Hijra

'Hijra' is the term for a social group and third-gender role in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, with a tradition that goes back centuries. Hijras are generally people who were assigned male at birth (AMAB) and present themselves in a feminine role, sometimes with religious or ceremonial significance. Since 2014, India has formally recognized 'hijra' as a third gender.

What does it mean?

Hijra is not an exact synonym for 'transgender': it is a cultural and social role with its own community structures (so-called gharanas led by a guru), religious functions (blessings at weddings and births), and a specific social history. Some hijras undergo castration ('nirvan'); others do not. The experience cannot be directly mapped onto Western gender categories.

Distinction and overlap

In contemporary activist language, 'hijra' is sometimes presented as the equivalent of 'Indian transgender', but this does an injustice to the distinctiveness of the tradition. Comparable third-gender roles elsewhere include kathoey (Thailand), fa'afafine (Samoa), muxe (Mexico), and two-spirit (Indigenous North America).

Social and practical context

Legal recognition in India (2014, the NALSA ruling) gave hijras official status, but their socioeconomic position remains vulnerable: many hijras live in poverty, without regular employment or housing. This pattern is more widespread and is discussed in trans people and poverty. The community has its own survival economy, partly based on traditional blessing rituals and partly on informal work.

Critical perspectives

Recent Western identification of hijra with 'non-binary' or 'transgender' projects contemporary categories onto an ancient tradition that looks fundamentally different. Hijra is a social and religious role in its own right; adding the label to a global 'gender diversity' canon may do more to diminish than to honor the tradition. How Western debates invoke hijra as evidence is also discussed in gender and religion and in trans people in history. At the same time, the economic and social precarity faced by many hijras is real.