Walking the Walk

The LGBTIQ movement in India celebrates its growth and successes with a series of pride marches in various cities and small towns across the country all year around. Unlike parades, these events draw inspiration from India’s anti-casteist and feminist movements, acting not only as celebrations, but also as political protests. Like in the west, these marches are also spectacular displays of color, costume, and resilience.

Walking the Walk follows the participants of Hyderabad’s queer Swabhimana(self-respect) pride walk in February 2015, that was held in protest of the brutal murder of a trans woman named Pravallika in January 2015. The walk draws inspiration from the most recently successful social movement which led to formation of a new state in India, Telangana. This film demonstrates how a collective of activists do more than talk the talk; they set into motion a political movement that celebrates small successes, demands resources for working-class transgender people, stands up to police violence, and allows the community to grieve for lost loved ones.

In India, the most visible face to the queer community – the Hijra community – also is the most victimised: rape, violence, discrimination, and even death are motifs of their daily existence. To a lesser degree, the other transgender, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer-identified Indians go through similar ordeals. The film also brings attention to these gruesome acts of violence to raise awareness within the mainstream society.

Walking as a form of protest against discrimination and exclusion has a long history in India. Dr. Ambedkar’s historical "Mahad Satyagraha" walk in 1927 protested caste-based discrimination at one of its fundamental levels: access to water. It was Gandhi’s "Salt Satyagraha" walk in 1930 against the unfair salt tax of the British that ignited the people to take to the road. Since then countless anti caste and anti colonial marches have galvanised the masses to fight for freedom – but these struggles must be kept vitally alive today. It is important to not only fight the British colonial residue in the form of an archaic Sec. 377 (that criminalizes homosexual behaviour) but also to fight the deep rooted stigma in the society and bring it to understand and accept alternate genders and sexualities. A public walk aims to do just that. Queer Indians have learned not to hesitate to talk the talk. This film shows how they also walk the walk.