Dear India,
Not only am I a bad Indian, I may likely be the worst. I, of course, didn’t choose to be – you have told me I am. I aspire to be as good as others, but I’m afraid my choices, most beyond my control, restrict me. I have aspirations, as a young Indian man, to thrive in ways your law and order system will find criminal. India, you have entered your 68th year as a republic nation. As a bad Indian, I need to ask – how republic are you really?
Many decades ago, on 26th January 1950, your freedom fighters together formed the Constitution and declared you a democracy. For a couple of centuries before that, you were suppressed by the inhumane British rule. After that, however, men and women like me are being suppressed by modern-day politicians and religious institutions.
In the garb of your culture, they deem most of our acts as criminal and subject us to contempt and violence. Our choices in fact are innocent. They don’t harm anybody and they don’t intervene outside our personal matters. In my eyes, I am good. But when will I cease to be seen as ‘bad’ in yours, India?
Ninety years before forming that Constitution, the British introduced in your lawbooks a section that criminalises any consenting adult who has non penile-vaginal sexual intercourse. Twenty years after your highly acclaimed ‘independence,’ the British in their own country decriminalised that act, while different religious institutions here root the law back to Indian ‘tradition.’ Now how’s that for irony?
Further, 70 years after independence you, India, are looked down upon by the better part of the world for invalidating your LGBT citizens, hanging on to a law that wasn’t Indian to begin with. In my unpopular opinion, that kinda beats the purpose of “swarajya”, wouldn’t you agree?
As a bisexual man in this country, besides being denied the right to have sex with another man, I am denied on my own the right to raise an adopted child unless it’s a boy. I am denied the right to raise a child with a partner unless it’s a woman. My girlfriend is denied the right to abort a child regardless of whether she is ready to birth one. My sister is denied the right to live independently with her husband away from his family as that is against your ‘culture.’ I suppose we are all bad Indians.
For us to be good, we need to live confused lives subject to mental health problems from the ostracisation of our sexual orientations, unless it is heterosexual. To be good, we need to be divided by genders – ensure the men suppress women and have nothing more to do with them than wanting sex.
We need to raise children that we never wanted in the first place, and forcefully experience labour. We must ensure that women have no aspirations into raising a family independently with her husband. What more? We must celebrate the beginning of a new year by publicly molesting a large number of innocent women. We must drive school buses into the night, drag women inside it, and rape them while their boyfriends are made to watch.
Most importantly, in light of such incidences, we must commend our politicians for making such comments as “Can’t keep ants away from sugar,” and “They try to copy Westerners not only in mindset, but even the dressing. So some disturbance, some girls are harassed.” That would make us all good Indians.
Yes, I’m not a good Indian. I want to be but when the law lays my options in front of me, after consideration, I would rather be bad.
Perhaps that’s what more of your citizens need to do, India. Turn bad. Support women, support its LGBT citizens, drive archaic laws out of the constitution. Brave men and women came together many a decade ago to form our republic – not so that we could mock their efforts by perpetuating the crime of suppression committed by those we got our freedom from.
Happy Republic day. It’s time to get bad.
Regards,
A bisexual guy who values human rights.
(Do you ever feel like talking to India? Yes? Perfect. How about you write to her and tell her if you’re a good Indian or a bad one? You could be bitchy, angry, happy, emotional or humorous . But if your answer is No – never mind, there is always a beginning. So let’s start here.
Don’t be shy; say it all. Mail us your letter at lettertoindia@thequint.com. We’ll ensure India gets your message.)