post-colonization

The Habitual Offenders Act was a piece of legislation enacted in the constitution of the newly independent India. This act represents all the damage that British colonization did to India. Despite now being free of British control, their conservative, oppressive beliefs stayed ingrained within the minds of the colonized people. The Habitual Offenders Act was essentially a rewording of the Criminal Tribes Act and continued to discriminate against the same marginalized communities.

The Karnataka Police Act is another such act that displays how the conservatism of Victorians towards gender fluidity was not only absorbed, but also amplified and made worse by the colonized people of India. This Act, similar to the Habitual Offenders Act, used the Criminal Tribes Act as well as Section 377 to enforce discriminatory and oppressive policies against the trans community residing in the state of Karnataka.

The Karnataka Police Act stated that the police force of Karnataka was to prepare and preserve a register of the names, places of residence and photos of all trans people reasonably suspected of kidnapping or emasculating young boys or of committing unnatural offenses or any other offenses or were complicit in the abetting of such offenses residing in the state of Karnataka. The trans community of Karnataka vehemently protested against their names being put in this registry and accused the police of abusing this act to exact unfair force over them.