26 September 2019
Contempt
A Theatrical Rendition of the Section 377 Hearings
Contempt, A Theatrical Rendition of the Section 377 Hearings
Performed by Ade Suharto, Adil Hasan Khan, Danish Sheikh, Darshan Datar, Divya Patpatia, Johanna Commins and Tarun Khaitan
Over a period of two months in 2012, the Supreme Court of India heard arguments on the constitutionality of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. The Court ultimately held that the law did not violate the Indian Constitution, leaving millions of queer persons vulnerable to state sanctioned persecution until a larger bench of the Court revisited the question 5 years later. Contempt explores the hearings in the courtroom in 2012, while also imagining ways in which the lived narratives of LGBTQ individuals might serve as a form of dissent to the violence of the law.
In September 2018 the Indian Supreme Court struck down the colonial era anti-sodomy law in the country, effectively decriminalising the intimate lives of millions of LGBTQ citizens in the country. The Institute of Postcolonial Studies and the University of Melbourne’s Institute for International Law and the Humanities mark a year of the decision with a rehearsed reading of Contempt, written and directed by Danish Sheikh.
The performance will be followed by a short discussion.
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