1990. An ex-journalist, Ashok Row Kavi, sat down with two collaborators – Suhail Abbasi and Sridhar Rangayan – and did something unheard of in India at that time. They began a magazine for gay people, to be called Bombay Dost. It went on to become India’s first registered magazine on issues about LGBTQ, a fact of monumental significance considering that, at the time, homosexuality remained a criminal offence under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
The significance of what they tried to achieve often goes unnoticed. India, in the 1990s, was not an easy place for a gay magazine to be published, distributed or sold freely. Ashok Row Kavi and his collaborators couldn’t even openly acknowledge their objective when registering the magazine. They had to call it a publication for ‘people of alternative sexuality’. The very first edition only managed to print about 650 copies.
Even distribution had to be carefully orchestrated. They relied on a handful of roadside vendors whom they trusted implicitly. Copies of Bombay Dost would be kept hidden beneath rows of popular magazines and would be handed over to those who, in hushed tones, asked for it. They would sometimes vanish for a few minutes and reappear, the magazine neatly wrapped in brown paper to ensure that none of the other customers could guess what was being bought. And while the magazine cost a steep fifteen rupees-more than most of the leading publications at that time-readers could not even openly peruse it in a train or at home, lest it be spotted by an unwelcome eye.
Despite these challenges, the magazine found its readers in numbers that pleasantly surprised even the founders. At its peak, Bombay Dost would receive close to 3,000 letters a week, mostly through a popular section titled ‘Khush Khat’ or “Happy letters”, in which readers exchanged experiences, sought guidance, and often arranged meetings. The column provided a sense of reassurance, if nothing else, to the scattered and isolated members of India’s gay community, the validation that they were not alone. The readership also stretched beyond national borders, in ways that the founders never intended, with letters and requests coming in from places like Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Dubai, where isolation was perhaps just as pervasive, if not more.
Bombay Dost was more than just an exchange of letters. It provided invaluable health information when HIV/AIDS was hidden in fear and misinformation, treating the subject with an honesty that was mostly absent from the mainstream media. The magazine also critically analysed Section 377 of the IPC and campaigns to repeal it much before such issues found a mainstream audience in India. Alongside this, it had a light, gossipy edge, with a popular Bollywood gossip column ‘Poison Pudi’ and an advice section,
‘Papa Passion’, that addressed queries on sex, relationships, and the all-important and challenging question of coming out to parents.
This mix of serious social issues and light-hearted content also led to one of the magazine's most well-known controversies. In 1995, Bombay Dost published a review of Main Khiladi Tu Anari, starring Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan. The review playfully suggested that the close
bond between the two male protagonists felt more like a romantic relationship, while the female characters were largely pushed to the background. Ashok Row Kavi later said that he had even recommended the film for a gay and lesbian film festival in San Francisco based on this interpretation.
According to Kavi, the review sparked an unexpected confrontation. He recalled that Saif Ali Khan arrived at his doorstep the following morning, upset not only by the review but also by Kavi's alleged comments about his mother's acting. The argument reportedly escalated into a physical altercation at the door, an incident Kavi later described as one of the worst experiences of his career covering Bollywood. Over time, the episode became part of Bollywood folklore and reflected how uncomfortable the mainstream film industry was with even a playful suggestion of queerness.
In the end, however, financial challenges proved to be a far greater obstacle than public controversy. By 2002, Bombay Dost had run out of funds. Advertising opportunities were scarce for a publication serving such a niche audience, and the magazine could no longer rely solely on the efforts of unpaid volunteers. As a result, publication came to an end.
Its story, however, did not end there. The community remained connected through mailing lists and other activities until Bombay Dost was revived in 2009 with the slogan "bolder than ever." The relaunched magazine reflected a more confident and visible queer movement, featuring openly supportive public figures on its covers, including Kalki Koechlin in 2015 and Manoj Bajpayee in 2016 for his portrayal of a gay professor in Aligarh.
Alongside the magazine, Ashok Row Kavi, Suhail Abbasi, and Sridhar Rangayan founded the Humsafar Trust in 1994, which went on to become one of India's pioneering organisations working for LGBTQ rights, HIV prevention, and community support. In many ways, Bombay Dost was more than just a magazine that existed alongside the queer rights movement; it became one of its earliest and most influential voices in print. At a time when many LGBTQ individuals lived in isolation, fear, and invisibility, the magazine offered them a sense of community, a platform to express themselves, and a way to connect with others. Long before Pride marches and landmark court judgments brought greater public visibility to the movement, Bombay Dost had already carved out a place in India's queer history as a powerful symbol of identity and representation.
REFERENCES
- Bombay Dost, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org
- Ashok Row Kavi, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org
- "How Bombay Dost Mobilised India's Gay Movement," Homegrown India: https://homegrown.co.in
- "India's First Gay Magazine, Bombay Dost," NewsGram: https://www.newsgram.com
- Bombay Dost History, bombay-dost.com: https://www.bombay-dost.com
- "'Saif hit me and my mother too,'" Yahoo News (Ashok Row Kavi's account): https://www.yahoo.com
- Gay Bombay revisited: Ashok Row Kavi, Chitra-Lekha Sarkar: http://lekhasarkar.com