Affirmative Sabotage: Sexual Subalternity and Postcolonial Law in India

• In Event: Sociology of Sexualities Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2: Sexuality, the State, and Religion

Abstract

This paper examines how postcolonial law in India presents itself as expanding sexual freedom through decriminalization and constitutional guarantees of equality and dignity while continuing to regulate and limit the lives of sexual subalterns. Although colonial laws have formally been revised or struck down, many of their moral assumptions remain embedded in contemporary legal reasoning and public discourse. Sexuality, once diverse and culturally embedded, becomes narrowly defined within acceptable, privatized, and heteronormative boundaries. To explore this contradiction, the paper analyzes key legal judgments on same sex relationships and marriage recognition in India, alongside constitutional language and public debates, to show how the promise of freedom is often accompanied by subtle forms of control. While courts invoke dignity, equality, privacy, and liberty, these principles are frequently interpreted in ways that preserve heteronormative family structures and defer transformative change. Rather than offering critique alone, the paper introduces affirmative sabotage as a practical analytical approach. Instead of rejecting law as purely oppressive, this method demonstrates how sexual subalterns can engage the legal system from within, using its own principles of liberty and equality to expose inconsistencies and push for broader transformation. The paper concludes that meaningful change in postcolonial India does not emerge only from opposing the system but from tactically working within it, turning the language and authority of law toward more expansive and inclusive understandings of sexual freedom.

Author

• Damini Biloria, Lovely Professional University