Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil. (Photo: Instagram/Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil)
The royal heir of the erstwhile Princely State of Rajpipla, Gujarat, refused to follow the path destined for him and instead forged a new one, which wasn’t easy. Breaking traditions is difficult, especially when you are expected to carry forward a lineage and dynasty that is more than 600 years old. Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil came out as gay in a 2006 interview with a local newspaper. As the 39th descendant of the Gohil Rajput dynasty, he walked so others could run, fighting for the rights of the LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning) community.
Reflecting on his journey, Manvendra Singh said, “I wanted to live a life of truth and honesty and didn’t want to lead a double standard life. I was also not happy with the hypocrisy prevailing in our country, where the world’s oldest sex encyclopedia, the Kama Sutra, was written, and we have temples like Khajuraho, yet basic sex education is missing. This leads to many misconceptions.”
“It was to break this hypocrisy in the country so that people become aware of us, move away from the misconceptions they carry, and understand that it’s important to speak out and break the silence on a topic that has existed in our culture for ages but has been considered taboo. These factors motivated me to take the step to come out,” he adds.
His coming out as gay wasn’t accepted well initially. “When I came out, I made a statement in the newspaper that I don’t blame the people but I blame their ignorance on the subject. Activists like us must educate people, to make them aware of the facts and remove the misconceptions. Once we do that, people accept and support us. Even the most homophobic people who initially didn’t like my behaviour have accepted me. Education is the key to all issues and the root cause of the problems we are facing today.”
Born to Maharana Raghubir Singhji Rajendrasinghji Sahib and Maharani Rukmini Devi, he voluntarily married a princess from the royal family of Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh. The marriage didn’t work out and eventually, it was annulled. “At that time, circumstances were different. I didn’t know about my sexual orientation because in India. Even though homosexuality is not accepted, homosocial behaviour is. You always see men with men and women with women, and that’s not seen as a problem. It’s a man and a woman seen together in private or public that is considered problematic.”
“In royal families, we have palaces that are homosocial, with sections where only men are allowed and sections where only women are allowed. This wasn’t strange for me. I wasn’t aware of my sexual orientation. That’s why my decision to marry was my own choice. I wasn’t pressured by my parents or anyone else. It was after the marriage didn’t work out that I began exploring myself to understand what went wrong, and during that process, I discovered my sexual orientation.”
A passionate activist for gay rights, Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil founded the Lakshya Trust in 2000, which addresses and advocates for the social, economic, legal, psychological, spiritual, and health aspects of sexual minorities in Gujarat. “Fortunately for us, the first project we got was from the government of Gujarat under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which wanted to partner with us to work on HIV/AIDS prevention among the MSM (men having sex with men) and transgender populations. We were the first organisation to start in Gujarat and the first to receive a government grant in western India for this purpose. It was exciting that when Westerners or visitors from outside India would come, they were surprised at how the government was funding and supporting us, knowing fully well that we were considered criminals in the eyes of the law at that time. It was a paradoxical situation.” The law was struck down in 2018. The judges of the Supreme Court of India unanimously ruled that consensual same-sex relationships are no longer a crime, deeming Section 377 “irrational, arbitrary and incomprehensible.”
Manvendra Singh is the founding member of the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health and represented it from 2005 to 2009. He is also the ambassador consultant of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
The royal member, recognised for his tireless efforts and advocacy work, made three appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and even shared breakfast with Kim Kardashian on an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. His appearances significantly impacted public perception, domestically and internationally, as he gained popularity even in Western audiences. “Oprah skillfully utilised my narrative to break myths. For instance, most of the people in the world thought that being gay was a crime in India, whereas it was not. It was the homosexual act, which was a crime — I had to be caught having sex. And, I mean, if that were recorded or documented, then I would be a criminal. That’s why Oprah asked me, ‘Weren’t you scared of coming out? Would you have been arrested?’ I said, ‘No, I wouldn’t get arrested because it was never a crime to be gay. It was a homosexual act. The sexual act was a crime in India — being gay was never a crime.”
He also said, ” “Another prevalent misconception was that gay men in India are heterosexually married to women. Oprah even asked me about my marriage and not many people outside of India knew that gay men are often forced into heterosexual marriages by societal pressures, including my own experience.”
Prince Manvendra Singh found his soulmate in deAndre Richardson, an American citizen. They married in 2013 in the United States of America. He is also organising the Vadodara GarvaUtsav’s Pride Walk that will take place on June 8th.
The prince is also promoting tourism for the LGBTQ+ community. “I started something called the Queer Bagh, in one of my royal establishments. In Hindi, we call it an ashram, but in English, it’s a community campus for the LGBTQ+ community. They visit, explore the facilities we’ve provided for them, and spend the whole day with me. Then, I take them on a tour around the city, showcasing other palaces and heritage buildings. We have gay couples who are travelling to India. This time we are also hosting lesbian couples from countries such as Germany,” he said.
