The Inheritance of Loss: Inside the silent battles of queer heirs in India’s richest families
But for one of the heirs, this was not an easy or even process. The whole process of who got what and where was not just about claiming what was rightfully theirs. It became a litmus test for the heir’s identity, honor, and survival.
Unlike other family members, this heir’s gender identity had always been a private matter, never discussed, never acknowledged. When the patriarch’s will was opened and read aloud, an ultimatum emerged. “I was threatened that I would be ‘kicked out’ against my will if I did not comply with certain demands,” the heiress recalls, speaking anonymously. They were eventually forced into a lavender marriage, a euphemism for the union of a heterosexual and a homosexual person. This was a union of convenience designed to protect the family’s image at all costs.
This is an emerging reality for the gay children of some of India’s richest families.
DEATH IS JUST THE BEGINNING
They find themselves ostracized, silenced, or forced by their own blood. For many traditional families, the asset distribution moment serves as the final blow they can use to turn sexual identity and orientation into bargaining chips.
Rajat Dutta, founder of Inheritance Needs Services, which provides inheritance-related, non-consulting services, says families are completing paperwork with same-sex heirs in mind. Some are careful. He says: “Some families are anxious and anxious. To avoid social attention or legal wrangling, asset owners are now pre-structuring testamentary documents (wills, trusts, family arrangements, etc.) to consider same-sex heirs without disrupting the overall family equation.”
Yet in most cases abstinence is the norm.
Inheritance by will (inheritance by will) is often weaponized. “Succession laws only recognize heterosexual spouses and biological children. Spouses will have no legal claim if they renege on a will, no matter how long they have lived together,” says Jwalika Balaji, a research fellow at the Vidhi Center for Legal Policy, a legal think tank. “If an LGBT person is not accepted, they are simply put in writing.”
Take the case of a wealthy industrialist couple in Mumbai. They created a comprehensive estate plan, assuming that their children studying abroad would one day marry and have children of their own. However, suspicions increased after her son rejected the marriage proposal with meaningless reasons. They eventually realized he was gay. This was followed by a renewal of the estate plan. The will documents were changed, setting different conditions for each heir (based on fitness, not ability), and ensuring that the son’s co-partner would never receive a share.
Dutta says: “The result is exclusion; this is not always explicit, but is built into the design and language of the will documents. It will be laced with concern, but the main focus is that only ‘acceptable’ family members will be in the line of succession.”
Succession Struggles
Although LGBT individuals can inherit from their parents from birth, they do not have legal status as partners. India’s succession laws are governed by the religion of the deceased at birth. The Indian Succession Act of 1925 does not recognize same-sex relationships. Same-sex couples cannot claim spousal rights regarding retirement, insurance benefits and inheritance unless expressly stated in the will or nomination. And even then difficulties are common.
In the absence of marriage equality, same-sex couples rely on delicate legal tools such as wills, nominations, trusts, etc., all of which are open to legal scrutiny.
A same-sex couple has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court challenging the discriminatory provision of the Income Tax Act offering gift tax exemption only to heterosexual spouses.
But the fight isn’t always legal, says Pallavi Pareek, CEO of legal inclusion consultancy Ungender: “The real fight doesn’t always happen in court. It happens in quiet conversations in living rooms, where being gay is seen as a family threat.” Pareek, who works with legal advisors to private family offices and HNIs, describes the issue as layered discrimination. “Queer heirs face a double burden: laws that do not recognize them and families that silence them.”
One of the most talked about cases was the Ajay Mafatlal case. After gender transition in 2003, at the age of 53, Mafatlal claimed inheritance rights as a male heir under the Hindu Succession Act. His brother disputed the claim, implying that the switch was for financial gain. The dispute never reached the courts. It ended behind closed doors; buried beneath legal structures and family foundations. He passed away in 2015.
“It’s not just about wealth, it’s about recognition. It’s about the right to be seen as family,” says Pareek.
This is the essence of India’s gay rights discourse, which began with the decriminalization of homosexuality.
LONG ROAD
In 2001, Naz Foundation filed a PIL challenging Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. It took more than a decade for the law to be overturned. Finally, in 2018, the Supreme Court Navtej Singh Johar – Union of India The case was annulled on the grounds that Article 377 was unconstitutional.
But legal experts say this is just the beginning. Balaji says: “The abrogation of Article 377 abolished a colonial-era penalty, but did not confer any rights. It did not guarantee the right to inheritance, housing, retirement, insurance or marriage.”
In 2023, the Supreme Court has been asked to rule on the legality of same-sex marriage. In a 3:2 split the court refused to recognize this. The majority stated that the Constitution did not guarantee the fundamental right to marry. While the minority view supported the idea of civil unions, the ruling left same-sex couples without legal recognition and, accordingly, without any claim to marriage rights.
The court also rejected the right of same-sex couples to adopt children together, arguing that current rules only allow joint adoption to married couples.
After all, even the best laws can do little without social acceptance. Legal tools can only go so far until Indian families start viewing same-sex heirs as equal stakeholders, not liabilities. “Wealth owners have begun to protect the wealth inherited by LGBT children,” Dutta says. “But real change will only come when the struggle comes out from the shadows; being gay here does not mean being invisible.”
Experts say the biggest inheritance many LGBT heirs seek is not just money, but the right to belong. The issue of queer heritage is more about acceptance; not just on a piece of paper, but as a person.
