ABSTRACT
Literature, has predominantly been a discourse of subjectivity and the palimpsestic reiterations of its effects. A popular appellation for the transgender in India, the term ‘hijra’, etymologically, has been thought of as a derivation of either the Persian hiz which means effeminate or of hich and subsequently hichgah which refers to a person who is nowhere. The hijra’s perspective about herself is central in such a study and thereby, the hijra autobiographies provide us with a pinhole vision of this ‘other’ world. Hijra autobiographies are essentially the hallmark example of such a cultural documentation as they organize a varied expression in emotionally driven terms. The narratives of a varied self are always a difficult prospect to come to terms with, most specifically in language. Such is the case with these hijra autobiographies as the word refuses to be where it ought to be, owing to the need to defy societal controls, many a times.
