Indian Transgender: Socio-Cultural Aspects of Hijra Community and the Oppression

Being neither male nor female, the Hijras, or transgender people, are social misfits in Indian culture. People who identify as Hijras in India form a culturally unique gender category. Hijras' culture, nationality, demeanour, and gender preference remain unknown to the general public. In the developing world, social injustice and persecution have never received much attention. It has endured for a very long time and developed into a distinct cultural group in the Indian subcontinent despite being severely neglected. In many Hindu stories, narratives, customs, religious roles, and beliefs, dual gender depiction is encouraged. Due to portrayals of hijras in rituals, rites of passage rituals, fables, mythologies, urban legends, and folk art, hijras have been able to build a culturally relevant, regulated, and structured sector within Indian cultures. Their identities are clearly located outside of the heteronormative family, which is thought of as the ideal standard. The Hijra community creates a distinct social family and related subsystems, which turns into a crucial aspect of hijra identity. The current study concerns the social structure of hijra culture and the crises faced by the Indian Transgenders. The study has taken the self-narratives of transgender writers A.Revathi, and Living Smile Vidya.