India's eunuchs

India's eunuchs seek new way

By Sanghamitra Chakraborty in Tamil Nadu

Eunuchs have been ostracised for years.

Sudha is dusky and wears a salwar kameez, a traditional dress for women in India, but no make-up. She is a eunuch (or "aruvani" as they now prefer to be called) and represents a group of transsexuals seeking respect for their identity and greater acceptance in society.

"While transgender people must protect their identity, we are willing to do our bit to gain acceptance," says Sudha on the sidelines of a community festival in southern Tamil Nadu state.

"If necessary we will dress down, tone down our speech, even desist from the commonly misunderstood practice of 'clapping' and negotiate with people in work and social settings." Since most hijras end up being stereotyped as cross-dressing men, feared for their lewdness and aggression, the aruvanis face many day-to-day challenges, linked with their identity.


New tactics
For most hijras, as Indian transsexuals are called, their physical appearance is an extension of their transgender identity. Lavish doses of make-up, flowing wigs, harsh, staccato clapping and aggressively sexual speech and body language are tokens of belonging, entrenched at an early age by community leaders.

Aruna and her friends want eunuchs to tone down their behaviour. Sudha and her friends want hijras to change tactics to win acceptance. Eunuch groups now participate in community-led inter-personal communication sessions regularly in what they see as a pragmatic way to learn how to negotiate with the mainstream.

"We are focusing on the aruvani being a woman in day-to-day life, not just in front of the mirror at home," says Sudha.
Bharathi Kannamma, an eunuch who edits a community journal, says the communication sessions seem to be addressing the problem.

"Earlier, when aruvanis were teased or harassed, they fought back often by shouting and using foul abuse. This created a bad impression in the minds of the general community," she says.


Spreading awareness
A trainer, Rajakumari, says eunuchs are much more in control of their lives after attending the sessions. "We aruvanis have achieved in the past two years what was left undone in the past 20 years. Wait and see what young aruvanis can do."

Aruna, transsexual
"When people mock or tease them, they don't take off in a rage as they understand that the public can be ignorant or insensitive," she says.

There is more on the minds of the aruvanis than celebrating their yearly festival in the village of Koovagam in Tamil Nadu.
"We're fighting for our right to live and work with dignity as other women do. The violence against transgender people must stop," says Sudha's friend Aruna, who marched along with 500 other transgender protesters.

"They lead many self-help groups working in Tamil Nadu, spreading awareness about safe sex and HIV to hundreds of transsexuals, many of whom are sex workers or beggars." Delhi-based historian activist Mario D' Penha says there is a "huge debate" raging in the eunuch community "about the right path to integration and whether they should be seen as eunuchs or women".

Not recognised as females by law, these castrated males face a very real identity crisis. Once their surgery has taken place they are no longer considered male and there is no legal framework in place to deal with them.

Eunuchs in India face an identity crisis

One of the most important aspects of the training is to impress upon the community the need for safe sex. Since many of them are extremely vulnerable to HIV, given their social isolation and low literacy levels, short films, documentaries and modern parables are used to improve social skills and to highlight health issues, such as the need to use condoms.

"From living on the fringes of society, they are not only working towards 'mainstreaming' themselves, but are now focusing on expression of their hidden talents that can contribute to them being accepted as citizens in their own rights," says Dr R Lakshmi Bai, chief of a local HIV prevention project.

Aruna is hopeful about the future. "This is the way to go. We aruvanis have achieved in the past two years what was left undone in the past 20 years. Wait and see what young aruvanis can do."

Talk about human interconnectedness!

Apparently, Nason, the cook who worked for my landlady and ran away around the time of Hindu New Year, was involved in the Colombo suicide attack. While we idly chatted about Sri Lankan cuisine, whether you add turmeric or ground ‘katagum’ to lady finger curry, three or four women took up residence in Nason’s apartment in Pettah district, Colombo 01. While Nason claims he is from Kandy – near Hunas Falls – he has an Indian Tamil accent, according to the landlady.

The LTTE is well equipped, with imported, contraband weapons and military-related technologies. Skilled technicians can operate satellite-controlled weapons; they have warplanes and ships. They have the military might, jaded youth to comprise their army, funds extorted from the global Tamil diaspora, the immense corruption within Sri Lankan government to work to their advantage, and a thirst for bloodshed, but no state. Meanwhile the flaccid, malevolent, racist government that is recognised and supported by the international community, is losing ground in terms of its military capacity and definitions for a peaceful future. So the back alleyways and shady wheeling and dealings rule this country; be prepared to bribe your way through it. With economic development and job growth only concentrated in Colombo, disenfranchisement, abject poverty, hopelessness looms in the rest of the country. It’s an easy entry point for the LTTE to ‘swoop in’ to offer jobs, cold hard cash, and a glimpse of infamy to many people living in poverty, primarily to Tamils like Nason.

I do not know the whole story of Nason’s involvement, only that the military police frequently stop by the residence to question my landlady, as his former employer. It is believed that he harboured in his apartment three or four women, possibly former garment workers, who knew the pregnant suicide bomber. It is possible that these women helped to get her fake identity cards, or they could have monitored the Army Headquarters and Hospital to check when the head of the Army arrived to the compound after lunch. Nason evidently knew everything about attack, and has since vanished, along with the three or four women accomplices. His daughter, Wani, who I met on her birthday, still calls the landlady to find out where he is. If he is discovered in Sri Lanka he will likely be detained, questioned with torture, imprisoned and executed in the most inhumane, incomprehensible way – many of the ‘disappeared’ Tamils who ended up in government hands during the last 20 years were cut into pieces and their mark on history was erased from within their unmarked, mass graves.

The blast that occurred on 27 April, injured an high-ranking army general, and killed several people including his driver and bodyguard. A young woman, plotted with the LTTE to become pregnant in order to qualify for maternity services at the Army hospital. Her fake papers stated that her husband was a Singhalese officer. This meticulous plan was carried out over six or seven months, all throughout the peace talks, lowlighting that the LTTE was never really serious about securing, long-term, sustainable peace. And I’m just in awe to know what went through this young woman’s head, how was she convinced to become a part of this scheme? Am I too bold to believe that this is a blatant attempt by masculinised military institutions to play on women’s perceived roles as mother/nurturer/docile/obedient/subordinate in order to achieve archaic, dehumanizing, violent ends? These perceived gender roles are more pronounced here, so it is not surprising that this pregnant LTTE cadre was never searched or questioned when she entered the compound. Or is it a way for the LTTE to show that it is willing to sacrifice its people (and instead offer a childless future) until it gets what it wants – in a rather disgusting tantrum?

The folks in Colombo – particularly the foreigners - are still shaken by the immense violence that shrouds this talented, beautiful, glorious ‘pearl of the Indian Ocean’. And most people I talk to cannot wrap their heads around these events. But I wonder if by the LTTE using a young woman and unborn child to scaremonger the comparably rich denizens of Colombo into reacting, into giving land rights, recognition of state, sovereignty…if they do not just undermine their cause? If they do not just fit more easily into the rest of the world’s misguided, simplistic, dichotomous conceptions about terrorism, i.e. Hollywood ‘good’ vs. ‘evil.’ With no value for human life, how can this circle of so-called leftist intellectuals and foreign-educated elites pretend that they are fighting for the ‘dignity’ of Tamils in Sri Lanka? What about the Tamil tea pickers, completely fucked over by North and East Tamil communities, by Singhalese compatriots, and by foreign plantation owners, investors and probably the slough of foreign development workers? What about the Veddah indigenous peoples also absent in the discussions on how the former colony of Ceylon should operate, implement human rights, and grant access to basic services and profound freedoms? Hence the pernicious fight between zealous Buddhist nationalists and a corrupt circle of criminals claiming to represent the views of the marginalised Tamil communities, sees no end. One colleague described this war in everything but name, as the only way for the LTTE to assert its existence, because it could not face the arduous task of forming a separate state and all that entails.

We are all complicit in this Sri Lankan ‘uncivil’ war, (in all wars against humanity) moreso when we do nothing to speak out for peace, worldwide and at home. I am inconsolable about my complicity knowing that my connection to all of it is right under my nose and I can do little to prevent it from happening. Moreover, you really cannot trust anyone.