The Right to Life v/s The Perceived Morality

Article 21 of the constitution of India gives every citizen the ‘Right to Life’ which in other words translates to, that every individual has the right to live, the way they want to live. Under such circumstances, draconian laws like the Sec 377 IPC in fact restrict this very freedom.

Article 21 is enshrined for us in our constitution, written by Indians, unlike the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which was written by the British and enforced in the year 1869 much before the constitution came into force. It is in fact a disgrace that the world’s largest democracy follows a Penal Code that was used to enslave it.

We must also note that the IPC is based on the Judeo-Christian code of ethics, Christianity being the state sponsored religion of Britain at the time and it does not fit into the Indian definition secularism. The Indian and the western definition of secularism vary to a great extent. For that matter acts like sodomy, same sex relations were very much a part of the Indian Culture evident from the famous Khajuraho Temples in Madhya Pradesh up until the influence of the British who demonized it. So it is actually a case of Cultural Imperialism, where the Cultural hegemony is in fact rampant till today and because it is so, the politically aware class ought to protest it.  

LGBT issues too fall under the same umbrella, the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Trans-sexual individuals are socially ostracized owing to this Section 377, which is not even our own. It is mostly to do with our rigid mindset.

As Judith Butler says “Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed." Sex and Gender are 2 different things and it our rigid mindset that prevents us from realizing this. Biological sex is not a choice; it is a grouping that nature puts us into, while gender is a choice. Gender is determined by behavior and certain stereotypical images that we have of a male or a female and when someone fails to fit the bill we tend to socially ostracize them calling them LGBT. 

It’s understandable that certain people do consider being a LGBT as something un-natural and that is a lot to do with their cultural conditioning and it will take a lot of time to change that mindset, but the fact that the state also doesn’t protect their rights is extremely unfortunate.

I just hope that with time we will be able to appreciate the Right to Life of every individual including the LGBT community and come out of this perceived sense of morality that has been instilled into us by our colonial masters. We will never be truly independent unless we are able to amend these hegemonic notions of 'natural' that we have. The responsibility rests on the hand of the politically aware class to bring about a change.