“It is an unhappy life, knocking on people’s doors, begging for crumbs. Opportunities are closed to us and most are not as educated as I am… We leave our families at a young age and live together because no one else would want us.”
-Heera Bai, hijra and Jabalpur City Council Member Times

“[People] seem to trust us…we act only for the welfare of the people.”
-Kamla Jaan, hijra, former Mayor of the city of Katni, Madya Pradesh
Times

" You [Voters] have tried men and women, now try me . . . They (politicians) have only betrayed you. Now you try me and see what I can do for you. I have always lived with you. I have no children; I cannot have any children. Whatever I will do, I will do for you … You see, if I had my way, I would want only eunuchs to rule this state [Madya Pradesh] . . . I want to build a national party for eunuchs and enter parliament.
-Suraiya, hijra
Kumar

Everything is fair in love, war and politics . . . My main aim is to fight the social and political discrimination against eunuchs and bring about constitutional amendments to guarantee basic rights to eunuchs, including gender acknowledgement, reservations in government jobs and social security against crimes like sexual harassment . . .I am from a well-to-do family. My parents are Indian Administrative Service officers while my sister is studying in the US. I am not with them since I am not normal. I always pray for my family's well being.
Imran Ajmeri, hijra
Bhatt

Once there was a prince whos parents wanted to get him married. The boy did not want to get married, but his parents insisted. They selected this goddess as his wife, and the marriage took place. He was a very handsome boy, but the Mata was also a very beautiful lady. But after the marriage the husband and wife never joined together. On the first night, leaving the goddess alone in the nuptial room, the prince rode away into the forest. The goddess waited till dawn and felt very angry that her husband had left her. This went on for some months.
The goddess felt very hurt and decided to investigate. So one night she followed him on a path to the forest clearing where the prince had been acting like the Hijras. She was puzzled by what she had seen and returned home. When her husband returned, she said to him, “I want to ask you something, do not get angry at me. Don’t you feel that you mush have your wife by you?” Then the prince fell at her feet and told her, “Mother, if I had the urge for a wife and children I wouldn’t have left you and gone away. I am neither a man nor a woman, and that is the truth.
The goddess got very angry and said, “they have spoiled my life by hiding the facts, and therefore your life will also be spoiled. Hereafter, people like you should be nirvan [undergo emasculation in order to be reborn].” So say8ing, she cut off his genitals. After cutting off his genitals she said, “People like you, who are going to have this nirvan, should call me at that time.” After this the prince took on the form of a woman. So that is why whenever there is an (emasculation) operation to be preformed, we call the Mata. During the operation she is with us and afterwards we live in her power.” -Unknown Hijra (Nanda 25)

One time there was a kind in Hyderabad. There was a great drought during his reign. There were two Hijras sitting in the road… The people of the country went and told the king, “do something about the drought, the whole country is famished and the people are dying. The king said, “what can I do? I can’t do anything, you people must approach those two Hijras who are sitting there by the roadside.” The people spoke to the king with contempt and said, “Why should we ask them instead of you?” The king said, “If anything at all can be done, only they can do it, not me.”
So then the king himself went to the Hijras and told them, “There is a drought, people are dying, and the city wants rain. If you make rain, you can live here; if the rain doesn’t come you must go outside the city to live.” The two Hijras who were sitting together were mother and daughter [guru and chela, elder and junior]. The daughter said, “Look, mother, so many people have come, let us tell some lies and run away.” But the mother said, “wait, please, I’ll do something. God will look after me.” So she took the cloth from the upper part of her body and dipped it in a cup of water and gave it to the people to take with them. Then, she said, the rain will come.
Immediately the lightning and thunder came and rain started pouring down; everyone was neck deep in water, it was such a heavy downpour. Then the mother said “enough” and the rain stopped. The people cam back to see the Hijras but they were gone, and the place they had been sitting in was submerged in water. So the king ordered that wherever hijras were seen in that city they should be respected and that is why that city is full of hijras.
-Unknow hijra
(Nanda 32)

Do you know why we hijras travel free on the trains from Poona northward? There is no rule to ask us for the train fare. Not even the central Government can ask us. What happened was that there was a hijra who had just got operated on, she had become nirvan. The people, after the operation, put her on a train. It was just the seventh day after the operation. The people traveling in the train were making fun of her and bullying her. The ticket collector and the others made her get down from the train. On top of this the ticket collector kicked her.
“Mata,” she prayed, “if you’re true, and it is true that you’ve given me back my life, and if my procession is to be done after 30 days, if you want to same my life, this train must not start from here. Then only will I realize you are the truth.”
Then the signal was given and the train had to start, but it could not start. There was a big crowd around the hijra and the people asked her what had happened. She said, “I’m an old hijra and I’ve just got the operation done under the name of the Mata. If you want the train to start, put me back on the train.” Then they made her sit in the train, but still the train would not start. Then she realized that she had prayed wrong, so she put a cloth on her head and prayed to Mata: “I want this train to start. Then only I can reach my place and also the other passengers can go with difficulty.
Then the train immediately started. From this time on there was no rule to ask a ticket from the hijras on any train. We can even dance in the train, beg in the train, nobody will say anything. From Poona onward, the whole of North India we can travel.
-Unnamed Hijra Elder (Nanda 32)

1.Bearak, Barry. “Pox on Politicians. A Eunuch You Can Trust.” New York Times. New York, NY: Jan. 19, 2001. pg. A4
2.ibid.
3.Kumar, Palash. “Eunuchs test Politicians in India’s Make-or-Break Polls.
4.Bhatt, Pratik. “Eunuch Set to Take on Advani in Polls.” Indo-Asian New Service. Ahmedabad: Mar 28, 2004