The disembodied self: Understanding the practice of Castration among the transgender

Abstract

The socially constructed notion of ‘self’ requires one to derive the idea of ‘self’ from the body one is born with. The transgender community presents an antithesis to this dominant idea and practice. The term "transgender," being an umbrella category, encompasses diverse people with diverse notions about self, self-expression, and sexuality. It is a social group with its own histories, nomenclature, beliefs, and practices. In India itself, transgenders are known by different names in different places and have different sub-groups/gharanas within them. This study focuses on the transgender individuals located in the Chandigarh-Mohali belt of India, known as the hijras. This paper tried to historically locate the practice of castration among the hijras in the region mentioned. The study also tried to understand the social and emotional impact of the nirvana ritual upon the individuals. The study was conducted by employing snowball sampling and qualitative research techniques like observation and unstructured interviews. One of the primary findings of this work is that it is due to the need for self-expression, livelihood and protection that many transgender individuals were forced to leave the society where they were born and join different transgender groups. But the Supreme Court granting hijras the identity of the third gender offers a new hope of wider acceptance of their idea of self and self-expression by society. Accordingly, the need to move away and the necessity to be a member of a group that may follow certain practices which an individual may not conform to, is likely to diminish.