I
have been researching hijra for over one year. I always argued that identity is
not only about how a person feels. It is very deeply rooted with culture,
language and place a person belong. Where are living explain a lot about what
kind of social and economical background a person belongs. When I visited hijra
community in my country I discovered small government funded houses where
hijras live. Insufficiency of proper education, healthcare, sanitation but at
the same time I noticed very strong bond and hierarchy of guru chela family
system. By their unique way of living, religious and cultural practices they gave
those place a meaning. Not just a government funded property. In the reading Tim
Cresswell talked about how place is more than just a location. A place has
meaning because people, memories, experiences and relationships connected to it.
Even Judith Lorber also explains that gender is not just biological but
something that is shaped by society. When I connect these ideas into my
research on Hijra identity, I start to see how much geography matters. I was so
convinced that its totally about how law recognized them but now I see it from
a geographic lens also. Hijra identity in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan is not
same even though these countries share a lot of history and culture. The way hijra
people are seen the names they use and the way they live can depend a lot on
where they are.
I
think I used the reference of Adnan Hossain most in my academic paper. His work
on “De Indianizing Hijra” was outstanding. Let’s not
forget gender identity is political. As we know, gender is socially constructed
and place is where people practice power. Whoever controls the narrative
controls the place by which I mean the interpretation of identity itself. That’s
why till this day we are struggling to give proper clarification of hijra
identity or maybe we just don’t want to. The question is not if the Society needs
a space to do the dirty job, the question is what identity they are abusing to create
that space. If look at media most of the
narratives, even the word hijra is popularized by Indian media. To be very specific north Indian narrative while
there are other regional names of such people. In Bangladesh hijra identity has
its own social and religious context too. Where religious divinity is popular
in Indian narrative, but Bangladeshi narrative focus less on spiritual divinity
in comparison with Indian narrative instead they have tendency to assume it in
a lens of genital deformity. This connects us to Cresswell’s idea of sense of place
because people understand themselves through the places they live in. The same
identity can have different meaning in Dhaka, Delhi, Lahore because each place
has its own history, culture, religion and social rules.
_focal(600,400)_https___media.globalcitizen.org_36_73_367392e3-74f6-42a9-8db9-a99d9f83d725_hijra.webp)
The
idea of home is also another important part of hijra identity. In our reading
wood and beck mentioned that home is not just a building. Every home has its
own sets of rules. Like whom belongs, how people are supposed to behave and
what is considered normal. One undeniable tragedy of hijras is often they are
rejected by their families because of their gender identity or gender
expression. Often, they end up in deras, a communal space (Alamgir & Azhar,
2025). These deras are safe shelter of hijras but at the same time it has its
own sets of rules and hierarchies what is known as Guru Chela system. Where the
guru act as a mentor or family figure. Guru is at the top level of this family structure.
Who provides safety, shelter and create space for cultural practices and gender
expression without the fear of exclusion.
This
really made me question what we really mean when we say home. A person can live
in the house where they grew up but if that person doesn’t feel safe or accepted
then does it count as home? On the other hand, dera may not be able to provide wealthy
environment but it creates a space for recognition and acceptance. I think the
most of interesting part of hijra geography is not about where you live. It’s
about where you feel that you belong.
References
Cresswell,
Tim. 2004. Place: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Lorber,
Judith. 2004. “The Social Construction of Gender.”
Wood,
Denis, and Robert J. Beck. Home Rules. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press.
Blackwood,
Evelyn. 2005. “Women’s Intimate Friendships and Other Affairs: An Ethnographic
Overview.”
Design
Studio for Social Intervention. Spatial Justice: A Frame for Reclaiming Our
Rights to Be, Thrive, Express, and Connect.
Hossain,
A. (2018). De-Indianizing Hijra. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-6900710
Alamgir,
A., & Azhar, S. (2025). Belonging Beyond Margins: Relocation, Housing
Insecurity, and Naming Politics of Young Transgender People in Pakistan. Belonging,
1, 350 - 363. https://doi.org/10.1177/30290805251398411
Thank you Ariq, for sharing this. I've only read a little about hijras before, but I've always found their existence and participation in public space fascinating, especially because they push us to think more broadly about what gender, sex, and sexuality mean in practice. Your work also helped me see how space is shaped by their presence, and the other way around.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but see parallels between the lived realities of hijras and those of other gender non-conforming groups in Latin America, particularly in how they are often pushed out of their family homes and forced to find or create a home elsewhere. These new contexts are shaped by new social relations, usually with people who are not relatives but who have gone through similar adverse experiences.
I noticed that photography is one of your main focuses and research methods, so I think you'd enjoy learning about a transfeminist archive in Argentina called *El Archivo de la Memoria Trans Argentina* (https://archivotrans.ar/index.php/videos).
Lastly, I want to say that I'm impressed you've done research with them. It must be a unique experience to get to know a group of people who are constantly resisting the systems that oppress and exclude them, in the process of becoming their true selves.
Thank you for sharing your research, experience, and thoughts; this post is very informative and insightful. Before your post, I had never heard of the hijra identity and upon further research I discovered that while not necessarily aligned with Western definitions of “queer,” hijras are similar to queer youth in America in that they must develop their own meanings of home. In Spaces of Culture and Identity Production: Home, Consumption, and the Media by Whitson (2017), it is noted that the cultural norms that regulate gender are deeply interconnected with how a person understands “home.” It appears that in both South Asia and the United States, people who do not conform to traditional gender norms often face estrangement from their homes and families. As mentioned in your post, when hijras flee or are forced from their homes, they seek out deras: safe, communal spaces where they can exist freely. Here, youth must engage in the process of placemaking, defined by the Design Studio for Social Intervention (2012) as a process reliant on spatial awareness that fosters open and inclusive social change. One way hijras place-make is by establishing their own family networks through the Guru-Chela system, as you also reflect on in your post.
ReplyDeleteThis discussion of the spatial experience of hijras and the concept of placemaking as a labor of those who do not conform to normative identity categories is also related to more recent class material within the Urban Structure and Design unit. In the video, Queering Public Space by Arup (2021), several options for making places safe for queer people are offered, but a statement at the end of the video particularly caught my attention. The person in the video notes that every space should be queer and queer-friendly because queer people will inevitably exist in every space. In other words, building queer spatial justice into the fabric of an environment is intuitive and takes the burden of placemaking off queer people.
While non-normative identities are still challenged throughout the world as seen in examples from South Asia and in the United States, changing the way we approach the construction of the built environment can pave the path for spatial justice.
Hi Ariq,
ReplyDeleteI found your post really interesting, especially the part about how a family house can be a familiar place but not necessarily a safe one. It made me think about what we actually mean when we talk about choosing to leave home. If someone leaves because their family rejects who they are, how much of a choice is that? And can we really call it freedom? I also found the idea of the dera fascinating. It can offer acceptance, safety, and a sense of belonging, even when material conditions are far from ideal. This connects with Cresswell's idea that a place becomes meaningful through people's experiences and relationships. But what caught my attention was the guru–chela hierarchy. A place can offer protection and community while also having rules that limit individual freedom. So I wonder, can we feel at home somewhere if we don't have much control over our lives there? Your post made me think about how complicated belonging really is. Perhaps finding home is not just about being accepted, but also about being able to be yourself on your own terms.
E.