Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ing gender-based violence. The government was criticised for its slow response to the
public outrage and later vowed to deliver harsher punishments (including the death pen-
alty) for sex offenders.
Sati: A Study of Widow Burning in India
by Sakuntala Narasimhan explores the history of
sati
(a widow's sui-
cide on her husband's funeral pyre; now banned) on the subcontinent.
HIJRAS
India's most visible nonheterosexual group is the
hijras,
a caste of transvestites and eunuchs who dress in wo-
men's clothing. Some are gay, some are hermaphrodites and some were unfortunate enough to be kidnapped and
castrated. Since it has long been frowned upon to live openly as a gay man in India,
hijras
get around this by be-
coming, in effect, a third sex of sorts. They work mainly as uninvited entertainers at weddings and celebrations of
the birth of male children, and possibly as prostitutes.
Read more about
hijras
in
The Invisibles
by Zia Jaffrey and
Ardhanarishvara the Androgyne
by Dr Alka
Pande.
