 2018 decriminalization of homosexuality in India. I carefully included Ashok Row Kavi because I understand his conservative politics as a gay person who grew up in the 1960s and was saved from an isolated life by the deep understanding shown to him by the Ramakrishna Mission monks.
He has written his story. The human stor