India is a Multi-Civilization, Multi-Cultural, Multi-Religious, Multi-Identity, Multi-Gender, and a Multi-Sexual Nation. ‘Mother India’ blesses all ‘her children’ with the right to find their own truths—disparate but respectful to each other. We, the People of India, are not bound by any identity but by the identity of being Indian. This is perhaps why I see India and its Constitution as asexual and agender. In fact, I argue that Mother India, with the Constitution at its heart, has a queer identity!
In principle, the Republic of India gives its people the right to self-determination. But recently, a Bill was past in complete opposition to that ideal—the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. It does not make sense looking at the inherent queer identity of India.
India’s Constitution does not identify with one gender or another, it does not have a sexual preference, and yet, it is a living entity like the rest of us. As the preamble says, it is given “TO OURSELVES” by “WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA. Notice B. R. Ambedkar’s decision to make those words writ in ALL CAPS, as though he has been screaming this from his grave! While the Indian Parliament may take on the ‘fatherly’ role for us Indians, the gender-less, sex-less Constitution comes above the parliament. I don’t say this—the Constitution does. And yet, funnily enough, it’s the same ‘paternal’ Members of Parliament who outrage and mock the very Identity of India and its Constitution by passing uninformed, harmful, and hurtful Bills, like the one aimed against (but portrayed in favour of) India’s transgender community.
I do not think the presence (or lack) of a genital organ should determine an Indian’s identity. India’s Transgender community has its own beliefs, deities, traditions, dress codes, and festivals which have all existed long before India got its constitutional identity. How can India then decide who shall be ‘classified’ as transgender?
India’s Transgender Act impacts all Indian citizens. And the explanation is in our own philosophies. While Western thought might deem everything natural to be divine because it is created in God’s image, and everything unnatural to be sinful or wrong. But Eastern Philosophy, especially in India, upholds not the battle between Natural and Unnatural, but between Natural and Cultured. The words traditionally used are Prakriti (Natural) and Sanskriti (Cultural). What is Vikruti (against creation) is also ‘Prakriti‘ (natural)—and so, everything natural and unnatural is divine. Refer to Rigveda (one of the holiest of ‘Hindu’ texts) to know more. Humanity’s creation is ‘Culture’ and ‘Civilization’. Nations, like India, are all products of Humanity’s Culture. Governance, like Democracy, is also a product of Humanity’s Culture. Citizenship, the American Bill of Rights, or India’s Constitution—all products of cultural civilization.
India is supposed to uphold the ‘the right to live’ as a fundamental right for all that is living, weak or strong, poor or rich. That is the ‘dharma‘ of a Sanskaari Rashtra. Cultures and Civilizations thrive on the freedom of self-identity, the freedom to decide who it is you want to be. But not for trans people?
By taking away the traditional role of India’s transgender community to accept alms in exchange for blessings, the Act leaves them between a rock and a hard place.
Creating a committee to classify Indians as ‘male’ or ‘female’, or ‘transgender’ or ‘non-transgender’ makes perfect sense to a Western Mind. This is a mind that fights the ‘unnatural’ by making everything ‘natural’. But the Indian Constitution is above that.
How an Indian lives, or dresses, or works, or loves, or dissents, or believes, are natural parts of being human, and are granted as rights under the Constitution. India isn’t, and will never be a nation that upholds religious doctrines above its secular code of ethics. Our Constitution forbids it. It is akin to ‘outraging her modesty’, a non-bailable offense as per Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code. By that logic, the Indian Police does not need a warrant to put the perpetrators of any religious agenda behind bars.
India believes in only one classification—of you being Indian.