Oh, what a happy day to be back! The title of this piece, a quote from Goethe, is the opening line of the historic verdict delivered by the Indian Supreme Court today. A five-judge bench ruled unanimously that Section 377 of the IPC – that criminalizes homosexual acts – was unconstitutional. It violates the fundamental rights to equality (Article 14), non-discrimination (Article 15), and privacy (Article 21.) The anti-homosexual sex laws were imposed in India as part of laws against public vice and immorality instituted across the British empire. Section 377 was over 158 years old, a Victorian…
I am in my late twenties. I have identified as a feminist for as long as I can remember. With a wave of “wokeness” spreading in the US (where I live) and India (where I grew up), I’ve been curious about the origins of my feminist tendencies for some time now. Curious beyond the fact that I identify as a such-and-such woman (a cis hetero, let’s be clear). Truthfully, the knowledge that women and men are treated unequally stems from formal education and teenage-to-adult socialization. I realized it gradually, in…