Hijra’s Customs As Elucidated In A.Revathi’s The Truth About Me

Abstract

              This article entitled “Hijra’s Customs As Elucidated In A.Revathi’s‘The Truth About Me’””attempts to highlight the habitual practises (customs) of the hijra community. 

Hijra is a term, used to refer a person whose birth sex is male but later identified to be female  (trans-women). They usually live in well-defined and organised communities led by a guru. The author, A.Revathi is a Bengaluru-based, trans-woman, writer and activist whose debut book was in Tamil, Unarvum Uruvamum (2004). Following this, Revathi decided to write her own experiences and published her second book, The Truth about Me: A Hijra Life Story (2010). This book is a courageous and touching autobiography of a hijra where the author records the customs of their hijra community, giving special attention to the post-nirvaanam customs strictly practised for 40 days after castration.