British Raj 'Victorian prudery' to blame for Indian gay sex ban His comments were made as the Supreme Court finally lifted a ban on gay sex more than 60 years after Indian independence. India's chief law officer G. E Vahanvati told the court that India had always taken a liberal attitude towards homosexuals and had in fact celebrated their sexuality in temple sculptures and carvings portraying acts of oral and group sex. "Homosexuals were also free to satisfy their fancies in India whereas in Britain they were widely despised and buggery was a capital crime until 1961," he said, quoting a book on the British Raj. "Indian society prevalent before the enactment of the [British] Indian Penal Code [in 1860] had a much greater tolerance for homosexuality than its British counterpart, which at this time was under the influence of Victorian morality and values in regard to family and the procreative nature of sex," he argued. Government officials had previously sought to retain the law which criminalised homosexual acts as "unnatural" and changed their policy after a court ruling which declared it discriminatory in 2009. During a hearing officials said: "Every citizen has the right to lead a decent and moral life in society and the right would be violated if such behaviour is legalised in the country." The attorney-general was challenged by some of the Supreme Court judges during this week's hearing on why it had taken the Indian government so long to overturn a British law. ""Why for 62 years have we not come out of the shadow of British way of law-making," they asked. Leading gay rights campaigner Manish Kabir said while there had been homosexual characters in many of India's ancient texts, including the Mahabharata, the Indian government had perpetuated criminalisation long after independence. The law caused a divide in society, resulting in harassment of homosexuals. We have been fighting for our rights for many decades now. Even with the law repealed, it will take time. But things are opening up and the society is getting aware about homosexuals and gradually they will show tolerance towards them and finally accept them," he added.