The historic judgment reading down Section 377 in the Delhi high court on Thursday chose its words very carefully. It turned for help to an older moment, a moment of origin. Citing the constitutional debates of 1946, it reminded us of another India. An India that was being imagined just as it was coming to freedom. Nehru urged, in those debates, that we see the Constitution in its spirit rather than in any narrow legal wording. On Thursday, Judges Shah and Muralidhar sought to unearth that spirit. “If there is one constitutional tenet,” they argued, “that can be said to be the underlying theme of the Indian Constitution, it is that of ‘inclusiveness’. This Court believes that the Indian Constitution reflects this value deeply ingrained in Indian society, nurtured over several generations.” A few lines later, they argued further: “Indian constitutional law does not permit criminal law to be held captive by popular misconceptions of who the LGBTs are. It cannot be forgotten that discrimination is the antitheses of equality and that it is the recognition of equality which will foster the dignity of every individual.”

Court one, item one on the Delhi high court’s cause list. Ten thirty in the morning on the 2nd of July. A high court pass secured by a few dozen activists each of whom was remembering moments from the last decade of fighting Sec 377. It is these simple words and an electronic pass receipt that a movement lasting decades and a legal battle lasting eight years came down to. In the end, it was enough. When the judgment was read, you could feel the emotion in the room. Our tears flowed not just because we had “won”. They came for the judgment that had set us free. This judgment is a judgment about dignity. It is about an India that Nehru imagined — an India that would open its arms and embrace all who lived within it. It is about the words equality, dignity and rights finding roots in the lives of millions of queer Indians who today can feel their feet on the ground of their own country.

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