It Is Not About Gays Any More
Photo: Shubhashish Dey
I was horrified as the lawyer of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) gave a sound bite on 11 December regarding being the original petitioner in the case that saw the Supreme Court of India declare sexual minorities as criminals once again. I still remember the day when the Delhi High Court had struck down Section 377 and decriminalised homosexuality. I was studying as an exchange student in Paris. In the country that gave the slogan ‘Liberty, equality, fraternity’, I was proud to be an Indian. I was proud to be part of a country which gave equal rights to all minorities – religious, regional, caste, gender and then sexual. I was proud to be the inheritor of a Constitution that guaranteed all these rights. Being a constitutionalist by ideology, I proudly declared to my non-Indian friend – “We have the longest constitution in the world which protects everyone. It should be a bible for the free world.” How wrong I was.
Nearly five years later, I was shocked by my own Supreme Court. The guardian of the Indian Constitution, the father of so many landmark judgments that gave rights to so many minorities in this country – Muslims, Christians, Dalits, women – simply left it to the Parliament to legislate on this matter. Today I know how it feels to be a minority in your own country. Today I know how Dalits feel when upper caste men burn down their houses and declare them untouchable. Today I know how Muslims feel when Hindu fanatics declare them as non-Indians. Today I know how Ahmadis feel when a majority of their own community think that they do not have the right to live. Today I know how Christians in Odisha and Karnataka feel when their churches are vandalised. Today I know how it feels when young men and women are forced to follow diktats from khap panchayats. Today I know how it feels when Kashmiris are declared terrorists. Today I realise what it feels like when the same Kashmiris refuse to accept the pain of their fellow Kashmiri Pandits. Today I know how it feels when Manipuris are called foreigners on the streets of Delhi. Today I know what feels to be a lone woman walking on a deserted street. Today I am a minority, a criminal in my own country.
What hurts more is that the same people whose rights you have been advocating for years refuse to accept that you have rights too. Stuck in their medieval mental setup, they believe that the only minorities in the country are from their own religions, the only equality that should exist should be for their own communities, the only intolerance that exists in the country is from others. It amazes me that the same AIMPLB which talks about minority rights would be instrumental in denying sexual minorities their rights. Sections of other religious groups, including Hindu ones, have contributed to creating this human rights disaster. I find each and every argument put forward by these homophobic groups highly disturbing as there is a danger that in the future (There have been instances in past as well) the same arguments would be used against religious minorities. For instance, the argument of personal choice becomes laughable as religion might be a choice, but sexuality or gender isn’t.
The Supreme Court’s judgment regarding section 377 is not about the gaycommunity anymore. It has to be taken to the very beginning when our forefathers sat down to frame the constitution and decided the kind of India we should inherit. Like it or not, it is about the idea of India. Today, more than 65 years after independence, we are still stuck at the beginning. What kind of India do we want? The fight is still between two currents of thought – one that supports equality for all across caste, religion, sex and sexuality; and another that still believes in a country where certain sections of the society are more equal than others and some not equal enough.
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