"Gay humaare culture mey nahi hai!"
(Hindi; "Gay is not in our culture!")
This sexually repressed Indian 'culture' of ours sure teaches us to excel in dissociating ourselves from conflict, injustice and most importantly, reality. And this is pretty much how we live our lives even in the midst of gross inequity, wrongdoing and oppression. Moreover, anything that has a sexual dimension is outright 'wrong' here! This is precisely the reason why sex education here is a 'bad foreign thing' and why reason dies a painful death each time a victim of a sexual crime is blamed.
We, the heroes of hypocrisy have befriended denial as a way of life, thus throwing millions of citizens into snares of regressive laws like Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
The Section says,
"Unnatural offences: Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Explanation: Penetration is sufficient to constitute the carnal intercourse necessary to the offense described in this section.",
thereby rendering citizens belonging to the minority sexual/gender community as potential criminals besides placing unfair restrictions on many kinds of sexual engagement which cannot lead to procreation, thus taking everyone a step backward, regardless of sexuality! In doing this, the Indian Penal Code also conveniently discards heaps of recent scientific evidence that assert alternative sexualities as 'natural' as opposed to 'abnormal'.
Adding to this vice, the Supreme Court calling bullshit on all hopes of and efforts towards Law Reform, dismissed a petition seeking review of a judgment that glorified the criminalisation of homosexuality by upholding the bad colonial legacy of Section 377 of the IPC in barely a few lines! The phrase 'against the order of nature', as interpreted by the courts throws consensual homosexual acts into the same criminal bracket as bestiality and child abuse. This Section is a convenient tool used by the system to intimidate sexual/gender minorities, if not to prosecute them. The Delhi High Court, in the landmark judgment passed in the Naz Foundation case upheld the decriminalisation of consensual homosexual intercourse and the application of the Section in prosecuting other 'unnatural' sexual acts.
Surprisingly, the appeal against this was preferred, not by the Government with homophobic biases, but by a collective of individuals who thought it was their 'moral duty and responsibility to protect the cultural values of the Indian society.' This led to the Supreme Court overruling the judgment of the Delhi High Court. The Delhi High Court had not entirely struck down Section 377 of the IPC because at the time of this decision, India did not have any specific laws for the protection of children from sexual offenses. However, the enactment of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act in 2012 renders Section 377 useless in this sphere, hence increasing the need for the repeal of the Section.
Despite a slew of scientific evidence asserting homosexuality as a natural phenomenon and even some positive religious stances on the issue, the ruling party continues to support the colonial vice of Section 377 of the IPC for 'say-NO-to-western-influence', 'Indian culture' and other baseless grounds. This not only deprives the sexual/gender minority of protection (with effects like denying them sexual healthcare) but also denies equal citizenship to them.
What 'achhe din' ('good days') do we talk about if there are no strong minority rights, if we still choose 'Indian culture' over science, reason and justice, and if we still hold on to the bad old British law (which has of course been discarded by the British themselves long ago!) in 2015?
It's time that we, the 'achhe din'-seeking Indians cared about minority rights and wanted change in our laws with time and in accordance with the best global practices, thus taking a step forward, towards justice and reason.
"You may say you love each other, that you are happy with each other, that you give each other solace and courage and delight, but your love disgusts me. It runs counter to custom, it is an offence in law, it is against the order of nature, it brings dishonour to our family, it will dilute our blood, it will bring about kali-yuga, it will corrupt everyone around you, it is an abomination in the sight of the Lord. It must be forbidden.
What can one say to people who think this way? How can one understand their frame of mind-people who, not content with living their own lives, seek to destroy the life, the liberty, the happiness of others?
One bludgeons his daughter to death because she loves a boy from the same village. Another seeks to blackmail or send to prison two men because they love each other. Another forcibly separates a woman from her girlfriend and rapes her to teach her the right kind of sex.
To not be able to love the one you love is to have your life wrenched away. To do this to someone else is to murder their soul."
--Vikram Seth