There are no short cuts to queer utopia: Sodomy, law and social change-- Arvind Narrain

Introduction

Law stands linked to justice in our very imagination of social change. Perhaps nothing illustrates this process better than the persistent championing of legal reform as the end point of emancipatory change by many social movements. There has been an over juridification of social struggle, converting what is a wider social project into a narrow legal project. This process of envisaging law reform as the end point of social struggle has its hazards particularly due to the undemocratic and secretive way in which the legal process works.

The point of this article is to draw attention to the limitations of law in the particular context of sodomy law reform in India so  that we are better able to locate law reform as a part of a wider and more meaningful  process of social and political change. To do this article will strive to understand what is the meaning of Sec 377 of the Indian Penal Code for India's sexual minorities and critically examine the way law reform has worked in bringing about social change and address what could be the role that law reform ( a la sec 377) could  play in a newly emerging political movement centering around sexuality.

Sec 377 as violent social exclusion