We follow the mother of Mughi Mata, Besraji – the Hindu goddess, the
mother hen – from Ahmedabad, in Gujarat. From Mahemdabad…. We don’t
distinguish be tween Hindu and Muslim deities. All castes are represented here.
Hindu and Muslims alike… There used to be an occasion – Basant
Panchami – when the whole family [the hijra house unit] got together.
Bet we don’t celebrate it any longer because there’s been a split
in the family, a bit of a rift. It used to happen one month before Holi. Now,
you know the flower of the mango? They make garlands out of those flowers and
then people wear them. The pitcher is filled with water, and the y put the
garland into these pitchers; they cover it with a spice-soaked scarf and then,
with ginger and slivers of sugarcane stalk, they make a strand, and they put
the ‘Mata’ – the goddess – on top of it. Having installed
it, they tie the cane slivers together, and the jigras sing and dancing, dancing,
come up to the door – the ‘gulal’ in one hand, the ginger
in another. But now, there’s been a split, no? Our family used to do
it all together. Muslims and Hindus both.
-Kamal Baksh, hijra
(Jaffery 105) 
If there’s happiness in your heart…and you call four of us, we
come and make you happy…. That’s what we learned from out elders… We
dance and make our money that way…We can’t leave this work. This
is what we’ve learned. And we can’t give it up. This is what we’ve
got from our elders. And this is what we have to pass on. And we can’t
give it up.
-Kamal Baksh, hijra
(Jaffery 129)
During the Kutb Shahi times.. a minister [Khalij Khan, a powerful prime minister]
was sent to bring Taramati and Pemamati [famous female singers]. He was told
by the king to bring them. But the minister said, ‘Give me forty days,
so that I can sit in “chilla,” in seclusion, and when I healed,
I will come to the court and I’ll go and get the girls.’ Before
he went, he gave ‘some-thing precious’ to be kept in the treasury
of the king. Then he went to bring Pemamati and Taramati. He brought them,
but what happened? The other ministers of the cour led the king to believe:
Look, you’ve sent him to bring Pemamati and Taramati, but instead, he’s
fallen in love with them! And they have fallen in love with him! So the king
said that the minister should be hanged. But the minister said that a ‘darbar,’ a
court, should be called – ‘Listen to what I have to say, then punish
me accordingly.’ The king said, ‘Before you’re executed,
what do you want?’ He said, ‘I just want to be present in a court – and
hear me out.’ After that, when the court was in session, the minister
said to the king, ‘Sir, when I was leaving, I asked you to keep something
of value in your treasury house. Have it brought out, and let your servants
open it.’ So they opened it. And there was his ‘wealth.’ The
king said, ‘What is this?’ The minister said, ‘You haven’t
recognized it? So now, sir, you are the king, all these people have misled
you. I became like this before I left.’ So the king said, ‘I’m
sorry that I misunderstood you,’ and forgave him. Then he was se free.”
-Kamal Baksh, hijra
(Jaffery 135)
She [Zia Jaffery?] seems to have caught a cold...tell her to boil an eff in
the night, peel it, and put it in a pitcher. Keep it there for three hours,
then eat it. All the cold will disappear.
-Kamal Baksh, hijra
(Jaffery 135)
Because we were impotent, we became like this. See, nowadays, many get into
the house of a different sort… But if we do, it brings a bad name to
the hijras. This way, we can go into to the places where women are. People
know we do not have male powers, so they let us in….Now I am seventy… Then,
I must have been thirty. I had gone to Molla ka Moharrum for a ceremony. In
the night I did it [castration/initiation ritual]. Everyone said, ‘You’re
not a hijra,’ and I couldn’t prove it, so I was ashamed. Nobody
saw what I was doing. I was in an outlying village. An old lady was with me;
she looked after me. ‘What kind of hijra are you?’ they were saying.
So I did it myself.”
-Kamal Baksh, hijra
(Jaffery 247)
I had goone to ask for money, and they started laughing at me. So I decided
to do it. On the way back, I did it. There used to be an old lady with me;
she stayed with me and cooked. Suppose there was a birth in your house? How
could I enter [the women’s areas]? Especially the men would ask, who
are you? So we have to prove ourselves.”
-Kamal Baksh, hijra
(Jaffery 248)
There are hijras in America! … That custom is there too. But the difference
is, there they live with men. We don’t have that kind of custom. We don’t
keep men….Everywhere all over India, in villages, cities, there are hijras!
There is no place where you wouldn’t find them.
-Kamal Baksh, hijra
(Jaffery 249)
We have a society – we are attached to it. We have laws… It is
a happy occasion to be called a ‘chela.’ [the word once meant ‘slave’]…the
momenet they enter this house they become ‘chela.’ The guru chooses
the chela… Some people’s parents bring them… sometimes they
come on their own. Then we make them bring the parent to the panchayat [jusdicial
meeting’, so th eone who has come can decide whom he wants to be the
chela to. He can choose his own guru….When they [the parents] see that
he is not one among them [they bring the child]… From childhood you can
tell what the child’s bent is…. If he is a boy, he acts like one.
But if he has a feminine bent, he will play among the girls. Parents feel the
pulse of the boy through his character…. Isn’t it like that in
America?… It’s one and the same thing…over there, they also
become like us…they must be wearing gowns…Yes, it is the same thing
over there. After the operation, they turn them into females. So basically,
and internally, if the soul is feminine, they become that…. If the child’s
soul is feminine, then whether there is an operation or not doesn’t make
any difference.”
-Shameem Baksh, hijra
(Jaffery 257)
“ Some say our house is four hundred years old. Others say it is three hundred
years old. You see, it started in Turkistan. Turkistan’s kings had many
wives – so, for looking after them, this tradition started. [blessing is]
from earlier times…See in the Hindu religion, it is like this: ‘any
good occasion.’ Now, how to tell you the story of the who religion? We
are called Mangala Mukhi – ‘auspicious face.’ Suppose there
is a happy occasion in your house; out of respect, the youngest of the household
will not dance or sing before their elders, so they call us. So Mangala Mukhis’ work
is to go on happy occasions and sing and dance and bless…This is from earlier
times.. The Sikhandi avater, in theHindu religion. It has come from the ‘Mohinini’ avatar…This
is from God’s time. Even God took on an avatar – the incarnation
of the dance – to kill the devil. Since then, a lot of avatars have come,
and we start our work with their names….Hindu, Muslim – all mixed.
We don’t make a distinction…[we worship] Shiva, Krishna – and
his incarnations.
-Shameem Baksh, hijra
(Jaffery 258)
I constantly think, “Why did God make enunchs?” A mother has 4
children, why is just one a eunuch? Of course, it is from God, but why does
only one boy feel he wants to dress like a woman? What this is, I do not understand.
No one can explain this question. Everyone has their own little theories.
A eunuch has a male body, but the spirit is female. Why does this happen? No
one becomes a eunuch by choice, meaning no one says, “I want to be a
eunuch.” But there is no other way…you cannot say that a eunuch
is a homosexual. We are the third sex.
If God came in front of me, I would ask him, “Why did you make me like
this; why did you make me born if you had to make me born as the third sex?
And if you did make me the third sex, why did you not ensure respect in society
for us?”
Even as far back as the Ramayana (epic Hindu scripture), there are mentions
of eunuchs. When king Ram went into exile for 14 years, all his subjects followed
him into the jungle. He asked them all to return, but he said, “All men
and women should go home,” and they did. But he did not mention the eunuchs,
so they stayed there and waited for him for 14 years.
When he returned form his 14-year exile, the first people he saw were the eunuchs,
and he asked them who they were. They said, “You asked the men and women
to leave but said nothing to us, so we stayed.” He was so impressed that
he gave them a boon, that when there will be kalyug (the era of Kali, the Hindu
Goddess of destruction) on this earth, the eunuchs would rule. But now we are
in the worst times in history, but not eunuchs are ruling. Or maybe we are
ruling. They barge into people’s homes, give blessings, and charge 11,000
rupees. Then they have fancy cars and mobile phones. But still, there is no
respect for them in society.
The only social role that eunuchs have is that they are called to give a blessing.
Otherwise, they have no social role. Hindustani [Indian] people believe the
eunuchs have the power to give blessings, because they are neither man nor
woman, and people believe all eunuchs are God-created.
Their role has not changed, but all these buildings with flats [apartments]
make it difficult to enter the places where there may be a celebration.
-Mona Ahmed, hijra
(Singh 63)