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The RSS, which recently came out in support of same-sex relationships, has remained steadfast in its opposition to same-sex marriages. Also, despite its support to LGBTQ relationships, it has continued to hold the opinion that gay sex is a “psychological disorder”.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriages.
Welcoming the verdict, the organisation’s prachar pramukh Sunil Ambekar said in a Hindi message on X: “The Supreme Court’s judgment on same-sex marriage is welcome. Our parliamentary democratic system can seriously deliberate on all aspects of this issue and take an appropriate decision.”
The Sangh’s response to the debate on the LGBTQ issues has evolved over time and remains calibrated. From RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat earlier this year invoking scriptures to justify gay sex and calling it “biological”, to other senior leaders underlining it to be “unnatural” even if “acceptable”, the Sangh has showed its willingness to liberally engage with the issue but also exhibited the discomfort in its more conservative ranks.
In 2016, then RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said at the India Today Conclave, “Why should RSS have an opinion on homosexuality? It is not a crime as long as it does not affect the lives of others. Sexual preferences are personal issues.”
The very next day, he qualified his statement in a series of tweets, “Homosexuality is not a crime, but a socially immoral act in our society. No need to punish, but to be treated as a psychological case. Approach to Homosexuality should be ‘no criminalisation, no glorification either’.”
After the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in September 2018, the RSS quickly issued a statement underlining its opposition to same-sex marriage. “Like the Supreme Court’s verdict, we also do not consider this (homosexuality) as a crime,” then RSS ‘prachar pramukh’ Arun Kumar said, while adding that same-sex marriages were not “compatible with nature”.
“These relationships are not natural, so we do not support this kind of relationship,” Kumar said. He claimed that Indian society “traditionally does not recognise” such relations.
Mohan Bhagwat on queerness
This January, in what was regarded as the most open support to LGBTQ issues ever from the Sangh, the RSS chief quoted scriptures to push acceptability of gay sex in society.
“These people (queer community) also have a right to live. Without much hullabaloo, we have found a way, with a humane approach, to provide them social acceptance, bearing in mind they are also human beings having an inalienable right to live. We have a transgender community. We did not see it as a problem. They have a sect and their own deities. Today, they have their own Mahamandaleshwar too. During Kumbh, they are accorded a special place. They are part of our everyday life,” Bhagwat said in an interview to The Organiser.
Invoking scriptures, he narrated the story of demon king Jarasandh’s two generals — Hansa and Dimbhaka—suggesting they were in a homosexual relationship. “When Krishna fanned the rumour that Dimbhaka has died, Hans committed suicide. That is how Krishna got rid of those two generals. Come to think of it: what does the story suggest? This is the same thing. The two generals were in that sort of a relationship,” Bhagwat said.
Three months later, in March, at a press briefing during the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) meeting, RSS general secretary Hosabale underlined the organisation’s opposition to same-sex marriage.
“Marriages can take place only between opposite genders… You can live with anyone you like. But, in Hindu philosophy of life, marriage is a sanskar… The sanskar of marriage means two individuals get married and live together, but not just for themselves, they also start a family. …So, those who enter the grihastha ashram (the institution of marriage) are there to fulfil this ideal. It is not for personal, physical and sexual enjoyment. The institution may require some reform, but marriage will always happen between man and woman,” he said.
The very next month, a senior RSS leader invoked scriptures to call gay sex a “practice among rakshasas”, claiming that India’s dharmashastras penalise such sexual behaviour. In an article in The Organiser, C K Saji Narayanan, the former president of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the RSS’s labour wing, criticised the Supreme Court’s observations in its 2018 judgment decriminalising homosexuality.
In May, an RSS-affiliated unit working on women’s health conducted a survey and submitted its report to the Supreme Court, while it was hearing the same-sex marriage plea. The organisation called homosexuality a “psychological disorder” and claimed a child of a same-sex couple will be fatherless, adding “it will become difficult to control delinquent behaviour in boys and “sexual activity in girls”.
Notably, the RSS has only recently openly come out in support of even same-sex relationships. After the Supreme Court upheld Section 377 of the IPC and asked Parliament to decide on its legality, then BJP chief Rajnath Singh, who comes from RSS ranks, had said, “If an all-party meeting is called, we will support Section 377 as we believe that homosexuality is an unnatural act. We cannot support it.”
