Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community and supporters seen attending the 5th Delhi Queer Pride parade in New Delhi in 2012. (AFP/Getty Images)

I recently wrote an article in India West to bring to attention the fact that December is the first anniversary of the reinstatement of Section 377. I wrote this because I have seen very little mention of this milestone for Indian minorities, affecting millions 

Here is an excerpt:

Section 377, a “crime against the order of nature,” was introduced by the British in 1860 in India and 42 colonies worldwide primarily to persecute British homosexuals who had left Great Britain for the colonies for fear of punishment. It is the only law in the Indian Penal Code that identifies that a crime has been committed when there is no victim. Here “nature” has been defined as the victim to justify prosecution by the authorized.

 

Against this political and social background today, my novel, titled “My Magical Palace” and published by the fearless Harper Collins India Publishers, is one of the first novels of its kind dealing with coming of age, sexuality, patriarchal structures and treatment of the disenfranchised. It addresses often ignored issues of social treatment of those who don’t fit expectations related to gender, sexuality, religion, body type, skin color, status or appearance. And it identifies the common experience human beings go through in life—of loss, feeling like an outsider, wanting to conform and be accepted, fear of social censure, ostracization and the pressure to conform to family and society’s strict norms.

 You can find the complete article at India West.