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Decoding Section 5 Of The Hindu Marriage Act: A Historical And Cultural Reassessment For Modern Inclusivity

The term 'Marriage' is defined as a union between two Hindus under Section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955. A Hindu is a person who, by birth or by conversion, follows the ancient religious practises of the Vedas. The fundamental goals of a Hindu marriage are to perform religious and cultural rites and to satisfy parts of Dharma. Marriage also seeks to fulfill the 'Kama,' or the human needs for love, caring, and sexuality by which the family is extended by giving birth to children.

Vedic writings are silent on the topic of same-sex marriage, but historical evidence suggests that India was more accepting of LGBTQ people and partnerships than it is now. God Ardhanarishvara is worshipped by transgender people. Lord Shiva and Mata Parvathi had said to have become Ardhanarishvara to show Brahma how stupid he was.

Along with these we can see that in the ancient India there were a lot prominence that was given to the same sex marriages when we decoded the carvings of number of erotic artwork depicting homosexuality which are to be found on numerous famous temples throughout India, including Khajuraho temple sculptures built in the 700s, and the Sun temple in Konark built in 1200s.

However, once India gained its independence, Western philosophies began to have a major impact on the country's educational system. As a result, Western ideas came to be valued more than those based on Vedic texts. In 1955, majority of the legislatures were mainly Vedic illiterates but were literates in the perspective of the western education that's when Western values were still strongly influential, the Hindu Marriage Act was drafted. Perhaps this is why the Act does not address same-sex marriage.

It's also very important to note that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which is enacted during the British which was in existence at the time, also outlawed sexual intercourse between people of the same sex and provided for the death sentence for anyone who engaged in them. The parallel development of Section 377 and the Hindu Marriage Act at almost same time is indicative of the cultural norms and values of the period.

In conclusion, lawmakers relied on popular opinion rather than ancient or Vedic scriptures while drafting the Hindu Marriage Act. The purpose of the Act is to regulate marriages between Hindu men and women. The time may have come to revaluate and update this law to make it more welcoming to the LGBTQ community in light of changing social views as we saw in the case of Menaka Gandhi Vs Union of India the ambit of article 19 was widen and many other rights of basic necessities were included similar the legislature taking few points from the Naz Foundation v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi has to widen the ambit of the section 5 of the Hindu marriage Act where any 2 Hindus can also be interpreted for same sex gender marriages as well along with the legislature has to take immense help of the external aids while amending and drafting the Act where the proper traditional aspects of the act are not missed over.

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