Conclusion: “I am Not a Hijra”: Opportunities, Inequalities, and the Perils of Inclusion

Summary

This book has explored the emergence of new forms of gender identity in India, emphasizing how ideas about modernity and economic liberalization come together to shape emerging trans women identities in Bangalore. I have traced how recent social changes connected to economic liberalization in India have enabled some feminine-presenting GNC people to live “independent” of hijras. These changes are understood as empowering for younger GNC people who can access resources previously available only through hijra groups.

When we put these changes in the context of increased global media coverage of transgender issues, the emergence of trans women is not that surprising. What is intriguing is how trans women are being framed in contrast to hijras. Unlike in countries of the Global North, where there is a pervasive idea that gender nonconformity is somehow new,1 gender nonconformity has been recognizable (if not exactly intelligible) for centuries2 (and possibly millennia) in India. This means Indian trans identities have emerged in a context where gender nonconformity is recognized through the historical presence of hijras (and some other GNC categories). These understandings about hijras shape how transgender people, and especially trans women, are understood.

Due to social change that promises greater inclusion, some trans women have gained newfound freedoms. This has meant that many of these trans women can envision themselves as “new” (and respectably middle-class) women. Like their cisgender women counterparts from the past, these trans women distance and differentiate themselves from their “other,” the disreputable hijra. In their quest to be recognized as respectable women, the trans women in this book valorize this newly available pathway to respectability while simultaneously devaluing other pathways available to GNC people, especially those associated with hijras.

It might be tempting to assume that GNC identities inherently challenge the gender binary, given that these identities are explicitly “nonconforming.” It would therefore make sense to think of GNC identities as encouraging less conformity to dominant ideas about gender. However, the actions of the trans women in this book bring such assumptions into question, since these trans women consciously position themselves within the gender binary as they strive for upward mobility.