Elaine Craddock: Negotiating Marginality: Transgender Communities in Tamilnadu
Male-to-female transgender people in Tamilnadu are most commonly called “aravanis” deriving from their ritual marriage to Aravan, the hero from the Mahabharata, which they perform annually at Kuvakam and which is unique to Tamilnadu. Some of them undergo gender reassignment surgery, and construct their physical appearance and comportment based on ideals of Tamil womanhood. Aravanis have historically been economically, socially, and culturally marginalized; they have difficulty finding jobs that will support them outside of sex work and begging for alms. A significant number of aravanis serve village goddesses such as Ankalaparamecuvari, and make a living as diviners and healers. Yet unlike in many parts of India where hijras are regularly invited to bless new babies or attend weddings, in Tamilnadu aravanies do not perform any socially pervasive roles, reinforcing their marginality.
Aravanis construct and maintain their own dynamic kinship and social network, have their own language, and come together regularly for life cycle events and celebrations. These kinship communities emulate the social structures in normative Tamil society, yet in many ways aravani communities embrace and celebrate their marginality.
Within the last couple of years the Tamilnadu government has become the first state in India to officially recognize a third gender, to pay for gender reassignment surgery, and to offer education loans specifically to transgender individuals. Chief Minister Karunanidhi has also renamed aravanies “tirunangai,” or auspicious women. These moves acknowledge and support a marginalized community that falls outside of normative gender and social roles, but also attempt to bring this transgressive community from the margins into the center by constructing the individuals as women. My paper argues that these governmental changes highlight paradoxes and tensions that have been integral to Tamil transgender communities.
Biographical Statement:
Elaine Craddock is currently a professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy and Chair of the Feminist Studies Program at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX, USA. Her research interests include village goddess religion in South India; bhakti poetry; Hinduism and the body; feminism and religion. She is the author of several articles, and of the book Siva’s Demon Devotee: Karaikkal Ammaiyar (2010).
