The first public debate on homosexuality in modern India occurred in the 1920s, in the thick of the movement for national independence. It was sparked off by a collection of Hindi short stories entitled Chocolate (1927), by Hindi nationalist writer Pandey Bechan Sharma, better known by his pen-name 'Ugra' (extreme). The stories created such an uproar that almost every major public figure, from Premchand to Gandhi, joined in the debate. This first-ever English ...
