Transgressing gender with religious sanction: The case of the Jogappas

Ten years ago, the Supreme Court recognised transgender persons as a third gender beyond the male-female binary. In the National Legal Service Authority vs Union of India verdict in April 2014, the court upheld the fundamental rights of transgender persons.

Yet, in the Indian context, the term “transgender” remains a definitional maze.

Due to its Eurocentric nature – shaped by a Western idea of gender – the word “transgender” does not fully grasp the non-binary gender identities and subcultures in the Indian context. There is no clear consensus on who is to be included under “transgender” or “third gender” in India.

The term is often misconceived as an English translation of gender incongruent identities such as “hijras”, “kinnars” and others without questioning its conceptual baggage. Universalising transgender as an “umbrella term” tends to subsume non-Western and previously colonised discourses.

Western-dominated research and practices have often been critiqued as reductionist, especially where Indian gender-varying identities are concerned. It can result in imposing a sense of trans-normativity, whereby certain transgender identities are recognised and folded into the transnational gender-diverse discourses and others omitted.

Here, unpacking the sexual and gender identity of the Jogappas unsettles notions that are shaped by dominant Western ideas. The Jogappas in North Karnataka – and parts of Andhra Pradesh –...

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