Whenever we think of cross dressing today, we imagine men and women exploring their feminine and masculine sides respectively. From kids exploring their sexuality to adults making it their profession, cross dressing has been a part of many a person's life whether or not he may wish to admit and to what extent. From the famous lady boys of Thailand to the Eunachs of India to the strangest and kinkiest fetishes in the West, exploration of both sides of man's emotions with respect to their ability to showcase the same and their respective comfort zones vis a vis the society in which they live in, that man decides his sexual orientation.
This decision is different for different people and can vary in their respective display in their masculinity and feminism like paint splattered against a wall. From ultra macho where one's penis is Divine to ultra gay where his accessories are at the altar, man and women have found and justified themselves in being in their respective personality of choice. And who are we to judge them as long as they are in their comfortable zone and be natural for we need to understand and like a person for who he or she is and not what the individual is.
Like all nations India too was no stranger to this phenomenon. But unlike all nations, India has her own secret which runs so deep that it either glorified or vilianized it to epic proportions. Thats right we call the phenomenon the Chakka, the Hijra, the Eunach or the Transgender.
The word "hijra" is an Urdu-Hindustani word derived from the Semitic Arabic root hjr in its sense of "leaving one's tribe," and has been borrowed into Hindi. The Indian usage has traditionally been translated into English as "eunuch" or "hermaphrodite," where "the irregularity of the male genitalia is central to the definition." However, in general hijras are born with typically male physiology, only a few having been born with male intersex variations. Some Hijras undergo an initiation rite into the hijra community called nirwaan, which refers to the removal of penis, testicles and scrotum.
On April 15, 2014, The Supreme Court of India [SC], in a landmark judgement, created the "third gender" status for hijras or transgenders. Earlier, Indian nationals were forced to write male or female against their gender. Besides, The SC asked the Centre to treat transgender as socially and economically backward. The apex court said that transgenders will be allowed admission in educational institutions and given employment on the basis that they belonged to the third gender category.
The SC said absence of law recognizing hijras as third gender could not be continued as a ground to discriminate them in availing equal opportunities in education and employment. This is for the first time that the third gender has got a formal recognition. The third gender people will be considered as Other Backward Classes [OBC]s, the SC said. The SC said they will be given educational and employment reservation as OBCs.
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| Lakshmi Narayan Tripathi |
The SC said the states must construct special public toilets and departments to look into their special medical issues. The SC also added that if a person surgically changes his/her sex, then he or she is entitled to her changed sex and can not be discriminated. But, The bench clarified that its verdict pertains only to eunuchs and not other sections of society like gay, lesbian and bisexuals who are also considered under the umbrella term 'transgender'.
Welcoming the Supreme Court decision, Lakshmi Narayan Tripathi, transgender rights activist said, "the progress of the country is dependent upon human rights of the people and we are very happy with the judgment as the Supreme court has given us those rights."
But who are these Eunachs? and where did they come from? Since the days of record-able history, India was plagued with two main genders: Male and Female. From fiction to reality, these genders ruled Indian society. It was only from around 1200AD with the advent of the Turkish rulers did the third gender begin to make its presence in Indian folk, political and social scenes. So what was the importance of the Eunuch in Turkey that their rulers found fthem worthy of being introduced in the Indian sub-continent?
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| Imperial Harem - Ottoman Empire |
The Imperial Harem or Harem-i Hümâyûn of the Ottoman Empire, existing between 1299 and 1923, was the Ottoman sultan's harem composed of the wives, servants (both female slaves and eunuchs), female relatives, and the sultan's concubines, occupying a secluded portion of the Ottoman imperial household. This institution played an important social function within the Ottoman court, and demonstrated considerable political authority in Ottoman affairs, especially during the long period known as the Sultanate of Women.
The utmost authority in the Imperial Harem was the Valide Sultan (queen mother), who ruled over the other women in the household and was often of slave origin herself. The Kizlar Agha, also known as the "Chief Black Eunuch" because of the black African origin, was the head of the eunuchs responsible for guarding the Imperial Harem.
At Topkapı Palace, at the court of the Ottoman sultans, the harem staff commonly included eunuchs. These were slaves, either captured in war (mainly Christian Europeans in the Balkans) or recruited within the empire (especially from the Caucasus and blacks from Sudan) or even beyond (especially in Abyssinia). Black eunuchs usually were Sandali ('clean shaven' i.e. their genitalia were removed completely), hence they were preferred for harem service, while white eunuchs usually kept part of their penis or testicles, so they were assigned to less 'intimate' duties, e.g. secretarial. They were often donated to the Sultan by his governors, in total about six- to eight hundred.
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| The Black Eunach |
The castrated servicemen in the Muslim and Turkish states in the Middle Ages were recruited to serve in the palace from the times of Sultan Mehmed I onwards. These eunuchs who were trained in the palace and were given the charge of guarding the harem rose in rank after serving in many positions. The harem eunuchs and the harem organization were under the command of the Chief harem eunuch, who was also called the Master of the Girls (Kızlar Ağası) or Chief Black Eunuch. They supervised the quarters where the female population of the palace lived. They had influence on the palace and later on the state administration in the 17th and 18th centuries as they had access to the sultan and the sultan's family and became very powerful. Eunuchs at the Ottoman court were preferably taken from Africa, especially Sudan.
The Turks later invaded India in the 11th Century commencing with the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni who drove his forces into India from Afghanistan after first defeating the Hindushahi Kings of Peshawar and the Muslim Rulers of Multan. Though their rule started with mere invasions and loot. The Turks soon made their presence known in India over a considerable span of time and produced three great Monarchs: Qutb-ud-din Aibak who built the Qutb Minar. His daughter Razia Sultan who became India's first Queen and was assassinated in six months for being a Queen and his brother Iltutmish.
Apart from merging the Dervish Dancers of Konya who later became the Sufi dancers of India and merging the Indo - Turkish vocabulary chief being Turkish Airlines : Türk Hava Yolları where Hava is air in Hindi, the Turks brought in their prized possessions: The Eunachs.
Initially brought in with the sole purpose of administration and guarding the Harem, a task in which they had made a reputed name for themselves, they soon began to charm and influence the animalistic beliefs of the local Hindu populace.
Eunuchs were highly valued for their strength, ability to provide protection for ladies' palaces and trustworthiness, allowing eunuchs to live amongst women with fewer worries. This enabled eunuchs to serve as messengers, watchmen, attendants and guards for palaces. Often, eunuchs also doubled as part of the King's court of advisers.
Besides, the Hindus considered the Kings as their Gods, as was witnessed in many cultures across the world, chief being the relationships shared between the Egyptians and their Pharoahs. So here too the Sultan was given Divine status; and as the eunachs shared an intimate role with the Sultan, they too were soon hailed to the heavens with many attributed with the powers of healing and cursing. The ceremony is supposed to bring good luck and fertility, while the curse of an unappeased hijra is feared by many. They are integral to several Hindu ceremonies which is primary form of their livelihood. They are a part of dance programs (sometimes adult) in marriage ceremonies. They also perform certain ceremonies for the couple in Hindu tradition.
But with the departure of the Turkish Rule and the subsequent arrival of other powerful dynasties, the eunuchs who remained now became a political and social threat to the dominence of the new Kings who were heavily under the advise of their respective councils who viewed the eunuchs as stiff competitions and needed to be exiled.
They began a villification process to epic proportions that though it took many a generation to oust an entity of Heavenly Might, the results were soon to go against the Eunuchs and today the once moost powerful people who decorated the corridors of power are themselves powerless as no self respecting community, society or even company would want to hire and worse still, be associated with them such that they today, typically live in the lowest margins of society and face discrimination. A major means to earn their living are: by coming uninvited at weddings, births, new shop openings and other major family events and singing until they are paid or given gifts to go away. Other sources of income for the hijra are begging and prostitution. The begging is accompanied by singing and dancing and the hijras usually get the money easily. Even in social life calling another a Eunach is almost always said with negative and crude connotations with the receiver rejecting it with disgust.
Some Indian provincial officials have used the assistance of hijras to collect taxes in the same fashion; they knock on the doors of shopkeepers, while dancing and singing, and embarrass them into paying. It is said that if the individual does not cough up the money they will start to undress, much to the embarrassment of the hapless miser and will finally show their famed scar of castration which is considered to be the ultimate curse on any household.
Recently, hijras have started to found organizations to improve their social condition and fight discrimination, such as the Shemale Foundation Pakistan.
It is only now in 2014, that the Supreme Court of India accepted and adopted with immediate effect, the third gender as an official gender. But its actual assimilation into the social fabric of the country will take a few generations as change though constant is a very slow process especially when one has to convert a wrong into a right as no man wants to change his thought process that easily.
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| Eunach Upliftment Foundation - India |
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