hijra

hijra, term used in South Asia, and particularly in India, for members of a third-gender community that is often described as neither male nor female. The hijra identity is often compared to transgender identity, and the two have some similarities; however, the terms are not interchangeable—some hijras may identify as transgender, nonbinary, or intersex, but others do not. Members of the community are typically assigned male at birth, occasionally intersex, and adopt traditionally feminine dress, names, pronouns, and mannerisms. Hijras are regarded within Hindu society with a degree of ambivalence—they are often feared and shunned while also considered to possess religious power to confer fertility on newborns and newlyweds in ritual contexts. Beyond that ritual role, however, they are often socially marginalized, and some engage in sex work and roadside begging. Hijra communities are constructed outside of traditional Hindu structures of caste and kinship but have their own internal organization for community support. The word hijra likely comes from the Urdu language (and perhaps earlier from Persian). Hijra is often used as an umbrella term for various groups across South Asia that use different terms but commonly identify as belonging to a transgender, nonbinary, or third-gender community.

History

Many modern hijras cite precedents for their community in ancient Sanskrit texts, which include narratives of people and deities who shift genders or portray mixed genders. These texts do not use the Urdu term hijra, however, and it is unclear if their descriptions correspond to historical gender nonconforming individuals. How much, if at all, gender nonconformity was accepted, is not directly evident. The Mahabharata (c. 400 bce–400 ce), for example, contains notable tales of gender transitions from male to female and men who dress and act like women.

One of the most prominent Mahabharata stories, which is mentioned with pride by modern hijras, is a story in book four wherein the Pandava hero Arjuna lives for a year disguised as a eunuch (Sanskrit: shanda and kliba). The quintessential warrior prince adopts feminine dress and traits and teaches dancing. However, the narrative does not necessarily illustrate Hindu acceptance of eunuchs: Arjuna was in disguise as one (with the suggestive name Brihannala [“Big Reed”]) for a year, and it was the result of a curse. Further, the word kliba is not necessarily an affirming term in the Mahabharata since it is used derisively, as almost a slur, by men to ridicule and question the masculinity of other men who act cowardly.

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One of the earliest explicit mentions of a third gender in Indian texts appears in the Kamasutra (finalized c. 300 ce). The ancient prose treatise on the subject of pleasure (kama) provides a brief discussion of men of a third nature (tritiya prakriti) who take the form of women or men. The author, Vatsyayana, describes individuals who dress and act as women and engage in oral sex with men, often as prostitutes, and other third-nature people who appear as men, work as masseurs, and similarly provide men with sexual services. Some other Sanskrit writings from the early centuries of the Common Era invoke the triad of grammatical genders in Sanskrit—male, female, and neuter (napumsaka, “not male”)—to incorporate intellectually the possibility of third-gender people. Although the term hijra is not used in these ancient Sanskrit texts, and it is difficult to suggest the continuity of the community across millennia, at the very least there is a long-standing Indian tradition of debate and discussion about third-gender people that possibly reflects the historical existence of such identities and communities.

During the era of Muslim rule in India, there are fewer written references to hijras than there are to eunuchs (Persian: khwajasaras), individuals who were castrated—as are many hijras who undertake ritual initiation—but who were gendered as men. Eunuchs in the Muslim era were kept as enslaved members of royal courts and served especially as protectors of women in the harem, as well as in other administrative roles, and some achieved great wealth. Although enslaved, these eunuchs were key members of the Mughal royal courts. Eunuchs and hijras in this time period were often seen as similar in their androgyneity and their engagement in sex with men. The boundaries between eunuchs and hijras might have indeed been porous at times. However, hijras represented themselves as female or third gender and were more marginal than eunuchs within Mughal society. Rather than having roles as part of the royal court like the eunuchs, hijras at the time were peripatetic dancers, musicians, and sex workers. Some modern hijras regard the khwajasaras as their ancestors, and some communities in Pakistan have adopted khwajasara as their preferred terminology.

Under the British colonial government in the 19th century, hijras were categorized by colonial authorities along with so-called “criminal castes,” and their cultural practices and identity were made subject to legal regulation. British authorities often framed their interventions in Indian society in terms of their perceptions of proper conduct—the hijras’ gender nonconformity was less of a concern for the British than their supposed tendency toward immorality. Under colonial rule hijras were accused of acting as male prostitutes and of kidnapping and castrating children to grow their community. Colonial legal frameworks—such as Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (1864), which the Supreme Court partially invalidated in 2018—criminalized homosexuality and contributed to the policing and stigmatization of hijras and other gender- and sexual-minority communities into the early 21st century.

In April 2014 the Supreme Court of India formally recognized the existence of a third gender. The court case, National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v. Union of India and Others (2014), allowed people to legally identify as third gender and granted governmental recognition to transgender and nonbinary people as well as hijras. The ruling gave hijras official status as a minority community, entitling them to various forms of government assistance. The ruling has been criticized, however, for collapsing distinctions between hijras and transgender people. Despite gaining legal recognition, in the 21st century hijras continue to experience discrimination in housing and employment and are frequent targets of sexual and physical assault.

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Religion and culture

According to some traditions of Hindu thought and practice, hijras are considered to possess significant religious potency. Hijra devotion to the mother goddess Bahuchara Mata is deemed to imbue them with the special ability to confer fertility upon others, even as they lack it themselves. As devotees of Bahuchara Mata, many hijras undergo a ritual of emasculation—involving ritual removal of the penis and testicles—which is considered to be akin to a religious liberation or rebirth, and is called nirvan (similar to nirvana). By this act of emasculation, initiation, and renunciation, they take on a role similar to celibate religious ascetics.

The paradox of fertility and infertility follows established patterns in Hindu thought. The hijras fill a role similar to that of ascetics for whom celibacy and sexual renunciation equate to spiritual authority. The hijras are also seen as similar to the god Shiva, who is simultaneously an erotic and an ascetic god, sexually active with his wife Parvati and deeply engaged in celibate ascetic practice (tapas). Shiva is sometimes conceived of in the androgynous form of Ardhanarishvara, conjoined with Parvati and depicted as half-male and half-female. Some third-gender groups refer to themselves as Shiv-Shaktis in reference to this dual male-female figure.

Because of hijras’ ability to confer fecundity as devoted representatives of the mother goddess Bahuchara Mata, they are frequently invited to bless newborn boys and perform at their homes by dancing and singing. By doing so, it is thought that the hijras bestow future fertility upon the young child. Their ribald performances typically display exaggerated sexuality, indicating fecundity but also going beyond the norms of accepted social behavior. In some Hindu circles, hijras also provide their signature sexually explicit performances as part of Hindu wedding festivities, again to grant blessings for fertility to the newlyweds.

Yet just as much as hijras can grant fertility, they can also take it away if wronged. As a result, the threat of hijra curses is greatly feared. Hijras are given a gift as payment upon completing their performances at births and weddings, but if they are not compensated, they can curse the young child or newlyweds with infertility. One of the hijras’ most feared and potent acts of cursing if refused payment is exposing their ritually altered genitals, which is viewed as a shameful insult.

Beyond their ritual roles, hijras are not widely accepted in Indian society and have limited means to earn a living. They are frequently shunned, marginalized, and discriminated against. Many earn a living through sex work, and it is common to see hijras begging by roadsides in major cities in India. Hijras claim to exist outside of the traditional Indian social structure of caste and are thus unrestricted by many of the cultural norms that are inherent in traditional caste-based and moral society. They occupy a paradoxical and interstitial status between accepted and marginalized, holy and immoral, needed and feared, fertile and infertile, sexual and celibate, and man and woman.

Although hijras claim to exist outside of the Hindu caste system, in practice the hijra community operates similarly to a caste in having recognized ritual and economic roles (such as fertility ritual performances) and acting as a cohesive group. Membership in a hijra community is not through kinship, as in the case of caste, but typically achieved later in life by choice or resulting from familial pressures. Intersex children can be the exception to this rule: When hijras inspect a newborn boy to offer blessings, they look to see if the baby was born intersex, in which case the child might be considered to belong to the hijra community.

Hijras generally live together in social communities. An important part in the standard narrative of hijra life is leaving (or being expelled from) one’s birth family to join a found family of other hijras. Hijras often seek out a guru, an older and more experienced hijra, to become their chelas, or disciples. These guru-chela relationships provide young hijras with spiritual and emotional guidance along with physical needs such as food, housing, and financial advice. The guru-chela relation formalizes their identity in a castelike structure and includes ritual elements such as formal initiation and renaming. Hijras often live in community households of 5 to 15 members, and they refer to each other using female kinship terms—thus chelas of the same guru might be “sisters,” a guru is a “mother,” a guru’s guru a “grandmother,” and so on. In return for a guru’s mentorship, chelas may provide for her physically and financially in old age. Some gurus also counsel their chelas in sex work, receiving a cut of their earnings. Not all hijras engage in sex work, though, and some also have long-term committed sexual relationships with men.

Hijra narratives often link the community’s identity to the larger and more socially accepted Hindu tradition—a strategic way to signal legitimacy for a marginalized group. They point to figures such as Shiva and Arjuna in Hindu texts as evidence that they are incorporated into the Hindu worldview. They also sometimes make mention of an episode they attribute to the epic Ramayana. According to this telling, when Rama departs for his exile in the forest, he tells the “men and women” who followed him partway out of town to return home. While most obey the divine prince’s command and return to Ayodhya, a small group of devoted hijras, because they are neither men nor women, remain at the edge of the forest for the 14 years of his exile. Upon Rama’s return to Ayodhya, he appreciates their devotion and promises the hijras they will someday be royalty. This narrative weaves hijras into the sacred narrative of Rama and gives them pride of place that is yet out of place. The story lays bare the tensions of acceptance and marginalization that are at the heart of hijra experience in society while also establishing hijras as religious devotees who have divine blessings.

Variations

Although much of hijra identity and discourse are constructed in relation to Hinduism, some hijras come from Muslim or Christian backgrounds. Some hijras identify as Muslim and follow predominantly Muslim practices. They also can be found in majority-Muslim countries in South Asia, such as Pakistan and Bangladesh. In South Asia it is common to see hijras at Sufi shrines, where they are afforded a degree of safety and inclusion.

Across India numerous third-gender communities have different names and different religious practices. The term kothi applies to a broad category of people assigned male at birth who are effeminate to varying degrees and might engage in same-sex relationships, but do not live in separate communities. Hijras in northern India sometimes identify as kinnars, (Sanskrit: “defective man” or “what kind of man?”) referring to mythological half-man and half-horse/half-bird beings. In Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana, jogti hijras, jogins, or jogappas are trans women who devote themselves in temples as special servants to the goddess Yellamma.

In Tamil Nadu third-gender people are called aravanis because they are devotees of the deity Aravan. Members of the Aravani community often prefer the modern transgender-positive term thirunangais (Tamil: “respected woman”). Aravan (also spelled Iravan) is a relatively minor figure in the Mahabharata, the son of Arjuna and the naga Ulupi. According to the aravani interpretation of Aravan’s story, before the hero died he wished to be married, so the god Krishna took the form of the enchantress Mohini to marry him. The aravanis consider Krishna-as-Mohini to be Krishna’s aravani avatar. In the Koovagam festival in Tamil Nadu, held annually in the Tamil month of Chithirai (April–May), hijras from across India gather to enact their marriage to Aravan followed by his funeral and their widowhood. The festival includes dancing, singing, and beauty pageants.