From Myth To Modernity: A Brief History Of Drag Culture In India

In the Virata Parva of the Indian epic, the Mahabharata, which takes place during the final year of the Pandavas' thirteen-year exile, bound by an unbreakable vow to remain unrecognized, the Pandavas enter the kingdom of Virata in disguise. Arjuna, once an unrivalled warrior and the future hero of Kurukshetra, cloaks himself in an unfamiliar form — that of a transsexual court dancer and musician named Brihannala. Cursed by the nymph Urvashi to lose his manhood for spurning her advances, Arjuna now wears the curse as camouflage, his battle scars veiled underneath layers of silk and jewels. In the palace, he trains the young princess Uttara, moves with grace among courtiers, and keeps his identity hidden beneath the cadence of song and rhythm.

Drag, Cross-dressing, and Trans-sexuality In Indian Myths & Epics

The story of Brihannala reflects a nuanced understanding of gender fluidity in ancient India, where performance, disguise, and transformation were not only strategic choices but also deeply embedded in the concept of dharma or sacred duty. Even today, Brihannala's story resonates with many queer, intersex, and trans communities, offering mythological and quasi-religious legitimacy to expressions of non-normative gender identities. But Brihannala is only one example of cross-dressing and trans-sexuality in the Mahabharata. Shikhandi, who was born female and exchanged her sex with a Yaksha to become male, is another example. Chitrangada — the warrior princess who was born female and raised male — is yet another example of cross-dressing across Indian myths. The Ardhanarisvara — literally the 'half-woman god' — is a form of the Hindu deity Shiva merged with his consort Parvati. Ardhanarisvara is depicted as half-male and half-female, equally split down the middle.

From the existence of these gender-queer characters in Indian myths and epics, to the significance of eunuchs in the Mughal royal court and Mughal Indian society at large, drag and gender-queer cross-dressing culture has a rich and complex history in the subcontinent.

Launda Naach: India's Oldest Vernacular Drag Subculture

Outside the royal core, gender play also thrived in rural India through vibrant folk traditions such as Launda Naach. Popular in the Bhojpuri-speaking regions of eastern Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar — collectively known as Purvanchal — Launda Naach involves male dancers (laundas) performing in female attire during festivals, weddings, and village gatherings.

Rooted in working-class and Dalit communities, Launda Naach evolved as a form of expressive resistance and bawdy entertainment. Unlike classical theatre, it is not codified by elite aesthetic theory but by immediacy, improvisation, and streetwise satire. This tradition complicates simplistic understandings of masculinity and femininity in rural India, while also challenging the dominance of urban queer narratives that center English-speaking, upper-caste visibility.

While Launda Naach performers may not identify as drag queens or queer in Western terms, their art shares core elements with drag culture: cross-dressing, theatrical exaggeration, gendered performance, and social subversion. In many ways, Launda Naach is India's oldest form of vernacular drag.

Gender Fluidity In Indian Folk Theatre

South Asian classical traditions have long explored gender through performance. In the classical theatre outlined by the Nātyaśāstra (a Sanskrita treatise on the performing arts compiled ca. 200 BCE–200 CE), men played female roles because women were not allowed onstage. This continues today in folk theatre forms like Kathakali in Kerala, where hyper-stylised representations of gender allowed male performers to become mythological heroines, goddesses, and demonesses through gesture, costume, and rasa, or emotion.

Similarly, in regional folk theatres like Yakshagana (Karnataka), Therukoothu (Tamil Nadu), and Jatra (Bengal), cross-gender casting was integral to the storytelling. These performances blurred boundaries between sacred and secular, male and female, human and divine.

Such forms, though not generally labeled as drag, engaged deeply with gender performativity and transformation, often within frameworks far older than Western queer theory.

Gender Policing And Queer Erasure In The Colonial Era

British colonial rule imposed rigid gender binaries and pathologized indigenous expressions of gender variance. The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 labeled Hijras — India's third-gender communities — as 'innately criminal', erasing centuries of social recognition and acceptance. Simultaneously, colonial legal systems stigmatized all forms of cross-dressing and gender nonconformity. This Victorian moral regime influenced the development of early Indian cinema, where women were absent from screens and men — often reluctantly — played female roles, such as in Raja Harishchandra (1913), the first motion picture produced by Indians, for Indians, in India.

Queer Nightlife & The Birth Of Modern Drag

Drag as we know it today arrived in India in the 20th century. From the 1960s onward, Indian queer communities carved out underground spaces for performance and transformation. Queer house parties, private salons, and nightclub cabarets became informal stages for drag-like self-expression. Bollywood’s glamorous dancers — most notably Helen — became icons for gay men and trans performers who saw in her stylized femininity a model for camp, performance, and subversion.

By the 2000s, Indian drag began to emerge into public view. Maya the Drag Queen (Alex Mathew) in Bengaluru pioneered English-language drag performance, blending Indian mythology, feminism, and comedy. Artists like Rani Ko-HE-Nur (Sushant Divgikar), Betta Naan Stop, and Shabnam Be-Waqt, brought Indian drag into mainstream queer politics, combining digital fluency with diasporic aesthetics.

Drag Culture In India Today

Indian drag today thrives across many languages, regions, and forms of performance. While urban clubs and Pride parades have become stages for glamorous drag kings and queens, rural and regional expressions like Launda Naach continue to evolve — sometimes incorporating fun Bollywood aesthetics, and often resisting assimilation.

Drag collectives like Dragvanti and events like Rainbow Rani Nights celebrate this diversity, curating performances that challenge casteist, gendered, and heteronormative assumptions. Many artists, such as Hyderabad-based drag artist Patruni Sastry, explicitly link their drag to social issues, making it a powerful tool of both protest as well as pleasure.

As drag continues to evolve in India, it's important that we acknowledge how deeply embedded drag is within Indian cultural life. While contemporary Indian drag may draw inspiration from global drag culture, its roots run deep and draw from the length and breadth Indian cultural history, from myths to modernity.

If you enjoyed reading this, here's more from Homegrown:

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