Was 1992 a Turning Point for Homosexuals in Contemporary India?

Abstract

For many familiar with contemporary India’s history of homosexuality, 1992 may be seen as a turning point. In 1992, activists protested against the infamous anti-sodomy law, Section 377 of the penal code, a provision which had been frequently employed by the police to harass the gay community. The public protest marked a historical point in the lives of the Indian homosexuals as the issue of homosexual citizenry entered public and popular discourse in contemporary Indian society. This paper seeks to establish the validity of 1992 as a historical point beyond the singular event of protest. It attempts to encourage one to consider the ways in which the increased political subjectivity of the homosexuals in contemporary India intersect with the historical emergence of the Hindu Right’s ideological hegemony from the 1990s. The added lens helps one to seek how the political and the personal can come together to identify, and invite discussion on, the varying statuses of different homosexual groups, ranging from lesbians to Muslim homosexuals, both of which tended to be marginally excluded from the emergence of a collective homosexual identity in the movement against Section 377.