Abstract
The aim of this paper is to raise awareness of the humanity of hijras through their autobiographies. The Truth about Me: A Hijra Life Story (2015) by A. Revathi will shed light on transsexuality in India. The hijra literature in English is gaining space, albeit small, in the literary milieu with its main character, a trans woman, who narrates her story challenging the heteronormative world. Not bending to gender norms, Revathi sought her place in the world, becoming not only a hijra, but also a political agent in her community. Her writing/telling reveals the bruises and wounds of a body violated by a deeply hierarchical society and her activism evidences that trans people are not passive recipients of forces acting upon their lives. They deploy agency in a variety of ways showing how their lives are located at the intersection of caste, class and patriarchies. These structures along with heteronormativity not only oppress them but also make them invisible under the heterosexual, family and reproductive model. In order to understand the hijras communities, it is important to analyze this through the intersectionality of social markers--gender, sexuality, class, caste, generation, region, religion, kinship and etc--interacting them at multiple and often simultaneous levels (Reddy 2005). Moreover, one must think of the terms izzat (honour) and asli (authenticity) that permeate Indian culture.
Highlights
The aim of this paper is to raise awareness of the humanity of hijras through their autobiographies
2 The writer Devdutt Pattanaik, for example, uses examples of mythical characters such as Shikhandi to argue that Hinduism was tolerant of, and even celebrated, the use of the modern term, “queerness”. This tolerance is not displayed towards hijras, defined as female-identified persons assigned male at birth
In modern India, hijras have lived on the fringes of society, often begging at traffic lights,3 living in poor areas, indulging in petty crimes to survive and, by and large, experiencing multiple forms of violence from society at large as well as from the state
Summary
On April 15, 2014, in a landmark judgment, India’s Supreme Court recognized transgender people as a third gender. An NGO for Sexual Minorities, and Reach Law filed a case for an amendment to be made in the definition, claiming that “Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016” completely distorts the historical legislation for transgender in India. This definition is improper and derogatory, violating human rights, as it inhibits people from expressing their gender identity. In “Outlawed: The Supreme Court judgment on third gender and its implications” Gee Imaan Semmalar (2014) interrogates who the judgment includes or excludes in its understanding of transgender 8 and raises an important question about the Other Backward Classes reservations for a community that has among them a large number of Dalit trans people. The bill should define discrimination and punishment for sexual violence against trans people
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