#Queer Rights Archives - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

Arts & Culture

In the shadows, we dance with the light

By DU Beat November 17, 2024

Indian society holds one of the richest cultural heritage in the world. Its diverse cultures and traditions have often provided comfort and hope to people during challenging times, but visiting a temple is still a far-fetched dream for some marginalised groups. The queer community stands at the crossroads when tasked with defining their religion with the almighty. They either wander on the outskirts, hoping to get validated someday, or find peace through different channels by connecting themselves to a higher energy.

The word, ‘religion,’ has been defined by many great scholars and saints through different interpretations. Many have termed it a medium of connecting to a greater power while others have often termed it a ‘way of living.’ People attempt to define the word ‘religion’ to cater to their needs and wants. I had the privilege of growing up under the city lights of New Delhi. The state offers to mingle with a diverse crowd, coming from different sects and henceforth I got to learn a lot about different cultures and traditions, as New Delhi’s diversity helped me mould my thoughts and opinions. At the same time, I had the opportunity to explore and express my own emotional understanding of the word ‘religion.’ However, not everyone has the freedom to reflect on their feelings and beliefs about spirituality. One community that often faces significant barriers in this regard is the LGBTQIA+ community.

There are lakhs of people who go through this every day. These are not your conventional girls or boys, but rather people who did not fit into the society, as per the set standards by the society. The word, ‘Queer,’ technically means strange or odd, but the word has been taken too literally in the present era, and the orthodox mindset is to be blamed. Don’t worry, this is not your-friendly-neighbourhood-LGBTQIA-support-digest, rather today I want to talk about something else, queer people and their relationship with God. Almost all our religious scriptures come down to one conclusion, the path of spirituality, knowing your god and traditions helps oneself in obtaining self-actualization and relief from a world full of endless desires, but in a not-so-colorful world, it means something else for people, especially who didn’t fit into the right shapes and sizes of the Indian society.

Picture this, a queer man is considered an outcast in his class full of ideal masculine men and shy and tender women, so he sits near the college garden alone when the rest of the batch is busy playing sports games or going out to clubbing. For him, his college garden is his haven as it provides him with a safe space, something that all worshippers look for when they seek shelter under their god, which is their strong belief system. While he had always feared asking the question, What exactly is god? Who is a god? What does he do? He is afraid that other people may not end up liking him if he asks this, or does he even have a right to ask such questions considering he is supposed to be an ideal man, who should love his ideal wife but on the contrary, he doesn’t understand why god or this supernatural energy wired him up into liking men, which is something he did not see much growing up. But he has a firm belief that a higher, supernatural form of energy exists, which is omnipresent and is always there to protect him when he is in trouble.

We live in a society shaped by social conditioning, where, from the moment we are born, we are taught what is considered right and wrong. As we grow, this conditioning often prevents us from recognizing and accepting that differences can exist—and that they are valid. Festivals like Diwali, Eid, and Gurupurab provide opportunities for people to connect, celebrate, and find comfort in their beliefs and faith. However, members of the queer community are often excluded from these spaces of celebration and belonging. As a result, many queer individuals embark on a personal journey to define and connect with their own sense of spirituality and relationship with the divine.: –

I have been practicing a particular sect of Hinduism- the one that deals with Radha Krishna’s bhakti- for over twelve years of my life. The reason why I have always felt safe was because Vrindavan has been a very inviting place, especially for the queer folks. The beautiful thing about bhakti is that the binaries of the sexes get broken down because, at the end of the day, you’re just a maid-servant of Radharani: your sexed body, and your gendered self, both are reduced to a sort of femininity. We all need God, or some cosmic “thing” when we’re going through the most distressing times in our lives. I found my comfort in “Why am I like this” in this spiritual sense of being an eternal maid-servant, who has been assigned a particular body in this life.

Unfortunately, even after being at peace with myself and my identity, I always knew that even though a particular sect of Hinduism is welcoming to me, the religion in general still does consider homosexuality to be sinful. This stands true about all religions. A deeper introspection and critical analysis helped me to realize that if there was God, they would not be unfair to anyone, let alone queer people. Identities don’t exist in a vacuum.

– Anonymous (A student from Kirori Mal College)

These journeys may become tedious for many who come from conservating families, but the colours of explorations remain the same: –

I come from a conservative, Muslim family, where a bisexual man is viewed from a lens of sin and wrongfulness. People often find it surprising that I offer my namaz daily, even being a bisexual man, and not practicing atheism. I firmly believe that my sexuality and religion exist separately, and my god doesn’t judge me based on my sexuality.

– Anonymous (A student from Kirori Mal College)

I grew up in a Hindu-Sikh family, which was heavily involved in traditional practices like charity and idol worship. But my belief in this higher form of energy has evolved through ‘karma,’ that something good has happened to me because of my action

– Saanvi Manchanda (Maitreyi College for Women)

Religion is one of the mediums through which individuals find a pathway to connect with their god. What exactly is a ‘god,’ is something that should be subjectively answered by different believers. While there is no harm in idol worship or following a particular deity but many queer people out there, stem their courage through nature or epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, from which they can relate and learn stories about being righteous and courageous. Therefore, the answer to the question of how exactly ‘you’ identify your relationship with god, should solely rest upon ‘you.’

Hindu College Queer Collective returns with a campus-wide Pride Parade after 2 years.

By DU Beat November 10, 2024

On the 9th of November, 2024, a North Campus-wide Pride Parade was organized by the Hindu College Queer Collective. The parade was joined by students and activists of various universities, queer collectives, gender cells, and other organizations. It also included several poetic, dance, theatrical, and music performances as a part of the event.

The Pride Parade of the Hindu College Queer Collective (HCQC) was, unlike several sponsored events organized in DU, a completely crowdfunded event that sought to keep the parade “community-funded” and to avoid rainbow capitalism. The event kicked off with several cultural performances in the Sanganeria Auditorium of the college by guest student performers as well as performances by societies and cells of Hindu College that included poems by students on the queer love, music performances by students of Alankaar: The Classical Music Society and Aria: The Western Music Society, dance performances by the members of the North East Cell, Adhrita: The Indian Dance Society, and a play titled “Dear Closet” by Masque: The English Theatre Society of Hindu College revolving around transphobia. The cultural programme also sought to reach out to queer students and allies beyond Hindu College and hence the HCQC pride parade, for the first time, also featured more than 15 guest performers.

The final ‘surprise performance’ was not revealed to the audience via the official schedule and was only revealed at the moment of the performance to be a dance by the members of HCQC. The energetic productions throughout the day reflected upon the audience, who also twirled to the beats from their respective seats

The Pride Parade event also featured several stalls set up outside the auditorium. These stalls ranged from Camera Commune, a film club’s stall on prints, books, and keffiyeh on queer movements and Palestinian struggle to raise funds for Trans Community Kitchen, to Bhagat Singh Study Circle’s stall of multilingual progressive books, The Azadi Project’s stall of crocheted and handmade items made by displaced women, a stall of jewelry, mehendi painting, candles by queer folk, and a stall of prints, live sketching, and face painting by college students. The stalls were allotted either to queer or queer-led organizations or to individuals and/or organizations that worked for marginalised communities.

The Pride Parade formally began at 4:30 pm after all the cultural performances, and it started from Gate 4 of Hindu College. The parade covered almost the entire North Campus as it went from Hindu College, following the route through the Delhi School of Economics, Kirori Mal College, Chhatra Marg, Ramjas College, Daulat Ram College, and Shri Ram College of Commerce, and finally culminated at the Gate 4 of Arts Faculty, North Campus.

As the parade turned to Ramjas College and a huge crowd of students from the college stared at the crowd, a student from the parade stated:

“Sab hume aise dekh rahe hai par accha lag raha hai. Hum lad rahe hai apne liye. It feels good that everyone is looking at us. We are only fighting for ourselves.)”

Powerful slogans of resilience and support echoed through the course of the parade.

“Homophobia Down Down!

Transphobia Down Down!

Teri Mukti, Meri Mukti, Queer Mukti Zindabad (Your Freedom, My Freedom, Queer Freedom Long Live!)

Jai Bhim-Lal Salaam

Rape Culture Ka ek Jawab-Inquilab Zindabad

Hum Nafrat Hatane Nikle Hai, Aao Humare Saath Chalo (We have come out to remove hatred; come join us!)

Student Unity Long Live”

As the parade was being closely monitored by the Delhi Police, whose permission was sought and granted for the same, several slogans and chants raised during the parade were censored. The azadi chant, for instance, was censored by the police authorities, and they requested the organizers not to raise such chants.

Aishwarya, the president of the HCQC concluded the parade with a small address to the crowd and remarked:

We give a lot of importance to ensure that the pride parade is 100% crowdfunded and that it is preceded by a cultural event everytime because that’s our effort to tap into multiple forms of expression and portray how queer is in everything and everything can be queered. There is no specific space where queers can express queerness, such as, the pride parade. Queerness can be present in every form and expression, and is a way of life. The way academia operates in the current status quo and how it can be inaccessible for so many people is the reason why we preceded the pride parade with the cultural program.”

Aishwarya further added:

“We also believe in a politics of collaboration and tried to collaborate with different societies and cells that might not engage with issues or queerness otherwise. In several colleges, performance societies are given more importance than queer and gender based collectives so our idea of doing a pride parade in collaboration with these societies helps us reverse and restructure the hierarchy structure within the college space and reach out to larger audiences, including the ECA societies, that engage with and learn about queerness in the process. We feel that we have succeeded in creating a non-judgemental space with our pride parade event.”

Some students did mention that while organising the Pride Parade at a formal level by one of the very few formally recognised Queer Collectives in DU is in itself a huge achievement by the HCQC, they felt that several issues such as transphobia, gender dysphoria, and institutional deaths of queer students in our own campuses, did not get enough platform as much as they should have.

Featured Image Credits: Sharanya Dayal for DU Beat

Vedant Nagrani

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New criminal codes: Modern Rendition of Colonial Laws?

By DU Beat July 25, 2024

The Parliament passed the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita on July 1, replacing the long-standing colonial criminal laws. While they bring an array of much needed changes to the criminal justice system, they have been rightfully criticised for retaining Victorian ideals of gender justice. So where do these laws find themselves in “Naya Bharat”?

These laws are made by Indians, for Indians and by an Indian Parliament and marks the end of colonial criminal justice laws,

said Union Minister Amit Shah. Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, the official Criminal Code, replaced the dated Indian Penal Code (1860). The new criminal laws boast of prioritising justice dispension, as opposed to penal action, according to him.

Many overlapping sections have been merged and simplified, with 358 in BNS against 511 in IPC, along with each section being defined expansively to make the laws accessible and improve law enforcement. Furthermore, under the new laws, an individual can now report incidents through electronic communication, without needing to enter a police station. This allows for efficient reporting, facilitating prompt action by the police. With the introduction of Zero FIR, a person can file a First Information Report (FIR) at any police station, regardless of jurisdiction. This eliminates delays in initiating legal proceedings. An interesting addition to the law is that in the event of an arrest, the individual has the right to inform a person of his choice about their situation. This will ensure immediate assistance to the arrested.

Besides, arrest details will now be prominently displayed within police stations and district headquarters, allowing families and friends of the incarcerated, easy access to important information. To strengthen cases and investigations, it has become mandatory for forensic experts to visit crime scenes of serious offences and collect evidence. Furthermore, judgement in criminal cases has to come within 45 days of completion of trial and charges must be framed within 60 days of the first hearing.

While these are needed and plausible provisions, will India’s judicial system which is already reeling from a backlog of cases and inadequate dispensation of justice, be able to efficiently implement them?

The case for sedition: The biggest grey area

In an attempt to decolonise the legal justice system, BNS comes forth as just a rendition of the very idea it wished to replace. By expanding powers of the state and the police, BNS retains offences grounded in archaic morality, similar to that of the colonial set up. It widens the penal network through broad but stringent and vaguely-defined offences, thus strengthening the state’s resolve of power over the citizen.

Section 124A of the IPC titled, “Offences Against the State”, includes the offence of sedition. Section 152 of BNS, mimics the IPC section with a few changes, only the offence of sedition has been replaced with, ‘‘an act endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.”

While the former focuses on activities that incite hatred, contempt or disaffection towards the government, the latter penalises activities that excite “subversive activities” or encourage “feelings of separatist activities” or endanger the “sovereignty or unity and integrity of India”. But BNS does not explicitly state what constitutes either of these.

In the case of Kedar Nath Singh vs State Of Bihar (1962), the court limited the extent of the IPC section to only “speech that poses an imminent threat to public order”, to safeguard citizens’ freedom of speech guaranteed under the Constitution. Since the implementation of BNS, the court’s decision on the IPC sections are no longer applicable. Hence, the scope of section 152 of BNS remains unclear.

The Union Government has clarified that BNS no longer criminalises sedition, but criminalises treason, and criticising the Government is no longer an offence. But broadly defined provisions of the BNS empower law enforcement agencies to detain individuals based on an ambiguous law.

Similarly, section 197 of BNS, which includes provisions on fake news, states that whoever makes or publishes false or misleading information, jeopardising the sovereignty, unity and integrity or security of India – shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years, is another vaguely-defined provision.

A man in Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi was arrested and booked for imputations and assertions prejudicial to national integration under section 197 – his offence, waving a Palestinian flag during a Muharram procession. According to the police, in a report by The Indian Express, the incident could create feelings of hatred and animosity among the public.

Punishment of Sexual Offences: What about marital rape?

According to colonial notions of morality, husbands are exempt from the crime of rape, which was reflected under section 375, which stated, “sexual acts or sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife…is not rape.” Despite widespread criticism, the BNS has retained these regressive and patriarchal values in Section 63. Although, the age of consent of a married woman has been raised to 18 from 15.

While the MRE (Marital Rape Exception) was overturned in England through a judgment in 1991, it has been retained in BNS. However, there have been several attempts to overturn the MRE in the past. In 2013, the Justice Verma Committee had recommended its repeal, but the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs rejected the recommendation – on the grounds that “the entire family system will be under great stress.” Similarly in May 2022, Delhi High Court delivered a split judgement, with one Justice striking down the MRE as unconstitutional due to its denial of bodily autonomy and agency of married women, while the other conceded that often, consent is given for sexual intercourse though will may not exist. “The state should not interfere with privacy within a marital relationship”, he had stated.

The constitutional validity of the MRE is currently pending before the Supreme Court through a batch of petitions. But BNS, a supposedly decolonised legislation, continues to uphold the unfortunate colonial mentality of attacking a woman’s bodily autonomy through stringent social union that is marriage, apparently even above a country’s laws, making the husband as the sole owner of his wife’s body.

Furthermore, BNS’s assumption that a man can’t be raped, reinforces the colonial ideas, particularly excluding queer men, who often face sexual abuse.

What about protection of queer people against sexual offences?

Sections 63 to 71 of BNS pertain to types of rape, but there is no reference to transgender people. BNS omits section 377, which criminalised same sex relationships, with that provision being repealed in 2018 in the landmark Navtej Singh Johar case (2018). But the section also criminalised non-consensual sex between adults of all genders and orientations, as well as sexual offences against animals. Despite a Parliamentary Committee’s recommendation to retain these provisions, the new Bill omits them, making the rape of men, transgender individuals, and animals non-offences.

National Crimes Record Bureau (NCRB) of India recorded 826 cases under IPC Section 377 in 2020 and 955 cases in 2021. Despite this, these crimes often go under-reported due to social stigma or mishandling by police officials. However, there is a scope to register an FIR under section 75 of the the BNS which covers sexual harassment but is gender neutral.

According to a report by The Hindu, there is a possibility that BNS may be amended to incorporate a section about sexual violence against men and transgender people. Tansgender people in particular after often more vulnerable to sexual abuse in domestice settings or prisons. Till the time that amendment is brought about, charges of wrongful confinement or physical hurt might be applied to such cases. However, at present, there is no appropriate provision to deal with cases of sexual violence and offers survivors no recourse to seek justice, leaving their protection hanging by a thread.

Sexual minorities in India are a particularly vulnerable group, with the Supreme Court recognising in the judgement on marriage equality petitions that they require legal, social and systemic protections. But does modern India’s supposed decolonised extension of a colonial law offer this recourse to the queer community? Unfortunately it does not, leaving an already vulnerable section of the Indian society, with no legal redressal.

Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, in its quest to decolonise and modernise the Indian legal system, has left many in the shadows of justice. Focusing more on the nature of the criminal act, there seems to be no scope for the people. Vaguely defined criminal laws, non-recognition of marital rape, no redressal for the queer community, and many more grey areas and missed opportunities. This decolonised law essentially establishes itself as an Indianised version of its Victorian past.

Featured Image Credits: Deccan Herald

Gauri Garg

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Delhi University’s ICC Attends Gender Sensitisation Programme

By DU Beat March 23, 2024

Anjali Gopalan, founder of the Naz Foundation Trust, addressed a Gender Sensitisation Programme at Delhi University. She highlighted the role of the Internal Complaint Committee in fostering inclusivity. Gopalan emphasised the need for uniform codes of conduct, backed by her experiences, urging for the unlearning of social norms and promoting equal rights for all.

The Naz Foundation (India) Trust on Friday, 22nd March, conducted a gender sensitisation seminar for members of the University of Delhi’s Internal Complaint Committee (ICC). The event took place at the Department of Botany, North Campus and also saw attendance by members of the current Delhi University Student Union.

Anjali Gopalan, the speaker of the event, established the Naz India in 1994 to develop sensitivity and address HIV/AIDS and sexuality. Naz india conducts awareness and support sessions for people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as counselling and referral for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Ms Gopalan talked about the general nature of the ICC around the country and the role that they play in making the academic environment at various levels more inclusive and accepting to the gender diversity.

The ICC throughout the Delhi University Campuses and its different colleges do not have a uniform code of conduct. Due to this, while dealing with the gender-sensitive matters of discovering their identity and HIV-related discussions. The program hosted an insightful delivery by Ms Gopalan, where she talked about various delicate issues and answered questions like what to do to make the environment of the ICC more approachable, how the training of the personnel contributes to enhanced outcomes of the help provided along with the general nature of the change that has taken place throughout the years in the direction towards making gender-neutral safe places around the country.

Ms. Gopalan’s answers were backed by years of experiences advocating for and fighting for the queer community. She covered aspects ranging from adult social circles to primary school settings and the challenges they impose, preventing people from the LGBTQ+ community from exercising their rights. Some of the topics along which the discussion that followed centred around the unlearning and re-learning of rigid social norms, language and pronouns and the resistance they put against the suppression and the existing hostilities in the current environment that others everything that does not fit the conventional norms.

In conversation with DU Beat, while talking more on the subject matter, Ms Gopalan said:

I have been working for the awareness programs since 1987. It’s been an incredible journey in many ways for me it is a matter of rights, everything is about whether for an animal or for a human. I think everyone should have access to rights. To me, I am still amazed that even now people of the community in our country don’t have the same rights. I do not understand why and how can we as people deny our own people the rights that everyone takes for granted.”

– Anjali Gopalan, Naz India

Ms. Gopalan’s impassioned advocacy for equal rights resonated deeply with attendees, serving as a powerful reminder of the ongoing journey towards equality. Naz India is now aiming at promoting this initiative in individual colleges’ ICCs as well.

As the event concluded, participants were inspired to continue engaging in open dialogue and striving for greater inclusivity within their respective academic environments. Ms Gopalan’s address stands as a testament to the enduring commitment to advocating for the rights of marginalised communities and building a society where everyone is valued and respected, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

Divya Malhotra

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Nepal – The Progress Story

By DU Beat March 8, 2024

Nepal’s groundbreaking strides in LGBTQ+ rights showcase a beacon of hope for global equality. Let’s look into how embracing same-sex marriages goes beyond legalities; it’s about upholding dignity, promoting inclusivity, and celebrating love in all its diversity.

In 2008, Nepal became the first country in South Asia to rule in favour of same-sex marriages. According to the judgements passed in the Supreme Court by Justice Til Prasad Sharma, all the government registries are administering separate records for sexual minorities and non-traditional couples. The permanent constitution in Nepal came into existence in the country in 2015. In 2010, the interim committee provided a draft to legalise same-sex relationships and proposed it for discussion with the constituent assembly. Although the negotiations initially failed, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai dissolved the Assembly in May 2012 to prepare for the 2013 elections, staying with the conservative segment of the population. He lost the election, and in February 2014, Sushil Koirala became the Prime Minister. The new constitution that came out didn’t directly legalise same-sex marriages, but under Article 18, it ensured recognition as well as protection of “gender and sexual minorities.”

The case that ignited this struggle was represented in court by Nepal’s first publicly gay rights activist and legislator, Sunil Babu Pant. He not only advocated for equal rights but also went deep into the othering of LGBT people and called for a recognition of queer people as “natural persons.” In 2023, Maya Gurung, a born male who now identifies as female, and Surendra Pandey, a born male who recognises himself as male, registered their marriage in the Dordi rural municipality office in the Lumjung district of West Nepal. Pandey said, “We are very happy. Like us, all others in our community are happy too.” In June 2023, the Supreme Court allowed same-sex couples to register themselves, and in November 2023, they got registered in a local office and gained permanent recognition of their union. Pinky Gurung said, “It is a great achievement for us, the third-gender community in Nepal.”

On February 11, 2024, Nepal became the first country in South Asia to register the first lesbian marriage. Dipti and Supriya registered their union at Jamuna Rural Municipality in Bardiya district. Mayako Pahichan, a non-government organisation (which means “recognition of love”), is a pro-LGBT non-profit working towards supporting LGTB communities in the country. The NGO said, “The Nepalese LGBT communities have launched a campaign for the identity-based rights of the sexual minority communities since 2001, and the campaign has become successful in getting officially registered same-sex marriage after more than two decades of struggle.”

In comparison with the other Southeast and East Asian countries, where the outlook itself is varied, Nepal is a forerunner. According to the Pew Report, countries like Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Thailand have shown the most positive outlook towards same-sex marriages. In contradiction, countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka showcased the least favourable views towards these kinds of unconventionally defined relationships, challenging the conservative take on marriage as an institution.

In India, the discussion surrounding same-sex marriages occupies a nuanced position. Despite considerable support for LGBTQ+ rights among its populace, the formal acknowledgement of such unions still proves to be a challenge. The recent move by India’s highest judicial body to entrust the issue to the legislative branch emphasises the ongoing battle for equality and underscores the significance of sustained advocacy efforts and grassroots activism.

Nepal’s advancements in LGBTQ+ rights are a source of inspiration and hope for the world at large. Nepal has shown its dedication to creating a more just and inclusive society where everyone is treated with respect and dignity, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, through legislative changes, community mobilisation, and grassroots activism. Nepal is a shining example of the transformational power of social change and group action as it moves closer to achieving full LGBTQ+ equality.

It is imperative to legalise same-sex marriages because they are at the core of the equality, human rights, and social justice that every citizen is entitled to. The validation of their relationship empowers them to escape their abusive surroundings with social backing to make a better life for themselves. To be in a relationship is a matter of personal choice. Any institution that sets up a benchmark for alliances and defines them as natural when it comes to hetrosexual marriages or classifies the rest as an unnatural tie-up motivated only to fulfil sexual gratification needs amendments because we did not give them the authority to ‘other’ the gender minorities. If it isn’t for the sake of human dignity, then it should be settled by upholding the ambiguity innate to love and how each of us devotes ourselves to its fulfilment.

Featured Image Credits: The Kathmandu Post

Divya Malhotra

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