What should I call them, He or She?

I was 13 when I saw a group of Hijras for the 1st time. It was my uncle’s wedding and they had come over to bless the new couple, in the morning after the ceremony. They were loud! In the way they dressed. In the way they spoke. In the way they sang in their off tune nasal voice. They sang and clapped while dancing - a combination of totally unnecessary actions, I thought, considering they weren’t even invited to the event. The guests still present at the house quickly dispersed when the Hijras asked for money in return to blessing the couple. I was surprised how instantaneously even the friends scattered, leaving my helplessly irritated uncle amidst the slow strategically surrounding Hijras. The elders all around were either uninterested or felt disobliged to answer me, who was going around in a loop asking ‘Who are they?’, ‘Why have they come?’, ‘Is he a she?’, ‘Why is he dressed like a woman?’ Some told me to be quiet and to not ask such inappropriate questions. Some directed me with my questions to someone older than themselves. Some whispered to me, “They are Hijras!”, expecting this response to be self explanatory. Unconvinced of the knowledge bestowed upon me, I went to my mother. She holds Masters degrees in both Indian History and Sanskrit and was a teacher. So being a mother, a teacher and a person possibly holding answers to my questions, she quite simply and automatically became my source of authentic insights. My mother, instead of just answers, showed me the beauty of Hijras and taught me to see them as human beings. Through her eyes I saw the attention they commanded with their presence and learnt to understand their purpose within the Indian society.

Eventually when I started experiencing the society around me on my own, I saw the pain, trauma and tragedies beneath the smile, songs and journies of this ignored group within the Transgender community of India. They choose to be called ‘Kinnars’ instead of the derogatory titles the society bestowed on them like, Chakka, Hijra, Napunsaka, etc. Acknowledged to be demi-gods in Hinduism - their blessings are believed to be powerful enough to come true compared to the prayers of ‘normal’ men and women to God. That’s why, selfishly so, they are invited into our homes to bless a new born baby with prosperity, health and success or to shower a newly wed couple or a soon-to-be mother with generous blessings of ‘doodho nahao pooton phalo’ [literal translation: may you shower with milk and bear many sons (milk symbolising prosperity)]. But once the Kinnars have rendered the blessing services, in our minds they return to being despised and rejected from being a part of the society. Why? Is it because they make us feel uncomfortable by the way they look and dress? Or is it because they don’t fit into the societal definition of ‘normally accepted’ genders - man and woman? Quite amusingly if you notice, the society profoundly believes in the genuine power of a Kinnar’s ‘dua’ (blessings), but not so much in the strength of their ‘baddua’ (curse). So if logically thought, in our minds we make them powerful enough to bless us with good health and prosperity, but not powerful enough to have one of their curses hurt us. Why the duality in our perspectives? In today’s modern society, I don’t feel proud to have personally witnessed how Kinnars are inhumanely treated by the same men and women who hold them at the pedestal of demi-gods. Majority of the current modern Indian society feel that Kinnars have not ever been a part of Indian history, so why should they be accepted now? Additionally the desire to become a woman when they were created a man by God is only a psychological infliction and so is only regarded as abhorring. Because of these stereotypical opinions, Kinnars are not only looked down upon, but are brutally violated, bullied, physically tortured, sexually harassed, blackmailed, raped, even murdered only to be pushed aside like a piece of rotten meat afterwards. When they appeal for justice, they are blamed to have invited such inhumanity because they are Kinnars. Their pain being irrelevant and their trauma insignificant. We have to understand that they are not a disease. Why has society forgotten that Kinnars too are Human Beings?

Many within the Kinnar groups in reality are Transsexuals who chose to reject their male attributes to transition into the feminine gender. The reason for them being, to have been born in a male body when they feel feminine. They feel trapped in the body they were born in. It doesn’t belong to them. Many go through extensive sex change surgeries to transition completely into the feminine physical and biological attributes. A lot of these Transsexuals are educated and probably had jobs before they decided for sex change. But afterwards, where only a small percentage of them are accepted back with their new bodies by their family and friends, most of them are disowned, abandoned and renounced, losing the only social support on which they could lean. Rejected and ridiculed they find solace, safety and support within the Kinnar community. They are forced to beg to provide for themselves, because no other profession gives them regular jobs. Desperation for survival and helpless circumstances because of dire poverty forces them to become sex workers and prostitutes, providing sexual pleasures to the same male segment who discarded them. Why such hypocrisy? Using the very people in the dark of night for sexual desires when they would not be recognized in the light of day? When a group of Kinnars retaliate against injustice towards them, they are labelled as uncivilised and vulgar. Have we considered that every action has an equal and opposite reaction in such cases as well? If they are constantly cornered and violated, how are they expected to respond? Don’t they deserve to be respected and accepted at the least as human beings? Don’t they deserve to be loved?

While writing this blog I understood the complexity in simplifying such a sensitive subject while keeping the authenticity intact. I was looking for the source of the opinion that ‘we’ as a society hold towards Transgenders and Kinnars. I was heartbroken to find the answers already present within our own Indian history, but lost beneath centuries of traditions, outdated laws and personal perspectives. I started with the primary definitions affecting all our opinions - ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. Here are the fact-checks I came across:

• Even though both the terms have been used interchangeably since the 14th centrury, it was in the 19th century when a clear differentiation and representation between sex and gender emerged. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary's word usage guide - “The terms male and female relate only to biological forms (sex), while the terms masculine/masculinity, feminine/femininity, woman/girl, and man/boy relate only to psychological and sociocultural traits (gender).” In layman’s terms, ‘sex’ is assigned at birth, whereas ‘gender’ is a matter of choice. Our choice, of whether or not we want to stick with the gender attributes of the sex we were born with. Applying the same logic and definitions, Transgenders identify or express their genders contradicting their sex assigned at birth. So they choose to ‘transition’ from the body they were born with into the one they relate more closely with in their minds.

• Kinnars are quite normally considered, classified and called Eunuchs. It’s an incorrect classification! A Eunuch is a man who has been castrated. Sometimes they are castrated forcibly by inflicting torture. Sometimes, they are castrated to serve a specific social role. In ancient and medieval cultures as early as the 6th Century BC, Eunuchs were male slaves or servants who would be castrated to make them serve the royal court. They would also serve as bodyguards for the women in the royal family or serve as Harem guards. In addition, Eunuchs have been known to perform various social functions like courtiers or equivalent domestics, treble singers, concubines or sexual partners, religious specialists, soldiers and government officials throughout world history. Whereas as cited in Wikipedia - ‘However, in general hijras are born male, only a few having been born with intersex variations. Some Hijras undergo an initiation rite into the hijra community called nirvaan, which involves the removal of the penis, scrotum and testicles.’

• Holy books, ancient mythologies, folklores, art and texts all across the world not only acknowledge the presence of Kinnars, Eunuchs and Transgenders but also hold them in high regard and respect. This is proof that the ancients accepted Kinnars as a part of the society and they even had relevant professions.

• The presence of Kinnars have been sighted since ancient Indian history as documented in the Kama Sutra [considered by Historians to have been written between 400 BCE (Before Common Era) and 300 CE (Common Era)]. In fact, the Kinnar community is more than 2000 years old as recognised in our ancient scriptures. Kinnars renounce male and female gender attributes and choose to be the best combination of both. So the social notion that the Kinnar community is a more recent development due to the westernisation of Indian culture and that God couldn’t have created such objectionable, uncivilised and disgusting people, is factually flawed.

In conclusion, the question arises: Then how did the existence of this section of the society deteriorate to its current inhuman level? The answers to our doubts and inhibitions can again be found in our history. The Transgender umbrella was criminalised by the Britishers during their reign on India. As mentioned in Wikipedia, they were attempted to be eradicated because they were "a breach of public decency." The British regime placed the Kinnars under the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 labelling them as a "criminal tribe". Kinnars have been recognised by the Indian judiciary as the ‘Third Sex’ in 1994, giving them the basic civil rights of a citizen. Still, the contemptuous perspectives about them, originating based on their criminalisation by British authorities, have now permeated and impregnated our societal norms. It was only a perspective, planted deep inside our unconscious minds by years of extreme subjugation. What we need to seek today is, irrespective of what we have been taught by the generations before us, just because we are not able to understand this factless perspective as a problem towards this group within the Transgender society, does that mean that this problem doesn't exist? Within our Unconscious Perspectives, it still is only a perspective. Yet we feel it to be true and as our own truth.