British Colonial Rule Made Transgender a Subaltern Community in India

Transgender Rights Protests in India

The rule of law changed when the great Mughal Empire collapsed and the whole sub-continent was taken over by British authorities. The result was a disorientation and exploitation of so many classes of the society. The eunuchs did not enjoy the same positions as they had in the Mughal times. The colonial power had so much hatred against the transgender community as they introduced a separate act of law against these folks. It was called Criminal Tribal Act (CTC). It was necessary for all eunuchs to get a registration, and their movements were restricted and controlled. Some historians are of the opinion that colonial power was afraid of the valor and power that Transgender community had enjoyed in the earlier times, and they found it vulnerable to their own existence.

What was the Criminal Tribal Act, and how it affected the status of Transgender community?

       The Criminals' Tribal Act (CTC) was introduced to restrict the activities of the eunuchs in the society. It was pre-supposed that the transgender community was actively involved in kidnapping of kids, castration of male children for their own purposes of begging, and sodomy was an active state of their daily lives. The facts were quite different as they owned not just the royal pensions, places to live but agricultural lands to grow and earn. It was taken over by the British Empire.

       Under the act of CTC, men who were crossdressers and pretended to be like women were subject to legal punishment

“Under the CTC, wearing female clothing was a punishable offence for men. According to this law, “any eunuch ... who appears, dressed or ornamented like a woman, in a public street or place, or in any other place, with the intention of being seen from a public street or place, or who dances or plays music, or takes part in any public exhibition” could be sentenced to up to two years of imprisonment plus a fine. Moreover, the CTC criminalized “all persons of the male sex who admit themselves or on medical inspection clearly appear to be impotent”.

       The Colonial law rundown eunuchs to let go of their basic sources of generating income, and they were deprived of all public and civil rights. The Black Law didn’t favor anyone or anything but pushed the transgender community into deeper level of poverty and social isolation. The English people could only comprehend human beings having just two sexes, male or female. Even homosexuality was a punishable state as per British law and perception. The result was the separate living and the secret ways of earning like begging, theft or the prostitution. 

British Colonial Heads were Afraid of Power Enjoyed by Transgender Community

       Historians have reported that the British authorities desired to obliterate the Hijras as a clear and distinctive socio-cultural community, and having a separate gender identity. But the matter of fact was that they could not find success in their deliberate efforts, and the result was that many leaders had picked up the real psyche of the colonial power. They could not save the transgender community from desolation and deprivation but accepted them as a third gender in their circles. The colonial psyche prevails in India even nowadays, and many conservative leaders oppose the Hijra rights in India and even in Pakistan. The subaltern minds are still captivated by the new colonial power, and that is Hindu Extremist rule in India. The Hijras had no special or mentionable place in the Hindu Mythology. This is what Roy is her novel under discussion mourns of.

Theresa May – British Prime Minister Apologized about Colonial Black Laws

        Recently, we have heard and read British Prime Minister “Theresa May” taking a big setup to recognize and to put an apology in front of the former colonial states where the British ruled. She has admitted that British colonial rule had left many marks of marginalization and producing so many subaltern communities due to the black laws that were implemented in South East Asia, Middle Eastern and African countries under the British Empire. She has proved to be a civil enough to understand and speak about the strange and discrimination based laws like the CTC in Sub-continent.

        Well! Nothing can change the course of history but a recognition of a prime and measures to protect the world from further damages is a positive mindset. Not, it is time for the local rulers of India, to recognize that they could not follow suit the wrong legacy of the foreign powers that ruled over them, and keep such large number of Indian society out of bound for the sake of difference of languages, castes, faith, gender identities, and economic factors. The current Indian elections have not proved to be a sign of progress and change of subaltern mindset.

       As in the words of Arundhati Roy “Making another Hindu Colony is the aim of the ruling party and its alliances”. People like hers are ray of hope to continue to struggle for the rights of people like Anjum, Tilo, Sadam Hussain, Musa Yeswi, Revathy, Udaya aka Miss Jabeen, Msulims of India, People fo Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and many more like them. Otherwise, things seem to be moving towards the older concept renewed by BJPs past five year rule, and their agenda to make India “Pavittar”, by converting it into Hindu India. Rashtriya Savek Sangh’s Ideology (the ancestor and sister organization of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in India).