THE THIRD GENDER

STAIN AND PAIN

THE THIRD GENDER
STAIN AND PAIN

Editor
Dr. Ashish Kumar Gupta
Co-editor
Dr. Grishma Khobragade
 THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN
Editor
Dr. Ashish Kumar Gupta
Co-editor
Dr. Grishma Khobragade

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 CONTENTS

Foreword 7
Preface 9
1. The (Un) Tied Bind: Exploring He, She or Tritiya Prakriti in
Rituparno Ghosh’s Chitrangada: The Crowning Glory
Indrani Singh Rai
19
2. “Being Hijra: a Curse”: A Study of Problems faced by Hijra
Community
Kawaljit Kour
27
3. Prasanti, the Female Eunuch and Searching for Space: A Textual
Analysis of the Novel The Land Where I Flee
Gautam Banerjee
39
4. Towards a Room of Their Own: Negotiating the Problems
and Politics of Recognition of the Third Gender in India
Tanmay Chatterjee
53
5. Que(e)rying Gender and Sexuality: A Study of Third Gender
in Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps Around the Fire
Dipak Giri
62
6. A Study of the Hijra Community in Mahesh Dattani’s Play
Seven Steps Around the Fire
Prachi Priyanka
71
16 THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN

7. Beyond Gender: Reproduction of Hijras in India and their Right

Abha Singh
81
8. Transgender: The Life of Perennial Struggle
Brajesh Kumar Gupta “Mewadev”
95
9. Reflection of Hijra as Marginalized Community in Mahesh
Dattani’s Play Seven Steps Around the Fire
Grishma Khobragade
103
10. Third Gender and Social Politics
Nishtha Singh
113
11. Identifying Gender within Family, State and a Global Context
Aparna Srivastava
127
12. Third Gender and Tirukkural—the Great Book in Tamil
Language
A. Balaji
143
13. The Eunuch (Hijaras) of India: An Apothecary View Point
K. Balamurugan and S. Thirunavukkarasu
151
14. The Third Gender in Past and Present
Rajesh K. and Rajasekaran V.
160
15. Social Inclusion of Third Gender and Indian Cinema
Samajadar M. Valavake
169
16. Transgender in India and Criminal Tribes Act (CTA)
Swapna Samel
183
17. Neuter Gender – A Case Study on the Issues of Transgender
in Guntur District
S. Kodanda Ramaiah and Thanuri Bhavani
181
THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN 17

18. “We Know What We Are, But Not What We May Be.” – A
Study of the Hijras in The Mahabharata
Deepti Mujumdar
202
19. Upholding and Unifying the Holistic Human-Divine
Personality of Hu-Man-Woman HIJRAS Community
Mullangi Nagaraju
213
20. “Unfettered Society: Farfetched for Third Gender” A Perusal
of Red Lipstick: The Men in My Life
Kanta Galani
223
21. An Alternative Curtain’s call: Probing into Just Another Love Story
Ritushree Sengupta
231
22. Birth of Aravanis: Neither a Sin, nor a Choice but the
Enfleshment of God
G. Raghavendra Prasad
240
23. Sexual Defor mity in Third Gender: Symptoms and
Involvement of Biological Factors
Mukesh Samant
247
24. From Social Exclusion to Inclusion of Transgender (Third
Gender) to the Mainstream Society: The Psycho-Social
Perspective
Manoj Kumar Pandey
253
25. Puranas and the Third Gender: an Analysis of Esteem identity
of Third Gender in 18 Puranas
Chandra Hariharan Iyer
293
26. Third Gender in Bollywood Films
Komal Shahedapuri
305
27. The Third Gender and their Participation in Indian Democracy
Roop Kishore Dwivedi
317
28. Third Gender in Movies and Serials
Megha Trivedi
323
29. Laxmi: An Object of Custody and Identity—A Probe into Me
Hijra, Me Laxmi
Ashish Kumar Gupta
330
Contributors 339
330 THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN

29
Laxmi: An Object of Custody and Identity—
A Probe into Me Hijra, Me Laxmi

Dr. Ashish Kumar Gupta

Me Hijra, Me Laxmi (2015) is an autobiography of the

transgender activist Laxminarayan Tripathi. Originally written in
Marathi and translated into English by R. Raj Rao and P.G. Joshi.
Laxminarayan Tripathi, born in 1979, is living a better off and
gracefully attractive life than a normal man or woman despite
offered being a transgender. No transgender has so much fortitude
and determination to lead such a respectable life. It became possible
due to her education, free-will, made available because of her
biological parents’ support to do whatever she wanted. That’s why
she has dedicated her autobiography to her parents. Her dedication
reads:
To my beloved parents
who have been my guiding light through the
highs and lows of my existence.
THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN 331

For standing by and making Laxmi who she is today.

(Laxmi, Me Hijra, Me Laxmi)
Almost major population of parents want to get rid of their
child as soon they come to know about the gender defect of the
child. In most of the cases the child is beaten so fiercely and brutally
so that he may run away from home or is handed to any Hijra
community. Sometimes the child is beaten brutally and even
murdered or given poison and cremated out of public notice. It’s
running away from home or caught in the hands of any Hijra
community marks the beginning of its painful struggle and facing
series of torture that this hapless child undergoes through this
vicious and merciless world. His life becomes a hell-like and thorny.
Shedding tears on its ill fortune becomes his routine way of life.
Devdutt Pattanaik, a cognizant of mythology, in his widely-
known book Shikhandi and Other Queer Tales They Don’t Tell You
probes this queerness of this sexual stigma and communicates
vividly the versatile facets of transgender people. He remarkably
points out queerness like:
I am a man. I desire only one woman.
I am a woman. I desire only one man.
I am a man. I desire only one man.
I am a woman. I desire only one woman.
I am neither male nor female.
I am both male and female. (Pattanaik 4)
As for the problems of transgender, there is a long list to
which government should pay heed to resolve them as soon as
possible. Some of these problems can be considered as
discrimination in the name of gender orientation. Many unjust
features like lack of legal protection, poverty, harassment and stigma,
anti-transgender violence, reluctance to health care, identity
documents, housing and homelessness, unemployment, economic
injustice, police persecution uncalled-for prisons and negligent
332 THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN

families that lead them to social exclusions.

Dr. S K Sharma in his sociologically seminal book Hijras: The
Labelled Deviants has noted hijras’ problems of adjustment and crisis
of identity as thus:
Having known the fact that hijras, being sexually deformed,
carry a stigma the said biological condition of their causes
identity crisis for them. According to hijras themselves this state
of their makes their acceptance very difficult in the society.
The fear of stigma is so strong among general populace that it
not only drives hijras out of their homes but also put into
danger their families’ relationships within the kinship circles
and also hinder formation of new relationship with others.
(Sharma 51-52)
Serena Nanda, in her most renowned book on transgender
The Hijra as Neither Man nor Woman, draws a picture that expresses
the attribute and appearance of a hijra. She writes “If hijras, as
eunuchs, are man minus maleness, they are also, in their outward
appearance and behaviour, man plus woman. The most obvious
expression of hijra as woman is in their dress.” (Nanda 17)
As the first chairman of DWS (Dai Welfare Society)—that
works for the welfare of Hijra community in Mumbai, Laxmi
acknowledges in her autobiography that “I felt empowered, and
empowerment was not a word that normally exists in the
vocabulary of a hijra.” (62-63).
Laxmi’s visit to United Nations for UNGASS (United Nations
General Assembly Special Session) on G4 visa was surprisingly an
eye-opener lesson for her. She saw the transgender people of
America well settled as compared to India. They have lots of
scope in myriad domains of life. She aptly remarked-
Here (in America) trans-men and trans-women are not obliged
to live in ghettoes and gated communities, as they possibly are
everywhere else in the world. Transgender people are to be
found in virtually every profession in New York, be it medicine,
law, or IT. Contrast that with India. We abuse hijras when they
THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN 333

‘harass’ us on the streets, without realizing, that the things they

can do in order to survive can be counted on the finger of
one hand—begging, singing, dancing, and sex work. Can a
hijra in India ever aspire to be a doctor, engineer, teacher,
journalist, or business manager? The answer is a resounding
NO. (110)
(Parenthesis mine)
Social setup and change in social opinion and people’s mind-
set are very important to provide a life and status of dignity to
transgender people. Ostracisation of the transgender people is a
sort of slur on humanity. In this cosmos every creature and living
being has its own right to live. The development on this earth is
anthropocentric, it is ridiculous to tell that a transgender is left
behind to lag in spite of comprising the same features as man and
woman possess except the deformed venereal.
America the most coveted country for immigrants had always
been seen the super-liberal place for everyone. America has a black
spot on its forehead in the form of the Stonewall Riot that took
place in 1969. In the wee hour of 28th June morning, the New
York police raided a gay club where without license liquor was
being served. The patrons and local supporters opposed the police
that suddenly took a shape of riot in which many LGBT persons
and police personnel lost their lives.
The Stonewall Riots were followed by several days of
demonstrations in New York and was the impetus for the
formation of the Gay Liberation Front as well as other gay,
lesbian and bisexual civil rights organisations. It’s also regarded
by many as history’s first major protest on behalf of equal
rights for homosexuals.
(history.com)
In order to wipe out that black spot of American history,
America immortalizes Stonewall by holding Gay Pride marches
all over the country on 28th June of every year. Laxmi’s visit to the
place of Stonewall Riots made her to make a wonderful remark
334 THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN

about the riot and America as well. She uttered—

“It is Stonewall that is responsible for making America the gay
utopia that it is, while the rest of the world is dystopia.” (111)
As for the origin of the word transgender is concerned,
Psychiatrist John F. Oliven of Columbia University coined the term
transgender in his 1965 reference work Sexual Hygiene and
Pathology….The term trans man refers to a man who has transitioned
from female to male, and trans woman refers to a woman who has
transitioned from male to female. (Wikipedia)
Activism has great importance in Laxmi’s life. If she had been
degage from activistic artisan, she would have been vanished in
the innumerable worlds of obscurity with unaccounted annals. It’s
because of her dedication and emotional adherence for the works
she comes out a fantabulous activist that fetched name, fame,
glamour, favourable public reputation and extremely covetous
platform for her and myriad transgender and sex-work people
get benefitted because of her sincere and earnest exertions.
During her days of activism once she visits a red-light area
accompanying some delegates who wanted to evaluate the works
of DWS. The deplorable plight and picture that she has described
of the sex-workers and transgender can wring any heart. She writes:
The rooms in which the prostitutes lived and worked were
veritable pigeonholes, devoid of air and light. But each
pigeonhole was further partitioned off to accommodate
multiple clients. A foul smell emanated from the rooms. In
these conditions, the girl sold sex. This baffled me, for I always
thought of sex could only be pleasurable when the settings
were pretty. Here was ugliness personified. One couldn’t even
move sideways! But the girls had gotten used to it, just as office
clerks get used to the humdrum of their job. But clerk, at least,
can go on strike. Did these girls even have right to protest? It
was slave labour at its worst. (65)
Further she depicts the customers and their identities. She
expresses:
THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN 335

I turned to look at the customers. One was bearded; another

had a large gash on his forehead; yet another wore a turban.
They came from all religions and were of all ages. Some of
them hid their faces so as not to be identified. Others were
more upfront, probably having lost all sense of shame. But all
of them were hypocrites. They fucked prostitutes and then
went back to wives and mothers and sons and daughters to
be a part of the respectable society. (65)
Seeing the worst conditions her head gyrated and activist in
her stirred fiercely and she decided to change the system single
handedly.
Laxmi was an object of custody between Lataguru and her
parents. Lataguru, being a hijra community head, wanted Laxmi
to join and follow hijra community leaving the mainstream family
and society. While Laxmi’s parents were not willing keep her away.
They wanted to bring up Laxmi at their own home. There was a
tug of war between Lataguru and Laxmi’s parents. None wanted
to leave her. Lataguru wanted to caged Laxmi and her glamorous
association and wanted to nip her flying wings to cease her to soar
and walk on the way of hijra community but Lataguru’s all attempts
were in vain. Lataguru reprimanded her and said:
“Live with us hijras and not with your birth family. Your birth
family may make you do things that are forbidden to us. We are
neither male nor female. Why, then, must you cling on to the male-
female society.” (72)
Laxmi’s expression of her view is very significant about
Lataguru and her own biological parents. She utters:
“I did not want to live in a hijra ghetto. I wanted to be Raju to
my parents; Raju, their eldest son. Though my family had
reservations about my becoming hijra, they did not turn into
monster like the families of some other hijras.” (73)
Lataguru was a lady with feline tactics. She did not want to bid
farewell at any rate. She went to live in the same building in which
Laxmi was residing. She always had her keen eyes upon Laxmi.
336 THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN

She never approved her publicity as well as her modus vivendi and
modus operandi. She was possessive and orthodox, and believed that
a hijra has no right to stay with her family. She like a harsh guru
admonishingly said to Laxmi “You know nothing of hijra
behaviour. Do you even keep tabs on your disciples? They do as
they please and earn us a bad name. Live with me I will initiate you
into hijra culture.” (73)
The conflict and struggle between Lataguru and Laxmi’s parents
prolonged for the custody of Laxmi as if she were a small child.
She recorded the situation in her autobiography as thus: “My parents
were deeply pained by the thought that I would leave home again.
Like a little child, I was the object of a custody battle, with my
parents on one side and Lataguru on the other.” (73)
A transgender’s emotional facet is always disregarded. They
are extremely desirous to be mothers. They imagine themselves as
female and develop parental instincts. Laxmi describes in her book
that there was a photo exhibition with the caption What Are You?
And some hijras were asked what they would like to be if not
hijras. Malini, a hijra, said she would like to be a mother. (85)
Laxmi is a charisma possessing amazing characteristics with
unhesitating and larger-than-life queer personality. When Laxmi is
asked what she would like to be (if not hijra). She replied “I would
like to be Cleopatra. Cleopatra has always fascinated me. This
iconic queen of Egypt, the epitome of beauty and brains, seduced
no less a king than Julius Caesar….I adored Cleopatra’s zest for
life. She was my role model.” (84-85)
She is an activist and an avant-garde of venturesome spirit.
She organised hijra beauty pageant in India on a national level scale.
She named this event as “The Indian Super Queen Contest”. It
was not less than a Miss India, or Miss World contest. It was held
only for the transgender people. How its idea came into Laxmi’s
mind? Let’s go through her words:
Hijras are considered to be ugly people. I wanted to reverse
that mindset. And I thought of doing it by organizing a beauty
THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN 337

pageant for the members of my community. If there are Miss

India and Miss Universe contests for women, why not for hijras, I
asked myself. Hijras are called born-clappers, but, for a change,
we would get the world to clap for us….
Hijra, who averted the gaze of others because of a deep and
abiding inferiority complex, would now be walking the ramp!
Many of them were on stage for the first time in their lives.
(131-133)
So many hindrances came on the way of organising the event
but she didn’t surrender whether it was financial problem or her
father’s illness. Like an unyielding and obstinate personality she
remained adamant before the unfavourable conditions. She herself
remarked “To call off the contest would be to accept defeat. And
I wasn’t born to accept defeat. It went against my personality to
retreat from something I had wilfully started. I did not want to
withdraw from the contest.” (134)
How badly a hijra is treated with people as well as various
service providers like police, doctors, bus conductors, bank
employees, shopkeepers and so on? Laxmi has described it as: “A
hijra was raped in Virar. Not only did the police refuse to lodge
FIR, they refused to even listen to what the hijra had to say. The
hijra was in pain. But the doctors were unwilling to treat her till the
police did their job. It was a vicious circle.” (92)
The problem of transgender can easily be eliminated if the
transgender child stays with family like a disabled and mentally
retarded member of the family. The child should be given proper
education and congenial environment and should be treated with
love and affection at home as well it’s acceptability outside of the
home. Public attitude and social opinion about transgender should
also be changed. People will have to give up their prejudicial disliking
for them and should treat and behave in the right manner according
to the status of erstwhile human beings. There are many laws for
the protection, upliftment of the transgender towards the main
stream society but the implementation is someway or other is
338 THE THIRD GENDER: STAIN AND PAIN

postponed. It should be executed within the time frame earnestly

and candidly.
Works Cited
Nanda, Serena. The Hijra as Neither Man nor Woman. Belmont:
Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1999. Print.
Pattanaik, Devdutt. Shikhandi and Other Queer Tales They Don’t Tell
You. New Delhi: Zubaan and Penguin Books, 2014. Print.
Sharma, S K. Hijras: The Labelled Deviants. New Delhi: Gian
Publishing House, 2009. Print.
“The Stonewall Riot” Web 14 Nov. 2017. http://
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-stonewall-riot
Wikipedia, “Transgender” Web. 17 Nov. 2017. https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender
Tripathi, Laxminarayan. Me Hijra, Me Laxmi. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2015. Print.