Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Codification of Unnatural Offences

When
1860
Where
British India
Part of
Section 377 enacted in the British Indian Penal Code

Section 377 codified 'carnal intercourse against the order of nature' in 1860, serving as a model for other colonies.

Although sodomy was prosecuted under common law in England, Section 377 was the first codification in the British Empire. It criminalized 'unnatural offences' and was exported to other colonies, providing the legal model for the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

Sources

  1. Section 377 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-26

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.