India's Pride(s): A Historical Perspective of the LGBTQIA+ Movement in India

When the Constitution of India was adopted in 1949, one of the six fundamental rights granted to the country’s citizens was the Right to Equality, a right that prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. Why, then, has the LGBTQIA+ community not been able to enjoy this ‘fundamental’ right?

Pride parades in India  |  Source: RTF: Rethinking the Future

In 1862, Lord Macaulay enforced the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which included Section 377. The British authorities imposed this code upon India, claiming it would be a 'blessing' that would 'modernise' its society. It is not widely known that the colonisers forced this newly criminalised way of life upon India. Section 377 still exists in various forms in other former British colonies across Asia. The British designed the IPC based on orthodox Puritan and Catholic beliefs, aiming to impose their values on Indians while allegedly protecting innocent British citizens from the ‘exotic, mysterious Orient’, which they perceived as overly erotic.

After the decriminalization of Section 377, certain public figures labelled homosexuality as ‘unnatural’ and a ‘disorder’, making baseless claims that traditional Indian society was against such relationships. However, numerous ancient Indian texts provide evidence that homosexuality was recognized and practiced. The Kama Sutra, for example, contains references to lesbians, who were called ‘swarinis’. These women married other women, raised children together, and were widely accepted in society. Similarly, homosexual men, who were called ‘klibas’, were also mentioned.

Every protest, movement, and act of dissent by the LGBTQIA+ community and activists is linked to Section 377. In 2001, the NGO Naz Foundation and AIDS Bhedbhav Virodh Andolan formally petitioned against Section 377 for the first time, but the petition was swiftly dismissed. The Delhi High Court decriminalized Section 377 in 2009, only to have its decision overturned by the Supreme Court in 2013.

In 2016, LGBTQIA+ activists filed petitions asserting their Right to Privacy. In 2017, the Supreme Court recognized that “sexual orientation is an essential attribute of privacy”. Finally, in 2018, the court declared that Articles 14 and 21 of the Right to Privacy contradict Section 377 and effectively decriminalized it.

The first public protest for gay rights in India took place in Delhi in 1992 after the police had arrested men suspected of homosexuality. In 1994, the first legal protest challenged Section 377. These subtle protests eventually led to India’s first pride parade in Kolkata in 1999, known as the Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk. This groundbreaking event marked the first-ever pride march in South Asia and inspired other states to organize their own marches over the years.

In 1994, transgender individuals were granted voting rights, and in 2014, the Supreme Court officially recognized them as a third gender. In 2019, the Parliament passed the Transgender Persons Bill to protect their rights, ensuring that no transgender person could be discriminated against in education, healthcare, employment, and other public sectors. However, the bill faced criticism for not being inclusive towards intersex individuals, genderqueer persons, and trans men. The bill was revised in 2020, with provisions for the government to protect the community and provide schooling and accommodation to them.

While there’s no denying that India has made significant progress in granting certain rights to the LGBTQIA+ community, there is still a long way ahead for mainstream Indian citizens to fully recognize them as equals. One can only hope that the community will be fully integrated into society sooner rather than later, enabling them to live in peace without fear or worries about acceptance from others.