https://new2.orinam.net/ismat-chughtais-lihaf-a-short-note/ Hues may vary but humanity does not. Thu, 04 Jun 2020 07:37:29 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7 https://new2.orinam.net/ismat-chughtais-lihaf-a-short-note/comment-page-1/#comment-109185 Thu, 04 Jun 2020 07:37:29 +0000 https://new2.orinam.net/?p=9232#comment-109185 […] own identity as a writer – Chughtai was put on trial for obscenity following this story. In 1946, “Lihaaf” became an object for arbitration in the trial of Ismat Chughtai v. The Crown – an ironic reflection of how same-sex love is often on trial […]

]]> https://new2.orinam.net/ismat-chughtais-lihaf-a-short-note/comment-page-1/#comment-8378 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 13:09:45 +0000 https://new2.orinam.net/?p=9232#comment-8378 The fact that pre-Christian and Christian notions of sex appear to draw from different conceptions of morality prompts us to question whether there was also a single understanding of love. Though in the late 19th century young men and women had relative freedom to choose partners we should not confuse this with the choice enshrined in modernist narratives of “romantic love”. Accounts at the beginning of the 20th century suggest that women could use izintando, or love potions, to attract a man and men could also use umuthi (medicine/potion) to hayiza a woman and induce her to love him. [24] These love potions might have had their origins in human desires but they worked through the spiritual world of amadlozi (ancestors). Consequently, unlike the individualistic love of the romantic love culture, they could not be so easily resisted through self control, a point well demonstrated by the involuntary screaming of a woman who was subjected to umhayizo. At the same time, similarities between the powerful consequences of love potions and the spontaneous emotion associated with romantic love should not be overlooked: both could “come from nowhere” and seize the heart of a man or a woman in a powerful manner.

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