Article

Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety in Traditional India

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Abstract

The virtually universal theme of transsexualism, the idea that a person can or should under certain circumstances change his or her original sex has had a particularly long, complex, and productive history in South Asia. From the time of the earliest known Sanskrit texts through the biographies of medieval and modern religious and political leaders, to contemporary fiction this theme has been closely connected with some of the region's most central theological, aesthetic, and social ideologies. In this study I will survey and discuss a number of salient examples of transsexualism drawn from the religious and mythological texts of ancient and medieval India. I will also discuss some signficant manifestations of the theme in cultic practices at various shrines in north and south India, and in the lives and teachings of several important modern Indian religious figures and members of organized religious communities. In doing so I will propose an analysis of the theme and its role in the constructions of gender, power, and authority in a traditional patriarchal society.

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... During this subperiod, discussions about sex change persist, added to studies on transsexualism. Studies on genetic aspects of sexual orientation take place [92], parental aspects associated to transsexualsim [93], studies that highlight the psychological factors related to sexual orientation [94], associated illness processes [95,96] and the impact of heterossexist traditional culture on identity construction processes [97]. Some studies refer to gender identity disorders [39], while others use the term gender dysphoria [98,99], which refers to the suffering generated by the difference between gender identity and biological sex. ...
... The gender identity disorder theme came to be understood as universal, raising discussions about its role in the social and cultural constructions of power and gender, exemplifying with the manifestations on the theme in religious and mythological cults. The existence of a hegemonic gender ideology was highlighted, which would speak about a supremacy of the male over the female [96]. Accordingly, the social and cultural factors turned heterossexuality compulsory and highlighted the gender inequality [100]. ...
Preprint
Gender and identity issues permeate society as a whole. Therefore, the matters involving transgender individuals should be analised in order to understand the difficulties experienced by this population and the social practices implemented. In this sense, the objective of this study was to investigate the strategic themes and their evolution in relation to the theme. For this, a bibliometric performance and network analysis (BPNA) was carried out with the existing data in the Web of Science database between 1954 and march 2021. Twenty-three thousand and four hundred and seventy-one (23,471) articles were identified, which were included in the SciMAT software to perform a bibliometric analysis, resulting in the graph of the thematic evolution structure and the strategic diagram, in which 8 motor themes and a cross-cutting theme of great magnitude are highlighted, which are discussed in depth. The results show the relation between the transgender theme and gender, identity, sexual orientation, hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery. It is concluded that, despite the large number of associated researches, some areas of study are still incipient, such as the inclusion of transgender people in the formal labor market and in the prison context, thus opening field for further studies.
... It was, however, much more common for hijras to reference by name specific individuals who were famous for their ambiguous gender, or those who had played a prominent role in sacred history. These myths are part of a greater theme in ancient Hindu sources concerned with sexual ambiguity, transvestism, and sex and gender transsexualism (see Goldman 1993;Doniger 1999). The regional location of hijras might determine the centrality of particular narratives. ...
... Although Sanjay himself claimed not to believe that hijras had the power to control fertility, he nonetheless paid them for the blessing, performing a role within a cultural context in which hijra blessings are given, legitimated by their 10 The themes of revenge and reverence to the goddess coincide with general ideas in 'mother-goddess worship', where the mother-goddess figure expresses notions of power, autonomy, and primacy; see Ganesh 1990. The concepts of reverence and submission are illustrated in a variety of goddess myths, for example, the cursing of Arjuna by Urvaśī; see Goldman 1993;Doniger 1999;Pattanaik 2002. connection to the goddess Bahuchara and maintained through narratives that reiterate their own power. ...
Article
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This article explores how the hijras and kinnars of India use mythological narratives in identity-formation. In contemporary India, the hijras are a minority group who are ostracised from mainstream society as a result of their nonheteronormative gender performances and anatomical presentations. Hijras suffer discrimination and marginalisation in their daily lives, forming their own social groups outside of natal families and kinship structures. Mythological and literary narratives play a significant role in explaining and legitimising behavioural patterns, ritual practices, and anatomical forms that are specific to hijras , and alleviating some of the stigma surrounding this identity. In this article, I focus on certain narratives that hijras employ in making sense of and giving meaning to their lives, including mythological stories concerning people of ambiguous gender and myths associated with Bahuchara Mata. I argue that these ontological narratives serve to bring hijra identity into being and play a crucial role in constructing and authenticating hijra identity in modern India.
... 30 See Haberman 1988: 94-108. 31 This account appears in Goldman 1993: 388, as well as in Hawley 1986: 235-36, Haberman 1988: 87 with n93, and Sangari 1990: 1538. Haberman recounts an alternative version of the narrative that portrays Mīrābāī as seeking to meet Sanātana Gosvāmin, rather than Jīva Gosvāmin, in Vṙndāvana. ...
Article
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This article explores the ways in which the sexed body and its gendered subjectivity are constructed and expressed by Vaiṣṇava devotional poets of both sexes. In short, it is an experiment to see if a reading of bhakti poetry alongside gender theory can allow us to gain a better understanding of both fields. What happens when a bhakti poet chooses to speak as a man speaking as a woman, as opposed to a woman speaking as a woman? In the final analysis, neither the male poetic voice nor the female poetic voice necessarily offers a more direct or essential experience of bhakti, but rather both are expressions of the possible but inevitably contingent modes of experiencing oneself as a devotee. From a gender theory perspective, to choose to speak in a male poetic voice necessitates an imagining of the subjectivity of the Other, whereas the taking on of a female poetic voice forces the paradox of the Other becoming the Self.
... Regarding the LGBTQIA+ population in India, historically, Goldman (1993) mentions the complete or partial sexual transformation of a few mythological figures such as Ila, Bhangasvana, and Thera Soreyya in some of the ancient tales, as well as the behavior of modern spiritual Indian figures like Ramakrishna, Gandhi, Yogananda and, also, the Ramanandi rasiks and the Hijra episode-a class of transvestite dancers, singers, and prostitutes-as a response to the phenomena of negative Oedipal castration anxiety. The author is convinced that the whole occurrence of transsexualism is linked to the Indian patriarchal culture and its unresolved building of the female gender and their sexuality. ...
Article
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If in pre-modern times yoga was almost an exclusive masculine activity, in contemporary times, at least in the West, yoga is dominated by women. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a qualitative research on yoga and gender in Brazil. Female participants were interviewed online, and their narratives were then transcribed and analyzed according to thematic content analysis. Four thematic groups emerged from the analysis: (a) meanings of yoga; (b) body/mental changes; (c) Social class, ethnicity, and gender; and (d) feminisms and yoga. Yoga teachers in most Brazilian regions are mainly white women, with a low participation of black women or even members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Although the interviewees are not aware of the different historically defined feminist waves, they see yoga as an opportunity to seek self-empowerment, not necessarily through feminist values, but through the tenets of yogic philosophy. In addition, through yoga, they pursue the cultivation of well-being and a profession, corroborating the fact that yoga can serve as an emancipation tool for women.
... Comunità presente nel subcontinente indiano, i cui membri si definiscono né uomini né donna e oggi sono riconosciuti dal governo indiano come third gender. Per una trattazione più esaustiva, si veda Agrawal (1997), Goldman (1993), Lal (1999), Nanda (1999), Reddy (2005), Sweet (2002), Sweet e Zwilling (1993 Nell'illustrazione della dāī māṃ Hazima (Figura 13 e 15), l'organo genitale maschile è composto da una struttura tubolare, che probabilmente per metonimia è chiamato nālī (piccolo tubo) 85 . All'interno di questo è presente un unico condotto (nālī) vuoto, percorso al bisogno dall'urina e, quando stimolato, dallo sperma (ādmī kā bīj). ...
Thesis
This thesis explores the knowledge and practices of the female reproductive body in the process of gynecopoiesis. How do the production, reproduction, transformation and contestation of knowledge about reproduction influence the way women live their bodies? What are the implications of this process on the gender construction and experience? This thesis is based on ethnographic research conducted with thirty women who lived in the city of Bhuj (Gujarat, India). The research has an approach that integrates a visual and narrative methodology, proposing the technique of body mapping as a tool for analysing body representations. The text is organized in three parts. Each part presents with a different angle of analysis: representation, production and care of the female reproductive body. The first part, which is structured around the body maps, focuses on the articulation of anatomical and physiological knowledge. The body is investigated in its materiality and in its somatic manifestations, by the semantic and symbolic articulation of the different bodily substances and fluids. The second part considers the knowledge about the body and different practices that accompany the process of female subjectivation through a project of intentional shaping. In this context, two of the medical systems most used by women in Bhuj have been taken into consideration: allopathic and local medicine (deśī) represented by the practices of dāī māṃ (traditional birth attendant).
... When, for instance, W. Doniger (1997, 143) seeks to substantiate psychoanalytic hypothesis and homosexual phantasies by exemplifying them with stories in which men dress as women to seduce other men, as Bhīma with Kīcaka, it exceeds the limits of what is actually in the text -though, admittedly, not in later Indian or in previous Greco-Roman theatre ⁸⁴. ⁸³See, for example, R. P. Goldman (1993); W. Doniger (1997);(1999), pp. 279-81;A. ...
Book
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IN SEARCH OF VYĀSA: THE USE OF GRECO-ROMAN SOURCES IN BOOK 4 OF THE MAHĀBHĀRATA The book argues for the systematic use of Greco-Roman sources in the Mahabharata (Mbh.), particularly in Book 4. The author systematically uses the story of Heracles’s year of serfdom at the court of Queen Omphale to build the Pāṇḍavas and Draupadī’s year as servants at the court of King Virāṭa (Book 4). Mythology handbooks, two works by Ovid (Fasti and Heroides) and other sources are used, for example, to project Heracles’s transvestism on to Arjuna, Deianira’s complaints onto Draupadī i and the story of Faunus (Fasti) on to Bhīma and Kīcaka. There are also literal uses. Scientific positions on Book 4 are analysed, along with the consistency of the results with the unitary perspective on the Mbh defended by Alf Hiltebeitel and the dating of the Mbh. in the I Century CE. Emphasis is placed on the research methodology that allows us to confirm the borrowing of these texts and on the study of the techniques used by the author of the Mbh. to adapt characters, scenes and other narrative materials.
... In some traditions, a more blended experience is more openly reflected, such as in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Southeast Asian traditions. In these traditions there are images and stories of divine and non-divine beings that change gender, express fluid gender, or ambiguous gender/third sex whether related to spiritual or moral character or reincarnation [65,66]. Supporting and encouraging positive connections an individual has to religion and spirituality require asking open, welcoming, and probing questions focused on understanding from what and where the person draws strength within their traditions and practices. ...
Chapter
This chapter presents a brief overview of the overall beneficial effect on optimal aging that religion and spirituality have in individual’s lives. The chapter points out the paucity of literature or understanding of the direct impact, both positive and negative, of religion and spirituality on the lives of gender-diverse people, highlighting a tendency of organized systems of religion and spirituality toward rejection of and vilification of this population contrasted with the resilience potential from gender-affirming religious and spiritual practices and beliefs. The chapter offers a call to health-care professionals to increase competency and engagement in exploration of the role of religion and spirituality in gender-diverse people’s lives as essential to supporting optimal aging. Finally the chapter offers suggestions for engaging and utilizing religious and spiritual practices, beliefs, and organizing systems of meaning in health care with this population to capitalize on the potential enhancement of wellbeing and resilience across the life span.
... In establishing the historical and thus legitimate place of nonconforming sexual and gender identities, historical and mythological narratives concerning those of ambiguous gender are found in classical history and form references from which LGBT communities (particularly hijras) draw. References to precolonial ambiguously sexed or gender nonconforming subjects in mythology or classical literature (Goldman, 1993;Doniger, 1999) establish a Hindu-ised history of gender ambiguity, rendering modern transgender subjects palatable to mainstream publics. Claims of historical authenticity shore up visions of the ideal nation, particularly if these claims can themselves be a 'nostalgic idealisation of a libertarian Hindu antiquity', framed in terms of 'classical' culture and as Hindu-normative (Dutta, 2012b, p. 120). ...
Article
Sexual and gender minorities in contemporary India are formed in the interstices between the neoliberal, Hindutva state; transnational discourses of liberal democracy and sexual ‘rights’; as well as cosmopolitan culture and global LGBT movements. As is evident in recent court judgments and legislation, particularly since 2014, postcolonial Hindu nationalism has created cultural conditions where forms of queer gender are permissible while queer sexuality is generally unacceptable. In recent years, significant developments have focused on transgender communities, complicating activism surrounding sexual and gender identities. By positing some identities as state-sanctioned acceptable citizens and others as not, certain ‘transgender’ individuals are conceptualised as bearers of rights while finding other facets of their identities discriminated against and maintained as illegal. The 2014 Supreme Court NALSA v. Union of India judgment and The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016 passed by the Lok Sabha, alongside further judgments and legislation affecting wider LGBT communities, have kept discourses fixed on sexual and gender identities and their relationship to Indian citizenship at the forefront of discussions of gender justices and injustices in India today. Focusing on recent judicial and legislative developments, this paper examines how transgender rights are being granted in the context of the neoliberal, Hindutva state and considers which forms of transgender identity are currently being conceptualised as legitimate and authentic in such discourses, which can serve to bolster larger right-wing visions and ideologies of the nation and its citizens. It contemplates the ways in which gender ‘justices’, framed in relation to both transnational LGBT rights discourses and right-wing agendas, are conceptualised and played out on the bodies of sexual and gender minorities.
... This paper tries to explore the formation of the hijra identity through a diachronic viewpoint. Several scholars argue how the category of a third sex had been a part of the Indian worldview for more than three thousand years (Meyer 1971;Artola 1975;O'Flaherty 1980;Dundas 1992;Zwilling 1992;Goldman 1993;Sweet and Zwilling 1993;Zwilling and Sweet 1996;Vatsyayana 1983). It is true that the hijra 1 identity, status and prestige have a considerably long heritage, which is grounded in religious practices and spiritual belief systems. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
This paper tries to explore the formation of the hijra identity through a diachronic viewpoint. Throughout history, one finds how the hijras - their status, prestige, identity, political associations, hierarchies, occupational position have been spatiotemporally affected. Hence, we can argue that hijra identity is intersected by multiple discourses. More importantly, the hijras try to accommodate themselves in the changing world. Hence, the delineation of their identities and gender roles today are in constant flux. The rise of such complex and fluid identities also speak about the discursive and structural conditions that guide the contours of any identity movement today.
... Change of one's biological sex is a theme that we find throughout Indian literature, in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions (Goldman 1993;Brown 1927;Bapat 1957;Faure 1998;Scherer 2006;Young 2007;Peach 2002). The question most asked about these traditions today is what, precisely, the role of biology was considered to be in relation to contemporary ideas about gender. ...
... Far from being an additional element to the entertainment quotient, dance is the central axis along which desire and identification are reinscribed and reinforced as objects of aesthetic pleasures and transgressive renditions. The predominance of this dance mode might make more sense if we consider how we popularly think about item dance and how it contributes to the construction of cultural identity via one's body [1][2][3][4][5][6]. ...
Chapter
Gender is understood through practice and traditional understanding of classical texts. Amba’s journey depicted in the Mahabharata brings forward a fresh understanding of gender. Abducted by Bhishma from her own self-choice (svayamvara) ceremony, subsequently rejected by her previously chosen partner, her life turned upside down. Amba vowed to dedicate her life to vanquishing Bhishma. Burning with anger she vows to take revenge on Bhishma in her next life; she is reborn as Shikhandi finally killing him in the Mahabharata war. Her journey into isolation, asceticism, and forest as well as rebirth and gender change help ascertain the uniqueness of feminine heroics in ancient India. Gender is entangled in a web of social, political, and economic relationships rather than individual preference, which is generally steered on the basis of hegemony.
Article
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The issue of social justice and reservation policies has been a matter of extensive discourse in India pertaining to marginalised and disadvantaged communities. Among these communities, transgender individuals have historically endured discrimination, exclusion, and economic hardships. This research paper delves into the concept of social justice and its application to the rights of transgender people in India, with a specific focus on their right to reservation in educational institutions and public employment. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this study examines the historical background, legal framework, and societal implications of this issue. By exploring the constitutional and ethical dimensions of social justice, this paper aims to provide insight into the struggle for transgender inclusion and the potential impact of reservation policies on their socioeconomic advancement. The research concludes by addressing the challenges and potential solutions for a more inclusive and equitable India.
Chapter
The phallus (lingam) is considered as the symbol of universal fertility in the iconography of Shiva lingam. This universality of a fertile phallus sprang from a mythological story of ancient Indian literature. Shiva, who is wholeheartedly worshipped by the hijras of India, was once asked by Lord Vishnu and Brahma to create all the beings in the world. Shiva agreed and began meditation. On completion, he found that Brahma had already created the world. Finding that his lingam was not required further, he cut his lingam and threw it to the earth saying that “there is no use for this lingam.” However, this act did not make Shiva asexual or impotent. Rather, as O’Flaherty points out, his lingam becomes the source of “universal fertility” in place of “individual fertility.” In India, the Shiva lingam is worshipped by women during Shivaratri to be blessed with fertility. It is also believed that the hijras, a transgender community in India, can bless a woman with fertility after their ritual castration is done. This helps the hijras to attain purity. Contradiction arises when on one side both the castrated Shiva and the hijras can bless a woman to be fertile; and on the other side, castration leads to rejection of the transgender community in society for inducing self-infertility. Here castration becomes self-contradictory in nature. I will provide insights on the contradiction and concurrence of castration and fertility in the iconography of Shivalingam as in Lingapurana and Shivapurana. I will also conduct a transgender reading of ancient Indian literature to restructure the binary conception of male/female with the gender triad of male/female/third gender. Following my analysis of key ancient texts, I examine the experiences of contemporary hijras, drawing on my interviews with eighteen respondents from the northeastern state of Assam.KeywordsAncient Indian literatureArdhanarishawrContradiction of castrationContradiction/concurrenceHijras of South AssamNortheast IndiaPhallusTransgender
Chapter
Abducted by Bhishma from her self-choice (svayamvara) ceremony, subsequently rejected by her previously chosen partner, her life turned upside down. Amba vowed to dedicate her life to vanquishing Bhishma. Burning with anger she vows to take revenge on Bhishma in her next life; she is reborn as Shikhandi finally killing him in the Mahabharata war. Her journey into isolation, asceticism, and forest as well as rebirth and gender change help ascertain the uniqueness of feminine heroics in ancient India.
Chapter
As a woman who undertakes multiple journeys between the world of Gods and humans, Urvashi’s story preserves important information on a woman’s life in ancient India. Her story from the Rigveda, Mahabharata, and Kalidasa’s Vikramorvashiyam are examined. Urvashi is an apsara, a divine nymph, frequently portrayed with intermittent short liaisons with mortals on the Earth. One of her relationships leaves an indelible imprint on the story of the Mahabharata. Her relationships and actions depict the life of women not involved in any longstanding personal relations. Her story is important to understand not only the contradictory aspects of domesticity and the independent life of women but also the nascent nature of evolving women’s social roles in classical India.
Book
Cambridge Core - South Asian History - Governing Gender and Sexuality in Colonial India - by Jessica Hinchy
Article
The concept of ‘identity’ often becomes convoluted within the tradition of bhakti (devotion of god). This article engages in a comparative study of two of Lord Krishna’s devotees, each from a different gender group, in order to determine if gender divisions remain constant or change with the emerging emotions of bhakti. The article claims that the works of the early bhakti poets evince several instances of queer identity that history and modern Indian homophobia seek to erase. To understand such complexities, the article uses the queer theory, whose main project is to explore the contested categorisation of gender and sexuality. According to the queer theory, identities are not fixed, categorised or labelled, but composed instead of a variety of constituents which often cannot be characterised systematically. The objective of the article is to reveal both Mirabai and Surdas as sexual subjects who are culturally dependent and historically specific.
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Drawing upon interviews with individuals in Pakistan who cannot be identified as heterosexual or be contained by the gender binary, I argue that in recent years post-colonial legacies of colonial laws have been challenged in Pakistan in ways that suggest a complicated relationship among sexuality, gender, and modernity. I draw upon Partha Chatterjee's notion of political society to situate this relationship. As such, I seek to strengthen prior discussions located in India and Pakistan. Further, this article challenges the problematic assumptions in mainstream queer politics that Muslim societies are static and ahistorical assumptions that appear to assume progress and struggle for sexual rights to be a Western attribute. In so doing, I extend earlier critiques arguing for a more complex understanding of the rule of non-normative sexualities in Muslim societies and suggest that colonial policies that regulated and criminalized the more fluid forms of sexuality in Muslim societies were incorporated in the imperial project of civilizing non-European cultures. The stability of colonial policies regarding sexuality was challenged in 2009 when the Pakistani state gave political recognition to trans* communities, identifying them as citizens of a modern state. These changes, I argue, pave the way for a potential shift from the fluid sexuality and irreverence that khwaja sara are usually associated with middle-class norms of respectability and encouragement towards assimilation into the social order.
Chapter
The Padma [Lotus] Purana is a Vaishnava text (ca. twelfth century) devoted to the worship of Shri Krishna, incarnation of Vishnu. The Shri Krishna of this text is the god of full-blown medieval Vaishnavism, he whose erotic sport in Braja with Radhika and her friends, the cowherd women, represents the union of the divine with the human spirit.
Chapter
The Padma [Lotus] Purana is a Vaishnava text (ca. twelfth century) devoted to the worship of Shri Krishna, incarnation of Vishnu. The Shri Krishna of this text is the god of full-blown medieval Vaishnavism, he whose erotic sport in Braja with Radhika and her friends, the cowherd women, represents the union of the divine with the human spirit.
Article
Full-text available
As one of the most popular deities in contemporary Hindu worship, representations of Krishna are ubiquitous throughout South Asia. However, characterizations of Krishna also commonly appear in popular media, including television shows, movies, and comic books. But the division between traditional religious representations of Krishna and his more modern media images is not as stark as it might first appear. Using an analysis of linguistic frameworks in popular dramatic stage performances centered on the re-enactment of Krishna stories, this article demonstrates the continuum of religious practice that links the actor playing Krishna with ritual practices that presume the manifestation of the deity himself. In this way, the lines between tradition and modernity become blurred as particular methods of entertainment become themselves a vehicle for the realization of the divine.
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