DISCUSSION

Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 12, 2014 vol xlix no 15
77
Beyond the Gender Binary

Ina Goel
Ina Goel (inagoel@gmail.com) is a research
scholar at the Centre of Social Medicine
and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi.
Given the complexity of the hijra
identity, its legalisation requires
an informed, non-paternalistic,
non-partisan and participatory
approach. A response to the
editorial The Third Sex
(EPW, 26 October 2013).
A
host of questions and issues eme-
rge on reading the editorial The
Third Sex (EPW, 26 October 2013).
The hijra community is a heteroge-
neous group of people distinctly classi-
ed as akwa (non-castrated males) and
nirvana (castrated males). It is very dif-
cult to assess at which stage the hijra
bodies are as they could be at any stage
of transition medically ranging from un-
usual non-conforming bodies to bodies
that are born as intersexed. Being born
intersex is a rare occurrence and the big-
gest myth surrounding such bodies is
the automatic assumption that they
come under the category of hijras.
Reproductive Essentialism
People who are born intersex are generally
operated upon with the consent of the
parents who feel a sense of guilt. Such
parents are not able to reject reproductive
essentialism or in other words are unduly
focused on the ability to reproduce rather
than the total health of an individual. The
newborn bodies that survive their parents
guilt often go through their childhood
and puberty in disguise and are made to
hide their bodies. Only a few manage to
come out and survive with an identity
that they can really identify with. This
medicalisation of sex at birth has made it
difcult to view the society and people
inhabiting it beyond the gender binary.
Its a boy! or Its a girl! is what we
hear after the birth of a newborn. This is
followed by the socialisation of the penis
according to the masculine indicators
and the vagina by the feminine indicators
of gender identication in a society. Why
cannot we learn from the example of
Germany which is the rst country to have
banned the medicalisation of sex at birth?
The Hijra Identity
If a person survives with an intersexed
body it does not mean that the person is
a hijra. Being a hijra requires adoption
by a hijra guru which often also includes
payment of membership fee to enroll
oneself in a particular gharana (method
school) to which the guru belongs with
specic community norms and tradition.
While conducting eldwork, I (who was
born with a vagina and later developed
breasts) was adopted by a very senior
hijra guru in Delhi. She gave me a token
amount of money, and put a bracelet
around my wrist blessed by her signi-
fying my new relationship. I hence get
barrier-free access to visit and stay at her
dera (traditional commune) with her
other chelas (disciples) who thus become
my brothers and sisters. This is not
otherwise permitted as the dera is con-
sidered to be a sacrosanct space and
prohibited to outsiders. Technically, I am
also a hijra. Membership into a gharana
is mandatory as it is only here that the
hijras learn the customs, hijra styles
of singing and dancing and the coded
Farsi language in which the members
communicate. Hence, anyone can become
a hijra irrespective of their body type.
Does this also mean that I am entitled to
any prospective afrmative action with-
in law and can demand reservation based
on a technically correct hijra identity?
The identity may be abused, misused
and reduced to a burden of proof to
certify the hijra-ness.
Another mistake is that of subsuming
the hijras under the umbrella term of
transgenders. This is very different from
trans and intersexed people who do not
relate to the hijra identity. Being trans-
gender is a more uid identity vis--vis
being hijra and may include a variety of
other identities that are not guided by
strict community norms and traditions.
It may include persons who are transves-
tites or those who like to cross-dress;
transsexuals or those people who wish
to undertake sex reassignment surgery;
people who call themselves she-males
which is a body type under a popular
category in the pornography industry;
and those who call themselves kotis and
are considered to be male bodies who
are supposedly effeminate in nature
and who switch between wearing male
and female attires. However, before
DISCUSSION
april 12, 2014 vol xlix no 15 EPW Economic & Political Weekly
78
proceeding further with any categories,
understanding sexualities and discourses
like female masculinity and male femi-
ninity becomes imperative to any such
research. This is complex, maybe even
unachievable as they are extremely com-
plicated permutations and combinations
of gendered identity and sexuality. For
instance, during the course of my eld-
work, I met a person who, prior to her
hijra identity and when in her male dis-
guise, was married to a female partner
(they were thus a heterosexual couple).
After taking up the hijra identity (with-
out castration) she continues in the mar-
ital alliance with the same female part-
ner but now claims to be in a lesbian re-
lationship. There are many hijras with a
boyfriend and are referred to as relating
to a panthi identity while hijras who
practise sex work with male customers
have a giriya identity. Both panthis and
giriyas are bodies with penises that nev-
er wear female attire and are always
dressed in male clothing. This brings us
to the partners of hijras who may be
straight or gay. Furthermore, there may
be a single partner or multiple partners
with different sexual orientations and
gender identities. It is here that we nd
more categories of transgender people
as their trans role is often based on their
assumed sexual positions, predominantly
dened as active and passive.
Another group consists of those who
identify themselves as double-decker
or double parantha. These are trans people
who like to keep their identities hidden
and signify their dexterity with both the
penetrative (active) and penetrated (pas-
sive) sexual roles. The highly problematic
misreading is the very usage of terms like
an active partner or passive partner. First,
it delegates more authority and power to
the assumed performance of the penis in
private spheres which is very difcult to
dene. Second, it aspires to a strange
formation for only peno-anal inter-
course which is drawn from the hetero-
normative peno-vaginal understanding.
Third, the usage of the term passive
makes passivity a character to relate to
one partner which is impossible as both
are actively involved in the intercourse.
This only underlines the extent of hetero-
geneity and complexity prevalent within
the hijra and trans community itself. In
the international context, the denition
of transgender has been rather ambigu-
ous as they include a wide range of iden-
tities and mixed genders from people
who call themselves kathoeys or ladyboys
fam ously known for sex tourism in Thai-
land to the two-spirit people from the
pre-Colombian inhabitants of North and
South America known as the indigenous
peoples of the Americas. Will not the
cate gorisation of the hijras under the
umbrella term of transgender only lead
to a dispositional trajectory (Goel and
Nayar 2012) of an anyway skewed un-
derstanding of gender? The idea is also
not to list the people who break the gen-
der binary as other as that would be in-
dicative of leading to their othering in
society when efforts are being made for
inclusive development. The idea is also
not to have columns like genderless
which would imply annihilating gender
and overlooking the violent histories of
gender bias and discrimination. It would
be simple to address the hijras as hijras.
Problematic Discourse
Reading and understanding the hijras as
human beings obsessed with their sexua-
lity is a problematic discourse that also
becomes an underpinning factor to the
HIV and AIDS rhetoric. Moreover, there are
many religious myths and stereotypes that
see the hijras as traditionally asexual due
to which they have supernatural powers to
bless or curse people. History is replete
with stories of their non-threatening
bodies because of which they were en-
trusted with guarding the royal harems
during the rule of the Mughal dynasty.
The king of course ensured that the hijras
were castrated and therefore unable to
impre gnate the women in the harem. This
is also the basis of discrimination today
within the akwa and nirvana categories
of hijras as the former is considered to be
lower than the latter. Hijra members who
are castrated, i e, nirvana hijras are given
more respect within the community.
Evidently, reproductive essentialism is
a reality when men and women are sub-
jected to the ignominy of branding based
on their reproductive functions. Men who
are castrated or incapable of penetration
are referred to as namard while the
so-called infertile women are called bar-
ren. Where the state directly controls
womens bodies through a focu sed at-
tention on female sterilisation, women
continue to be identied and marked by
the reproductive nature of their bodies
even more than men.
The idea of having an inclusive public
health scheme for the hijras should not
only be limited to sex reassignment sur-
gery (SRS) alone but also focus on their
general health needs.
Then there are the linguistic limita-
tions which do not allow reference to
more than two genders in most cases.
There is a lack of political consciousness
amongst the hijra community that has
deterred its members so far from organ-
ising themselves and forming an advo-
cacy lobby for their rights. However, an
exception is Tamil Nadu where the hijras
are called aravanis and the state has
formed the rst Aravanigal/Transgender
Womens Welfare Board in 2008. It has,
however, not been replicated elsewhere.
Moreover, there are huge differences in
cultures, traditions and practices of the
south Indian hijra community and the
north Indian hijra community. The gap
becomes even wider with the north-
eastern states whose hijras identify them-
selves as homo. In Manipur they are
commonly seen working as make-up art-
ists and hairdressers in beauty parlours.
Given this complexity, hijras should
be accepted as a whole and not part-
specic. Legalising their identity requires
an informed, non-paternalistic, non-
partisan and participatory approach and
an examination of the responses of hijras
which alone will give justice to them.
REFERENCE
Goel, Ina and K R Nayar (2012): Trajectories of
the Transgender: Need to Move from Sex
to Sexuality, Economic & Political Weekly,
1 December, Vol XLVII, Nos 47-48.
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