Sex and the British-Indian Army

Omar Ali · December 10, 2018 · 1 comment

From Dr Hamid Hussain.

Some have asked questions about sexuality during the Raj as related to the army.  Enjoy.

Hamid

When British arrived in India, India was sexually more liberal than Europe. Heterosexual and homosexual relations were common, open and celebrated in poetry and paintings.  Concubines were a common phenomenon practiced by all religious and ethnic groups.  In contrast, there was quite strict sexual repression in Victorian England.  There are two aspects of sexual relations; one relating to British soldiers and second British officers. In eighteenth and nineteenth century India, prostitution was legal and well-regulated in British controlled India.  In 1850s, there were seventy five military districts and in every district prostitution was supervised by authorities.  Doctors of Indian Medical Service (IMS) were responsible for regulating brothels.  All prostitutes were registered, minimum age for prostitutes was fifteen and women were provided with their own living quarters or tents that were regularly inspected.  Some establishments were quite large and brothel in Lucknow had fifty five rooms.  Prostitutes infected with sexually transmitted diseases were removed and not allowed to practice their trade until recovered.  Both native and European soldiers used these bazaars; however sepoys were discouraged to visit those prostitutes preferred by European soldiers.  Most British soldiers were from lower strata of the society and were not held to the standard of a British officer.  British soldiers visited prostitutes more often than sepoys.  One reason was that British soldiers were not married while sepoys were usually married men.   These bazaars were called ‘lal bazaars’ (red streets).  Both heterosexual and homosexual relations were common.  British regiments spent several years in India and many a times children were born of such relationships.  Special houses and schools were assigned as early as eighteenth century for these children.  Continue reading Sex and the British-Indian Army

The Ambanis got it so wrong with their Wedding Celebration.

X.T.M · December 10, 2018 · 19 comments

https://twitter.com/anushkasharma/status/1072359108274081797?s=21

Trigger Warning: This is quite a “Desi post”; I’m assuming basic knowledge of the Indian cultural landscape (who’s who in Bollywood etc).

https://twitter.com/ExSecular/status/1071854448006246400

There have been 5 “Royal Weddings” this year in India in contrast to the 2 we had in Britain (Prince Harry & Princess Eugenie).

India does many things well but weddings is a particularly South Asian boon. Desis take our weddings very seriously and Pakistan recurrently tries to cap “grand weddings.”

There is a high-octane mix of money, Westernisation and liberalisation galvanising the Indian elite to ever more convention defying customs. Continue reading The Ambanis got it so wrong with their Wedding Celebration.

Brown Pundits – Episode 4, three Hindus talk about the Golden Age of Islam

Razib Khan · December 9, 2018 · 33 comments

The latest BP Podcast is up. You can listen on Libsyn, iTunes and Stitcher. Probably the easiest way to keep up the podcast since we don’t have a regular schedule is to subscribe at one of the links above.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the podcast! Please leave more 5-star reviews. If this podcasts interests enough people I’ll be getting us on other platforms.

Note: Using the older context of Hindu.

Jack D. rapes the East

X.T.M · December 9, 2018 · 6 comments

Jack Dorsey, cofounder of Twitter & Dropbox(?), isn’t a favourite of mine with his “smash the Brahmin Patriarchy.” Continue reading Jack D. rapes the East

Indian liberals make for excellent company

X.T.M · December 7, 2018 · 34 comments

The Cambridge South Asian Forum is a group that I’ve started to get more involved in. Last night they organised a talk by an Indian academic, Mr. Pandey, and his almost miraculous trip to Lahore (the day after he submitted his PhD).

I don’t want to go into the details because Vidhi had the clever idea that I should interview him for a podcast (he didn’t go into it but his talk in Lahore was on Padmavat).

I wanted to instead dwell upon another point. Vidhi and I both noticed that among the Cambridge PhD contingent Indians are overrepresented in the liberal arts and Chinese in the STEM (V has a rather low opinion of the Humanities but that is a separate matter for another time). Continue reading Indian liberals make for excellent company

Pakistan’s Ghost in the Indus

X.T.M · December 7, 2018 · Comments Off on Pakistan’s Ghost in the Indus

Today a father and son walked into the shop. They were chattering in Hindustani and the son was being super deferential to his dad.

There was something about the father and son pair that screamed Pakistani. The father had the heavy-set ruddy gruff behaviour that characterises so many Punjabis middle aged men and his youngish son (who was interviewing at Cam for MechEng undergrad next year) just looked salt of the earth Pakistani. I had clocked the father’s gold bling but I disregarded it.

After a while I threw in an Urdu word just to signal I was Desi too. While in other parts of the country this would go unnoticed & rather unremarkable, Cambridge is defined by the white-Chinese dynamic. They were a bit startled and then I asked if they were Pakistanis. The father was like no we’re Indians. Furthermore that they were from Gujarat, which I was rather taken aback from since Gujaratis have such a different feel to them. Continue reading Pakistan’s Ghost in the Indus

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