The reinterpretation of Section 377 by the Delhi High Court, decriminalizing consenting adult homosexual sex, is a judgment justly hailed for its wisdom. By saying that it was the same spirit of ‘inclusiveness’ that also motivated Jawaharlal Nehru, the judgment has reminded us of the truly radical freedoms that form the foundations of the nation. In 1947, when India’s constitution-makers gave universal adult franchise to a poor, tradition-bound illiterate country, they set us on course for a constantly evolving contract with freedom. The reinterpretation of Section 377 could become a trigger for a larger debate about the balance between sexual freedom and traditional society and how to achieve a middle ground.
Today, personal freedom and ‘traditional morality’ seem to be on a collision course. The attacks on women at a Mangalore pub led by Pramod Muthalik are the lunatic manifestation of a deeper anxiety being voiced in many quarters on the future of ‘Indian values’. In Mumbai, 2006, an art exhibition entitled ‘Tits, Clits and Elephant Dicks’ was disrupted by the police. Last year, lovers in a Meerut park were beaten up by police. The government has just banned savitabhabi.com, accused of dispensing pornography and showing, in cartoons, the activities of a sultry ‘bhabhi’. The ban has led to protests on the net. In rural communities, marriages and elopements of inter-caste and inter-religious couples are being met by resistance from elders, and sometimes boys and girls are being put to gruesome death. Dress codes are being imposed. In a Kanpur college, tight clothing and jeans were banned for women because such clothes “attract eve teasers”. In Kerala, some colleges have even banned Bollywood dances on campus.
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