The Humsafar Trust, a Mumbai based community health organisation estimates there are between 5 and 6 million hijras in India. Indifferent areas they are known as Aravani / Aruvani or Jagappa. According to Gauri Sawant, a 37-year-old activist, “Most hijras, were from the non-English-speaking lower middle class”. Kinnar or Hijra people, whom the government now refers to as “the third gender”, have historically been regarded as close to the gods in Indian mythology. They are believed to have the power to bless or curse in India. They struggle everyday to make a living by performing blessings, begging on trains and through sex work.
Clothing and decoration has played a major role in this community, especially in India since generations. In India, there has been a long-standing tradition of Kinnars coming to weddings or a child's birth to offer blessings where they dress up in there best saris, decorated themselves with jewellery and makeup to mark celebration and happiness. In fact, they are given hefty amounts of money and a lot of ceremonial gifts because their stature is considered similar to God itself, and hence, their blessings are believed to be quite pure and effective.
There are many items of clothing that announce to the world that their wearer is now a woman. For some people, it's the bra, for others, it's their first shoe with a heel. For many Indian women, that garment is the sari, an expansive length of cloth that takes skill and know-how to wear correctly. Girls learn to execute this multi-step process from their mothers, and "come out" for the first time in their own sari during Ritu Kala Samskara, a ceremony that marks a girl's transition into womanhood. To hijra people, saris are a badge of honour, a symbol of self, and an armour against the world; it is their right. (WANG, 2014)
“Sari is my culture, sari is my soul, sari is my religion,” says prominent transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi. “It enhances the femininity of the Indian body. It has always been the medium through which we express our femininity, our tradition, our culture, our Indianness.” In the hijra community – a tradition which stretches back 4,000 years – wearing a sari is common, however not rigidly enforced. Rather, it is a sign of respect: for tradition, for seniors, for their guru. It is also a signifier of position: much in the same way that when an Indian girl starts wearing a sari it is a sign of her having reached a certain stage in life, when hijras officially become a ‘disciple’ they can usually be found dressed in saris. The hijra community is organised in a family-like clan structure, with a guru looking after and training disciples, or chelas, beneath her. (Betigeri, n.d.)
However, as much as they are considered as lucky they also face a completely dark and opposite world where they have to be dressed in glittering saris, their faces heavily coated in cheap makeup, they sashay through crowded intersections knocking on car windows with the edge of a coin and offering blessings or work as prostitutes at night to make a living. Back in 1990s, when they were way more marginalised than today, the of sex trade and exploitation, cruel and dangerous castrations, being cast out and constantly humiliated was on an increasing level and not much was being done about it.
But it was not as if there were no upper-class transgender people in the ’90s, whose lifestyles were radically different from that of the common hijras.
One of such people was Aida Banaji, a transsexual model from Bombay in the 90s.
“When my mother went out, I would wear her dress and raid her cosmetics, for which the servants would get blamed. I would look at myself in the mirror and fantasise about my life as a woman. I would keep up the masquerade as long as I could, taking if off when I heard her at the front door. Actually, though, there was nothing womanly about my appearance.” (Banaji, n.d.) (Rodrigues, n.d.)
Unlike the lower class trans community, Aida as a transsexual model wore fashionable clothes like pant suits, dresses etc which was unusual from the stereotypical way of dressing up as a hijra.
Today, the transgender community is more liberated however, looking back at 1990s there was hardly any social acceptance towards them and economically, they were struggling to survive. They had to create their own identity and community for which they did find ways with the help of clothing and decoration. Through these means they managed to keep themselves happy amidst the obstacles and unite within there community, building there own families.
Works Cited
Sharma, P. (2012, December). HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND LEGAL STATUS OF THIRD GENDER IN INDIAN SOCIETY. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20140203031618/http://www.euroasiapub.org/IJRESS/dec2012/7.pdf
WANG, C. (2014, November 22). Retrieved from https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/india-hijra
Rodrigues, P. (n.d.). Retrieved from Press Reader: https://www.pressreader.com/india/society/20170901/281526521217903
Banaji, A. (n.d.).
Gettleman, J. (2018, February 17). The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/17/style/india-third-gender-hijras-transgender.html
Betigeri, A. (n.d.). Border and Fall. Retrieved from http://www.borderandfall.com/journal/dress-identity/
(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2019/07/the-third-gender-of-ancient-india/