Watch: The Story Of India's Hijra Community

The Hijra community is one of the oldest gender non-conforming communities in South Asia and we've heard about them throughout history for centuries. It was never unusual to see them incorporated well into the functioning of the societal pyramid where their roles changed as did the society. From the Mughal period to the British Raj, we will tell in brief how their stories changed.

During the Mughal Period

In contemporary times, India and Pakistan have legally recognised them as the third gender. They are usually assigned the male sex at birth but sometimes they are born intersex as well. Through history, we will first look at the Mughal period where the roles given to the Hijra community were well established. For a larger part, they were accepted and given important positions in the royal Mughal household as bodyguards and personal attendants to the queens. They would perform and ask for 'badhai' (a token of good luck) during children's birth and marriages. They had a well-knit community and were not looked down upon as they were during the British Raj which started in the 1800s. 

Destruction of the British Raj

During the British Raj, the social and political outlook of the country had changed. The perspective towards Indian culture and heritage became more anglicised and Western which caused a shift from the traditional Indian values and practices. This change hit the Hijra community and they lost the recognition they had in the earlier Mughal rule. The British labelled them as 'crossdressers', 'beggars' and 'unnatural prostitutes'.

The term 'eunuchs' which was a derogatory label was given to the Hijra community by the Britishers, this added to a list of the things that made the political and social scenario insufferable for the Hijra community. An act passed in 1871, The Criminal Tribes Act classified Hijras as criminals further making things more complicated and their life illegal. British officials merely wanted a firm grasp over the political and social spheres of the country and the fastest way of doing this was by categorising the Indian populous into different religions, communities, gender and caste. 

The British also passed Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (1861) which condemned the act of homosexuality. This affected their daily living and earnings by performing and wearing clothes of their choice. The law was recently struck down in 2018 by the Supreme Court, giving LGBTQIA recognition after years. Even today, many taboos and stereotypes revolve around this community but with enough awareness and knowledge about their past and cultural significance we can make a change.