India is a land of vivid cultures and diversities. We are all aware of that, aren’t we? We also know that we were a part of the British colonies and were under their rule for a long time. But, apart from reading the iconic stories of our freedom fighters who fought and sacrificed their everything to make India a free country in our Social Studies textbooks, we don’t know anything more, right? Just raise your hands if you know about the penal codes that the British had laid down for its colonies that our country still follows? Are you aware of how unjust some those penal codes were?
And in this present time, we come across many modern freedom fighters who’ve been fighting in our Supreme Court to make our country free from the unjust penal codes. And an example of them are these two lawyers — Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju. These two were the lawyers who once again challenged the justification of the penal code Section 377 and fought against its existence. Let’s read a little more about them.
What Is Section 377?
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Section 377 is a part of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It is an act that strongly criminalizes the idea of homosexuality. It was introduced in the year 1861 by the British during their rule in India. In the past few years, many have challenged this section and had failed in their attempts. However, on September 6, 2018, the Supreme Court of India came out with a historic verdict and decriminalized section 377 from the IPC (1). India celebrated this victory with galore and proved to the world that love and affection should never have any barriers, not even the gender ones.
What Made Menaka And Arundhati Fight
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It was Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju who represented the five petitioners in the Supreme Court and fought for the decriminalization of section 377. It was in the year 2013 that the Supreme Court of India had said homosexual people are second class citizens (2). It still stuck to the word ‘criminal’ while referring to them. Guruswamy and Katju didn’t feel right about this.
The two lawyers took it upon themselves to convince the Supreme Court that these anti-sodomy laws weren’t Indian, it was the British enforcing their beliefs on the countries they ruled once upon a time. And now that India is a free country, India needs to move away from such enforced beliefs and become a country that supports equality. The duo didn’t give up when the Supreme Court rejected their pleas in 2013. They returned with more power and in the year 2018 and helped India become free from the anti-homosexual believer tag. This victory brought priceless smiles across the face of many Indians who lived in the fear of falling in love amongst their own gender.
And this victory was also a personal one for these two lawyers who came out in the open exactly a year after the verdict of 2018 and told the world that they both were a couple. After an interview with the CNN that was posted on Twitter, Katju posted a picture of her with Guruswamy as part of the #SareeTwitter challenge and this went viral on the social media (3). These two lawyers became the first-ever Indian women lawyers to come out in the open as a couple. According to them, the historic verdict of last year was not just a victory for their country, but it was also a victory for them on a personal level.
Twitter Hailed Them
Source: Twitter
You know how much of a role social media plays in the celebration of news, right? It could be a birthday or a festival and you can see everybody actively posting about it on their accounts. And India couldn’t resist its happiness when they got to know about Katju and Guruswamy’s love declaration. Many renowned personalities took to Twitter to express their happiness for the duo. Here’s a sneak-peek of it.
In one tweet, Kavitha Krishnan said, “Hurrah for the utterly awesome” praising the duo (4).
In another tweet, a woman was so elated that she asked for someone to start making a movie on Katju and Guruswamy’s story.
Source: Twitter
Another individual said, “When you are in love you go to war even against draconian laws in a conservative country. Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju had spearheaded the legal challenge to strike down Section 377 of IPC.”
Source: Twitter
One Twitter user went, “Here is to love. May we create more safe spaces for love. #Pride2019”
Source: Twitter
What makes us smile wider is that after Katju and Guruswamy, many prominent personalities made it a point to come out openly about their same-gender love affairs. India’s most loved sprinter Dutee Chand also opened up to the world that she is homosexual. Isn’t it beautiful to watch India express its love without any boundaries? We’re so glad that India now stands for equality even more. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section below.
The post As The Lawyers Behind Sec 377 Verdict Come Out As A Couple, Twitter Hails The Power Of Love appeared first on STYLECRAZE.