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Re: REQUEST : Foreskin / circumcision



Vivek Sadananda Pai (vivek@cs.rice.edu) wrote:
: I was waiting to see if anyone else would point this out, and since
: nobody else has, I thought I'd mention it. In India, you can find a
: group of people called the Hijras (also called Chakkas, I believe).
: There are men who would probably be called transsexuals in the West,
: but historically, they've been called eunuchs in India. From what I've
: read, some were born eunuchs, while others adopted the lifestyle by
: mutilating themselves. I've heard that some of the modern-day ones
: don't bother with actually altering themselves, so in Western
: parlance, they'd be transvestites.

: What's interesting about the Hijras is how they've intergrated
: themselves into Hindu culture. They often beg for money, and in the
: event they get snubbed, they flash their mutilated genitalia as a
: curse. However, begging doesn't seem to be their prime source of
: income. Instead, they've found that the wedding scene is more
: profitable. With the amount spent on Hindu weddings, they've got a
: perfect opportunity for extortion, in the form of "either pay us some
: small sum to perform dances and wish you well, etc., or you'll find
: your daughter's very costly wedding disrupted by a group of angry
: transsexuals."

: Likewise, when a baby is born, the tradition used to be that the local
: hijra would find out and show up to "bless" the child. The hijra would
: dance with the baby and in return, the somewhat scared parents would
: give gifts. If the parents did not allow this, they would receive a
: stream of curses from the angry hijra, and most new mothers being as
: superstitious as they are in India, the off chance of anything
: happening to their baby was enough to convince them to let the
: "blessing" happen.

: So, while there isn't a tradition of circumcision per se in Hinduism,
: there definitely is a related tradition in Hindu culture. I'm not sure
: how far back hijraism goes, but however.

I do not whether it is "hijraism". But the tradition of hijras is
pretty old. Hijras, if I understood them correctly, are also supposed
to be symbols of potence, and virility. Despite the fact, that
from a bilogical viewpoint, they are impotent. 

So, atleast in N. India 
(the India which a know a little about), they bless newly wedded
females so that they may bear a hundred sons. It is said that
a lot of these people are devotees of Lord Shiva. The reason being
that one of the forms of Shiva is the ardha-nareeshwar (half 
man, half woman). Hijras are also in a number of Indian texts
labelled as the knowers of finer aspects of sex. There are
traditions in India, where they did (and continue to do) 
counsel people in the affairs of the sex. So, a newly 
wedded female, and a newly wedded male, would reveal their
some of their most intimate details to the hijras. And in 
general, the hijras have had a record of keeping the details
of conversations as confidential.

Hijras also have a great deal of fondness for Arjuna, of 
Mahabharata. The reason being that he lived one year of
his life as a eunuch during his agyaatvaasa. And because
of his nature, he was asked to teach the daughter of a 
king (name !!!!) dance and music. We see the same role
of hijras in the coming millenia, where hijras also
were supposed to know a lot of music and dance.

The number of hijras swelled by very large amounts after
the Islamic invasions. The reason being, that many Islamic
rulers actually forcibly made a lot people hijras, and 
having made them impotent, gave them the charge of their
large harems. This was the most "logical" thing to do,
since entrusting harems to men, would mean illicit and
potentially dangerous affairs, a thing politics and
chivalry would not desire. Some of these hijras also part-
icipated in warfare, and one of them even ruled a large 
part of India. I am forgetting the name of that person.

It is not that their are no "natural" born hijras in other
parts of the world. But, history tells us, that in many
places, they had to lead a life of anonymity, shame and
fear. My little readings, and little conversations here
with people from mid-East and Europe told me that very
often in modern times, these "freaks of nature" have to
undergo expensive cosmetic surgery, to remain immune to
social pressures in their respective societies. 

These conversations, and my little knowledge about hijras
and their role in India, made me once again confident
and happy that atleast in India, everything, and everyone
had and continues to have (to some extent) an assigned 
place, and an assigned role. That gave each person, in
whatever little ways, a reason to live,  to contribute 
and to participate in a larger society, without any
sense of shame. And the foundations of this all encompa-
ssing inclusiveness, can be traced back to the earliest
writings of Hindus, aka Vedas. Over the subsequent times,
we have in each of our own ways, tried to subvert that
basic message of "aatmeeyata", in the name of caste 
in the middle ages, and in the name of modernism
in the present age.

--
Nachiketa Tiwari


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