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

Examines the colonial and postcolonial governance of gender and sexuality through the history of transgender Hijras in north India.

Jessica Hinchy (Author)

9781108716888, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 March 2020

323 pages
15 x 23 x 1.5 cm, 0.47 kg

'Deftly reading the colonial archive against the grain, Hinchy has provided a rich and novel analysis of the Hijra community against the backdrop of moral panic in British India.' Kim A. Wagner, Queen Mary University of London

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.

Introduction
Part I. Solving the 'Eunuch Problem': 1. The Hijra panic
2. An ungovernable population
3. Hijras and Indian middle class morality
4. The 'gradual extirpation' of the Hijra
Part II. Multiple Narratives of Hijra-Hood: 5. The Hijra archive
6. Hijra life histories
Part III. Surviving Criminalisation and Elimination: 7. Classifying illegible bodies, contesting colonial categories
8. Policing, evading, surviving
9. Saving children to eliminate Hijras
10. Conclusion
11. Postscript: Hijras and the state in postcolonial South Asia.

Subject Areas: Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], History: specific events & topics [HBT], History [HB], Humanities [H]