What after 377?
Photo: Sandeep Saxena
In any society, equal rights for all is a constant endeavour. At no point in the history of civilisation have all human beings been treated equally in the eyes of the law and society together. Legal justice does not necessarily translate to social ju
stice. We have seen that more recently with Australia, the U.S., Sri Lanka and so on. India perhaps can lay claim to the dubious distinction of being the most discriminating of all societies. We have a codified culture of discrimination in the caste system, compounded by the economic-based class system and also a hangover from the Victorian class system of discriminating between English and non-English speaking people. The list of sub-categories under which one could be excluded from social equity could go on endlessly.
The law has amended what was a flaw in its constitution. That unknowingly, it harboured an anti-human rights law by taking away the rights of sexual minorities. Rights that were taken for granted by mainstream Indians, something as basic as freedom, between consenting adults, to have sex, were denied to lesbians, bisexuals, gays and transgender people. Now that the section has been repealed and is a momentous step not only for the minorities but also for everyone who values freedom, there is cause for celebration.
No doubt, it is a day that will go down in history just as Stonewall did in the U.S. As one supporter put it so well in a television interview, “this is just the beginning. We have a long way to go.” I think this could be said of all minorities in general anywhere across the world, but more so in India because of the way we look at minority cultures.
The protection of invisibility
So far, the rule of thumb in India has been to remain invisible in times of persecution. During Hindu-Muslim riots, Muslims would change their names to avoid being butchered. Dalits learnt to hide their surnames or change their religion to free themselves from an oppressive system that had religious sanction. The more visible you made yourself in times of adversity, the more vulnerable you made yourself. It is a self-perpetuating role-play between the persecutor and victim. Being a minority means being a victim, and being a majority automatically means being a persecutor. These roles are so readily bought into by all, and these are not mutually exclusive roles either. If a victimised minority smells a vulnerable point in the opponent, he or she may well become the persecutor in an instant.
In such a scenario, most sexual minorities survived by simply staying underground. As a survival instinct, many pretend to be heterosexual or simply don’t wish to make public their sexual orientation. They are not doing anything that other Indians don’t do. I know Indians who travel abroad and try to pass for Italian or Greek, as they perceive some form of discrimination against Indians.
But now that gay activists have brought the issue up front, and rightly so, it is to be expected that there will be a new social hierarchy that will create yet another vulnerable section in the pecking order of Indian society. However, I feel it is a positive step in the right direction. The phase of overt discrimination against lesbigay people is here to stay. But that will only help strengthen its cause, just as the civil rights movement or feminist movement did for their members. Also, let’s not forget that a fight for freedom by one section will also benefit other oppressed sections as well and go a long way towards the larger cause of social equity.
Mahesh Dattani is one of India’s foremost playwrights writing in English.
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