Editorial Column|02

Homosexuality is seen as a sin in India. Many queers die an untimely death by committing suicide due to homophobia and lack of acceptance.
Our society is made up of families. Family is our primary institution. The conception of an heterosexual family as the only form of family comes from the rule of pariarchal forces. In this set up, women are treated as lesser than men and therefore only suitable for domestic chores. Gay men in India are treated as bodied that are lesser than men. A certain lack characterise the patriarchal perfect woman, that is the lack of a penis that makes her lesser than a man. A similar lack can be seen in the conception of men. Homosexuality in women is often dismissed by men because of the institutional infantalisation of women. In order to challenge this normativity, it is important that we recognise alternate possibilities of families being true. So to understand homophobia in educational spaces, it is imperative to understand where it emanates from.
Coming out is a recent phenomena in India. People are especially coming out of their ” closets” as it is popularly described, after the scrapping of the Victorian Section 377.
The Section 377 was actually imposed to control the sexual behaviours of the Company officials.
Its aim was to “protect” soldiers and colonial administrators from “corruption” out of a fear that these men sent far from home (and their wives) would turn to homosexuality, according to British Colonialism and the Criminalization of Homosexuality, a book by Enze Han and Joseph O’Mahoney.
Even after the regressive section was declared null and void, a certain regressive bent of mind still prevents parents ( even urban, educated) to accept their family members as queer. Not accepting queer people is a new idea if we go through the pages of history of the subcontinent.
If we study ancient texts talking about figures that can change their gender, Kamasutra giving positions for amorous activities for homosexual partners, to the medieval texts wherein Sufi saints assume themselves to be women, we get evidences of homosexuality being an important part of our cultural life. The Khajuraho temple sculptures depict love-making in its varied forms including homosexuality. It is therefore baseless to scream “aprakritik” and “desh ki sanskriti ke khilaaf” when it comes to giving equal rights to the queer community with
love and acceptance.
It is important that we are able to question what our British Colonial “Masters” wanted us to believe through the imposition of laws such as Section 377, and return back to the culture of acceptance of various sexualities and genders that are enshrined in our ancient texts. Also, it is important to note that the British themselves legalised homosexuality back in 1967 through the Sexual Offences Act 1967 but India has to wait till 2018 to undo the harm our colonial rulers did to our socio-cultural fabric.

Samik Chakraborty