India at a Crossroads: New at Reason

India is known as the land of contradictions, and recent events do little to undermine that reputation. On the one hand, its Supreme Court is rapidly extending more rights to more groups. On the other, its ruling Hindu nationalist government is busy assaulting the longstanding rights even of incumbent groups. How things play out in this country of 1.35 billion people will have immense consequences for the entire region.

In September, India’s Supreme Court scrapped a colonial-era law that, for two centuries, had held that gay sex was “against the order of nature.” Thousands of people every year had been imprisoned under the law, and many more faced intimidation, harassment, and blackmail at the hands of corrupt law enforcement.

This doesn’t mean that same-sex marriage is now legal in India. But for a place where arranged marriages are still the norm, decriminalizing homosexual acts is nothing short of revolutionary, writes Shikha Dalmia.

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