Constructing Native Homosexuality in British India

Abstract

In this paper I will examine how British constructions and criminalization of Indian homosexuality that evolved within the discourse of the imperial project. I will situate my discussion in the late nineteenth century, during which British colonists introduced anti-sodomy statutes to the Indian colony and homosexuality was socially and legally reconsidered in ways without precedent in pre-colonial India. By considering how Indian homosexuality was constructed in this colonial moment, we will be able to better understand the methods by which Britain asserted their colonial authority in nineteenth century India. In order to prove my claim, I will consider previous scholarship that has analyzed British Orientalist representations of Indian homosexuality, trials and testimonies under the anti-sodomy statute, Section 377 of the Indian Penal code, and the political and historical context of the late nineteenth century colonial moment in British India. Drawing upon this scholarship, I argue that British constructions and criminalization of Indian homosexuality served to emphasize the difference between native subjects and British rulers. I demonstrate that by associating “perverse” and “criminal” homosexual identity with native subjects, British rulers accentuated the divide between the ruler and the ruled, thus reinforcing their racial and moral superiority and, in turn, their colonial authority.