Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
The Life of Sonali ........................................................................................................................... 2
Formative Years .......................................................................................................................... 2
The Initiation ............................................................................................................................... 3
Society and Myths ....................................................................................................................... 4
Work and Daily Life ................................................................................................................... 5
The Future ................................................................................................................................... 6
References ....................................................................................................................................... 7

Introduction
Wikipedia describes a Hijra as:
Hijra is a term used in South Asia particularly in Pakistan and India to refer to trans
women.[2]
The word Hijra is derived into the Hindi language from Urdu, and by definition, it means leaving
ones tribe. [2]. The basic essence of the discrimination towards these marginalized constituents
of the society lies in its word roots. Off late, after centuries of atrocities and ill-will towards this
particular community, India has recognized the Hijra as the third gender, and on the surface of
it, tried to protect their rights.

The transgender population in India is estimated to be just over a million people, in a country of
more than a billion and a quarter. Though this translates to a very small fraction (one in a thousand),
its a sizeable number that we are talking about. Hijras are male-to-female transgendered people
and are considered to be part of their religious sect or caste. Almost all the communities of the
Hijras consist of members from the lower and the untouchable section of the society.

The religious aspect of hijra life focuses on devotion to the Mother Goddess, Bahuchara Mata, or
Mata for short. The major hijra temple is located near Ahmedabad in Gujarat, north of Bombay in
northeast India. The religion is principally Hinduism, with some elements of Islam. Hijras perform
celebrations for the birth of a male child, and at weddings, they offer the blessings of Mata. With
the Westernization of India, the demand for these ceremonies is declining, and hijras increasingly
work in the sex trade or as beggars. [1]

Hijras are attempting to break out of this downward spiral, and some have recently been elected to
public office. In January 2001 the new Hijra mayor of Katni, a limestone mining town with a
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quarter million people, was featured in the New York Times, along with five hijras elected to other
positions around India. Another hijra political leader was covered three years earlier in the Wall
Street Journal. [1]

The Life of Sonali

What better way to understand the plight of this marginalized community, than to read about one
of the Naiks, whose life has taken a lot of turns since her birth. In her story, we see the shocking
realization, her introduction to her future family, the acclimatization, and the bane facing the hijra
community as a whole.

Formative Years
Sonali was born Shahid, in the Andheri suburbs of the city of Bombay. He lost his mother at the
age of ten. Throughout Shahids childhood, he used to like helping his mother in household chores,
helping her in the kitchen, and simultaneously also realized his effeminate side. He had an elder
brother, whod go on to live a normal life, earning for the family and maintaining their dignity.'
After the death of his mother, he was brought up by his grandmother. In this new environment, he
was always mocked by others in the house. As a result, while growing up, he befriended some
homosexual men and subsequently got introduced to his guru.' It was a direct result of these
discriminations and the mockery that Shahid wanted to become a hijra. One fine day, he left home
on the pretext of hanging out with friends, when he decided he would change his identity. That
day Shahid became Sonali.
On being asked if she still was in touch with her older family, Sonali seemed hesitant at first, and
defensive later. She seemed to have realized that the ones that accept you as their own, take pride
in you, and support you beyond reason, is what makes a family, and not just the blood relations.
On further prodding, she would reveal that initially her maternal side did try and meet her, to
convince her to leave her new lifestyle and stay in the normal society as they saw it. But, Sonali
knew it was never going to be normal for her.

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A completely contrasting fact that came out to the open was when Sonali revealed that it was her
who bore all the expenses of her younger sisters marriage, and not her elder brother. As a result,
her family did start accepting her more for what she is. On her annual visits, she makes sure to
take gifts for everyone.

The Initiation
The process of the christening ceremony where one is inducted to the hijra community is known
as reet, as it is in the other castes of the Hindus. This is where Sonali was taken in by her new
family, under her guru Ritu. Ritu as a guru was to be a mother figure for all her chelas, and she
had her guru (dadguru) whod be the grandmother and a purdahguru who is the great-grandmother
for the Gharana. There are in total seven houses or gharanas in the hijra community across the
country. Although we did prod Sonali to talk more about these houses, shed rebuff our attempt
by saying that one of their rules is not to talk about their gharanas.
When broached upon the aspect of the transformation into a hijra, Sonali was much reserved,
primarily due to the taboo associated with it in the society. As her initiation process, Sonali took
her own decision to get castrated, and get breast implants but avoided the hormonal therapy that
many take to become more feminine. The castration of genitals and the hormone therapy are
considered to be an optional exercise for initiation, though breast implants form a basic procedure
for the transformation to complete.
During her reet, Sonali was made to undergo a few rites, of the sort of the religious ones by Ritu.
Then she was explained about the rules and regulations that each hijra must follow to be a part
of the community. These rules would cover anything and everything from their style of walking
and talking, to their daily behavior, and their interaction with the non-hijras. One part which stood
out when Sonali talked about the rules was their empathy for the underdogs.' In her words We
are just like any other poor, or destitute on the street. We try to help them whenever and with
whatever we can.
As a hijra, post the initiation ceremony, Sonali understood the shallowness of words and the deeper
meanings in the human interactions and feelings. She attributes all of this to her guru, who taught

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her how to be effeminate with her feminine side, all the while being assertive and authoritative
with the man inside. It is this relation of the guru-chela that Sonali cherishes the most, and has
taken special care to replicate the same feeling amongst her chelas now at Narol, on the outskirts
of Ahmedabad.
Slowly, Sonali realized that these rules were not as strict as they were meant to be. That, following
these depended a lot on how liberal the guru was. Initially, because it was her choice to become a
hijra, shed follow each one of these rules diligently. But soon enough, she started getting
suffocated, and would eventually rebel for her freedom. She started doing things and talking to
people she wasnt supposed to. As a consequence, she had to pay a fine for her transgressions, but
all throughout her guru, Ritu, would stand by her. Rather she was proud that Sonali had a mind of
her own to decide what is good for her and what is not. It was this rebellious and educated nature
of hers that finally led to her becoming a guru by her own later on.

Society and Myths

The hijras are mostly concentrated in Mumbai but are also present across the country, with the
main communities being in Hyderabad, Chennai. Sonali was brought up and taught the tricks of
the trade in ghettos of Mumbai and Thane, in the neighborhoods like Dharavi. As the city of
Mumbai grew by leaps and bounds, the poor of the city, and the hopeful denizens from other places
across the country started settling in these slums and ghettos. It was during this time that hijras
would slowly start shifting towards Navi Mumbai, but there still exist communities in the older
neighborhoods. It was the around early 2000s that Sonali was asked to move to Gujarat to start her
community as a guru and pass on the learnings and tricks to the next generation. For Sonali, this
meant a great honor, but also the grief of leaving her family and starting her own new life.
Life is a circle. We form bonds and relations, only to leave them, and to try and form new ones.,
as shed say when asked about her decision to accept the role of a guru.
Once in the position to lead, Sonali realized that there were more challenges than shed seen earlier.
While earlier she used to feel that the society, in general, needs to let go of its biases towards the
hijras, and accept them as human beings, she realized that the problem ran much deeper. Though
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she did understand and attribute a lot of these instances towards the atrocities by the society, the
police, and government in general, she advocated the need for the hijra community to be more
well-knit and disciplined. Shed state that a very minute fraction of the hijra community, as would
be the case with any other community, was responsible for the defamation of the whole clan. The
crimes, even petty thefts, by these people wouldnt go unnoticed, unlike it would have for a
normal person.
It is very when Sonali mentions that the hijra community is ridiculed and prejudiced upon by the
other sections of the society. They have been time and again vilified and accused of kidnapping
children to convert to a hijra. Sonali maintains that the idea that to grow their community, they
receive orders to convert children is a complete myth. She states that though there do exist
criminals amongst them, and that instances of kidnapping by their community members have
happened, the law of the land should be enough to take care of these criminals, as is it for the
society as a whole.
As a hijra, and out of her personal experience, Sonali has never been given the respect that she
deserves as a human being. Let alone the society, the government and political parties themselves
vilify these communities, except for when the elections are on the horizon. Sonali is happy about
the fact that the current government is willing to take their case positively, and has been taking
steps like recognizing them as an official third gender, or for that matter giving them an identity
in the form of PAN cards and aadhar.

Work and Daily Life

Most of us would have seen hijras begging on the streets, the trains, and blessing a newborn child
in the localities. As the guru in her community, Sonali by herself is mostly associated with the
blessing of the newlyweds or babies. This particular aspect also made Sonali wonder on the
hypocrisy of the society, where on the one hand it valued the blessings of the hijras and saw them
as a form of Lord Shiva, while on the other hand, took efforts to estrange them from the society
itself.
When she was in Mumbai, Sonali would beg, and sometimes dance in the dance bars, while a few
of her friends would carry on with their job as sex workers. For them, it was a personal choice of
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getting into the flesh trade, all in all, only means to support themselves and their families. Sonali
had never liked that her comrades would sell their bodies to make money, albeit this money would
again be lesser than what any other sex worker would have earned, and would make changes to
her rules as and when she became a guru herself.
As the guru, Sonali was responsible for around forty-five chelas, mostly belonging to the
neighborhoods of Narol and Hollywood Basti. Her daily routine comprises of scheduling and
allocating the work to her chelas, which would mostly include their work hours and locations in
the city. She was trusting of her chelas, and her chelas had faith in her as a guru, and hence the
whole community would work as a system. The chelas submit whatever they earn from begging
to Sonali, and she in-turn would provide for them, give them wages, and take care of their medical
needs, festivals, etc. When there would be a birth nearby, Sonali would herself go with some of
her disciples to bless the newborn, and the Dakshina would then go to the communitys kitty. As
far as welfare goes, nobody is considered above the other, only that the guru is followed and is the
administrator.
What started out as support for the hijra sex workers, in the form of social work for those stricken
by HIV, Sonali has made sure to continue it in Ahmedabad too. Her community has a fund
allocated to help the poor and the destitute for their medical needs. She is a regular visitor at the
Civil Hospital, where she visits people in need and pays for their medication out of this fund.
Sonali is also an active contributor to the movement for recognition, and laws for the third gender,
though she believes that being away from Mumbai doesnt really let her get to the crux of the
movement.

The Future
In this fight for life, for dignity, and for her meals, Sonali has seen a lot more than that any
individual would. She has through her life of 47 years seen her friends die to sexual diseases,
murdered by people of the normal society, handicapped, beaten, death to alcohol and drugs,
amongst others. It is the hope for a brighter future for her family that she is persisting on to make
better the lives of this outcast community.

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She is hopeful that one day, for the generations which would come, there will be a parity on the
treatment meted out to not just the hijra community, but all human beings. Her work as she says
is just to make sure everyone is on the right track and in the right direction and to motivate them
for a better life.

References
[1] Roughgarden, J. (2004). Evolution's rainbow. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijra_(South_Asia)

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