Indranil Ghosh

Mahabharata - The Gender Spectrum

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Mahabharata, one of India’s ancient epics, describes a society which is much more open than what we experience today.  There are innumerable incidents where strategically working as a team while embracing differences results in completing complex tasks and achieving victory in war.

 

Indian society, as described in The Mahabharata used to lack prejudice and reservations against diversity in the human spectrum; and I am talking about scriptures from 1500 years ago.  On various occasions, gender fluidity and the gender spectrum were mentioned and even wholly accepted in the context of someone’s capabilities and work ethics.  Over centuries, humanity has created beliefs to seize power and control, eventually leading to ignorant and narrow-minded societies. In today’s date, we need to have specialized movements to give the people of gender fluidity the basic rights to live their life with respect and honor, even though individuals have commendable quality, capability, knowledge, behavior, and contribution to society.