Though the Hijra community has existed in South Asia for centuries, it was only in 2014 that they gained legal and political recognition through the NALSA judgment. This landmark ruling by the Supreme Court of India acknowledged transgender individuals as the “third gender.” Ostracized for defying gender strictures, Hijras forge families through chosen kinship, defying biological determinism (Nanda 1999). Gauri Sawant’s TED Talk (2017) serves as a compelling illustration, wherein she defines herself as a “mother without a uterus.” To queer the institution of motherhood in India is to queer the prevailing and obligatory heteronormative structures of family units, expected gender behaviours, and sexual relationships. Despite legal obstacles to formal adoption, Hijra forge profound bonds with children within their communities, defying societal strictures. These mothers, navigating the everyday “death-world” (Mbembe 2003) through their gender nonconformity, challenge the entrenched gender essentialism embedded in heteropatriarchal norms. However, even within the nascent “homonationalism” of postcolonial India (Puar 2007), legal advancements regarding parenthood and adoption for transgender individuals are emerging.
Presenter: Sushree Routray, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee