Nicholas Snow's Notes From The World: The Prince And Me—HRH Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil (With Videos!)

This photo and the similar photo below by Nicholas Snow of HRH Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, photographed in Bali, Indonesia in August, 2009.

Nicholas Snow's Notes From The World: The Prince And Me—HRH Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil

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 became one of the leading LGBT and HIV/AIDS activists in India, where in 2009 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.

Within the royal families of India, interaction among family members is generally extremely formal, and done through private secretaries. The children are in fact raised by governesses or nannies and often educated away from their parents. Prince 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.

“As other gay men, I mean I would say, normally would know around the time of puberty, is when actually I came to know that I am 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 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. The Prince was emotionally attached to his wife but not sexually, hence the marriage was never consummated. The prince viewed his wife more as a sister. 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.

The Prince 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, so 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 lead 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…he became my non-biological mom over a period of time. In fact, he is the universal mother to a lot of gay men in India and the world over.”


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. He had no problems with his bread and butter because as he says, he was born with a golden spoon. His farm was profitable which provided the income he needed, but surprisingly, his family was still putting marriage pressures on him. 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 disinherited him. Ultimately, their relationship was healed and they are all on good terms now.

The Prince’s story was reported in the New York Daily News, the Los Angeles Times, and in a national telecast on the America Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on July 3rd, 2007. The Prince then flew to Chicago in October, 2007, to appear on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, themed “Gays around the World.” More recently, Manav appeared on the BBC reality show, Undercover Princes.


“We got royal treatment in America,” explained the Prince, “much more than what we even got in India.” From the stretch limo to the best hotels, to Oprah herself showing the Prince a great deal of respect, stating, “You’re the most genuine royal I’ve met.”

Many people from royal families around the world have come out to the Prince, and have shown their support for him. Moving ahead, the Prince is intent to create both a hospice for HIV/AIDS patients, to care for patients with love and dignity, and to empower the staff so they may find economic independence and avoid becoming sex workers. The Prince would also like to create an old age home because, as he stated, “The heterosexual world doesn’t understand our issues.”

The Prince remains a volunteer and trustee with the Lakshya Trust which he founded. In fact, he donates 65% of the income from his farm and ancestral properties directly to the trust and related charities. When he is not working, the Prince is in Mumbai at the family residence studying classical Indian music from an elder master of the Harmonium. And representing his native India, the Prince also serves on a regional board working to educate MSM about HIV/AIDS, and he teaches Yoga.

“My hopes and dreams are to make India a country which accepts homosexuals, accepts us as 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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Nicholas Snow's Notes From The World

Nicholas Snow

This column presents stories of courage, strength and hope of individuals worldwide who are passionately involved in the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered civil rights as well as the battle against HIV/AIDS, demonstrating how these issues are inseparable from the overall fight for human rights for everyone. In addition, the column infuses travel and entertainment reporting into the mix to not only celebrate the freedoms that exist for many of us, but to contrast these freedoms against the dark realities of individuals living in more oppressed situations where sometimes their very lives are at risk.

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This column was condensed from a previous comprehensive feature story about HRH by Nicholas Snow:

Even Oprah Noticed: Meet India's Gay Prince of Social Transformation, Yuvraj Manvendra Singh Gohil of Rajpipla


This column, Nicholas Snow's Notes From The World, was conceived out of a longtime collaboration between Nicholas Snow, editor/mentor Mona de Crinis, and The Bottom Line Magazine in Southern California, the "anchor publication" of the print version of this column.

For information on how your media outlet (newspaper, magazine or web site) may secure rights to carry this column (and become a media partner with the NotesFromTheWorld.com family of web sites) please email Nicholas Snow directly at Orbit@NotesFromTheWorld.com. Our debut media partners are acknowledged in the above gallery.

Masthead photo of Nicholas Snow credit/copyright Kevyn Major Howard