Monday, March 6, 2000
Eunuchs
Man From Matunga"Man from Matunga" lives in Mumbai, India and expresses his angst and pleasures through words |
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Shabnam Mausi, a eunuch, recently won a by-election to the Madhya Pradesh State assembly from Sohagpur. This got me thinking.
Eunuchs are men who have been castrated with or without penectomies or were born with ambiguous genitalia. Chakkas and hijras are the other words used for eunuchs, though the former is extremely derogatory. In school, if a boy behaved in a girlish manner, he would instantly get called a "chakka", a label that did nothing for one's self-esteem.
Eunuchs are easily identifiable. They move around in groups, wear sarees and jewellery, have obvious manly characteristics, speak in falsetto voices and clap their hands in a typical "hijra" manner.
My experience with them has been mixed.
My earliest recollections of them are about the times when they would accost us at traffic lights asking for money, clapping their hands in their typical "hijra" manner. In those days when all we had were Ambassadors and Premier Padminis with open windows and without air-conditioners, they would thrust their hands inside the car and would not go away without some money. Typically, they were supposed to beg only on Saturdays and if they did so on any other day, you could tell them to come back on Saturday. Surprisingly, that used to work. It no longer works though and they have become more aggressive.
As I became older, the moment I saw them, I would pull up the windows of the car and ignore them when they came to the car. My worst nightmare was that one of them would in disgust, spit paan-juice over me; a friend of mine had that happen to him in a train once and I could never get rid of that fear. The closed windows don't deter them though. All they do is keep knocking on the windows, till you get irritated and either drive away if you are lucky when the light turns green, or you roll down the window and give them some money.
When I was very young, the site of eunuchs would cause an instant revulsion. The moment I used to see them, my first instinct was to run, to somehow not come into contact with them. I have tried to analyze these feelings, but can't seem to lay my hands on an accurate reason. Maybe it was the fear of becoming like them, neither man nor woman, a third sex without an identity, emasculated by their mere touch or presence. It was only later in life when I finally came into close contact with a few of them as patients that I became comfortable with their presence. They used to shed their "hijra"cloak and speak in "normal" tones, often talking about their hopes, aspirations and fears. They had become eunuchs either because they felt like women trapped in men's bodies or they had ambiguous or abnormal genitalia. People just like you and I, without the resources and money to carry them through a normal social life and therefore forced to join a group that would take care of them, sustain them and understand them.
Eunuchs also started gaining some acceptance from me, after the Mehmood film where he sang the famous part-rap, part-melody number, starting with "Ek bachha dekha, Haan ji." So many of us had memorized this song and we would adopt their characteristic style of speaking and hand-clapping while singing that song, sometimes during an antakshri or at picnics.
They have been caricatured in Hindi films, but by and large the films have been sympathetic toward them, usually showing them as individuals who help the hero woo the heroine, or who take care of a lost child, displaying hearts of gold. This has probably helped in some way make us subconsciously accept their presence. Many actors have also portrayed eunuchs sympathetically and I guess that too has made a difference.
The popular picture is they create problems. That they steal children and castrate them forcibly to make them into eunuchs; that they are all into prostitution and are the biggest transmitters of STDs; that if you don't give them money, they will curse you to a life of impotency or worse they may kidnap you and castrate you. Most of it is untrue.
What they do of course is beg and extort money. At traffic lights where they beg openly or during weddings or after births when they come to our homes and demand money. The only saving grace is that they are amazingly organized. All eunuchs belong to a small group consisting of a guru and a chela, called a toli. Each small group is accountable to a bigger group and so on. Each group is assigned a territory and turf battles are rare. Eunuchs in the Western world are probably not as organized at the micro-level, though at a macro level they are probably more powerful. www.eunuch.org carries detailed information about how to undergo castration and penectomies and alt.eunuchs.questions is a newsgroup offering support to subscribers. Maybe it is time Indian eunuchs got onto the net.
The first time the eunuchs came home, I almost ran for my life. It was my cousin's wedding and they rang the bell asking for money. My aunt and mother gave them about 100 rupees or so and they made a mark in chalk against the apartment door, so that if other eunuchs came there mistakenly, they would know that money had already been collected. Since then, at every auspicious occasion, they have landed up at our home; yesterday my father-in-law told me they had even come to his house to collect money for the birth of the twins. It is amazing how they keep tabs on the neighborhood; they always know when a child has been born or a wedding has occurred. Maybe the police should use them as informers.
Eunuchs though have started re-inventing themselves. An interesting story I heard the other day was their use as recovery-agents. Credit card companies have started sending eunuchs to recover money from delinquent customers. The recovery rate is high; unlike with musclemen who use the power of fear, which can be dealt with, it is not easy to deal with the embarrassment of ten hijras outside your house, clapping and singing and drawing attention to you and your problems. It's a no-win situation, since the eunuchs have lost the art of embarrassment. Eunuchs have also been used as tools to get back at enemies. If you don't like somebody, send eunuchs across to embarrass them.
Being so organized has also made it possible for them get into politics. They had some years ago formed an association to actually fight elections in different parts of the country. Their USP was that because they had no family affiliations, no bindings, they could afford to be honest and would be able to do a much better job of governing. Not too many people took them seriously then, but things have changed. Earlier Shobha Nehru won a municipal council election in Hissar and Babita Hizra in Bokaro fought assembly elections. Shabnam Mausi is just one more along their path to political power.
In the past eunuchs used to take care of harems, because they were considered "safe" men. Maybe they can take care of us, the general population as well too. Who knows, we might actually see this headline in the Times of India. "The Hijra Party has won. Munni Bai to become Prime Minister."
Man From Matunga
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