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SEXUALITY and REPRESSION in 21st Century India

At first sight, the topic might seem to be weird for this modern century where pre-marital sex and live-in relationships are raging at an alarming rate, and every man and woman in India are living their wet dreams. Quite contrary to the anticipation, until today, sexuality in Indian society has remained with a hidden pathology of desperateness inside folks. The situations like hearts raging volcano of sexual frustrations and Playboy magazines and patriarchal pornography provide nothing to quench the thirst that they possess in their mind and soul, rather underneath their undergarments. India is still a country where men don’t have enough women for themselves and are living a life of ultimate drought. Parents still feel hesitant to open up and have a word with their children about sexuality, which makes children more curious about it and gradually their involvement in unprotected sex rise with serious consequences. Some of our learned intellectuals in their books state that India is Independent, it’s a free India and sex is a basic human need. Sexuality is not only confined to the walls of intercourse, but it has a profound effect on society’s other realm as well. Indian politicians are vocal in extending malice towards the people who freely express themselves or refuse to be dictated about their clothes and lifestyle. If our constitution has provided us with all sorts of fundamental rights of speech and the right to freedom, then why even reaching this modern century can we not express our personal views openly without dispute? To date, it has been acknowledged that every year on 14 February, which signifies Valentine’s day, the day of lovers, couples are beaten up by the police if they express love in private, nightclubs are closed and bars and chastising women who dress up as indecent is on its peak. This repression is having a serious impact on the crime diary of India. Urges towards knowing the unknown is increasing. Increasing rates of sexual crimes are taking place gradually in the nation. India currently occupies the third largest position of HIV infected population, among which more than 85% are not taking measures or precautions in physical intimacies. The underlying cause behind the fact that our daily newspapers are full of inhuman stories of rape cases of minors is ‘the thin line between sexuality and repression. There was an inexplicably beautiful movie named ‘Masan’ which had a famous dialogue that compared life to a Condom. I think life cannot have such accurate definition to itself in any of the writings of great authors which explains that life is a temporary affair that lasts only in pursuit of that one moment of overwhelming happiness. Yet, it’s very sad that being the crowd of this century keeps being dutiful towards false morality and tend to ignore sex as a basic emotional, psychological and physical need of the society. On the one hand, stretching list of Gang rapes across the nation has enraged people immensely. Previously, in 2012, when Nirbhaya was brutally gang-raped in a moving bus in Delhi which shook many people’s conscience is unfortunately not a full stop punctuated in the society. The sad part is nothing has changed after so many promises and right after we acknowledge the Kathua girl case who was just eight years old, Manipur girl was raped and set on fire at the age of 11, and the list goes on and on. But on the other side of the mirror we see an orthodox society preaching morality and ethics that represses sex and its practices, where girls are made conscious about their attire and their exposure just because of the fear of getting sexually exploited, where women masturbation, orgasm, and talk about sex in a way often restricted. This contradictory scenario of the society has a simple answer to it- “repression increases the urge of knowing the cause behind being repressed”. Hence, it is very important to liberate sex in every corner of India and is a very sensitive issue to be pondered upon with deep understanding.

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