This essay examines some of the cultural wars that are being fought out in India in the legal domain, cultural wars that all seem to involve sex. The battles taking place in the legal domain, comprising issues such as a legal challenge to the sodomy laws in the Indian Penal Code, a legal challenge to satellite broadcasting and the struggle to decriminalise prostitution, all involve a contest over the meaning of culture. In each of the controversies, the rallying cry is one of ‘Indian cultural values’ in which it seems that all sides of the debate stake their claim to being ‘true’ protector and promoter of Indian cultural traditions.
This essay addresses three concerns which underlie why participating in a conversation about gender, sexuality and law is important in a postcolonial context. First, it examines the importance of recuperating and theorizing desire and pleasure as an important political project within postcolonial India, particularly against the backdrop of the rise to power of the Hindu Right. Second, it examines the problematic role of cultural essentialism in both promoting and resisting this project in the legal arena. The final part of this essay re-evaluates the emancipatory potential of the victim subject in a postcolonial context and explores the possibility of rethinking the nature of the sexual subject to ensure that the political project remains both liberating and subversive.
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