Sex, gender and sexuality
Contemporary Moral Issues
There is no one ‘Hindu’ view on any moral issue, any more than one ‘Christian’ or ‘Humanist’ view. There is only space here to indicate some Hindu perspectives on some controversial moral issues.
Marriage
Kama, including sexual pleasure, is one of the goals of human life (purusharthas) and sex is seen as natural and even sacred, for pleasure and expressing love as well as reproduction. However, devout Hindus would stress that sexual intercourse belongs only in marriage. In the past, although monogamy seems to have been the ideal and perhaps also the norm, husbands could take a second wife if the first did not have children. Stories in sacred texts may suggest that sometimes women in ancient times could have more than one husband, the famous example being Draupadi in the Mahabharata. This is quite a complicated topic as from ancient times up to the present there were many different formal and informal marriage arrangements, and different expectations for different classes. British colonial attempts to regulate ‘personal law’ on matters like marriage, divorce and widowhood were complicated by a mixture of a stated intention to respect the customs of different religious groups, and assumptions arising from the interplay of Western preconceptions and the interpretations of indigenous advisers, leading for example to the idea that what was customary in higher class groups applied to all Hindus. Post-independence the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 enforced monogamy for Hindus.
Divorce and remarriage
Ideally and traditionally marriage is for life. However separation or divorce was allowed in various circumstances in the past and divorce was made legal for Hindus in 1955. Reasons for divorce include things like adultery or desertion. Hindus might also decide to separate or divorce in order to join an ascetic religious order. For higher class Hindus, divorced wives were traditionally not allowed to remarry and their maintenance was still the responsibility of the husband.
Widowhood
Again this is complicated by diversity of custom and tradition, and things have changed over time. In pre-modern Hinduism, outliving a husband was considered a failure on the part of the wife (see also Suicide and sati), and widows were viewed negatively, not allowed to remarry and expected to live out their lives penitentially, wearing a simple white sari, and often on a minimal level of support. There were various exceptions (some married a husband’s younger brother), and remarriage of widows and divorcees was common in lower classes. Reforms aimed at improving the position of widows as defined by higher caste norms were proposed, and a campaign to enable widows to remarry led to the 1856 Hindu Widows Remarriage Act. However, some negative attitudes linger on, complicated by family economics, and various charities and government projects provide homes and welfare for widows in need.
Contraception
Traditionally having many children was seen as a blessing, particularly sons, who have significant ritual and other responsibilities towards their parents. At some earlier times and for some groups, the need for girls to marry early was associated with the imperative to maximise the opportunities for conception and hence consummation of marriage once girls attained puberty. In today’s changed circumstances, the legal age for marriage in India is 18 for women and 21 for men, and Hindus may consider it more responsible to limit their families, whether by abstinence or by using forms of contraception. Some have a preference for methods seen as ‘natural’ and against methods which could be viewed as an early form of abortion, but there is no general ‘religious’ objection to any of the common means available.
Celibacy
Celibacy is admired and expected of the unmarried and the ascetic. Sexual activity is generally viewed as a tie to the round of existence (samsara) for the one seeking moksha, and thus renounced by the ascetic, whether lifelong or in the final stage of a man’s life. There are however other perspectives which offer a more positive portrayal of sexuality for those seeking moksha, notably Shakta Tantra in which sexual intercourse, literally or symbolically, is part of the spiritual discipline.
Female sexuality
As in many other traditions female sexuality has been regarded as problematic, with a double standard in respect of expectations of men and women’s conduct. Unlike men whose nature (svabhava) is consistent with their duty (svadharma), a traditional view has been that women’s nature is wanton and lustful and thus wholly at odds with their duty to be faithful wives (pativrata), hence the need for strict oversight by the family both before and after marriage. The ideal of the ascetic renouncer, predominantly associated with men, tends to cast women as temptresses. However, those women who have challenged convention and also renounced the world have similarly refused or abandoned marriage and with it ties to family and household in favour of devotion to the divine.
Debates about same-sex relationships
Same-sex attraction and relationships have been much debated in modern India where diametrically opposed opinions have been expressed about the past. Some have insisted that homosexuality is a foreign introduction and the result of Muslim rule and/or the British Raj. For example, the Hindu nationalist politician, Subramanian Swamy, declared that it is ‘against Hindutva’. Others have been equally insistent that it is the intolerant attitude towards homosexuality that is foreign. For example, the famous Indian author, Vikram Seth, commented that it is ‘homophobia that came into India and not homosexuality’. Scholars and activists have debated whether historically homosexuality was condemned, condoned or even celebrated, citing evidence such as penalties in the Laws of Manu and erotic sculptures on Khajuraho temple friezes as contrasting evidence.
Under British colonial rule, homosexual activity was made illegal in 1860. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code read ‘intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment for life …. and shall also be liable to fine.’
After a long and complex process (with decriminalisation in 2009 followed by recriminalisation in 2013) homosexuality was finally decriminalised in India in 2018. Debates still continue among Hindus as to the moral status of same-sex relationships with some arguing that they are ‘unnatural’ and against the divine purpose for sexuality and others that sexual diversity is both natural and part of God’s creation. There are activist and support groups for those identifying as both queer and Hindu. The deity image Harihara (half Shiva half Vishnu, or alternatively their son) is sometimes seen as celebrating gay relationships.
Sex and gender diversity
India has long recognised a third sex/gender (tritiya prakriti; lit. ‘third nature’), challenging familiar Western categories of identification of sex, gender and sexuality. Among this third sex/gender are the hijras, understood to be neither men nor women. Traditionally they are people assigned male gender at birth who do not identify as men and often choose castration later in life, hence now considered to be examples of transgendered people. The term may also be used for those born with an intersex condition.
Becoming a hijra generally entails a rite of passage in which castration is accompanied by aspects that symbolise marriage and childbirth, and which invests the initiate with the power of the fertility goddess, Bahuchara Mata. Consequently, blessings given by hijras can be part of ceremonies celebrating birth and marriage. Hijras are also associated with Shiva whose mythology features both erotic and ascetic elements. Hijras usually choose to or have to leave their families and live with other hijras in communities with the senior leader known as a guru, earning a living as entertainers and sometimes sex workers. In 2014 India’s Supreme Court extended legal recognition to the third sex/gender and hence to hijras though there remain many obstacles to overcome before equality is achieved.