Marginalization of the Hijras in the Indian Perspective in Comparison with the Dalits

Abstract

Hijras are mostly half-man, half-woman. They are called “Transgender”. They are the marginalized species of this world remaining in some cornered Hijra-ghetto. Again, the Dalits are also marginalized people. They are the downtrodden lower-caste people mostly. Now, as both the ‘Neither Man nor Woman’ of the Hijra community and the Dalit casteist people are oppressed by the society and remain as the struggling survivals of the society, there may remain some similar miserable conditions faced by both of them. In this paper, we will observe how in the Indian perspective both the Hijras and the Dalits have equal status through the discussion of some Indian short stories and personal narratives written about both these communities. At this juncture, it is further informed that this paper will show the deplorable condition of some unpopular characters mostly taken from Serena Nanda’s Neither Man nor Woman: The HIjras of India, Survival and Other Stories: Bangla Dalit Fiction in Translation (edited by Prof. Sankar Prasad Singha and Indranil Acharya) and Poisoned Bread (edited by Arjun Dangle).