Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality, 2024
Year: 2024
DOI:
[PDF]
Reconciliation of Indian Rainbow Parents: Transition of Psyche from Denial to Pride
Rachana S Pillai, Yadamala Sreenivasulu
ABSTRACT:
The scrapping of section 377 of the Indian constitution in 2018 has brought the Indian Queer community to the centre of mainstream discussions and debates. Despite the legal recognition to decriminalize same-sex marriage, Indian parents still struggle to unlearn the constructed norm of heteronormativity.Their journey of traditional living, unaware of gender and sexual variations, to confronting their child’s lived reality is psychologically traumatizing. The Indian cultural unconscious constantly polices their psyche to reject any traces of deviation from the norm. Sudhir Kakkar, an Indian psychoanalyst extensively discusses the impact of culture on the Indian psyche, which mirrors their understanding of sexuality. Indian parents of Queer children (rainbow parents) undergo severe psychological conflicts and phases of extreme disorientation regarding how to deal with their children’s sexual reality. The present research firstly attempts to analyze the major concerns of Indian rainbow parents, followed by examining how the cultural unconscious and the Indian self of parents operate through a cultural psychological lens. It further inquires about the influence of religion on Indian rainbow parents’ psyche, and the possible measures to redefine their understanding of Indian sexuality.The research employs a qualitative approach besides conducting select structured personal interviews of Indian rainbow parents. Later the collected information is analyzed through the lens of Sudhir Kakkar’s cultural psychology.The researcher considers Sweekar, the only Indian support group of rainbow parents as the source of reference to trace out this transition of psyche from denial to pride in real- time.
keywords: cultural unconscious; indian psyche; indian sexuality; queer; rainbow parents