SEX AND SEXUALITY IN INDIAN CULTURAL CONTEXT:

SEX AND SEXUALITY IN INDIAN CULTURAL CONTEXT: AN
OBSERVATION ON TRIBES OF INDIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO DHANKUT OF DISTRICT BAHRAICH OF U.P., INDIA
Dr. Alok Chantia, Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology, Sri Jai Narain Post Graduate College, Lucknow, E-Mail alokchantia@rediffmail.com
Dr. Preeti Misra, Dept. of Human Rights, School for Legal Studies, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow; Formerly Lecturer in Dept.of Law, Sri J.N.P.G.College, Lucknow, E-Mail misra9us@gmail.com

Key Words – Sex, Sexuality, Culture, Tribe

Abstract:
Sex is not meant for pleasure or amusement only. It is core fact of reproduction also, but this hypothesis differs from society to society and country to country. In Indian context sex and sexuality is a matter of sacred work. Here male and female genital organs are worshipped in the form of important God lord Shiva and Goddess “Devi” but society is not open for sex and sexuality. In general practice these words are like taboo and if any body dares to talk about it, he/she is considered as valueless human being. In every society sex and sexuality is regularized by law and custom. That is why it is categorized as pre marital, ex marital incest, preferential marriage. Sex defines female as wife, call girl, prostitute, kept etc. So there is no sphere of life without sex. In Indian culture premarital sex is sin and taboo but this phenomenon is not uniform when we talk about tribal Indian society where premarital sex is found in youth home among many tribes. Witchcraft tradition in 40% of tribal groups are in practice due to sex. Dhayanti tradition among jaunsar tribe of Uttaranchal, khelwadi custom among Bachhed tribe of Madhya Pradesh is purely sex specific. Mitana among tharu tribe is key word for sexual amusement . Sausi and Bedia tribes of Gujrat and Rajasthan states are popular for their prostitution work and their whole culture is articulated by sex and sexuality. In India approximately 10% of total population i.e. 11 crore (Billion) are culture specific on the basis of sex. Apart from these facts polyandry, polygamy, sequence marriage depends upon sex but they are not afraid of sexuality because they have no problem of illegitimate child or orphanage. Present study is based on Dhankut of district Bahraich.of Uttar Pradesh, India It is 10 years participant observation based study since 1997. Dhankut is an endogamous group who are famous for their queer characteristic of cross cousin and parallel cousin marriages. They know it is sin but they still they prefer it. They don’t prefer sex in the form of prostitution but sexuality makes their life easy. They promote illegal marital relation while sexuality is minimum. How sex and sexuality play its contrast role among Dhankut, will be the focus of my in depth study.

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