This is the modern era, they say. But I prefer antiquity. Anything “antique” is said to hold value, so did the heavenly scriptures.
The first reference to transgender in the Puranas is Mohini, a female avatar of Vishnu. She was an enchanting woman of unmatched beauty. The Mahabharata describes the first appearance of Mohini when the devas and asuras (demons) had churned the ocean and acquired Amrita (the elixir of immortality). Mohini captivated the Asuras with her charm, causing them to completely lose focus. She convinced them to let her distribute the nectar (Amrita), relying on her ability to trick them into letting the Devas drink it instead. She played a huge role in not letting the Asuras achieve immortality. She makes a reappearance in the Vishnu Purana when she uses guile to save Shiva, who had just given a boon to Bhasmasura that would incinerate anyone whose head he touches. She tricked the demon Bhasmasura into destroying himself instead.
A femme fatale who brings about the destruction of anything that could disrupt the cosmic order was a transgender. She was worshipped as a divine protector, and now, her gender is a disputed one. Oh, how disappointed would the deities be in mankind as they reside in their celestial abode witnessing the malign objectification.
Laws that never should have existed were made in 1871 with the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) being brought into effect. It scarred the
Hijra community as criminals, registering them and restricting their freedom to live, dress and travel.
We fought the British with guns and whatnot, we replaced the fugly act with Habitual Offenders Act later. Yet our pistols (mindsets) lack bullets (rationality) to end prejudices when a transgender walks among us. People’s muzzles are blocked by a sense of new discomfort; little do they know that what they find “odd and unnecessary” is blessed by the divine.
In the Ramayana, Lord Rama was banished from the kingdom and had to spend fourteen years in the forest. His followers followed him but he requested all “men and women” to return to the city of Ayodhya. The transgender people (hijras) stayed with Lord Rama. He was moved by their love and loyalty and sanctioned them the power to confer blessing on auspicious occasions like marriage, childbirth and inaugural functions.
Hence, since olden times, they have been an embodiment of love and loyalty. But their existence was twisted into a danger to morality by the British in the 1800s. In August 1852, a hijra, namely Bhoorah, was found brutally murdered in northern India’s Mainpuri district. She had left her lover for another man, it was presumed that her former lover was the enraged murderer. Their religiously powerful image was transposed into a disgrace. During the trial, the British judges described hijras as cross-dressers, beggars and unnatural prostitutes. Gladly, she escaped into heaven before witnessing hell freeze over her community with the incorrect scripture translations. Consequently, it wandered the country into an enraged fire making it burn its own diversity. The ashes confined them to poverty.
The colonial rule ended in 1947. “Inquilab Zindabad” (Long Live the Revolution) rang in Indian ears, except the revolution favoured the majority and this minority never got to claim their lost honour.
I walk around, ashamed of my kind for how they consider their identities worth using as abuses. We have our imperfections, so do they. Then why are they a disgrace and we just “imperfect”?
In a Rajya Sabha session on March 25, 2026, Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan delivered a sharp critique of the Transgender Amendment Bill. A 77-year-old woman perceives what teens are using as abuses. The Chair told Jaya Bachchan to stick to the subject as she was losing time. To this, she fiercely says that her time is in his hands. We call these the “modern times” aptly as we fail to embrace the third gender as our Gods did in the ancient times.
The pure minds of children have been corrupted, and transgender content creators receive more comments about their identity than their creations. “Live and let live” has aged worse than we thought. We teach our youth to respect “selectively” as they laugh and scorn at humans who differ in gender.
Kindness has no essence anymore; everything else does. The world was built and cemented by the divine benevolence, and we seem to have forgotten the very significance of the walls we live in. We now merely exist according to the “normalcy norms”. Anything different rarely gets to belong here.
“Are you like us?”
-“No, I have a different skin colour.”
REJECT
-“No, I have a different gender.”
REJECT
-“No, I belong to a different race.”
REJECT
-“No, I have a different gender.”
REJECT
-“No, I have different opinions."
REJECT
This is not normalcy, this is the most we could ever stray from it. -Gungun Sadana
References:
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- https://www.filmfare.com
- https://www.hindustantimes.com
- https://www.tribuneindia.com