On Sunday, the 17th Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk took place in India’s seventh largest city. Thousands of people attended.
15,000 people are expected for the Pride Walk. According to the Kolkata Police, the number of participants had reached around 12,000 in recent years but this time it is expected that more participants will be from not only India but also from Bangladesh.
An entire section of Park Street was decorated with rainbow flags and placards for Sunday’s demonstration.
Ami Kolkatar rosogolla pic.twitter.com/BBZnFJ7SeY
— Dr Rohit K Dasgupta (@RKDasgupta) December 18, 2022
The Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk (KRPW) is considered to be the oldest Pride Walk in India and South Asia. It was first held in July 1999.
Kolkata was called Calcutta until 2001, so the change corresponds to the Bengali pronunciation. But most importantly, the name change reflects anti-colonial and regionalist sentiments in Indian politics. Kolkata is the capital city of the state of West Bengal, 4.5 million people live in the city; it is the seventh largest city in India.
Under British colonial rule in 1861, Article 377 criminalized “immoral sexual relations” and consequently made homosexuality a crime. Even after India gained independence in 1947, the Victorian heritage of homophobia and caution from British colonial powers remained ingrained in society and remained in the statute books into 2018. (to MANNSCHAFT+ report).
India may officially have the world’s largest population from next year. Only China currently has more people. According to United Nations forecasts, this is likely to change by 2023: by then there will be over 1.4 billion people in the two countries. Beyond that, India’s population is expected to continue to grow while China’s decline. In the last century, both countries have taken steps to slow population growth.
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