By Nicholas Snow
Photo: Nicholas Snow with Manvendra Singh Gohil, February 2009
You may know him from his appearances on Oprah! After a privileged, yet isolated childhood and an arranged yet brief marriage which ended in an annulment, and ultimately finding and being nurtured by other gay men, a genuine prince has become one of the leading LGBT and HIV/AIDS activists in India, where in recent years their efforts resulted in the decriminalization of homosexuality at the national level. His Royal Highness Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil (“Manav” to his friends, of which I am now one) is the the Yuvraj (Prince) of Rajpipla, 39th in line in the Gohil Dynasty, thriving for 600 years in the Princely State of Gujarat.
Manav was educated in Bombay, now known as Mumbai, and grew up primarily in the family’s colonial 15-bedroom mansion, at times with up to 22 servants – the home was eventually sold by the Prince’s grandfather to the Russian consulate, at which point they downsized to an eight-bedroom estate.
“Around the time of puberty, I came to know that I was different from others – I was attracted towards the same sex … I wasn’t sure what it was called … I certainly knew that I was different from others…,” explained the Prince, who did not know at the time that this was called “gay” or “homosexual.”
Manav was married at the age of 25. His wife was 22. The marriage lasted for just 15 months and ended in an annulment. He was emotionally attached to his wife but not sexually, hence the marriage was never consummated. The young couple lived in one of the wings of the family’s 35-bedroom, 100-year-old palace, and had the marriage continued, they would have been presented with a palace of their own.
Manav was emotionally fragile, if not distraught, after his marriage ended, “so I didn’t have the courage to go back and live in the palace. Instead, I lived in Bombay for some time, till I got balanced, mentally balanced,” adding that, “In order to obtain mental equilibrium, I joined a short course in Yoga. I actually stayed in a Yoga center for a short period of time, just to fill in the gaps to attain the kind of mental balance in my life…”
A classified advertisement in a local paper led Manav to a community of gay men where he met one of India’s leading gay activists, Ashok Row Kavi. “It turned out that he was my next door neighbor,” the Prince exclaimed of Ashok. “I couldn’t’ believe that, my god, the guy who I’ve been searching since the time I’ve known about him happens to be my next door neighbor.”
Much later, the Prince started drifting away from the family business and became more involved in gay activism and HIV/AIDS awareness and treatment issues. After a breakdown, hospitalization and the intervention of a psychologist, Manav ultimately came out in the media, creating a firestorm and resulting in the King and Queen publicly disinheriting him. Ultimately, they reconciled.
“My hopes and dreams are to make India a country which accepts homosexuals, accepts us the way we are, as human beings. It is the mindset of the society which needs to be changed. I’ve just given a push to this movement by openly coming out and talking about our rights. I wish to continue this,” declared the Prince, “and I wish to see a day where gay marriages are allowed in our country.”
Could this be karma?
“Maybe I was assigned to be born in that manner. Maybe I was assigned to be an activist. Otherwise, you can think, I had no doubts of anything in my life. I had all the luxuries of life with me. What was the necessity of me to start in the first place an organization to work for the gay community? There was no reason for me to do that. Give aside homosexuality – there is not a single royal family in India who has started an organization to work on HIV/AIDS. So, I think of it as maybe I was assigned to be born in this family and to be born here,” concluded the Prince, “and to find support from people like Ashok Row Kavi – who happened to be in my neighborhood!”
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