ABSTRACT
Hijras are phenotypic men who wear female clothing and, ideally, renounce sexual desire and practice by undergoing a sacrificial emasculation — i.e. an excision of the penis and testicles- dedicated to the goddess Bhedraj Mata. Cross-dressing in Indian films (from Bombay) constitutes both men dressing as women and women dressing as men. The ultimate ‘manly’ woman was Nadia, the Hunter Queen. Hindi film directors of the 1950s and 1960s all read Shakespeare in colonial India’s schools. But in Indian theatre too is a deeper tradition of men dressed as women on stage. The great Marathi female impersonator Bal Gandharva is a case in point. Jatra village theatre too had female impersonators. Shakespeare also uses the stage convention of cross-dressing to image concretely on-stage philosophic love dimensions in his comedies. There is no Shakespearean echo in the Hindi film plugged to the lowest common denominator in the audience.
