About the Book

Transgender India: Understanding Third Gender Identities and Experiences provides the first scholarly study of hijras, transmen, and other third gender Indians from the perspective of a range of disciplines in the behavioral and social sciences, as well as the humanities. This book fosters a dialogue across academic fields, as authors cross-reference each other’s chapters, comparing and contrasting their views of transgender experience and identity in India. This multidisciplinary approach helps readers understand the complex interplay of factors that have led to discrimination against third gender individuals, as well as paths forward to a more equitable and just future, in ways that go beyond the perspective of a single academic field. This multidisciplinary approach is the book’s most distinctive feature in comparison to existing works limited to individual fields such as anthropology, investigative journalism, and history.  The broad scope of Transgender India is relevant to scholars and students in diverse disciplines who seek a greater and more nuanced understanding of the behavioral and societal impact of these issues.

Contents

1.         Introduction. Transgender to Transperson: An Overview of Indian Histories of Self, Sex, and Society-Sonya J. Nair

 Literature

2.         Re-writing the Subject and the Self: A Study of Hijra Life Writings

Shalini Jayaprakash-

3.         Queer Futurities in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Anna Guttman-

4.         Indian Influences and the Transgender Imagination in the Chinese Literary Classic Journey to the West (西遊記)-Peter I-min Huang

History

5.         Contradiction and Concurrence of Castration and the Fertile Phallus: A Transgender Reading of Ancient Indian Literature and Contemporary Hijra Experience-Ruman Sutradhar

6.         The Colonial Censu(re/ses) of Transbodies in Nineteenth-Century South Asia-Shane P. Gannon

Law

7.         Differs in Dignity: Shame, Privacy, and the Law-Vaibhav Saria

8.         Time to “Act”: Guaranteeing Full Citizenship of Transgender Persons in India-Sangeetha Sriraam

Health and Employment

9.         Exploring the Psychosocial Needs of Third Gender People Living with HIV in Hyderabad, India-Sameena Azhar, Jason Vaudrey

10.       Employability Issues of Transgender Individuals in Gujarat, India: An Analysis of the Origin-Supriya Pal, Neeta Sinha

Transmen

11.       Female Masculinities and Women of Third Nature: Analyzing the Gender and Sexual Politics of Identity and Visibility of Alternative Masculinities through Indian Mythologies and Literary Narratives-Tanupriya

12.       “Families We Choose”: Kinship Patterns among Migrant Transmen in Bangalore, India-Agaja Puthan Purayil

About the Author / Editor

Douglas A. Vakoch is president of METI International and professor emeritus of clinical psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He has edited or co-edited more than twenty books covering gender studies, cross-cultural studies, psychology, sustainability, and the search for life beyond Earth, including Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on Environment and Nature (Routledge, 2021), Altruism in Cross-Cultural Perspective (Springer, 2013), and Climate Psychology in a Pandemic: Environmental Health in Lockdown (Oxford University Press, 2022). His formal education spans a range of disciplines that inform Transgender India: clinical psychology (PhD, Stony Book University), history and philosophy of science (MA, University of Notre Dame), and religion (BA, Carleton College). His work has been featured in such publications as The New York Times, The Economist, Nature, and Science, and he has been interviewed for numerous radio and television programs, including those broadcast on the BBC, The Science Channel, and The Discovery Channel.