[1] A third gender has existed in the subcontinent from the earliest records, and
was clearly acknowledged in Vedic culture, throughout the history of Hinduism, as well as in
the royal courts of Islamic rulers.
Terminology :
The Hindi word “hijra” (alternately romansied as hijira, hijda, hijada, hijara, hijrah) is written as fgtMk in devanagari. It has a pronunciation between those of “heejra” and “heejda”; The word Hijra seems to have come into India with the Muslims. An older name for hijras is kinnar, which is used by some hijra groups as a more respectable and formal term. An abusive slang for hijra in Hindi is chakka. A number of terms across the culturally and linguistically diverse Indian
subcontinent represent similar sex/gender categories. While these are rough synonyms, they
may be better understood as separate identities due to regional cultural differences. In Tamil
Nadu the equivalent term is aravanni, aravani, or aruvani. In Urdu, both in Pakistan and
India, the term khusra is used. Other terms include jankha and suhaagan. In South India, the goddess Yellamma is believed to have the power to change one’s sex. Male devotees in female clothing are known as Jogappa. They perform similar roles to hijra, such as dancing and singing at birth ceremonies and weddings. The word kothi
(or koti) is common across India, although kothis are often distinguished from hijras. Kothis are regarded as feminine males or men/boys who take a feminine role in sex with men, but do not live in the kind of intentional communities that hijras usually live in. Local equivalents include durani (Kolkata), menaka (Cochin), meti (Nepal), and zenana (Pakistan).All of these names are now considered preferable to the English term “eunuch”. Gender and sexualityThese identities have no exact match in the modern Western taxonomy of gender and sexual orientation. Most are born apparently male, but some may be intersex (with ambiguous
genitalia). They are often perceived as a third sex, and most see themselves as neither men nor women. However, some may see themselves (or be seen as) females,[4] feminine males or androgynes. Some, especially those who speak English and are influenced by international discourses around sexual minorities may identify as transgender or transsexual women. Unlike Western transsexual women, hijras generally
do not attempt to pass as women. Reportedly, few have genital modifications, although some certainly do, and some consider nirwaan (“castrated”)
hijras to be the “true” hijras. A male who takes a “receptive” or feminine role in sex with a man will often identify as a kothi (or the local equivalent term). While kothis are usually distinguished from hijras as a separate sexual identity, they often dress as women and act in a feminine manner in public spaces, even using feminine language to refer to themselves and each other. The usual partners of hijras and kothis are masculine men, whose sexual identity is as a “normal” male who is attracted to women.[5] They are often married, and any relationships or sex with kothis or hijras are usually kept secret from the community at large. Hijras and kothis often have a name for these masculine sexual or romantic partners; for example, panthi in Bangaldesh, giriya in Delhi or sridhar in Cochin. Hijras’ and kothis’ sexual identities may overlap with those of Western passive homosexual males, but are perhaps closer to the “queens” of pre-stonewall Western culture with their feminine gender identity. Some, while clearly feminine in behaviour, may marry women and live as men. Others who live openly as hijras may form relationships with men and even marry,[6] although their marriage is not usually recognized by law or religion. [edit] Becoming and living as a hijra Becoming a hijra is a process of socialization into a “hijra family” through a relationship characterised as chela “student” to guru “teacher”, leading to a gradual assumption of femininity. Stereotypically each guru lives with at least five chelas; her chelas assume her surname and are considered part of her lineage. Chelas are expected to give their income to their guru, who manages the household. Hijra families are close knit communities, which often have their own houses. The culmination of this process is a religious ritual that includes castration. Although it is expected in the hijra subculture, not all hijras undergo castration, and the percentage of hijras which are eunuchs is unknown. The operation, referred to by hijras as a nirvan, or rebirth, involves the severing of the penis and testes with a knife cut performed without anesthesia by a dai (traditional midwife). In modern times, some hijras may undergo sex reassignment surgery, but such cases are rare.
Social status and making a living Most hijras live at the margins of society with very low status; the very word “hijra” is sometimes used in a derogatory manner. Few employment opportunities are available to hijras. Many get their income from performing at ceremonies, begging or prostitution — an occupation of eunuchs also recorded in premodern times. Violence against hijras, especially hijra sex workers, is often brutal, and occurs in public spaces, police stations, prisons, and their homes.[7] As with transgender people in most of the world, they face extreme discrimination in health, housing, education, employment, immigration, law and any bureaucracy that is unable to place them into male or female gender categories. One hijra reports waiting in the emergency room of a hospital for hours while medical staff debated whether to admit her to the men’s or women’s ward. Hijras are often encountered on streets, trains, and other public places demanding money from young men. If refused, the hijra may attempt to embarrass the man into giving money, using obscene gestures, profane language, and even sexual advances. Hijras also perform religious ceremonies at weddings and at the birth of male babies, involving music, singing, and sexually suggestive dancing. These are intended to bring good luck and fertility. Although the hijra are most often uninvited, the host usually pays the hijras a fee. It is believed that the newborn baby will be blessed if exposed to the Hijra’s manhood. Many fear the hijras curse if they are not appeased, bringing bad luck or infertility.
Politics and activism Many modern hijras, faced with health concerns and discrimination, have become politically active. For example, the All-India Eunuchs’ Welfare Association was formed in 1993-94, as well as HIV/AIDS awareness groups to combat health problems within their communities. One such group is the Dai Welfare Society, a mutual aid society formed in 1999 in Mumbai by and for hijras. The group estimate that half of hijras living in Mumbai have HIV.[8] Another group is the Hijra Kalyan Sabha. Other hijras have been elected to high political positions; Shabnam Mausi became India’s first hijra MP in 1999 (as an independent), only 5 years since hijras have been able to vote. Another hijra, Kamla Jaan, was elected as mayor of Katni, while another, Meenabai, became the president of the Sehora town municipality, the oldest civic body in the state. In 2005, 24-year-old hijra Sonia Ajmeri ran for state assembly on an independent ticket to represent the estimated 40,000 eunuchs in Gujarat. The wave of hijras entering politics has not been without controversy. In November of 2000, Asha Devi was elected mayor of Gorakhpur, a post reserved for a woman. The city had a population of approximately 500,000 as of 1991. She was unseated when a court decreed that she was a man, but was later reinstated. Commonly Hijra-rights groups also support gay rights issues in the Indian subcontinent, but this is a newly-emerging situation. History The ancient Kama Sutra mentions the performance of fellatio by masculine and feminine people of a third sex (tritiya prakriti). This passage has been variously interpreted as referring to eunuchs (“those disguised as males, and those that are disguised as females”,[13] male and female transvestites (“the male takes on the appearance of a female and the female takes on the appearance of the male”), or two kinds of biologically males, one dressed as a woman, the other as a man. In Islamic societies, they were associated with the ruling class and hired as court eunuchs. Hijras as servants for the muslim nobility were not unusual until the 1950s. During the era of the British raj, authorities attempted to eradicate hijras, which they saw as “a breach of public decency”.Homosexual depictions in many Hindu temples were effaced.After independence, anti-hijra laws were repealed, but a law outlawing castration, a central part of the hijra community, was left intact, though rarely enforced. Hijras and religion In Hindu contexts, hijras belong to a special caste. They are usually devotees of the mother goddess Bahuchara Mata, and/or Shiva. Within Muslim contexts, the hijra third gender is believed to be the result of Allah’s will. All hijras, whether Hindu or Muslim, have been affected by Islamic practices. For example, they bury their dead instead of the normal cremating. In Tamil Nadu each year in April/May, hijras — or aravanis, as they are called there — celebrate an 18-day religious festival. The aravani temple is located in the village Koovagam in the Ulundurpet taluk in Villupuram district, and is devoted to the deity
Koothandavar. During the festival, the aravanis reenact a story of the religious epic
Mahabharatha:
the mythical wedding of Lord Krishna (who had assumed the form of a woman) and Lord
Aravaan, son of Arjuna, followed by Aravaan’s subsequent sacrifice. They then mourn Aravaan’s death through ritualistic dances and by breaking their bangles. An annual beauty pageant is also
held, as well as various health and HIV/AIDS seminars. Hijras from all over the country travel
to this festival. A personal subjective experience of the hijras in this festival is shown in the
documentary India’s Ladyboys, by BBC Three.Middle sexes HBO documentary includes segment on modern Hijda (2005)
Hijras in Indian films
Hijras have been on screen in Indian cinema since its inception, historically as comic relief. A
notable turning point occurred in 1974 when real Hijras appeared in a song and dance sequence
in Kunwaara Baap (“Single Father”). One of the first sympathetic portrayals was in Mani
Ratnam’s Bombay (1995). 1997’s Tamanna starred male actor Paresh Rawal in a central role as
Tiku, a hijra who raises a young orphan. Pooja Bhatt produced and also starred in the movie,
with her father Mahesh Bhatt co-writing and directing. Hijras are also seen in the 2005 Deepa
Mehta film “Water”, about another group of outcasts, the widows of Varanasi.
Evening people List of transgender-related topics
There are also Hijras in the Hindi movie “Amar Akbar Anthony” (1977). They accompany one
of the heroes,Akbar (Rishi Kapoor) in a song entitled “Tayyab Ali Pyar Ka Dushman” (“Tayyab
Ali, the enemy of Love”). Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India by Serena Nanda. Wadsworth Publishing, 1998. (ISBN 0-534-50903-7) Lovemaps, p. 106, by John Money. Irvington Publishers, Inc., 1988. (ISBN 0-87975-456-7) Myself Mona Ahmed. by Dayanita Singh (Photographer) and Mona Ahmed. Scalo Publishers (September 15, 2001). ISBN 3-908247-46-2 The Third sex and Human Rights, by Rajesh Talwar. Gyan Publishing House, 1999. ISBN 81- 212-0266-3
Gendered Bodies: The Case of the ‘Third Gender’ in India, by Anuja Agrawal, in ‘Contributions
to Indian Sociology’, n.s., 31 (1997): 273–97
Hijras: Who We Are, by Meena Balaji and other Eunuchs as told to Ruth Lor Malloy. Toronto,
Think Asia Publisher. 1997.
Footnotes
According Mumbai health organisation The Humsafar Trust, only 8% of hijras visiting their clinic are nirwaan (castrated). Bradford, Nicholas J. 1983. “Transgenderism and the Cult of Yellamma: Heat, Sex, and Sickness in South Indian Ritual.” Journal of Anthropological Research 39 (3): 307-22. Naz Foundation International, Briefing Paper 3: Developing community-based sexual health services for males who have sex with males in South Asia. August 1999. Paper online (Microsoft Word file). “Don’t call us eunuchs or Hijras or by other ‘names’. We like ourselves to be called as females....Yes we are transgendered females,” says Aasha Bharathi, president of Tamil Nadu Aravanigal Association. Reported in Aravanis get a raw deal, by M. Bhaskar Sai, The News Today, November 27, 2005. See, for example, In Their Own Words: The Formulation of Sexual and Reproductive Health Behaviour Among Young Men in Bangladesh, Shivananda Khan, Sharful Islam Khan and Paula E. Hollerbach, for the Catalyst Consortium.
See, for example, various reports of Sonia Ajmeri’s marriage. e.g. ‘Our relationship is sacred’,
despardes.com Ravaging the Vulnerable: Abuses Against Persons at High Risk of HIV Infection in Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch, August 2003. Report online.
See also: Peoples Union of Civil Liberties (Karnataka) Report on Human Rights Violations
Against the Transgender Community, released in September 2003. Reported in Being a Eunuch, By Siddarth Narrain, for Frontline, 14 October, 2003.
The Dying of The Evening Stars VI, by Sonia Faleiro. Published in Tehelka, October 28, 2005.
Shabnam Mausi. The Body (December 2001). Retrieved on June 5, 2006.
Shabnam Mausi. Malika’s Indian Transgender Palace. Retrieved on June 5, 2006.
Aravanis demand to be recognized as third gender
• Gender Outsiders: Transgendered & Others “With the growing number of problems and discrimination being faced by them (aravanis), they need an independent identity (third gender) and will move the High Court soon”, P Mohana, Managing Trustee, South India Aravanigal Rights and Rehabilitation Centre (SIARRC), told reporters here on Thursday. Besides the third gender, the aravanis, comprising persons with an imbalance of hormones, are also demanding that the Centre should legalise sex change after proper psychiatric treatment and identifying those transgenders or transexuals undergoing the change, Mohana said Crossdressing in Court
• Gender Outsiders: Transgendered & Others A male lawyer explains why he arrived at court wearing an ankle-length skirt, lace stockings and a diamond brooch: “I’m objecting to the male ethos that is dominating this case and from now on I’m going to be dressing as a girl in my daily life,” Moodie told Reuters. “It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t seen the gung-ho attitude in this case. The more this goes on and the deeper the cover-up gets, the frocks will get prettier,” he said.
Magical Stories of Hijaras
boy fell sick. They treated him with many medicines, but the child never got better and then he died. A year later, when we were again roaming in that vicinity, this same man was sitting in his hours. He said to me, “Mataji, mataji [‘mother’ – used as a form of respect]…you people came to my house and I did not give you permission to dance. I should have let you go away happily. Instead I sent you away with kicks and today my daughter-in-law’s lap is empty, she is childless. I had a gift from heaven and now God has taken that gift away.” He asked us to listen to him, but we told him we would not listen because he had sent us away like that. We told him, “We are not going to listen to anything you say; you insulted us so badly. You thought we were nothing. You did not have to insult us, you could have given us five rupees or even two
– any small sum of money- and said, “Mataji, we don’t allow this dancing to take place, you take these two rupees and enjoy some tea with them, just bless
my grandson before you go.” “ our hearts would have swelled up so much and we would have said, ‘Never mind, he never let us dance but at least he gave us money for our tea, 10 rupees or 2 rupees. God keep him happy and instead of one son give him two sons.’ But you pushed us away with insults.” … What we felt in our minds at this time was that our respect was at stake. After all, we are neither men nor women. If we were men we would have a good job, be working in some factory. We would also get married and bring a daughter-in-law into the home and our parent would have some satisfaction and some hope. But God has made us this way, neither man nor woman, and all we are left with is to go wherever a child is born or a wedding is performed and sing a couple of songs so that we can sell our art Whatever we say…for good or for bad, will come true. Just as we bless with such intensity so also we curse with such power that if we curse any person the food in their house will get spoiled. I know this is so because I have done it myself. After that I felt so bad that I made a vow never to curse anyone again, even if he shows me his shoe (an insult)… What happened was that in this one locality where we had gone dancing there was an important man who never permitted the hijras to entertain in front of him. When his daughterin- law gave birth to a son and we came to know of this, we went to his house to give the blessing, but he insulted us so badly, I could not stand it. He practically threw us down the stairs. So I made this wish to the Mata [Mother Goddess], “the way you have sent us down, so your son’s child’s bier will go the same way.” This curse just slipped from my tongue, I was so angry. The day after this that small or talent and make a little money and fill our stomachs. We don’t rob or steal from anyone’s house, we don’t go to burgle anyone’s house – this man should have at least thought this much. If I had been on my own, I could have calmed myself down, but I had my troupe or hijras with me. If I had not said anything to him, these hijras would have said, “See how he has insulted us and you have not said anything to him. -Prema, Hijra
(Nanda 7)
“If someone insults me, or teases me as I pass, I feel so small in my mind, I say to God, why did
you make us in this way, you should have made us in such a way that no one would have the
guts or the opportunity to tease us in passing. In this manner I try to place myself. Then I abuse those who insult me; I say, “go away, may your mother or your daughter or your wife or your
sister give birth to a hijra like me, let a hijra be born in your house as well. Then God will tell
you, this is the result of your teasing a hijra, that is why you have a hijra born in your house. You can finish him off, or bury him as soon as he is born, or smother him… Will you try that or will
you try to make him grow up? And when he grows up he will wear a sari like us. And one day
he will be standing on the road and your friend who is with you, not knowing, will tease him
and call him hijra. What will you say then? What will you feel? This is how we feel, this is what
our minds are saying this is how we have suffered. So now, before you tease us, just think how
we suffer from this.
-Madhu, Hijra
(Nanda 9)
In the time of the Ramayana, Ram fought with the demon Ravenna and went to Sir Lanka to
bring his wife, Sita, back to India. Before this, His father commanded Ram to leave Ayodha [his
native city] and go into the forest for 14 years. As he went, the whole city followed him because
they loved him so. As Ram came to the banks of the river at the edge of the forest, he turned to
the p
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