“Born to Live; The Struggles of Identity: Study of Revathi’s Narrative The Truth about Me: A Hijra Life Story”

Abstract

India is a country full of diversity. It is diverse in its culture, religion, sex, class and color. Sex as a matter of fact has always been diverse in its origin since ancient times and there has always been a wide acceptance of every religion, sex, and culture in our country since time immemorial. In ancient India we witness several tales starting from the Ramayana, Mahabharata reaching to Aryabhatta’s Arthashastra, these works highly witness the accounts of sexual diversity in the ancient Indian world. Devdutt Pattanaik, an Indian mythologist gives us accounts of various incidents like those of Shikhandi and Brihnalla which claim that Transgenders had a good position back in the ancient times. What exactly changed the position of these individuals was colonization. Colonization or the advent of British rule in India proved out to be a major cause which led to the deteriorating position of the Transgender community. The Britishers by categorizing them as criminals brought several laws which ultimately lead to their marginalization. The 2014 verdict of the Supreme Court however served a major historical change which seemed to be a ray of hope for the entire community. The aim of this paper is to bring forth the existing notions of gender and sexuality and its various alternatives in the Indian context. The researcher primarily aims to present her various interpretations through an in-depth study of India’s first transgender autobiography, The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story (2015). The paper will shed a major light on sexuality in India and its various understandings in the Indian context.