Kathmandu, July 2 (IANS) Nepal’s gay community Thursday hailed the landmark ruling by the New Delhi High Court legalising sex between consenting adult homosexuals, calling it a “liberalisation from British colonialism” and hoping it would lead to similar freedom in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
“Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (that makes sodomy a criminal offence) was a legacy of British colonialisation of India,” said Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal’s first openly gay member of parliament and founder of Blue Diamond Society (BDS), that pioneered the gay rights movement in the conservative Himalayan kingdom in 2002.

“Before British rule began, homosexuality was an accepted culture. Look at the 4,000-year-old hijra culture in India, the Khajuraho paintings, ancient poetry where it was part of romantic love. Though India won its freedom in 1947, the British shackles on homosexuality still remained.

“But it has been thrown off finally. We congratulate India’s sexual minorities.”

Nepal’s gay community had been watching Naz Foundation’s battle against the discriminating clause with interest as well as empathy.

In January, Pant campaigned against the clause in Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. Last year, when Pranab Mukherjee visited Kathmandu as India’s external affairs minister, Pant had spoken to him about the attacks on eunuchs and gay rights activists by police in Bangalore.

“We also have a close relation with Naz Foundation,” Pant said. “We have been working together for nearly seven years in the fields of human rights, sexual rights and HIV/AIDS prevention.”

In 2007, Nepal’s gay rights movement got a boost with the Supreme Court accepting homosexuals as ‘natural persons’ and ordering the government to ensure that their rights were protected.

With the wind of change blowing through Nepal and India, Pant is also hoping that the other SAARC neighbours - Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka - would eventually see the scrapping of the clauses in their respective penal codes that still ban homosexuality.

“It has been a long fight against injustice but today, it is extremely heartening to hear the Delhi High Court uphold the principle of justice,” Pant said.