Pretending to be transgender common in India

[CaitlynsCat]

I'm not an expert on Indian culture, however this appears to be common.

www.financialexpress.com/india-news/beggar-posing-as-transgender-lynched-to-death-in-hyderabad-over-child-trafficking-rumours/1183733/

"a 52-year old beggar in the city of Hyderabad was lynched to death by a mob who mistook him to be a part of a child kidnapping gang.

the man and three others were begging in the area when some youth pelted stones at them and beat them up around midnight.

The official said Chandraiah, the deceased, was posing as a transgender while seeking alms. "

www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2018/may/30/unemployed-man-in-west-bengal-impersonates-as-transgender-nabbed-by-genuine-transgender-1821542.html

'Losing his former job as a tea garden worker, a man impersonating as a transgender to feed his six children was caught by genuine transgender people, thrashed and taken into their custody.

The local transgender people examined him on Wednesday morning and found out that he was lying. He was beaten up severely by them and the entire scene was enjoyed by the locals who gathered at the area to witness the happenings, sources said.

“I have one daughter and five sons and I have to feed them which is why I took up this profession as my last resort after becoming jobless. However, my children don’t know that I do this to feed them,” Dil Kumar said.

However, local transgender people were not ready to relent. “We will not hand him over to the police. We will take him to our custody and give him such a treatment that he will never wear a saree again,” a transgender said.'

www.gaystarnews.com/article/transgender-impostors-attacking-trans-women-in-india/

"A group of trans women have been the victims of relentless abuse from gangs of men pretending to be trans.

Anita Wadekar assaulted and mugged, but when she was taken to the police, she was the one accused of theft.

‘The police can’t distinguish between transgenders and imposters.’

The women are part of Kinnar Samaj – a trans advocacy organization – say they are being targeted in a suburb of Mumbai.

‘Transgenders who are part of the Kinnar Samaj have been the victims of physical assaults and threats from a group of fake transgenders based in Goregaon,’ Priya Patil, programme manger at Kinnar Samaj said at a media conference."

There are quite a few videos on Youtube if you search for 'fake hijra', these are TW beating up fake TW, from what I can see. There is also 'fake eunuch', which appears to be the same thing.

I am not sure if this just a pre-op vs post-op issue, however at least some are clearly just doing it for monetary gain (apparently it's advantageous not just for begging, but also for pickpocketing). timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/Beware-Fake-eunuchs-on-the-prowl/articleshow/7169410.cms

I can't imagine that there are many who actually have the op in India. Barely any do in the UK, with our extraordinarily generous NHS funding these operations.

There is no difference between a man dressing as a woman who says he is a woman and a man dressing as a woman who says he is a woman.

Except some men who dress as women and say they are women would like to gatekeep entry into the men who dress as women and say they are women club.

Neither of them are women, nor ever will be, and both can wear sarees, and neither of them have the remotest idea about how insulting and damaging it is to actual women in a country where rape and femicide are at horrific levels, to imply that being a woman is about fabric and personality, and which very definition can be defined, policed and guarded by those with penises.

"I can't imagine that there are many who actually have the op in India. "

I'm not sure on this point, as I understand it in Thailand and probably India there's a back-street version where you just get castrated. I mean you castrate a dog or whatever for a few quid, so potentially they are literally 'eunuchs'.

But I wouldn't like to confirm on that.

Don't they do it with string

I mean, men who are desperate and want some dysphoric relief

I think abject poverty would drive most humans to do anything.

This is a super complicated issue. The Hirja traditionally practiced DIY castration although how much that still happens is unknown. They have initiation ceremonies, tight leadership systems and are run somewhere between a cult and a big US gang.

They are very marginalised and operate in begging gangs making most of their money from street begging and attending weddings and other life events and hanging around making a lot of noise outside until they are paid to leave. They are traditionally thought to have the power to bring good or bad luck to an occasion/person which is why they are quite successful (in a begging context!). Hence presumably why that particular man was pretending as it would increase his earnings.

I think a lot of the other videos/articles linked are about turf wars between rival gangs. I don't think applying a western concept of transgenderism to the culture is a helpful way to understand the issues. They have always been seen as a third sex.

In Pakistan they employ Hirja as tax collectors. They go to the houses of tax evaders and basically use a form of rough music to shame them into paying up.

‘The police can’t distinguish between transgenders and imposters.’

Well here we have the crux of the issue in all geographical locations.