The Final Note

So this being my final entry for this topic I felt that I should look back over all of my blogs and see what my final feelings and thoughts are about this topic. And as it turns out, I feel the same I did when I began. I still think that Hijras are people just like anyone else, although they have the power to bless and curse, which at least I don’t. But I also understand now that they feel like becoming a Hijra is the only way for them to fully enjoy who they are. As I think about it now, it seems similar to a diet. People who dislike or are not happy being overweight diet to become happier. Instead of dieting the Hijras become a Hijra by getting the surgery and living with the Hijras. This isn’t who they chose to be, it is who they were born as. We don’t get to change who we are born as mentally. Physically there are so many plastic surgery and diet options that it has become simple to lose 200 pounds or change from a male to a female. The Hijras are men born with the mentality and soul of a woman, but sometimes the genitalia of a man, or with disfigured genitalia. Instead of being completely shunned, there is a place for the Hijras in the Indian society, even if once in this society they are shunned.

The Hijras have become fascinating people for me, not only because of the surgery they go through, but because they go to such lengths to be happy as who they are. Because they leave their families and so much behind, they have almost become people that I admire. I would never be able to give up all that they do just to be happy. They are strong people who should be admired for their strength and the blessings they provide. I understand their leaving their families to be happy, and even though it is still not a practice that I personally would engage in, I feel like some of it, the surgery, is here in the United States and that the transgender people here don’t get enough credit either for the lengths they go to in order to be happy. Hopefully in the future Hijras will gain all the rights that other Indians have, because they too are Indians who just want to live in their country peacefully.

Sex with Men for Money

Prostitution, as I already described, is very rampant in the Hijra culture because it is one of the only ways the Hijras are able to make a decent amount of money. The only problem with the Hijras being prostitutes is that becoming a Hijra typically means giving up all sexual encounters and desires. Along with giving this up, Hijras are supposed to perform a female role, engaging, when allowed, in female to male intercourse, not male to male. Many Hijra prostitutes perform male to male intercourse, which is illegal because of India’s laws against homosexual acts. These prostitutes are not looked down on, and they are typically not even acknowledged because it is known that there are Hijras who engage in homosexual intercourse, whether or not people discuss it.

I have come to understand that even though prostitution and homosexual intercourse goes against Hijra beliefs, the Hijras who participate in these activities do it because they cannot make a living any other way. Begging doesn’t get them that much money, and there aren’t enough blessing ceremonies to go to for all the Hijras to make a good living. As much as they don’t want to do this, they have to, just as they feel they have to become Hijras. There are, according to Nanda, many Indian men who have homosexual tendencies but are married to women. These men come to the Hijras for prostitution. Although these Hijras are ‘real,’ they blur the line because they are participating in activities contrary to their beliefs. To me, they are just doing what they have to in order to get by.

Works Cited:

Nanda, Serena
1999 The Hijras of India: Neither Man nor Woman. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Image From: http://www.columbia.edu/~blw2102/

Understanding

So I’ve come quite a ways in understanding the culture of the Hijras since beginning this blog. Although at first I couldn’t understand why anyone would leave their families to do something as drastic as changing their gender, I now understand that at times you have to put yourself first and do what pleases you, or in the cases where the Hijras are kicked out, you do what you need to do to live happily without your birth family.

The Hijras are performers, and as someone who has seen multiple plays in which my friends were acting, I have seen how simple it is for people to perform different roles. Even though the Hijras are not performing a fictional role, they are performing ‘gender roles’ which essentially means that they are performing the third gender. In the class for which I am writing this blog, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, we discussed how gender is not a function of sex, instead it is a role that people perform in society. This is why it is possible for multiple genders to exist within one culture. The behaviors or gender roles that the Hijras perform let the society they live in know who they are and what gender they associate themselves with. As I mentioned in earlier entries, the Hijras do not consider themselves to be women when they are becoming a Hijra, and only some of them consider themselves to be women once the operation is complete. Generally they consider themselves Hijras, or the third gender of India.

Although there is still one aspect of Hijra culture, the homosexuality of some of the prostitutes, I understand why the Hijras want to become Hijras and why they are willing to go to such lengths to become who they feel they really are.

Works Cited:

Nanda, Serena
1999 The Hijras of India: Neither Man nor Woman. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Needing

So a few weeks ago in class we watched a film about gender, and it covered Hijras. This was a really fascinating film because it gave me a glimpse at a more modern day Hijra. Just as Serena Nanda explained, there were Hijra “midwives” who performed the operation, although it is now illegal (there are still some clinics that will do it but they are very expensive), and there was a god leading the Hijras. This was where Nanda and the film differed. Nanda said that the Hijras worship Bahuchara Mata, but the film said that it is actually Santoshimata. Both of these gods lead the Hijras, with “Mata” being in both of their names. They are both gods who watch and protect over a Hijra during the operation, and although the first parts of their names differ, they essentially are both the Mother Goddess to the Hijras.

What was most interesting about the film was how they explained the people living in the same cities as the Hijras. Although they are afraid of the Hijras, dislike them, and look down upon them, they also require the Hijras. The Hijras, so they believe, have the power to curse as well as to bless. When a baby is born, or a couple married, they need the blessing of a Hijra. In a society where these women are shunned, they are also needed and depended upon for many things. This was very interesting to me because although they are shunned, go through a long and painful emasculation process and then have almost nothing left in the end except for their Hijra family, they still find work blessing babies or couples, and they are needed for something. I believe that without being needed in this way, the Hijras would be having a much harder time living in India than they do now. Being needed is essential to most people because it allows them to know that even though they may not be the ideal person of their culture, their culture would also not be the same without them. This is how the Hijras live. Without the blessings that they provide they would be forced into even more prostitution and begging than they already do. The Indian societies that they live in depend on the Hijras just as the Hijras depend on the societies.

Works Cited:

Nanda, Serena
1999 The Hijras of India: Neither Man nor Woman. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Film: Antony Thomas Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She (2006).

Photo: http://www.columbia.edu/~blw2102/

Under the Knife

So while reading the book last night, I was tested on all of my beliefs. I’m afraid of surgery enough as it is, but what the Hijras do for their beliefs is incredible. In 9^th grade we did a religion unit in Ancient World Cultures, and we talked about ‘nirvana’ being the place that Hindus and Buddhists wanted to reach. Hijras call their emasculation process “nirvan.” This means to be reborn, in their case as a woman. It is a “rite of passage,” which I can understand. This passage takes them from being someone they know they are not to being someone they know they are. The three parts of the rite consist of removing the former being (the actual operation, which as mentioned before can only take place with a blessing), then recovery where the individual is neither a man nor a Hijra, and finally the ceremony where the individual becomes a Hijra with all the Hijra powers. Since I don’t believe in any sort of god, this was at first hard for me to understand, but now I have come to an understanding that goes along with my beliefs.

If I was going to be getting a surgery similar in risk to what the Hijras receive, I would want reassurance from the doctor, my family, and everyone else important to me that everything was going to be ok. Essentially, the Hijras get their reassurance from the god. If they don’t get the reassurance they don’t get the surgery, ensuring for themselves that they will survive. During and after the surgery many more “pujas” which are basically offerings to the god Mata, are made to protect the recipient. The entire ceremony and operation is very religious and ritualistic, which is done for safety and spiritual reasons.

Works Cited:

Nanda, Serena
1999 The Hijras of India: Neither Man nor Woman. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Becoming A Hijra

As far as I have found out, having the operation is the most important aspects of becoming a Hijra officially. There are of course Hijras who have not had the operation, but generally they are either born as a Hijra (either a hermaphrodite or with ‘not perfect’ male genitalia) or will perhaps someday get the operation. The basis of being a Hijra depends on the emasculation of the male, or becoming impotent. Since being a Hijra is comparable feelings wise to being a ‘woman’, meaning that Hijras have feelings for men rather than women.

During my research, which I was doing once again by reading the book by Serena Nanda, I got the ritual operation explained to me, and it, as several other aspects of my research have done, surprised and shocked me. Being from a Western country, namely the United States, it is hard for me to understand people getting things similar to gender reassignment surgery done not in a hospital, or by a licensed medical doctor. Nonetheless, I decided that I was going to understand why the Hijras were willing to get this surgery done by other Hijras.

First off, getting the power to perform the surgery is not an easy process, so not just any Hijra can perform the surgery. Being an Atheist myself, I have never been a big believer in religions, especially when it comes to what I think of as crazy and dangerous rituals. This surgery fits right in with a dangerous ritual, but after reading the book I can understand the religious beliefs of the Hijras better and get some understanding of why they would choose to go to such lengths to receive this operation. In order for the Hijra performing the operation to be able to operate, she first needs to become a ‘dai ma’ which is essentially a midwife. This ‘dai ma’ receives the blessing from a god, the Mata. Once this blessing has been achieved, the Hijra can operate. In order for another Hijra to receive the operation she also needs to get the Mata’s blessing, which can take a long time and several attempts. This blessing is essential to getting the operation because without it, the surgery could kill the Hijra. The entire emasculation process is based very much on religion, something that I will be exploring more in the next blog entry.

Works Cited:

Nanda, Serena
1999 The Hijras of India: Neither Man nor Woman. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

The Third Gender

A few weeks ago I was searching the web for information on Hijras, and I kept coming across people referencing one book in particular, so I found it on Amazon and bought it, hoping it would help me. As I began reading it I found myself getting more answers to my original thoughts about why people would willingly want to enter a life where they are outsiders. The Hijra culture has roots in Hindu myths, one of the main ones being the story about Ram searching for his wife Sita only to return to find the Hijras meditating.

At first, I thought that the boundaries were clear, that Hijras were men who chose to become women. But after reading a chapter of the book, I discovered that they identify themselves neither as men or as women, and that Hijra is the term they choose to define themselves with. They are not men, because they do not have sexual feelings for women, which is one of the main definitions for a man in Indian culture, however the main reason they feel that they are not men is because of their genitalia, it is either not perfect or not there at all, but they also consider their feelings as mentioned in previous entries. The Hijras also do not define themselves as women, because of the simple fact that they cannot bear children. According to Nanda there are many Hijras who would like to have children, but because of their gender they are unable to reproduce.

Since I began this blog hoping to understand this culture, I realized that I began this blog thinking that there are only two genders. Through this blog so far I have realized that there are actually at least three genders. I had always just thought that transvestites (as we have in America) were male or female, that they didn’t fall into a third or fourth category. Now I have realized that there are many more than two genders, and that those to genders are not just the anatomy, but also the mentalities of the people.

Works Cited:

Nanda, Serena
1999 The Hijras of India: Neither Man nor Woman. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

The Choice

Becoming a Hijra in India is both dangerous, and also life fulfilling. There is no protection for Hijras in India, so they have to figure out ways to live safe lives without the government’s protection. The people who become Hijras are aware of this, yet they choose to fulfill a part of their lives that needs to be filled-the woman part. There are many ways that Hijras can become a part of the community, some are taken as children when they are born a hermaphrodite or have genital deformities, and others choose to run away from home at some point in their lives. They are unhappy living as men, or they just don’t feel like it’s who they are at heart.

Living as a Hijra does become somewhat easier when they come to a community of Hijras. Most Hijras live in communities composed almost entirely of Hijras. Inside these communities there are families. They are fictive kinship families, but for the Hijras, most of who are abandoned by their families, they become their family. Each family has a head of the family, a Hijra who is older and more knowledgeable, called a ‘guru’, and their “children,” or ‘chela,’ younger Hijras who they have taken in. There are mother-daughter, sister-sister, and all sorts of other female relationships within one community. Because most are abandoned by their families when they become a Hijra, the community replaces what they lost.

Along with being abandoned by their families, most Hijras also had childhoods that were confusing and unhappy. They felt like girls, yet their parents told them that they were men. “My childhood was torture,” says Xavier Ammal, a Hijra. She had to leave her family at age 13 because her parents didn’t want a ‘woman’ for a son. When they return to visit their families later in life, most families pretend they don’t have a child, or simply refuse to see them. Luckily, the Hijras still have their fictive kinship families to return to. These communities are the safe havens for the Hijras, and are the only place they are pretty much safe.

Works Cited:

Image from: http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/archive/aruvani.html

Dutt, Nabanita
2002 Eunuchs-India's Third Gender. Electronic Document, http://thingsasian.com/stories-photos/2022, accessed October 23, 2008.

Johnson, Samantha
n.d. Castration. Electronic Document, http://www.transgenderzone.com/library/ae/fulltext/32.htm, accessed October 23, 2008.

Maguire, Paddy
2005 Ms World. Electronic Document, http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/archive/aruvani.html, accessed October 23, 2008.

Operation

Living in a society where you are tormented, bullied, and harassed can’t be much fun, yet the half a million Hijras in India choose this lifestyle. Why would someone choose this? It can’t be fun, having to beg for money, or being a prostitute. But the thing is, they don’t have a choice. Since their government won’t accept them as a gender, meaning that up until recently they had a hard time acquiring passports, there isn’t much choice. As I read more about the Hijra culture, I am beginning to be able to understand them better. Every culture has people who are forced to do whatever it takes to put food on the table for their loved ones. For the Hijras, they have to turn to prostitution, begging, and the tax collecting mentioned in a previous blog. Being the average white American female (physically and mentally), I can’t imagine feeling like I need to change my sex in order to be my true self.

For the Hijras, although it is a difficult choice, and a life that they would normally not choose, it is the correct choice, because it is who they really are. It is not a good life, as many have said in the readings I have done, but it is a true life. For many transsexual people in the United States, an operation is not done, or just not considered. For Hijras, an operation is the final step in their transformation, although there are many today who are either hermaphrodites, have genital disfiguration, or just choose not to have an operation, however the majority have some sort of operation done. The operation the Hijras receive, as mentioned in the previous blog, is considerably different from the customary American one. This makes the Hijras even more frightening for some people, because they don’t quite have proper looking female genitalia, yet they look and act like females, and they are mentally female. Choosing this life and surgery is one of the most un-understandable things for me.

Works Cited:

Dutt, Nabanita
2002 Eunuchs-India's Third Gender. Electronic Document, http://thingsasian.com/stories-photos/2022, accessed October 22, 2008.

Rellis, Jennifer
2008 “Please Write ‘E’ in this Box” Toward Self-Identification and Recognition of a Third Gender: Approaches in the United States and India. Michigan Journal of Gender and Law 14(2):223-258.

YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC-k27Kvtrw

To change or not to change...

As I said in my last blog, I will be spending this entry discussing the differences between American transvestites and the Hijras of India. According to Mary Ann Horton, 1 in 187,000 men will have female to male surgery in the United States every year. This means that about one male for every 1500 men born will be diagnosed as a transsexual, with 60% of them getting sex reassignment surgery (SRS). In India, the ratio of Hijras, who are recipients (for the most part), of male to female SRS, is 1:375. For every 375 people, there is one male to female SRS recipient. Compared to about one in 750 for the United States, that number is astounding. One reason for this may be that it is phenomenally easier for SRS in India than in the United States.

In the United States, when a transsexual person would like to have SRS, whether male to female or female to male, they are required to undergo psychological evaluations, to determine that they are prepared for the surgery and life after the surgery. Once they have cleared the evaluation, they pick out what they want their new “parts” to look like, since it is essentially cosmetic surgery. This is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Hijras. When a Hijra realizes that they are in fact a woman, they are generally young, and they don’t get a psychological evaluation. They get opium and milk, and then a quick painful slicing with a knife.

There are fundamental differences, and one might say it is because the United States is more technically or surgically advanced than India, but it is actually the culture that is the major divider. In India, although there are severe difficulties for the Hijras, they are more socially accepted than in the United States, and it is more widely accepted that people may be born in the wrong gender. Although they are not recognized by the government, and only recently were able to identify themselves as “E” (for eunuch), on their passports, there is a culture for them in India, which there is not in the United States. They exist, but people don’t generally know about them, and have a harder time accepting the fact that they exist in our culture.

Works Cited:

Dutt, Nabanita
2002 Eunuchs-India's Third Gender. Electronic Document, http://thingsasian.com/stories-photos/2022, accessed October 21, 2008.

Horton, Mary Ann
2008 The Prevalence of SRS among US Residents. Electronic Document, http://www.tgender.net/taw/thbcost.html#prevalence, accessed October 21, 2008.

Rellis, Jennifer
2008 “Please Write ‘E’ in this Box” Toward Self-Identification and Recognition of a Third Gender: Approaches in the United States and India. Michigan Journal of Gender and Law 14(2):223-258.

Baby Taking

In the 9^th century BC, eunuchs (Hijras) first appeared in China. Nowadays, there are not any left in China, but they make up part of India’s population. In India, they are not accepted by the government, and are unable to receive passports or driving licenses. They are also unable to get jobs like other people. They make a living by begging, dancing, blessing, and prostitution. The people of India believe that the Hijras possess special powers that allow them to bring luck and fertility to a person. When a baby is born, the Hijras are always there quickly to bless the baby. What interests me most about this, is that occasionally the baby will be born a hermaphrodite, or with genital deformities. When this happens, the Hijras say that the baby is one of them, and they need the baby. The families of these just born children usually hand the baby over to avoid humiliation in the community. The fact that parents can just hand their newborn over is completely over my head. I cannot understand it at all. They hand their child over into a life that won’t be that great.

Families don’t just desert the children when they are babies though. If at any time in their lives a Hijra announces that they are in fact a Hijra to their families, they will also be disowned then. The fact is though, that the Hijras don’t choose to become a Hijra, they are born that way. As one Hijra said, “A Hijra has a man’s body, but the soul of a woman.” The Hijras do not choose to become Hijras; it is what feels natural to them. We cannot choose who we are, or who we would like to be. The transvestites in American undergo a much different gender transformation than that of the Hijras. In my next blog entry I will be exploring the differences.

Works Cited:

Image from:
http://www.ecostreet.com/blog/ethical-fashion/2007/07/14/baby-gowns-new- fashion-or-old-favourite/

Dutt, Nabanita
2002 Eunuchs-India's Third Gender. Electronic Document, http://thingsasian.com/stories-photos/2022, accessed October 20, 2008.

Harvey, Nick
2008 India's Transgendered-the Hijras. Electronic Document, http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2008/05/hijras-indian-changing-rights, accessed October 20, 2008.

“Please ostracize me”

In our culture, we automatically assume that just because someone looks “butch” that they are a lesbian or different from the others. In India, there is a culture that fits right into that stereotype, with the exception that they are not at all “butch”. They are transvestites who have not had the Western style sex reassignment surgery, but who live, ostracized for the most part, as women. I will be exploring this culture, the Hijras, and attempting to understand why a person would want to live in this culture, where they have no security from the government, and are not even recognized by the government socially.

People don’t choose to be ostracized. It is not a decision that people make. The Hijras, who are ostracized, are not choosing to become a Hijra just so they can be ostracized; they are doing it because they need to, and because they are not happy the way they are as a man. One of my younger sisters is a tomboy. In American culture, being a tomboy is generally accepted. She is not a cross dresser, and she does not want to become a man. She simply likes to dress in comfortable clothes, and play sports. She is not ostracized because of this either, because it is who she is, and people can generally accept this. The Hijras are somewhat the same. They want to be who they really are: in their case, that is women, in my sister’s case, a tomboy. The difference though, is that the Hijras are ostracized for this, and they go to remarkable lengths to achieve their desires. In America we also have transvestites. They are not nearly as ostracized by the public as Hijras in India are. People can dress however they want to, that does not change their gender or make them into someone we should ostracize. What makes a difference though, is what people will do to become who they feel they really are. This is what I will be exploring during through this blog.

Works Cited:

Dutt, Nabanita
2002 Eunuchs-India's Third Gender. Electronic Document, http://thingsasian.com/stories-photos/2022, accessed October 19, 2008.