“Neither Man nor Woman:
The Hijras of India”
By Serena Nanda

“Nanda’s account is rich and satisfying…. She is to be congratulated on humanizing the hijra’s condition and forcing us to consider further the nexus of nature and culture in gender.”
(Gilbert Herdt, American Anthropologist)

“My first encounter with the hijras was in 1971, in Bombay. While walking down a main street with an Indian friend one day, we were confronted by two people in female clothing, who stood before us, blocking our passage. They clapped their hands in a peculiar manner and then put out their upturned palms in the traditional Indian gesture of a request for alms. My friend hurriedly dropped a few pennies into the outstretched palms in front of us, and only as she pulled me along at a quick pace did I realize that these persons were not females at all, but men, dressed in women’s clothing. When I asked my friend who these people were and why she had reacted so strongly to their presence, she just shook her head without answering and changed the subject. Sensing her discomfort, I let the subject go but raised it again with other friends at a later time. In this way I found out a little about the hijras, whose lives appeared shrouded in great secrecy and around whom there appeared to be a conspiracy of silence.”
(Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India, Introduction)

“There is absolutely no question that at least some hijras—perhaps even the majority—are homosexual prostitutes (see Ranade, 1983). Sinha’s (1967) study of hijras in Lucknow, in North India, acknowledges the hijra role as performers, but views the major motivation for recruitment to the hijra community as the satisfaction of the individual’s homosexual urges, a satisfaction related to their engaging in prostitution.

“More recently, Freeman (1979) describes a group of transvestite prostitutes in the state of Orissa, in eastern India, who are men who dress as women, who have a specialized vocabulary, who live singly or in small groups, and who seek out and are sought out by men in the surrounding area for sexual relations. Freeman does not use the term hijra for these people nor does he describe the organized or religious aspect of their community, but it seems fairly clear that he is indeed writing of hijras. So in Orissa, too, hijras are both performers and prostitutes. Historical sources also support the view that homosexual prostitution is important, if not central, to the maintenance of the hijra community, at the very least, economically.”
(p. 10)

“Many Indians are not aware, or at least they do not acknowledge publicly, that many hijras are homosexual prostitutes. Even some social science research has overlooked this role (e.g., Opler, 1960; Sharma, 1983) though the sexual activities of hijras are often emphasized in the popular press (Raghuvanshi & Navalkar, 1980). In spite of the undeniable fact that many hijras earn a living from homosexual prostitution, to view their social place as one of institutionalized homosexuality is to overlook the important cultural role the hijras play as ritual performers, a position linked to their definition as an ambiguous gender category—neither man nor woman.”
(p. 12)

“In the time of the Ramayana, Rama fought with the demon Ravana and went to Sri Lanka to bring His wife, Sita, back to India. Before this, His father commanded Rama to leave Ayodhya [His native city] and go into the forest for 14 years. As He went, the whole city followed Him because they loved Him so. As Rama came to the banks of the river at the edge of the forest, He turned to the people and said, ‘Ladies and gents, please wipe your tears and go away.’ But those people who were not men and not women did not know what to do. So they stayed there because Rama did not ask them to go. They remained there 14 years and when Rama returned from Lanka He found those people there, all meditating. And so they were blessed by Rama.”
(p. 13)


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