Sexuality in India
India played a role in shaping understandings of sexuality, and it could be argued that one of the first pieces of literature that treated "Kama" as science came from the Indian subcontinent.
This is supported by historical evidence, which shows that men in many parts of ancient India mostly dressed only the lower half of their bodies with clothes and upper part of body was covered by gold and precious stones, jewellery, while women used to wear traditional sarees made of silk and expensive clothes as a symbol of their wealth.
As Indian civilisation further developed and the writing of the Upanishads around 500 BCE, it was somewhere between the 1st and 6th centuries that the Kama Sutra, originally known as Vatsyayana Kamasutram ('Vatsyayana's Aphorisms on Love'), was written.
[citation needed] This philosophical work on kama shastra, or 'science of love', was intended as both an exploration of human desire, including infidelity, and a technical guide to pleasing a sexual partner within a marriage.
Examples of this include the depiction of Apsaras, roughly equivalent to nymphs or sirens in European and Arabic mythology, on some ancient temples.
[5] In addition, in 1861 Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which already criminalized hijras, was also established to prohibit homosexuality, deeming it an "unnatural offense" that was "against the order of nature.
For example, criminalizing hijra made it simpler for British officers to categorize the Indian people because classification was a key part of how Britain maintained control and governed.
Upper-caste Bengali Hindus men who desired recognition as being key to the ruling of India also spread these ideas of deviant sexuality alongside idealized concepts of Hindu women for their own purposes.
While this new consciousness led to the promotion of education for women and (eventually) a raise in the age of consent and reluctant acceptance of remarriage for widows, it also produced a puritanical attitude to sex even within marriage and the home.
[citation needed] Modern issues that affect India, as part of the sexual revolution, have become points of argument between conservative and liberal forces, such as political parties and religious pressure groups.
Scholarship by Indian sociologist Jyoti Puri calls attention to the social control around middle-class women's bodies in urban India and how politics of gender and sexuality impact of nationalist and transnational discourses and the role of nation-state.
On 6 September 2018, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Section 377 is unconstitutional as it infringed on the fundamental rights of autonomy, intimacy, and identity, thus legalizing homosexuality in India.
Historically, Indian television and film has lacked the frank depiction of sex; until recently, even kissing scenes were considered taboo.
Some recent movies like Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Badhaai Do help bring the concepts of alternative sexualities and LGBT inclusion in the popular culture.
The Information Technology Act, Chapter XI Paragraph 67, the Government of India clearly considers the transmission of pornography through any electronic medium as a punishable offence.
The CEO of the Indian subsidiary of eBay was charged with various criminal offences for allowing the trading of a CD on the website that contained pornography.
However, the stigmatisation that has arisen in modern times has left the many poor sex workers with problems of exploitation and rampant infection, including AIDS, and worse, it has allowed a huge human-trafficking industry, like that of Eastern Europe, to take hold.
[23] Women's agency is also heavily considered in studies of female sexual health along with the sociocultural factors such as conservative attitudes toward sex and early marriage.
[22] Much like the men experiencing Dhat syndrome, most cases of female sexual dysfunction are concentrated in rural areas and reinforced by the same social factors discussed in males.
