Governing Gender and Sexuality in Colonial India: The Hijra, c.1850–1900

by Jessica Hinchy

In 1865, the British rulers of north India resolved to bring about the gradual 'extinction' of transgender Hijras. This book, the first in-depth history of the Hijra community, illuminates the colonial and postcolonial governance of gender and sexuality and the production of colonial knowledge. From the 1850s, colonial officials and middle class Indians increasingly expressed moral outrage at Hijras' feminine gender expression, sexuality, bodies and public performances. To the British, Hijras were an ungovernable population that posed a danger to colonial rule. In 1871, the colonial government passed a law that criminalised Hijras, with the explicit aim of causing Hijras' 'extermination'. But Hijras evaded police, kept on the move, broke the law and kept their cultural traditions alive. Based on extensive archival work in India and the UK, Jessica Hinchy argues that Hijras were criminalised not simply because of imported British norms, but due to a complex set of local factors, including elite Indian attitudes.

Genres: History, Queer, Nonfiction, India, Gender, LGBT, Sociology

322 pages, Hardcover

Published May 16, 2019

Reviews

[Alok Vaid-Menon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really unfortunate that this book has been made so expensive and hard to obtain, because it's actually so detailed and groundbreaking. The arguments it makes are so profound and wide-reaching, and more of this scholarship needs to be made -- especially by people based in India and hijra/trans/GNC communities.

This book has so much important history on gender + colonialism. Hinchy engages in a thorough analysis of 19th century primary documents from British colonial officers to show how Part II of the British Criminal Tribes Act in North India sought complete elimination of hijras who they found so “impotent” + “backwards” that they didn’t even think they could be used for labor or integrated into respectable society. This historical work helps us contextualize contemporary anti-trans strategies which demonize transfeminine peoples all the while terrorizing us: accusing us of doing what they in fact are doing to us. Hijras triggered a moral panic for the British because their bodies, kinship structures, movements, + customs were illegible to Western norms & therefore ungovernable by the colonial state which sought complete authority+ entrenchment of patrilineal hereditary order of succession. The British made hijras emblematic of Indian perversity as a whole in order to frame their colonial occupation as benevolent (“fixing” the crisis of Indian degeneracy) + eventually worked with Indian middle classes/upper castes on a systematic project to exterminate hijra existence. This project of total elimination included gender/sexual violence, restricting means of livelihood, banning performances, interfering with kinship structure, forcibly removing kids, prosecution + incarceration, + criminalizing gender non-conformity in public. Indian police detained anyone they read as a “man” wearing “female” garments + adornments. Hijras had to register themselves/their properties with the police + be constantly surveilled + strip searched. Despite attempted genocide, hijras developed strategies of resistance to persist: occasionally wearing “men’s” clothes in public, constantly moving to evade colonial borders + surveillance, sharing stories, + building alliances for protection. Violence + policing of hijras did not end with British colonialism + still persists today.

[Marsha Altman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for graduate school. Dense anthropological text, but still good reading.

[Alex Combs · Rating 5 out of 5]

An in depth examination of British colonial efforts to control and exterminate the Hijra, a group of people who are part of a discipleship lineage with a long cultural history in India. Hijra are typically assigned male at birth, have a feminine gender expression, and have faced a lot stigma, abuse, and discrimination.

During 1850-1900 in colonial India's North-Western Provences there was a ‘Hijra panic’ from which the author examines surviving documents from colonial archives. This book is incredibly thoroughly researched and clearly foregrounds and contextualizes the primary (colonial) sources that are being referenced.

The final chapter gives a brief overview of modern laws affecting Hijra and other gender variant people in India. Anyone interested in the effects of colonialism on the civil rights of gender variant people in India and around the world will find this information relevant and informative.

[Ella Kirkendall · Rating 3 out of 5]

while perhaps not the most engaging at all times, this was a great and really informative and important read. it did sometimes feel like i was just getting information thrown at me and from time to time it felt a bit repetitive, but i think that is very much the style of this genre, since this is a very educational read. overall, this book gives an important analysis of colonial india and its treatment of trans and queer communities, which can help readers reflect upon how this has continued its effect into the present.

[Anya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book and the insight it gives on what is not a discussed matter, but should be. After reading this book I'm even more sure about it.

[Joey Mopsink]

This book is doing a lot of things