Every human deserve to live on earth with respect, dignity, honour irrespective of caste, creed, religion, gender identity. Article 6, 1948 of Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Article 16 of International Covenant on Civil And Political Rights, 1966 gives everyone right to live with respect, dignity, honour, live with self-esteem irrespective of caste, creed, religion, gender discrimination. In our part of world which is patriarchal, homophobic, heterosexist third gender that is transgenders having population of more than 2000 in Kashmir are not respected, don’t live with respect, dignity and honour, no fault of theirs, despite the fact that gender is a universal dimension. Most of the times they are abused, harassed, assaulted for the crime which they have never committed.
The book under review “HIjars of Kashmir: A Marginalised Form Of Personhood” published by Jay Kay Books, Srinagar, written by author-activist who filed case in 2013 in State Human Rights Commission and PIL recently on behalf of the transgender community, Aijaz Ahmad Bund. The book is first of it’s kind written on the community depicting their pain, sufferings, agony. The book is an academic-ethnographic-qualitative work full of their saga spread over 286 pages. The book contains 24 brief testimonies of transgenders full of their pain, agony, sufferings. The book has theoretical part like hijra subculture, social work and their role in the community, the socio-economic and psychological problems community is facing, religion and transgender, and traditions visa vis transgenders and kashmir.
The best part of the book is the testimonies of transgender which forms the major portion of the book. The testimonies are brief though say lot about the pain, sufferings, multiple socio-economic problems, identity crisis, stress, depression, psychological problems that the community faces. Most of them live miserable – life assaulted by family, neighbours, society. They are considered as disgrace to family. They don’t get love, parental care in childhood and are not allowed to attend family functions or social gatherings. Most of them are homeless as dragged out from their family, jobless, and are underpaid .
The book talks about the history of community also, like how they used to protect shrines and tombs, but not at length.
The main drawback of the book is its exorbitant price – Rs 1295 that will drive away any reader. The introduction of the book talks about United Nations declarations, rights but misses the important Jammu and Kashmir Constitution and Ranbir Penal Code. The book is factual rather than critical. Most of the book is drawn from pre existing ideological framework which is drawn from various commentators, hardly anything on its own. New synthesis mixture of Western and Oriental framework is missing.
In totality, Aijaz Bund has made a wholesome contribution by writing on transgender community which bore fruits recently in the shape of some government announcements for this community in the recent Assembly Session. The beauty of the text lies in how easily it tells the trauma this community is facing.