Impact of Family Jurisprudence on Queer Lives in India: A Queer - Qualitative Study

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Certificate;
Declaration;
Acknowledgment;
List of Abbreviations;
List of Cases;
I. Introduction;
II. About this Study: the Objectives, Methodology and the Methods;
Introduction;
1. Objectives and Research Questions of the Study;
2. Methodology: a Philosophical Discourse on this Study;
2.1. Critical Theory and Poststructuralist turn in the Legal Theory;
2.1.1. Critical Theory;
2.1.2. Poststructuralist Theory;
2.1.3. Critical Legal Studies Movement;
2.2. Queer and Feminist Theories;
2.2.1. The politics of the Queer;
2.2.2. The use of queer as a methodology;
2.3. Queer Legal Theory;
3. On Queer Methods;
3.1. Is there a Queer Method?;
3.2. The Target Universe;
3.3. Sampling Techniques and Limitations;
3.4. Demographic Representation of the Participants;
3.5. Nature of Data;
3.6. Standards deployed in pre and post phases of Data Collection
III. The Problematic Normativity of Family Jurisprudence: a Queer-qualitative Critique;
Introduction;
1. The Normative Family;
1.1. Family Jurisprudence: Understanding the Subject of the Critique;
1.2. Family is a normative-given which precedes the law;
1.3. Family engenders a hierarchy in human-social relations;
2. Sex/Gender as the basis of Family Jurisprudence: How is it Problematic?;
2.1. Debunking the Politics of Essentialism in Sex and Gender: a philosophical discourse;
2.1.1. Deconstructing Beauvoir’s ambiguous expression “becoming of a woman”;
2.1.2. In Sartrian terms, Beauvoir’s ‘becoming a gender’ makes a better sense;
2.1.3. Body as a situation: the cultural genealogy of sex and gender;
2.1.4. Monique Wittig on the politics of a sexless society;
2.2. The Journey and Experience of Gender: is/are there any origin(s) or end(s)?;
2.2.1. The Circular ruins of the Gender Binary: Can one choose to be genderless or, can one
relocate oneself outside Gender?;
2.3. The category of intersex as a threat to the institution of family;
2.4. The Juridical Understanding of Sex/Gender in Family: Why is it Problematic to the Queer Politics?;
2.5. Certain Conclusive and Suggestive Remarks-I;
3. The Family Jurisprudence: a site for the Production of Compulsory Heterosexuality;
3.1. Sexuality as an outcome of Repression: the analysis of Freud;
3.2. On the Genealogy of Sexuality: an Analysis of Foucault’s response to Freud;
3.3. Science at the service of Heteronormativity: The politics of Protecting the Family through the tool of Pathologisation;
3.3.1. Certain Conclusive and Suggestive Remarks-II;
3.4. Heteronormativity: the politics of Regulating Adult Sexuality through the Institution of Marriage;
3.4.1. Certain Conclusive and Suggestive Remarks-III;
3.5. Heteronormativity: the Politics of Regulating Child Sexuality and Preparation of the Heteronormative Mind;
3.5.1. Certain Conclusive and Suggestive Remarks-IV;
IV. The Precarious State of Queer Relationalities: an attempt to restate law’s role;
Introduction;
1. Studying the “polymorphous nature” of queer relationalities that could be called Chosen
family/friends/partners/support systems/queer kinship;
2. Mapping the Vulnerabilities in Queer Experiences of doing its Chosen Relationalities;
2.1. Studying the narratives on forming-up of diverse relationalities by the queer;
2.1.1. Modes of engaging: virtual/physical/etc.;
2.1.2. Nature of concerns/reasons of the queer before/while engaging in relationalities;
2.1.3. Certain Conclusive and Suggestive Remarks-I;
2.2. Studying the narratives on sustaining queer relationalities;
2.2.1. Negotiating with positionality, spaces, and distance;
2.2.2. Nature of care-giving involved;
2.2.2.1. Queer Caregiving as a non-scripted mutually agreeable work;
2.2.2.2. Inter-generational Caregiving;
2.2.2.3. Queer-parenting as a form of Caregiving;
2.2.2.4. Managing the Standard of Expectations;
2.2.3. Queer’s Negotiations with normative relationship values/standards;
2.2.3.1. Gender Roles in intimate relationalities;
2.2.3.2. Sexual/emotional fidelity in intimate relationalities;
2.2.3.3. Dyadic or poly-amorous forms of intimate relationalities;
2.2.3.4. Financial Exchanges within intimate partners.
2.2.4. Being at the liminal spaces between expectations and realities of socio-legal Recognition;
2.2.4.1. The nature of social support experienced in Queer Relationalities;
2.2.4.2. Queer Strategic engagements with social and the legal to sustain its relationalities;
2.2.4.3. Queer Relationalities and its Experiences with the paucity of Language;
2.2.4.4. The standard(s) of socio-legal support expected in Queer Relationalities;
2.2.5. Certain Conclusive and Suggestive Remarks-II;
2.3. Studying the narratives on breaking-up of Queer relationalities;
2.3.1. Violence within Queer Intimate Relationalities;
2.3.2. Certain Conclusive and Suggestive Remarks-III;
3. On the Methods of engaging with the Law: Studying the Contract-cum-Status Model for Regulating Queer Intimate Relationalities;
3.1. Contract-cum-Status Model to Regulate Intimate Relationalities;
3.2. Certain Conclusive and Suggestive Remarks-IV;
V. Re- imagining the State of the Law through the tools of Transformative Constitutionalism;
Introduction;
1. Re-articulating Constitutional Justice through the tools of Transformative Constitutionalism: an orientation;
1.1. Some Paradoxes in the Liberal Language of Rights;
1.2. Transformative Constitutionalism: alternative ways of rearticulating justice
2. Re-articulating Constitutional Justice through the tools of Transformative Constitutionalism: an explanation;
2.1. The Ideology of Heteronormativity and the Law;
2.2. The Constitution Re-debated;
2.2.1. Re-constructing the Promise of Equality with the tools of Substantive Equality;
2.2.1.1. Principles of Formal Equality: a critique;
2.2.1.2. Principles of Substantive Equality: an alternative to Formal Equality;
2.2.2. Re-equipping the Promise of Nondiscrimination: reading sexual orientation, gender and marital status within Article 15(1);
2.2.2.1. Three Models of Drafting Antidiscrimination Protections;
2.2.2.2. Reading the Fundamental Right to Nondiscrimination under Article 15(1): the originalist perspective;
2.2.2.3. Some Guiding Principles for the Indian Courts on reading unremunerated grounds under Article 15(1);
2.2.2.4. Reviewing the Intersectional Potential of Articles 15 and 21;
VI. Certain Final Conclusive and Suggestive Remarks;
APPENDIX;
Annexure I Ethics and Consent Sheet.;
Annexure II Semi-structured Questionnaire.;
Annexure III Thematic Coding of Data.;
Annexure IV A Non-exhaustive Comparative Chart of Legal Benefits of the Heteronormative Family vis-à-vis the Queer Relationalities.;
Annexure V A Comparative Chart of Legal Regulation Models (namely Marriage and Civil Union/Domestic Partnership model) followed in foreign Jurisdictions.;
BIBLIOGRAPHY.