ABSTRACT
The strategy of hiding the meaning of language during conversation with coded words among hijras is a traditional cult. Their secret language is known as Hijra Farsi and Ulti bhasa or Gupti bhasa, which enlaces their identity as a hijra. Through original ethnographic work with various communities at different locales of India in different time spans, the study reveals a wide range of culturally embedded structure of the secret language which, linguistically, is a hybrid of Hindi–Urdu grammar and has a unique vocabulary of an unknown source. The analysis demonstrates that despite the fact that the hijra language contains various syntactical and morphological elements similar to other standard languages, this mode of secret conversation can be seen as an anti-language of queer normative desire and orientation that bespeaks how the minority can protect the counter-culture from getting turned into a collector’s item.
