Who Are the Hijras?

Hijra is a South Asian term for people — typically born male or intersex — who adopt feminine dress, names, and mannerisms and live in organised communities. They are officially recognised as a "third gender" in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. The word itself has no clean English translation; it encompasses eunuchs, intersex people, and gender-nonconforming males.

Hijras are not simply "transgender women." Most hijras consider themselves neither male nor female — a distinct category. As one hijra told researchers: "They say it's the soul which is hijra. We feel we are neither man nor woman, but we enjoy femininity. I enjoy womanhood, but I am not a woman."

The Guru-Chela System

Hijra communities are organised around a guru-chela (teacher-disciple) kinship system:

• A guru is an older, experienced hijra who serves as mentor, guardian, and authority figure
• A chela is a disciple who is initiated into the community
• Chelas of the same guru are "sisters"; a guru is a "mother"; a guru's guru is a "grandmother"
• Communities (gharanas) are hierarchical, headed by a naayak who sets policies
• Chelas are expected to provide financial support to their gurus, especially in old age

This system provides belonging and protection for people who have often been rejected by their birth families. But it also involves economic dependency and control. Some scholars describe the guru-chela relationship as a form of bonded labour — especially when a guru pays for a chela's castration in exchange for a lifetime share of their earnings.

Ritual Castration: Nirvaan

The nirvaan (or nirvan) is a ritual castration ceremony in which the penis and testicles are removed. It is considered a religious offering to the Hindu goddess Bahuchara Mata and is the defining act of becoming a "true" hijra.

The procedure is often performed by traditional midwives (thayamma) in unsterile conditions, not by surgeons. As one hijra described it: "It happens in a dingy room, a 10-by-10 probably. Immediately after the castration, two hours, the hijra is asked to leave that place, because it is illegal. The operations are normally done by quacks, and a lot of hijras die because of that."

The nirvaan is not merely physical — it is a renunciation of maleness. Through the bleeding, "maleness flows out, femaleness flows in" (Cohen 1995). Only after nirvaan is a hijra considered fully authentic and authorised to perform blessings at weddings and births.

The Paradox: A "Third Gender" That Requires Renouncing Maleness

Here lies the central contradiction. Hijra identity is presented as a "third gender" — neither male nor female. But the path to becoming a hijra requires:

1. Renouncing masculinity — rejecting the category "man"
2. Removing male genitalia — the physical act of castration
3. Adopting feminine presentation — dress, mannerisms, social roles

This is not a rejection of the gender binary. It is a reinforcement of it. The hijra must prove they are "not male" by destroying the physical markers of maleness. The "third gender" is defined by what it is not — not male — rather than by what it is.

Most examples of gender difference in other cultures are just the feminine men that they've castrated and deemed 'officially not men' or 'a third sex' but really they are men that are just not being called such. —Lumpy_Atmosphere_924, detrans male.

Furthermore, this "third gender" is only available to males. There is no equivalent category for females. A masculine woman in India is not given a special gender status — she is simply a masculine woman. The hijra category exists because Indian society could not accommodate feminine males within the category "man."

The NALSA Decision (2014)

On 15 April 2014, the Supreme Court of India ruled in National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v. Union of India that hijras, eunuchs, and transgender people constitute a "third gender" under Indian law. The court declared:

"It is the right of every human being to choose their gender."

The ruling directed the government to treat third-gender persons as a socially and economically "backward" class entitled to quotas in education and employment. It also upheld the right to self-identify gender without medical examination.

However, the judgment has been criticised by hijra activists and scholars:

• It collapsed diverse identities (hijras and other regional gender-variant communities such as aravanis, shiv shaktis, jogappas and kinnars) into one legal category
• It mentioned trans men only twice in a 150-page ruling
• It relied on Hindu mythology (Ramayana, Mahabharata) to legitimise hijra identity, ignoring the community's actual diversity
• It created bureaucratic gatekeeping — identity certification under the 2019 Transgender Persons Act still restricts access to benefits
• Some activists argue the judgment took away autonomy by mandating "third gender" status rather than allowing choice

As one scholar notes: "In the first line, they affirm the right to self determination and personal autonomy and in the next, they decide for us that hijras have to be considered as third gender taking away the autonomy just granted."

Colonial Disruption

Before British colonisation, hijras held respected roles — as court eunuchs in the Mughal Empire, as ritual performers at births and weddings, and as spiritual figures. The British classified them as "criminal castes" in 1871 and arrested them on sight. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (1864) criminalised same-sex activity, further marginalising the community.

Much of the modern stigma against hijras is a colonial legacy — but the solution is not to romanticise the pre-colonial past. Hijra communities have always been hierarchical, economically exploitative, and dependent on ritual castration.

What This Tells Us

The hijra system demonstrates several key points:

1. "Third gender" categories are sex-specific — only males can become hijras
2. They reinforce the binary — becoming a hijra requires renouncing maleness, not transcending gender
3. They are defined by social role and occupation — ritual performance, sex work, begging — not by a "gender identity" separate from sex
4. They involve physical harm — ritual castration performed in dangerous conditions
5. Legal recognition does not equal social acceptance — hijras face severe discrimination despite the NALSA ruling

Yes...many cultures and societies that are way too sexist/patriarchal/misogynistic to be able to conceive a GNC man or a GNC woman. That's why they made up those genders. —PM-me-darksecrets, desisted female.

The modern trans movement cites hijras as evidence that "trans people have always existed." But hijra identity is not about being "born in the wrong body" — it is about occupying a specific social role defined by feminine presentation, sexual receptivity to men, and ritual castration. It is a product of patriarchal gender roles, not a challenge to them.

References

• National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v. Union of India, (2014) 5 SCC 438 (Supreme Court of India), judgment of 15 April 2014. full text
• Nanda, S. (1999). Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India, 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
• Reddy, G. (2006). With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. University of Chicago Press.
• Harvard Divinity School. The Third Gender and Hijras. https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/religion-context/case-studies/gender/third-gender-and-hijras
• Britannica. Hijra. https://www.britannica.com/topic/hijra-gender-identity
• Cohen, L. (1995). The pleasures of castration: The postoperative status of hijras. In P. Abramson & S. Pinkerton (Eds.), Sexual Nature, Sexual Culture.