LGBTQ Rights, Public Subjecthood and the Law in India
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Mediating the Optics of Privacy: LGBTQ Rights, Public Subjecthood and the Law in India A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Communication by Pawan Deep Singh Committee in Charge: Professor Lisa Cartwright, Chair Professor Cathy Gere Professor Nitin Govil Professor Valerie Hartouni Professor John McMurria Professor David Serlin 2015 Copyright Pawan Deep Singh, 2015 All Rights Reserved The Dissertation of Pawan Deep Singh is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2015 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS SIGNATURE PAGE……………………………………………………………………iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. vi VITA ............................................................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ....................................................................... ix Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Sexuality within the Global and the Local ................................................................ 14 Queer Visibility in Postcolonial India ........................................................................ 19 Visibility and Queer Theory ....................................................................................... 22 Contributions ............................................................................................................... 26 Methods ........................................................................................................................ 30 Chapter Overview ....................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 1 .......................................................................................................................... 37 Reading Down of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code– the Decriminalization of Homosexuality in India ................................................................................................... 37 The LGBTQ Human Rights in the Naz Verdict ....................................................... 42 The Naz Sexuality Rights – Abstractions and Absences .......................................... 54 Deriving Sexual Orientation in the Indian Constitution .......................................... 76 Through the Optics of Privacy: Public Mediation, Visibility and Rights .............. 81 Chapter 2 .......................................................................................................................... 85 Sodomy, Unnatural Acts and the Courts: Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code in Colonial and Postcolonial India ..................................................................................... 85 Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code – 1861-2009-2013 .......................................... 92 Section 377- The Colonial Context ............................................................................. 97 Applications - Section 377 over the Colonial and the Postcolonial Period in India ..................................................................................................................................... 109 Interpreting Penetration to Define Sodomy ............................................................ 129 The Sodomite isn’t Necessarily a Homosexual – The Indian Supreme Court and Naz .............................................................................................................................. 146 Where are the Homosexuals in the Court of Law? ................................................ 158 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................ 170 Identity as Injury: The Postcolonial Context of Public Violations ........................... 170 Queer Liberalism in India ........................................................................................ 174 Public Visibility of Non-Normative Sexuality and the Incitement to Policing ..... 178 The Lucknow Incident .............................................................................................. 180 Sexuality and its Postcolonial Discontents .............................................................. 185 iv Interrogating Privacy as Decisional Autonomy: An Archive of Public Violations ..................................................................................................................................... 195 The Public, the Social and the Spatial: Everyday Visibility as Vulnerability ..... 203 Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................ 210 Privacy and Other Absences: HIV, Queerness and Human Rights in My Brother…Nikhil .............................................................................................................. 210 My Brother…Nikhil – HIV/AIDS advocacy ........................................................... 216 My Brother…Nikhil – Negotiating queerness within the Indian family .............. 226 Right to Privacy and Public Subjecthood: Human Rights in the Times of Naz .. 234 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 242 Chapter 5 ........................................................................................................................ 249 Public Absence, Legal Abstraction and Cultural Abstention: The Limits of the Right to Privacy for Indian LGBTQ Subjects Post-Decriminalization of Homosexuality in India ................................................................................................. 249 Between Morality and Legality: Homosexuality in the Aligarh Muslim University ..................................................................................................................................... 257 Legal Critiques of Privacy ........................................................................................ 261 Sexuality in Space: The Materiality of Privacy ...................................................... 271 Homosexuality as Private, Homophobia as Public: A Postcolonial Critique ....... 278 The Absent Subject: Privacy as Global, Publicity as Local ................................... 287 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 296 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 299 Complicating Privacy Further ................................................................................. 305 References ...................................................................................................................... 314 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am thankful to my family and friends in India and here in the United States. These are people who have generously let me impose on them on numerous occasions in times of need, boredom, excitement and trouble. Thank you Usha, Rohit, Ryan, Sanchia, Sharmila, Neeraja, Rahul, Megha, Achala, Vaibhav, Nishant and Vivek. In the US, where I arrived without the least bit of an idea about what a PhD would entail, I thank Erin, Lauren, Ivana, Tim, Ben, Kelli, Barbara, Hannah, Stephen, John, David, Andy, Andrew, Reece, Carl, Gerardo, Mark, Sarah, Kedar, Antonietta, Robert, Cristina, Louise, Alex, Po Yao, Erika, Alvin, Deniz, Marisa, Katrina, Laurel and Karina. The staff in Communication over the years has made my graduate student life very comfortable, essentially without complaints. Thank you Gayle, Jamie, Kathy, Gina, Zach, Liz, Stacie, Linley, Patrick, Lilly, Renee and Elizabeth. I also owe special thanks to faculty members who extended their friendship to me: Denise, Michelle, Patrick, Elana, Zeinabu and Mike. My dissertation committee has always supported me and provided valuable feedback, advice, reprimand and humored me when I took things more than seriously. I thank Nitin Govil, Lisa Cartwright, David Serlin, John McMurria, Val Hartouni and Cathy Gere for their generosity, friendship, mentorship and commitment to my project. I am especially grateful to Lisa and Nitin for making me a better writer, critical thinker and I hope, a scholar worth reading. Chapter 4, “Privacy and Other Absences: HIV, Queerness and HIV in My Brother…Nikhil is under review for publication with the Gay and Lesbian Quarterly (GLQ). Chapter 5, “Public Absence, Legal Abstraction and Cultural Abstention: The Limits of the Right to Privacy for Indian LGBTQ Subjects Post- vi Decriminalization of Homosexuality in India” is under review for publication with Social Text. vii VITA 2002 Bachelor of Financial & Investment Analysis, Delhi University 2007 Master of Arts, University of Hyderabad 2015 Doctor of Philosophy, University of California San Diego Fields of study: Media and Cultural Studies, Queer Studies, Legal Studies, Postcolonial Studies viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Mediating the Optics of Privacy: LGBTQ Rights, Public Subjecthood and the Law in India by Pawan Deep Singh Doctor of Philosophy in Communication University