377. 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.
That is the statement from Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the crux of our judicial system. How such a vague statement was allowed to remain there is still a mystery for me. One of the ironically funny status in twitter- the day Uruguay legalizes marijuana is the day India bans gay sex. The largest democracy which promises equal rights for all its citizens have just secluded some of them because of its archaic overview. Section 377 is a blot to our judicial system, and such a shocking verdict from the supposedly highest niche of our justice system is nothing but a grave miscarriage of justice, justice for someone who has been deprived of their right, the right to their own privacy.
What I am waiting for is the publication of a set of manuals and possibly some illustrated examples of what exactly is not against nature, and the seeming proper, natural and moral way to engage in one of the most private activities of our lives..
But wait, we can’t do that either, because that will be too explicit for our tastes. We are good at preaching morality, religion and societal intercourse, but what we are not good at is change, because that is what our culture is about, a set of dogmas laid by our prehistoric ancestors and which we hold very dear because to change is against our culture.
What should be our culture to live and let live, look at the more significant problems surrounding us instead of preaching the preferences of who someone does what with in the privacy of their homes, without apparently creating any noise. It’s time to grow up, look beyond religious interpretations because no religion preaches hatred, it’s only the people who preach them do, look beyond cultural preferences, because a culture is evolutionary, otherwise we could just try rubbing flints to create fire, and finally open ourselves up to people whom we just fathom to be different but are actually the same flesh and blood.
4 responses to “11-12-13, Section 377-A step back in history”
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you might call me an orthodox as I personally do not support the LGBT sex and the reasons are as follows….
why do you think the laws are made and why do we preach people to follow them?!! Just to simply make things little bit easier to control.
As Khaled Hosseini puts in "There is only one sin. and that is theft…when you tell a lie, you steal someones right to the truth…"…So when you allow these things (considering consensual) you steal the whole species' right to reproduce…i mean fine you'd say what about choices/rights, so why not discuss Euthanasia first or for that matter why not de-criminalize stealing or other such "minor" vices, just cause they are a "choice of life"
I guess it's not a question of what you support but rather what others believe. LGBT society does not want you support but a tolerance from people who have an orthodox outlook. Even in the US, there are several people not in support of LGBT but still are tolerant enough to not disrespect it. The sad part is, in our great nation India, tolerance is also double-standard; you want to be proud of kamasutra(the book) but not tolerant of a couple holding hand in public (that's named public display of affection).
Also to the case of right of whole specie's reproduction….atleast we Indians should not complain about this; if not anything, we are definitely on the right track to beat China in population. I think we can definitely use some non-reproducing couples in our country.
Nice post Nilayan.
But I dont know if it is going to happen in the near future.
"Culture is Evolutionary" is a bold statement, that by itself is a big topic.
As Akul said, US people are tolerant even though they may not be appreciating it.
But in India its pretty hard, if you remember 2 years back, there was a revolt against Valentine's day celebration, this is not a gay / lesbian thing, but still there was a fight. Considering the current situation, its very hard for Indians to appreciate these activities.
Already there are fights for Gay rights and other related stuffs, it might be accepted, but not in the near future.