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Fighting against bias, building respect for queer identities
Santa Khurai, an advocate for LGBTQI rights from Manipur, champions queer identities in Northeast India. She stresses legislative reforms and cultural acceptance.
Growing up in Manipur’s capital Imphal shy and reticent, Santa Khurai could have never imagined she would one day be travelling around the country, writing a book, or louding raising her voice for the rights of trangender people. In her quest to ensure a better life for India’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) communities, she works with various domestic and international organisations such as the United Nations, focussing on the socio - cultural and political identity of the queer and transgender groups in northeast India, a region ravaged by militancy and heavy military presence.
“From a very early age, I felt that I was a girl and not a boy. I was in the 6th or 7th standard when I came out as a girl. The moment I did that, I started getting bullied, and faced bias and negativity both from the family and society,” she said.
The fourth among seven siblings, Khurai faced violence from a young age – getting beaten up by boys in her neighbourhood. “I was even raped by a neighbour when I was in Class 6,” she said. In her family, her father was a strict disciplinarian who didn’t approve of her putting on makeup or dressing up.
“These incidents led me to start hating men, including my father who was very against my feminine nature. My mother used to love me, and my siblings were also tolerant, but they didn’t have the courage to stand up against my father,” Khurai said.
Education was the road to her freedom, as was exploration of her identity.
“I was good at studies, especially English. Slowly when I started meeting other people from the community in Imphal, I got to know about their issues. For that I would get all the backlash for being vocal against any discrimination,” she added.
Khurai is very particular about her gender identity and her Manipuri background, identifying herself as a Nupi Maanbi, a Meitei word for a transgender woman.
“People of the Northeast haven’t experienced what true independence is as our people still face racism when they go to other parts of their country. This is happening even after more than seven decades of Independence. We look different from other Indians and our culture and history is also very different. It’s high time people accept that and let us be the narrator of our narratives,” said Khurai.
The author of a 2023 book, The Yellow Sparrow, Khurai is vocal against laws such as the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which is applicable to parts of northeast and gives security forces unbridled powers to detain, arrest or even shoot at someone based on suspicion. She has also spoken out against the violence in Manipur, saying that it had destroyed lives and divided society.
But her life’s work is focussed on getting more recognition to the lives of queer people in the Northeast.
“The community in the Northeast are very aware…but we are not able to fully participate in the national movement and mobilisation because platforms meant for the community are occupied by mainland Indians. Language and cultural disparity could be a factor for this,” she said.
To ensure greater freedom for these marginalised groups, she stressed on the need for legislation to ensure their and assurances that such laws would be implemented in letter and spirit.
“My wish on this Independence Day is for the Centre to do a good review of the existing laws regarding our community and make them more LGBTQI friendly by inclusive, instead of being narrow and divisive.”
