Transgender in India: A Glossary

While transgender, gender-fluid and non-binary people exist in India in many forms, traditional so-called third gender communities are especially visible in the discourse around the subject in the country. In the past, membership in these groups was often driven by marginalization, while third gender Indians have also been revered in past centuries, according to historical research, and continue to fill roles connected to religion, spirituality and rituals.

The most common word for members of these traditional communities is the umbrella term hijra. The word of Persian origin is loosely translated as eunuch, but came to refer to those who are typically part of certain third gender communities and identify as women or neither women nor men, therefore often described as third gender in India. While castration continues to be practiced in these communities, gender-affirming surgery has more recently become an option even though not all hijras chose either option. Transgender or third gender discourse in India mostly focuses on male-to-female transgender, third gender or intersex individuals which have been much more visible in society in the past as well as the present and were defined in the 2014 Indian Supreme Court ruling officially recognizing the third gender in India.

Traditional hijra communities include Aravani in Tamil Nadu and Shiv-shakthis in Andhra Pradesh. They are associated with the worship of the gods Aravan and Shiva, respectively. In Maharashtra and Karnataka, Jogti hijras are a community of temple servants who worship the god Yellamma. While some hijra communities are closely tied to gods and their worship, most of them are smaller units with an intricate kinship system centered around a guru and their initiation and form a sort of chosen family or a tight-knit, but often hierarchical community. Many perform ritualistic functions like blessings or dances and songs that in the Hindu religion are considered beneficial for newlyweds and newborns. Despite their perceived powers in Hindu belief, hijras still experience harassment and discrimination outside of their community functions and within their biological families, some of this believed to be rooted in the era of British colonialism that criminalized hijra communities. Begging and sex work are still common among them and their original caste origins can govern their experiences within hijra communities despite these sometimes described as exiting outside the caste system.

More recently, the North Indian term kinnar has been used as a intentional self-identification term in the region and beyond. A similar term is thirunangai from Tamil, translated as respected or refined woman.