This is a guest post by Rukmini Sen The Madras High Court on 17th June 2013 has delivered a judgment where it unambiguously states that ‘the main legal aspect for a valid marriage is consummation’ (pg 13). Consummation of a marriage, in many traditions and statutes of civil or religious law, is the first (or first officially credited) act of sexual intercoursebetween two people, either following their marriage to each other or after a prolonged sexual attraction. Its legal significance arises from theories of marriage as having the purpose of producing legally recognized descendants of the partners, or of providing sanction to their sexual acts together, or both (last accessed 22nd June 2013). In a country like India, where Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code still exists (although decriminalization of consensual sexual acts between two adults in private has been declared by the Delhi High Court in 2008), what constitutes the status of consummation in a gay/lesbian union or when two heterosexual adults live together, when the legal significance of consummation is connected only with giving birth to a ‘legitimate’ child? What about relationships where there are willfully no children, biological, adopted or surrogate? This is one of the many questions that this judgment raises and leaves me more bewildered about my legal identity as a cohabiting partner in a heterosexual relationship.
Tag Archives: marriage
Nellie, Me and Impunity: Uddipana Goswami
This is a guest post by Uddipana Goswami
I was born around the time the Assam Movement started and grew up in an atmosphere of intense xenophobia. Everywhere, we heard anti-Bangladeshi slogans – which often translated into expressions of anti-Bengali sentiments. Our parents tried their best at home to protect us from such influences. We were sent to convent schools which often isolated us from whatever was going on outside the school walls. But we felt the tensions in the air and tasted the fear. We heard the names of places and people, killed, maimed, tortured.
Nellie was one such name we grew up with. There were others – Dhula, Gohpur, Phulung Sapori – where other genocides happened, but the name Nellie stayed with me. It fascinated me and brought to my mind the image of a distraught woman. Many years later, when I started researching the Muslim community of East Bengali origin in Assam, this amorphous image of Nellie started taking a definite shape. And it translated into a poem one day – ‘If Nellie Was the Name of the Woman’ (Northeast Review).
As I wrote the poem, I realized that I could myself be Nellie, a woman, battered, bruised and abused because of my ‘otherness’, because I could – and would – not sacrifice my ‘otherness’ in my quest for oneness within the institution of marriage.
Why you should Caste your vote
Someone called “Dr Known” has sent Kafila, via our Contact page, this interesting email. I’m posting this here only because I found it interesting; posting does not necessarily constitute agreement. Or disagreement :)
Since Hinduism is based on CASTE hierarchies, it intrinsically breeds HATRED among Indians.
Hence,
* You must VOTE for candidates from your CASTE only.
* Only he can and will UNDERSTAND your culture and IMPROVE your socio-economic status.
* And do not worry if he is CORRUPT.
* You must vote him till 85% of all registered marriages in India are INTER-CASTE or INTER-FAITH.
This is the only way to STOP dis-integration of India.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 