Hijra (South Asia)

A group of hijras protest in Islamabad, Pakistan

In the culture of South Asia, a hijra (Hindi: हिजड़ा, Urdu: ہِجڑا, Bengali: হিজড়া, Telugu: హిజ్ర) or khusra in Punjabi and kojja in Telugu is a physiological male who adopts a feminine gender identity, women's clothing and other feminine gender roles. Hijras have a long recorded history in the Indian subcontinent, from the Mughal Empire period onwards. This history features a number of well-known roles within subcontinental cultures, part gender-liminal, part spiritual and part survival.

In Pakistan, many hijras live in well-defined, organized, all-hijra communities, led by a guru.[1][2] These communities have sustained themselves over generations by "adopting" young boys who are rejected by, or flee their family of origin.[3] Many work as male sex workers for survival.[4]

The word hijra is Urdu, derived from the Arabic root hjr in its sense of "leaving one's tribe,"[5] and has been borrowed into Hindi. The Indian usage has traditionally been translated into English as "eunuch" or "hermaphrodite," where "the irregularity of the male genitalia is central to the definition."[6] However, in general hijras are born with typically male physiology, only a few having been born with male intersex variations.[7] Historically, ceremonial initiation into the hijra community is said to have involved removal of a boy's penis, testicles and scrotum, without anesthetic, at or around puberty. However, according to Mumbai health organization The Humsafar Trust, only eight percent of hijras visiting their clinic are nirwaan (castrated).

Since the late 20th century, some hijra activists and Western non-government organizations (NGOs) have been lobbying for official recognition of the hijra as a kind of "third sex" or "third gender," as neither man nor woman.[8]

Contents

Terminology

The Urdu and Hindi word hijra may alternately be romanized as hijira, hijda, hijada, hijara, hijrah and is pronounced [ˈhɪdʒɽaː]. This term is generally considered derogatory in Urdu and the word Khwaja Saraa is used instead. In India, an older name for hijras is kinnar, which is used by some hijra groups as a more respectable and formal term. Another such term is khasuaa (खसुआ) or khusaraa (खुसरा). In Bangla hijra is called হিজরা, hijra, hijla, hijre, hizra, or hizre.

A number of terms across the culturally and linguistically diverse Indian subcontinent represent similar sex or gender categories. While these are rough synonyms, they may be better understood as separate identities due to regional cultural differences. In Telugu, a hijra is referred to as napunsakudu (నపుంసకుడు), kojja (కొజ్జ) or maada (మాడ). In Tamil Nadu the equivalent term is Thiru nangai (daughter of god), Ali, aravanni, aravani, or aruvani. In Punjabi, both in Pakistan and India, the term khusra is used. Other terms include jankha. In Gujarati they are called pavaiyaa (પાવૈયા). In Urdu another common term is khwaaja sira (خواجه سرا).

In North India the goddess Bahuchara Mata is worshiped by Pavaiyaa (પાવૈયા). In South India, the goddess Renuka 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.[9]

The word kothi (or koti) is common across India, similar to the Kathoey of Thailand, although kothis are often distinguished from hijras. Kothis are regarded as feminine men or 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),[10] meti (Nepal), and zenana (Pakistan).

Hijra used to be translated in English as "eunuch" or "hermaphrodite,"[6] although LGBT historians or human rights activists have sought to include them as being transgender.[11]

Gender and sexuality

These identities have no exact match in the modern Western taxonomy of gender and sexual orientation,[11] and challenge Western ideas of sex and gender.[4] 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,[12] 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 some 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.[6]

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 gender 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 gender identity is as a "normal" male who penetrates.[13] These male partners are often married, and any relationships or sex with "kothis" or hijras are usually kept secret from the community at large. Some hijras may form relationships with men and even marry,[14] although their marriage is not usually recognized by law or religion. Hijras and kothis often have a name for these masculine sexual or romantic partners; for example, panthi in Bangladesh, giriya in Delhi or sridhar in Cochin.[10]

Becoming a hijra

The process may culminate in a religious ritual that includes emasculation (total removal of the penis, testes and scrotum in men). Not all hijras undergo emasculation, and the percentage of hijras that are eunuchs is unknown. The operation—referred to by hijras as a nirvan ("rebirth") and carried out by a dai (traditional midwife)—involves removing the penis and scrotum with a knife without anesthesia. The cry and wail of the devotee is covered with loud trumpeting. In modern times, some hijras may undergo a vaginoplasty, allowing them to experience vaginal intercourse, but such cases are rare.

Social status and economic circumstances

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 sex work—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.[15] 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.[16]

Beginning in 2006, hijras were engaged to accompany Patna city revenue officials to collect unpaid taxes, receiving a 4 percent commission.[17]

A Hijra from India.

Hijras are often encountered on streets, trains, and other public places demanding money from people. If refused, the hijra may attempt to embarrass the man into giving money, using obscene gestures, profane language, and even sexual advances. In India for example, threatening to open their private parts in front of the man if he does not donate something. 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 hijras are most often uninvited, the host usually pays the hijras a fee. Many fear the hijras' curse if they are not appeased, bringing bad luck or infertility, but for the fee they receive, they can bless goodwill and fortune on to the newly born. Hijras are said to be able to do this because, since they do not engage in sexual activities, they accumulate their sexual energy which they can use to either bestow a boon or a bane.

Hijras can also come as an invitee to one's home, and their wages can be very high for the services they perform. Supposedly, they can give insight into future events as well bestow blessings for health. Hijras that perform these services can make a very good living if they work for the upper classes.

History

The ancient Kama Sutra mentions the performance of fellatio by masculine and feminine people of a third sex (tritiya prakriti).[18] This passage has been variously interpreted as referring to men who desired other men, so-called eunuchs ("those disguised as males, and those that are disguised as females"[19]), male and female transvestites ("the male takes on the appearance of a female and the female takes on the appearance of the male"),[20] or two kinds of biological males, one dressed as a woman, the other as a man.[21]

During the era of the British Raj, authorities attempted to eradicate hijras, whom they saw as "a breach of public decency."[22] Anti-hijra laws were repealed; but a law outlawing castration, a central part of the hijra community, was left intact, though rarely enforced. Also during British rule in India they were placed under Criminal Tribes Act 1871 and labelled a "criminal tribe," hence subjected to compulsory registration, strict monitoring and stigmatized for a long time, after independence however they were denotified in 1952, though the century old stigma continues.[23]

In religion

The Indian transgender hijras or Aravanis ritually marry the Hindu god Aravan and then mourn his ritual death (seen) in an 18-day festival in Koovagam, India.

In Hindu contexts, hijras belong to a special caste. They are usually devotees of the mother goddess Bahuchara Mata, Lord Shiva or both. Hijra culture draws upon the traditions of several religions.

Hijras and Bahuchara Mata

Bahuchara Mata is a Hindu goddess with two unrelated stories both associated with transgender behavior. One story is that she appeared in the avatar of a princess who castrated her husband because he would run in the woods and act like a woman rather than have sex with her. Another story is that a man tried to rape her so she cursed him with impotence. When the man begged her forgiveness to have the curse removed, she relented only after he agreed to run in the woods and act like a woman. The primary temple to this goddess is Gujarat[24] and it is a place of pilgrimage for hijras, who see Bahucahara Mata as a patroness.

Hijras and Lord Shiva

One of the forms of Lord Shiva is a merging with Parvati where together they are Ardhanari, a god that is half Shiva and Half Parvati. Ardhanari is especially worshipped in North India and has special significance as a patron of hijras, who identify with the gender ambiguity.[24]

Hijras in Ramayana

In some versions of the Ramayana,[25] when Rama leaves Ayodhya for his 14-year exile, a crowd of his subjects follow him into the forest because of their devotion to him. Soon Rama notices this, and gathers them to tell them not to mourn, and that all the "men and women" of his kingdom should return to their places in Ayodhya. Rama then leaves and has adventures for 14 years. When he returns to Ayodhya, he finds that the hijras, being neither men nor women, have not moved from the place where he gave his speech. Impressed with their devotion, Rama grants hijras the boon to confer blessings on people during auspicious inaugural occasions like childbirth and weddings. This boon is the origin of badhai in which hijras sing, dance, and give blessings.[26]

Hijras in the Mahabharata

In the Mahabharata, before the Kurukshetra War, Aravan offers his lifeblood to goddess Kali to ensure the victory of the Pandavas, and Kali agrees to grant him power. On the night before the battle, Aravan expresses a desire to get married before he dies. No woman was willing to marry a man doomed to die in a few hours, so Krishna assumes the form of a beautiful woman called Mohini and marries him. In South India, hijras claim Aravan as their progenitor and call themselves "aravanis."[26]

In Tamil Nadu each year in April and May, hijras celebrate an eighteen-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, who is identified with Aravan. During the festival, the aravanis reenact a story of the wedding of Lord Krishna and Lord Aravan, followed by Aravan's subsequent sacrifice. They then mourn Aravan's death through ritualistic dances and by breaking their bangles. An annual beauty pageant is also held, as well as various health and HIV or AIDS seminars. Hijras from all over the country travel to this festival. A personal experience of the hijras in this festival is shown in the documentary India's Ladyboys, by BBC Three and also on the television series Taboo on the National Geographic Channel.

In films and literature

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 ("The Unmarried Father"). 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"). 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. A hijra (played by Raghubir Yadav), has taken to profession in introducing the widows of Varanasi, another group of down-trodden outcasts, to prostitution (the film resulted in high controversy). There is a brief appearance in the 2004 Gurinder Chadha film Bride & Prejudice, with hijras singing to a bride-to-be in the marketplace. There's also a loose reference in Deepha Mehta's Bollywood/Hollywood in the guise of Rocky or Rokini. Deepa Mehta's Water also features a hijra character by the name of Gulabi.

In the 2000 Tamil film, Appu directed by Vasanth, the antagonist is a hijra. The film features the hijra running a brothel and the role is played by Prakash Raj. This was a remake of the Hindi film Sadak, in which the character of the brothel owner was famously played by Sadashiv Amrapurkar, with the name (in the movie) "Maharani."

In 2005, a fiction feature film titled Shabnam Mausi was made on the life of a eunuch politician of the same name (see Shabnam Mausi). It was directed by Yogesh Bharadwaj, and the title role was played by Ashutosh Rana.

In Soorma Bhopali, Jagdeep encounters a troupe of hijras on his arrival in Bombay. The leader of this pack is also played by Jagdeep himself.

In Anil Kapoor's Nayak, Johnny Lever, who plays the role of the hero's assistant, gets beaten up by hijras, when he is caught calling them "hijra" (he is in habit of calling almost everyone who bothers him by this pejorative and no one cares much, except this once ironically, as the addressees are literally what he is calling them.)

The 1992 film Immaculate Conception by Jamil Dehlavi is based upon the culture-clash between a western Jewish couple seeking fertility at a Karachi shrine known to be blessed by a sufi-fakir called Gulab Shah and the group of Pakistani eunuchs who guard it.

One of the main characters in Khushwant Singh's novel Delhi, Bhagmati is a hijra. She makes a living as a semi-prostitute, and is quite wanted in diplomatic circles of the city.

The novel Bombay Ice by Leslie Forbes features an important subplot involving the main character's investigation of the deaths of several hijra sex workers.

The novel City of Djinns by William Dalrymple also features a chapter on hijras.

Vijay TV's Ippadikku Rose, a Tamil show conducted by postgraduate educated transgender Rose is a very successfully running program that discusses various issues faced by youth in Tamil Nadu, where she also gives her own experiences.

In addition to numerous other themes, the 2008 movie Welcome to Sajjanpur by Shyam Benegal explores the role of hijras in Indian society.

In the 2009 Brazilian soap opera Caminho das Índias (Portuguese for "The way to India") hijras are shown in some occasions, especially at weddings and other ceremonies where they are paid for their blessing.

Documentaries

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "The most significant relationship in the hijra community is that of the guru (master, teacher) and chela (disciple)." Serena Nanda, "The hijras of India: Cultural and Individual Dimensions of an Institutionalized Third Gender Role", Journal of Homosexuality 11 (1986): 35–54.
  2. ↑ "Hijras are organized into households with a hijra guru as head, into territories delimiting where each household can dance and demand money from merchants". L Cohen, "The Pleasures of Castration: the postoperative status of hijras, jankhas and academics", in Paul R. Abramson, Steven D. Pinkerton (eds), Sexual Nature, Sexual Culture, (University of Chicago Press, 1995).
  3. ↑ "None of the hijra narratives I recorded supports the widespread belief in India that hijras recruit their membership by making successful claims on intersex infants. Instead, it appears that most hijras join the community in their youth, either out of a desire to more fully express their feminine gender identity, under the pressure of poverty, because of ill treatment by parents and peers for feminine behaviour, after a period of homosexual prostitution, or for a combination of these reasons." RB Towle, and LM Morgan, "Romancing the Transgender Native: Rethinking the Use of the 'Third Gender' Concept", in S. Stryker and S. Whittle (eds), Transgender Studies Reader, (Routledge, 2006), p. 116.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Nanda, S. "Hijras: An Alternative Sex and Gender Role in India (in Herdt, G. (1996) Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. Zone Books.)
  5. ↑ "'hjr (main meanings): a) to break with, leave, forsake, renounce, emigrate, flee" Lahzar Zanned, "Root formation and polysemic organization", in Mohammad T. Alhawary and Elabbas Benmamoun (eds), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics XVII-XVIII: papers from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Annual Symposia on Arabic Linguistics, (John Benjamins, 2005), p. 97.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Serena Nanda, Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India, (1999).
  7. ↑ "Among thirty of my informants, only one appeared to have been born intersexed." Serena Nanda, "Deviant careers: the hijras of India", chapter 7 in Morris Freilich, Douglas Raybeck and Joel S. Savishinsky (eds), Deviance: anthropological perspectives, (Greenwood Publishing, 1991).
  8. ↑ Anuja Agrawal, "Gendered Bodies: The Case of the 'Third Gender' in India", Contributions to Indian Sociology [new series] 31 (1997): 273–97.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 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).
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Towle, R.B. and Morgan, L.M. Romancing the Transgender Native: Rethinking the Use of the "Third Gender" Concept (in Stryker, S. and Whittle, S. (2006) Transgender Studies Reader. Routledge: New York, London)
  12. ↑ "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.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ See, for example, various reports of Sonia Ajmeri's marriage. e.g. 'Our relationship is sacred', despardes.com
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ 'Trans Realities: A Legal Needs Assessment of San Francisco's Transgender Communities', Shannon Minter and Christopher Daley [1]
  17. ↑ Associated Press (November 9, 2006). "Indian eunuchs help collect taxes". CNN via Internet Archive. http://web.archive.org/web/20061201185313/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/11/09/india.eunuchs.ap/index.html. Retrieved 2009-12-23. 
  18. ↑ Kama Sutra, Chapter IX, Of the Auparishtaka or Mouth Congress. Text online (Richard Burton translation).
  19. ↑ Richard Burton's 1883 translation
  20. ↑ Artola, George (1975). The Transvestite in Sanskrit Story and Drama. Annals of Oriental Research 25: 56–68.
  21. ↑ Sweet, Michael J and Zwilling, Leonard (1993) The First Medicalization: The Taxonomy and Etiology of Queerness in Classical Indian Medicine. Journal of the History of Sexuality 3. p. 600
  22. ↑ Preston, Laurence W. 1987. A Right to Exist: Eunuchs and the State in Nineteenth-Century India. Modern Asian Studies 21 (2): 371–87
  23. ↑ Colonialism and Criminal Castes With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India, by Gayatri Reddy. Published by University of Chicago Press, 2005. ISBN 0226707563. Page 26.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Venkat, Vidya (2008). "From the shadows". Frontline (The Hindu Group) 25 (04, February 16-29). http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2021/stories/20031024002509800.htm. 
  25. ↑ "Many, if not most, translations of Valmiki's Ramayana do not contain this reference." Joseph T. Bockrath, "Bhartia Hijro Ka Dharma: The Code of India's Hijra", Legal Studies Forum 83 (2003).
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Narrain, Siddharth (2003). "In a twilight world". Frontline (The Hindu Group) 20 (21, October 11-24). http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2021/stories/20031024002509800.htm. 

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