“The Dance of the Eunuchs”: A Stigmatized View and Search for Identity among Transgender in India
The oxford English dictionary defines identity as: “the sameness of a person or thing at all times or in all circumstances, the condition or fact that a person or thing is itself and not something else.”
The psychological definition as given by Erik H. Erikson states that: “identity (ego identity) is the feeling based on two observations: the observation of a consistency and continuity of self, and the observation, that others recognize this continuity and consistency too.” “In the social jungle of human existence there in no Feeling of being alive without a sense of identity”
-Erik Erikson
In this …show more content…
From this whole encompassment our area of concentration is the eunuchs. The word “Eunuch” is derived from the Greek word ‘eunoukhos’, which means "bedroom guard." According to history - “a eunuch was a man whose job was to guard the bedroom door of a royal woman to protect her. These guards were castrated to make them less threatening to the women they guarded.”
Their existence in the Indian culture spans since times immemorial, they have been mentioned in the Vedas and other ancient Hindu scriptures. But in the modern India their treatment is such that it has led them to search for their identity in a society which is quite nonchalant about their reality at the moment.
Their inner frustration and insecurity of not being recognized as part of our society is outstandingly depicted by kamala das in her poem – “the dance of the eunuchs”.
“It was hot, so hot before the eunuchs came
To dance, wide skirts going round and round cymbals
Richly clashing and anklets jingling, jingling, Jingling.
Beneath the fiery gulmohar, with long braids flying, dark eyes flashing, they danced and
They dance, oh; they danced till they …show more content…
The heat depicts the hopelessness and bareness of their life. The mention of the fiery gulmohar aggravates to the heat already present. They dance in a frenzied fashion; this madness in their dance portrays their maddened frustration. Their hysteric movements which kamala das has compared to “convulsions” suggest the emptiness of their life, a life where there is absence of love. Clad in jewelry and covered with veneers of makeup they hide their reality full of bareness and stifled desires.
“Their voices were harsh, their songs melancholy...”
The eunuchs have manly voices and sing sad songs that reveal the clamor in their hearts. Their appearance described by the poet is that of something rotten, indicating their inner voids have made them half dead, this picture of degeneration implies to our outlook towards them.
The gory image of “dust in the attics and the urine of lizards and mice” show the mindset of our society towards the eunuchs and how they are just a scene of revulsion in our
The oxford English dictionary defines identity as: “the sameness of a person or thing at all times or in all circumstances, the condition or fact that a person or thing is itself and not something else.”
The psychological definition as given by Erik H. Erikson states that: “identity (ego identity) is the feeling based on two observations: the observation of a consistency and continuity of self, and the observation, that others recognize this continuity and consistency too.” “In the social jungle of human existence there in no Feeling of being alive without a sense of identity”
-Erik Erikson
In this …show more content…
From this whole encompassment our area of concentration is the eunuchs. The word “Eunuch” is derived from the Greek word ‘eunoukhos’, which means "bedroom guard." According to history - “a eunuch was a man whose job was to guard the bedroom door of a royal woman to protect her. These guards were castrated to make them less threatening to the women they guarded.”
Their existence in the Indian culture spans since times immemorial, they have been mentioned in the Vedas and other ancient Hindu scriptures. But in the modern India their treatment is such that it has led them to search for their identity in a society which is quite nonchalant about their reality at the moment.
Their inner frustration and insecurity of not being recognized as part of our society is outstandingly depicted by kamala das in her poem – “the dance of the eunuchs”.
“It was hot, so hot before the eunuchs came
To dance, wide skirts going round and round cymbals
Richly clashing and anklets jingling, jingling, Jingling.
Beneath the fiery gulmohar, with long braids flying, dark eyes flashing, they danced and
They dance, oh; they danced till they …show more content…
The heat depicts the hopelessness and bareness of their life. The mention of the fiery gulmohar aggravates to the heat already present. They dance in a frenzied fashion; this madness in their dance portrays their maddened frustration. Their hysteric movements which kamala das has compared to “convulsions” suggest the emptiness of their life, a life where there is absence of love. Clad in jewelry and covered with veneers of makeup they hide their reality full of bareness and stifled desires.
“Their voices were harsh, their songs melancholy...”
The eunuchs have manly voices and sing sad songs that reveal the clamor in their hearts. Their appearance described by the poet is that of something rotten, indicating their inner voids have made them half dead, this picture of degeneration implies to our outlook towards them.
The gory image of “dust in the attics and the urine of lizards and mice” show the mindset of our society towards the eunuchs and how they are just a scene of revulsion in our