Gender and Sexuality Studies

Abstract

This book centres on the discussion of the present condition of transgender persons in India. The presence of tritiya prakriti, or third gender, was not unknown in ancient India or in the medieval period. However, treatment towards persons belonging to the non-binary category grossly differed in the socio-cultural context of South Asia, which emphasised the importance of the community and not the individuals as bearers of the rights.In this discussion, an attempt will be made to expose the sufferings that individual in non-binary categories have undergone and the resistance they have put forward in claiming back their legal entitlements. However, this book traces the journey of the transgender persons popularly known as the hijras in India.  From ‘Invisibles’, as referred to by Zia Jaffrey in her book, the journey of visibility became the concern of utmost importance.This book traces this complex journey and analyses how the State, Media, and other Non Governmental organisations have played an important role as agencies in creating a positive impact in bringing out this visibility.  
The most important question that needs to be addressed at this moment is whether the changes that have occurred in India since the 1990s are a long-term phenomenon, are they sustainable, and is it all inclusive?  Will the marginalized communities in the global South be able to overcome the challenges that the socio-cultural realities of this country have posed?  The book tries to find out these answers from the narratives of Trans persons and the difficulties they face at this moment. It captures the different shifts that have taken place and explores the new pathways that are striking a balance between globalisation and regional or local realities.
 

Biography

Dr. Lopamudra Sengupta is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at Bangabasi College, Calcutta University. Her areas of specialization are Human Rights, Gender Studies, and Sustainable Development in South Asia. She is associated with the transgender movement in Kolkata for more than two decades and is former member of the West Bengal Transgender Persons Development Board. She received the best paper award at the second National Conference on Politics and Governance, at India International Centre, New Delhi, in 2014. She also received the best paper presentation award at the First World Asian Studies Conference, Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2015. She is the recipient of the prestigious Shastri Indo-Canadian Publication Grant (SPG 2019, New Delhi) for her monograph Beyond the Binary: The Third Gender in India published by Routledge in 2023. Dr. Lopamudra Sengupta received UGC Travel Grant, in 2018-2019 for presenting her paper in Toronto, Canada in July 2018 organized by International Sociological Conference. She has been awarded a grant for a major research project and is working as the Project Director in the project on Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development of the rural artisans in West Bengal by the Indian Council of Social Science Research and Ministry of Human Resource Development. (MHRD, New Delhi)