The Supreme Court of India
on Dec 11th, 2013 re-criminalized “unnatural
sex” or sexual encounter which is “against the order of nature”. The honorable apex court overturned
the earlier judgement of Delhi High Court, which deemed Section 377 unconstitutional
on 2nd July, 2009.
Section
377:
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.
This broad classification encompasses Homosexuality too.
The debate on Section 377 of IPC (Indian Penal Code)
would never cease to amaze the thinking population and hordes alike. On one
hand we observe how hypocritical the society around us behave when they witness
a real life "gay" around
them whilst a subset of the same crowd cry foul at the judgement, may be some
amount of guilty consciousness at work here! There are also a few, who believes
in "live and let live" philosophy, perfectly fine with the
"others". Pour in few politicians, leaders, intellectuals and you
attain a critical mass, unable to resolve the differences. This in fact is
"modern". The western norm of universalism demands uniformity in
thought, action and belief; leading to the social order we are so used to. "Being Different" is not the standard practice. Neither acknowledged nor encouraged.
Instead
of contemplating the technicalities of the judgement let us spend some time on
the backdrop of this inhuman law, enacted on 1861. For what it is worth, if we
flip through the pages of history, the 18th century draconian law is actually a
Victorian Rules of morality which derives from Biblical concept of immoral acts or transgression in sexuality.
"Sins of Sodom in Bible caused God's curse, hence 'Sodomy'."
The
created order or the natural order:
“So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and
female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living
thing that moves on the earth.”
-- Genesis 1:27-28
The
loathsome act of the people of Sodome:
"…the men of the city, the men of
Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every
quarter. They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to
you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”
--
Genesis 19:1-13
Sins
of Sodome:
"Behold, this was the guilt of your
sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous
ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an
abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it."
--
Ezekiel 16:50
Interestingly
though, it was not only homosexuality or men having sex with other men (the 'abomination' that is against the created
order of nature or God) which led to the destruction of Sodome. There were other 'sins'
too, pride, excess of food, prosperous ease, haughtiness and abomination (homosexuality,
the last one).
However,
as the society 'progressed', out of all the other sins, it was Homosexuality
alone which suffered the wrath of "Social Order", to the extent of
criminalizing the act. How so is the relevant question, although the answer
remains ever elusive!
