These days I've started believing that our judiciary is the best thing that has happened to the Indian Democracy. Our judges have time and again proved through various rulings that we are actually in 2010 and not stuck in 1947. At first it was Delhi High Courts repeal of the objectionable clauses of section 377. Now it is the Supreme Court ruling on the Kushboo case. This verdict is a huge boost to all of us who believe in the freedom of thought and expression. But more than the verdict, what interests me are the observations made by the court in this regard. India is waking up to changing values and new moral codes of the 21st century.
The bench has made some truly progressive and modern remarks on Live-in relationships. Here are couple of observations made by the court.
"When two adult people want to live together what is the offense. Does it amount to an offense? Living together is not an offense. It cannot be an offense."
"Please tell us what is the offense and under which section. Living together is a right to life,"
The court also noted that there was no law which prohibits live-in relationship or pre-marital sex.
This is truly historic for country whose people are too steeped in pseudo-moral codes,hypocrisy and age old and meaningless customs. In this country, we still have neighborhoods that would take up arms to "discipline" people who choose to live their life differently. we live in times when pre-marital sex in becoming a part of life for most of the youth but then again, these are the times when hymenoplasty is becoming more and more in demand. Well, we are still obsessed with the idea of virgin brides and we can not tolerate comments like the one made by Khusboo.
It is in this kind of an India that our Supreme Court makes this radical judgment. They even cited the example of Krishna and Radha - so much culture and tradition fanatics.
It is not as if the Indian society is eager and waiting for this kind of a remark. Protests and criticisms have come up from various quarters on the society. Individuals, groups and political parties have come up with their protests and reservations on the remarks made by the court. And I'm sure it will take ages for the general society to come to terms with the reality. For most people, pre-marital sex or live in relationships is something done by 'those' people, the kind of people that they can frown upon. Daughters from nice families do not indulge in these kinds of stuff, they believe.
It is high time we started facing the new reality. People have started questioning the once invincible institutions of family and marriage. A new moral code is being formed at least in the cities and I believe that this new morality has come to stay. Let's applaud the court for upholding the values of democracy and more importantly for knowing the pulse of the youth. Let's hope this need for respecting the other person's privacy, this need for looking at our friends, bothers, sisters and daughters and individuals, this need for a new moral code, this need for acceptance of change will spread to all parts of our society.
Your views are always bold.
ReplyDeleteBut there do exist certain reasons to question the sanity of live in relationships and premarital sex. They have the potential to make present simple social structure a highly complicated one.
A lot of sample results are already there in the west where these are most prominent.
Another very important fact is that most of the present day youth doesn't believe in the long held concepts of 'true love'.
So I don't think it is fair to connect the word love to justify these newly arising trends.
I've something more to tell
ReplyDeleteA standing ovation for the bold writing
To start with , Morality is more or less a relative terminology.. Meaning is simple. Things which you find moral may not be moral to the very next person.. So, we cannot generalise the usage of this term and I'm not going into that , rather go into the actual bold theme of this post
ReplyDeleteTo deal with the Pre-marital sex (I would say post/extra-marital too) , again , this is just not a thing which can be generalised.This is a 'situation' which happens very specifically to individuals. Unlike western countries, which is said to be 'advanced' in this aspect ,majority of our boys and girls are getting into something called Pre-Marital sex only under certain Situations. To a great extenst , these situations are created under the roof of Love (or the so called sincere affection) . Now when they realize the truth that they are getting married to some other (I don't know if i can tell that this happens to our girls more often) , then starts the issue if guilty feeling and all those crap !
Absolutely well and good for those who can forget the past and indulge in their new life. They will success. Unfortunately , things are not like that. And to catalyse this , a male dominated society will always find the females guilty of this act (even when 'he' masters in it ) !
This is really a vast topic on which if i comment more , then I'll go off the rails.. So let me wind up with my personal bold opinion on this bold topic -
Safe and healthy Sex , in any form (pre/post/extra- marital) is purely a personal decision and is just like all other rights which we enjoy under our constitution. Lets Hope our society will stop thinking it as a taboo and make things more happening ..
@Rineez thanks for the comment dear.. wanted to add a couple of things
ReplyDeleteFirst thing, there are reasons enough to question the sanity of the institution of marriage, family and all other allied social structures and norms.
I have started regarding the whole concept of "true love", that lasts a life time and then exceeds into the next one, as a myth.
Times are changing... its time we started defining relationships and morality for ourselves instead of blindly following the existing definitions and customs.
Thanks Komban for the comment..
ReplyDeletethat conclusion was apt!
aahaa enikkille?
ReplyDeletethanks swapna...thanks a lot... for the comment, for the support
ReplyDelete