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.