CHENNAI, India — The Delhi High Court's recent ruling that decriminalized sex between two consenting men or women is widely seen in India as a move toward a healthier sexual climate. Though confined to Delhi now, the law could eventually be adopted by the country's other regions.
The Delhi ruling quashed a terribly archaic law, inherited from the British Raj, which termed gay sex "unnatural." The section of the law in question, 377, was culture-specific, having originated in Victorian England before being transported to the colonies. British rulers felt that Indians and, of course, other colonial subjects were not civilized enough — even too sexually perverse — to enjoy freedom. This line of thought stigmatized sex, most certainly homosexuality, and the legacy persists today.
In fact, India's religious institutions still aver that gay men and lesbian women are perverted. Often, homosexuality has been looked upon and treated as a form of mental illness or a rare case of lunacy by society at large. The legal system merely reinforced this through Section 377, under which an offense was punishable by up to 10 years in prison.