![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/lgbtq-when-15-rain-soaked-marchers-made-history-in-india/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/130418966_friendshipwalk1999-2.jpg&description=Image source, Owais Khan Image caption, The event was called a Friendship Walk and was held in Kolkata city Pride parades in India today are vibrant affairs, where thousands gather to express themselves and offer support to the queer community. But things were very different in 1999, when the country's first Pride walk was organised in the eastern state of West Bengal. Journalist Sandip Roy revisits the trailblazing event. On 2 July 1999, Pawan Dhall, a queer rights activist in Kolkata city, was among the 15 intrepid marchers to participate in what was later called the first Pride walk in India. The event was timed to coincide with global celebrations marking 30 years of the Stonewall riots in New York which sparked the LGBTQ+ movement in the US. But July is monsoon season in India, and the 15 marchers in their custom-made bright yellow t-shirts with pink triangles were soon soaked to the bone. "It was more of a wade than a walk," Mr Dhall says. The marchers also did not call the event a Pride march, instead going for the more innocuous-sounding "Friendship Walk" to avoid trouble. In 1999, homosexuality was still criminalised in the country - a Victorian relic in the Indian Penal Code - and gay life was largely underground, though a few groups dedicated to supporting the community had formed in some cities. Queer Indians found each other through mailing lists and Yahoo groups, and the idea of a Pride march surfaced there. On 28 April 1999, Owais Khan, a convener of the LGBTQ+ India group, suggested doing something to celebrate "Gay Liberation Day" in New York - he called it "a small pada-yatra (procession) complete with pink triangles and rainbow-coloured peacocks". Mr Khan said he was inspired by the Pride parades in cities like New York, but also by Mahatma Gandhi's famous Salt March during India's independence struggle. Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Thousands attend colourful Pride marches in India every year But not everyone shared his enthusiasm. Ra){kind=link}
Pride parades in India today are vibrant affairs, where thousands gather to express themselves and offer support to the queer community. But things were very different in 1999, when the country’s first Pride walk was organised in the eastern state of West Bengal. Journalist Sandip Roy revisits the trailblazing event.
On 2 July 1999, Pawan Dhall, a queer rights activist in Kolkata city, was among the 15 intrepid marchers to participate in what was later called the first Pride walk in India.
The event was timed to coincide with global celebrations marking 30 years of the Stonewall riots in New York which sparked the LGBTQ+ movement in the US.
But July is monsoon season in India, and the 15 marchers in their custom-made bright yellow t-shirts with pink triangles were soon soaked to the bone.
“It was more of a wade than a walk,” Mr Dhall says.