Digital Media and Hijra Identity: Understanding Community- Building and Self-Representations Among Hijra Community-Based Organisations in India

DIGITAL MEDIA AND HIJRA IDENTITY: UNDERSTANDING COMMUNITY- BUILDING AND SELF-REPRESENTATIONS AMONG HIJRA COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANISATIONS IN INDIA

Delfi Chinnappan

BA (Honours), MA Anthropology, MPhil. Anthropology

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

School of Communication Creative Industries Faculty

QUT

2020

i Keywords

community-based organisations community work Facebook hijra celebrities hijra community hijra identities India hijra networked publics self-representations social media ethnography social media platforms third gender visibility

Abstract

This thesis is an exploration of hijra community-based organisations (CBOs) and their use of social media (primarily Facebook) to represent hijra identities in contemporary India. The hijras are a particular segment of male-to-female transgender community living by traditional nomenclature established by community leaders. This study employs a social media ethnography, using conceptual frameworks from digital and social media, communication studies and anthropology. It involves a close reading and textual analysis of five Facebook pages (three CBO pages and two belonging to hijra celebrities within these CBOs) and semi- structured interviews with 30 professional members of the CBOs in Mumbai.

In recent years, India has witnessed historical legislative changes in the understanding of gender and sexual identities. These include the landmark Supreme Court judgement (2014) that provided legal recognition of the third gender and decriminalisation of homosexuality in 2018. Contemporary research has recognised the changing landscape of usage patterns and perceptions of queer groups as a result of digital and social media interventions. Therefore, I situate the present study at the intersection of a changing sociopolitical environment and a dynamic digital landscape in India. This thesis draws together gender and sexuality, community identity, digital and social media to examine how hijra community-based organisations do community-identity work in and through social media. It offers a cross-interdisciplinary investigation into contemporary claims of hijra identity(ies) on and through Facebook.

The results indicate how hijra CBOs and community leaders utilise Facebook and other social media platforms to promote their community work and construct hijra identity representations. The CBOs’ Facebook pages facilitate the presentation of CBO identity(ies), health communication, creating awareness, and advocacy related to rights and equal opportunities for the hijra community. WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages are used in combination to manage activities and communicate with wider audiences. Additionally, platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are used explicitly by one CBO to represent activities via a range of social media affordances. These patterns of social media use allow for a democratic, bottom-up approach to creating representations and space, in the larger context, that is accessible to the hijra community via digital media. The CBOs’ Facebook pages have contributed to the

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formation of digital knowledge repositories about hijra communities in India. I argue that the hijra CBOs’ responses and participation on social media constitutes a resistance to the (mis)representation and/or under-representation of the hijra community in mainstream media. The study establishes how culture, technology and community vision perform a critical role in the perception and use of social media among the hijra community. Lastly, the representations of community work by the hijra CBOs signal the significant role they play as part of hijra identity in contemporary India. This thesis argues that social media, particularly Facebook, has been pivotal in augmenting the presentation of community work and increasing visibility over the past five years in India.

Table of Contents

KEYWORDS ...... II ABSTRACT ...... III TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... V LIST OF FIGURES ...... VIII LIST OF TABLES ...... IX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...... X GLOSSARY OF HIJRA NATIVE TERMS ...... XI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... XIII STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP ...... XV PUBLICATIONS ...... XVI CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1 OVERVIEW ...... 1 1.2 TERMINOLOGY ...... 4 1.3 RESEARCH CONTEXT ...... 7 Historical context of the hijra community in India ...... 7 Legal developments in India regarding transgender rights ...... 9 Present Indian digital landscape ...... 11 1.4 MOTIVATIONS OF THE STUDY AND SCOPE ...... 13 1.5 RESEARCH AIM AND QUESTIONS ...... 14 1.6 THESIS OUTLINE ...... 16 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 19 2.1 INTRODUCTION ...... 19 2.2 STUDYING DIGITALLY MEDIATED LGBTQ+ GROUPS ...... 20 Identity performances across digital and social spaces ...... 20 Sexuality-specific digital platforms for LGBTQ+ groups and mainstream social media ...... 21 LGBTQ+ identity-based representations on social media ...... 25 Social media affordances for LGBTQ+ communities ...... 33 2.3 TRANSGENDER COMMUNITIES: GLOBAL AND INDIAN CONTEXT ...... 35 Understanding gender and identity ...... 35 Gender identity and non-Western cultures ...... 37 2.4 THE HIJRA COMMUNITY ...... 39 Social organisation of hijra community and culture ...... 39 Hijra culture and the problematic third gender ...... 44 Mapping hijra CBOs and NGOs ...... 46 Rights of and for transgender people and hijra activism in India ...... 48 The power of representation: Mainstream media ...... 51 2.5 EMERGING QUESTIONS ...... 53 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ...... 55 3.1 INTRODUCTION ...... 55 3.2 EPISTEMOLOGICAL FOUNDATION ...... 55 3.3 SELECTION OF THE COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANISATIONS ...... 57 Field location: Mumbai as a site of study...... 57 Selection of CBOs ...... 59 The Humsafar Trust (HST) ...... 60 Triveni Samaj Vikas Kendra (TSVK) ...... 61

v Astitva Trust (AT) ...... 62 3.4 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN ...... 62 Social media ethnography ...... 62 Observation of social media platforms and textual analysis ...... 64 Semi-structured interviews ...... 66 3.5 DATA AND THEMATIC ANALYSIS ...... 69 3.6 RESEARCHER POSITION ...... 70 3.7 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ...... 71 Ethical considerations: Social media data ...... 72 Ethical considerations: Semi-structured interview data ...... 72 Ethical considerations: Data analysis and thesis write-up ...... 73 3.8 LIMITATIONS ...... 74 3.9 CONCLUSION ...... 74 CHAPTER 4: FACEBOOK PAGES—CBOS’ COMMUNITY WORK AND SELF-REPRESENTATIONS ...... 76 4.1 INTRODUCTION ...... 76 4.2 CREATION AND CURATION OF HIJRA CBOS’ FACEBOOK PAGES ...... 76 Facebook page: Humsafar Trust ...... 80 Facebook page: Triveni Samaj Vikas Kendra ...... 86 Facebook page: Astitva Trust ...... 89 Discussion...... 91 4.3 PROMOTING COMMUNITY WORK THROUGH FACEBOOK PAGES ...... 94 Challenging laws and policies ...... 95 Hijra leadership and skill development ...... 95 Community-building ...... 96 Information sharing ...... 96 Celebration of events ...... 97 Expression of political ideologies ...... 97 Activities in the gharanas ...... 98 4.4 ONLINE EMBODIMENT OF HIJRA IDENTITIES ON FACEBOOK ...... 100 4.5 FORMING HIJRA NETWORKED PUBLICS ...... 101 4.6 CONCLUSION ...... 105 CHAPTER 5: SOCIAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE AMONG HIJRA CBOS—PERCEPTIONS, PRESENCE AND USES ACROSS PLATFORMS ...... 107 5.1 INTRODUCTION ...... 107 5.2 TRADITIONAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICES AND EMERGING ICT AMONG HIJRA GHARANAS ...... 108 5.3 EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG HIJRA GHARANAS AND DEVELOPING TRENDS .... 113 Development of social media among hijra gharanas and CBOs ...... 114 Growing cell phone culture and associated social media trends among hijra gharanas ...... 115 Media literacy skill training workshop ...... 116 5.4 WHATSAPP ...... 117 Motivations and WhatsApp use among hijra CBOs ...... 118 5.5 PLATFORMS ...... 122 Twitter ...... 124 Emerging platforms: Instagram, YouTube and CBO websites ...... 128 Facebook ...... 135 Finding friends, romantic relationships and performing kinship on Facebook ...... 139 Reuniting with biological families through Facebook ...... 142 5.6 MULTI-PLATFORMS USE AND MOTIVATIONS AMONG HIJRA CBOS ...... 146 5.7 CONCLUSION ...... 148 CHAPTER 6: COMMUNITY LEADERS’ SOCIAL MEDIA INTERVENTION—RISING FAME AND NEGOTIATING HIJRA IDENTITIES ...... 150 6.1 INTRODUCTION ...... 150 6.2 MINORITY ACTIVIST CELEBRITIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA ...... 151 6.3 BECOMING HIJRA ACTIVISTS AND TRANS ACTIVISM DISCOURSE ...... 152

vi Identifying and selection of hijra celebrities in the hijra CBOs ...... 153 6.4 NARRATIVES OF HIJRA IDENTITY, ACTIVISM, POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE: GAURI SAWANT AND LAXMI NARAYAN TRIPATHI ...... 154 Facebook page: Gauri Sawant ...... 155 Facebook page: Laxmi Narayan Tripathi ...... 166 Discussion...... 172 6.5 ALLIANCES BETWEEN LEADERS AND COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANISATIONS ...... 174 6.6 CONCLUSION ...... 176 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSIONS ...... 178 7.1 INTRODUCTION ...... 178 7.2 KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS ...... 178 Self-representations of hijra identities on social media: Contested interpretations ...... 182 7.3 ACADEMIC CONTRIBUTIONS ...... 183 7.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ...... 185 7.5 EMERGING QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ...... 186 7.6 REFLECTIONS ...... 188 REFERENCES ...... 189 APPENDICES ...... 204 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS I (FOR HIJRA GURUS AND PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS) ...... 204 APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS II (FOR COMMUNITY LEADERS/MEDIA KNOWN HIJRA CELEBRITIES) ..... 207 APPENDIX C: CBOS AND ASSOCIATED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS PART OF THIS RESEARCH STUDY (UPDATED MAY 2020) ...... 209 APPENDIX D: INTERVIEWEE PROFILES ...... 210 APPENDIX E: CODE TREE: EMERGING THEMES FROM INTERVIEWS ...... 214

vii List of Figures

Figure 3.1: Map of Mumbai ...... 58 Figure 4.1: Screenshot of a post on Instagram regarding on the occasion of International Transgender Day of Visibility ...... 84 Figure 4.2: Visual representation of hijra networked publics exploration of the tangled, overlapping yet independent networks across various publics in the physical gharana premises...... 104 Figure 5.1: Screenshot of report on cell-phone consumption among the Indian population ...... 113 Figure 5.2: Screenshot from HST’s Twitter feed ...... 126 Figure 5.3: Screenshot of HSTrust’s Twitter feed ...... 127 Figure 5.4: Screenshot of HST’s Twitter feed ...... 127 Figure 5.5: Screenshot of HST’s Instagram account ...... 130 Figure 5.6: Screenshot of HST’s Instagram account ...... 130 Figure 5.7: Screenshot of HST’s YouTube channel ...... 132 Figure 5.8: Screenshot of HST’s website, also used as a cover photo of the Facebook page October–November 2018 ...... 133 Figure 5.9: Screenshot of HST’s website: The initiatives carried out by the CBO as a whole as displayed...... 133 Figure 5.10: Screenshot of email updates about CBO activities at TSVK; activities previously posted on the Facebook page now are updated on the website 134 Figure 6. 1. Screenshot from Sawant’s Facebook page ...... 156 Figure 6. 2. Screenshot from the Vicks advertisement on YouTube ...... 158 Figure 6. 3. A image of Gauri Sawant across the rainbow colours symbolising a brown transgender woman adorned with a bindi (coloured dot) on the forehead, earrings and saree, a traditional attire worn by women in India...... 161

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List of Tables

Table 2.1: Selected examples of hijra taliya (claps) ...... 42 Table 4.1: Overview of the CBO’ Facebook pages (Updated May 2020) ...... 78 Table 4.2: Typology of posts based on the three CBOs’ Facebook pages arranged in the order of frequency on the appearance of categories...... 79 Table 5.1: Summary of WhatsApp uses among the CBOs ...... 120 Table 5.2: The Humsafar Trust ...... 123 Table 5.3: Triveni Samaj Vikas Kendra ...... 123 Table 5.4: Astitva Trust ...... 123 Table 5.5: Summary of patterns of use of social media platforms among HST ...... 145 Table 5.6: Summary of patterns of use of social media platforms among TSVK ... 145 Table 5.7: Summary of patterns of use of social media platforms among AT ...... 146 Table 6. 1. Gauri Sawant (Updated May 2020) ...... 154 Table 6. 2. Laxmi Narayan Tripathi (Updated May 2020) ...... 154

List of Abbreviations

APCOM: Asia Pacific Coalition on Male and Transgender Communities

AT: Astitva Trust

BJP: Bharatiya Janata Party

CBO: community-based organisation

HST: Humsafar Trust

ICT: information and communication technologies

LGBTQ+: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and more.

NALSA: National Legal Services Authority

NHRC: National Human Rights Commission of India

NGO: Non-governmental Organisation

TSVK: Triveni Samaj Vikas Kendra

UNAIDS: Joint United Nations AIDS Program

Glossary of Hijra Native Terms

Aravani: the term for hijras in Tamil Nadu, a state in South India. Bahuchara Mata: the name of the Hindu goddess that hijras traditionally worship. Badhai: a term used among the hijra community; refers to the occupation of giving blessings to a newborn male infant in return for alms provided by the family. Chakka: a term used derogatorily towards hijras in India. Chela: a term used to refer to a hijra disciple/novice/learner. Gharana: an illustrious hijra family with its own special traditions, guidelines and hierarchy; also means household similar to a residential unit when used in the context of a hijra gharana or CBO. Guru: a hijra leader/teacher in the gharana. Hijar: a term used to refer to hijras in Urdu language; khwaja sara is also used (prominently in Pakistan). Hijra: a term used in the thesis to refer to the particular segment of the male-to-female transgender population in India; loosely translates as ‘eunuch’ in English. Hijrakhana: a term used by non-hijras to identify geographical areas where hijras gharanas reside together in a neighbourhood. Jamaat: a system that considers a safe space for hijra; sometimes difficult when a hijra transitions from a community occupation such as a badhai to a mainstream job in society. Kathoey: the term used to refer to ladyboys of Thailand. Kinnar: a term used for hijras in North India; specifically, used to refer to upper-class hijras within the broader hijra community. Koti/Kothi: a term used to refer to cis men showing effeminate features; they can be bisexual or homosexual men and prefer same-sex relationships. Massi: a Hindi kin term for a mother’s younger sister. Nani: a Hindi kin term for a mother’s mother (maternal grandmother). Napunsakudu: a term used to imply impotency or address an impotent person; also a derogatory term used in Telugu-speaking regions to address the hijra community. Nayak: a higher-degree leader among the hijra community; occupies a high status in the hijra gharana, superior to a hijra guru. Nirvana: a traditional castration ceremony within the hijra community; a ceremony that signifies supreme/ultimate integration in the hijra community. Panch: a hijra guru’s successor in the hijra community. Panchayat: a village council/meeting.

Reet: an initiation ceremony into the hijra community; a type of christening ceremony for a hijra novice. Tali: clap

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Acknowledgements

This doctoral research is a product of my personal and professional journey over 3.6 years, which has been challenging and inspiring at the same time. First and foremost, I express my kind appreciation and heartfelt thanks to my principal supervisor, Dr Elija Cassidy, and associate supervisor, Peta Mitchell, for guiding me and supporting my research through their patience, valuable time and insightful feedback throughout my candidature. I also owe a special thanks to Associate Professor Emma Baulch for being my principal supervisor during the first year of research. This study would not have been possible without funding support from QUT’s Postgraduate Tuition Fee Sponsorship waiver and Postgraduate Research Scholarship Award during my period of study.

Next, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the people and the community-based organisations in Mumbai, who willingly agreed to participate in my research study over the past three years. They have offered me their precious time to share their community work experiences, including their Facebook and other social media activities, so this research could manifest its goals. Without the consent and participation of my research participants, this study would not have been possible.

Through this candidature, I have participated in some very distinct research activities both inside and outside QUT. Some of the rich, valuable training I cherish the most are my summer school experiences at the University of California, Berkeley in 2017; the IIM Doctoral Colloquium in Ahmedabad in 2018; and the Association of Internet Researchers Doctoral Colloquium in Brisbane in 2019. These opportunities have allowed me to receive feedback in formulating my thesis, and learn about academic reading and writing, as well as meet some wonderful scholars from all over the world and witness a great, helpful community of academics. I would like to thank Professors Jean Burgess and Amanda Lotz for their valuable feedback during my final seminar, and Professor Susan Carson and Associate Professor Kevin Sanson for their guidance during my confirmation seminar.

I am grateful to the research staff at the Digital Media Research Centre (DRMC) and Creative Industries Faculty (CIF) for all the administrative support. I owe thanks to CIF liaison librarian Ellen Thompson for resolving all my EndNote and referencing issues and providing me with

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the books and readings I requested in a timely manner. Many thanks to CIF’s writing advisor, Dr Morgan Batch, for reviewing my thesis and helping me improve my academic writing skills. I am greatly indebted to Sadhvi Krishnamoorthy for reading the thesis and providing comments that add to its value. I am grateful to Dr Lisa Hill for professionally copyediting this thesis under QUT’s guidelines for doctoral thesis editing.

My fondest appreciation to my professors at the University of Hyderabad, especially Professor N. Sudhakar Rao, who always listened to my thesis issues, reviewed my chapters and motivated me to complete my PhD, and told me academia is a challenging and worthwhile career to explore. I also thank Maria Kumar for offering valuable comments on my introductory chapter.

I also take this opportunity to thank my friends and colleagues at the DMRC, Z2:202, Z6:206, for providing emotional support, input on my drafts and lasting friendship. And to Noora and Jeslyn, for being the most amazing housemates, listening to all my PhD issues and providing me with all the love and care in Brisbane.

My sincere thanks to my family, sister, grandparents and Mama for all the motivation, freedom and love you have given me all these years. For being patient through my study periods and letting me pursue a career of my choice, and also keeping me updated when I have been unable to be with you all in Mumbai and celebrate together. A special thanks to all my friends for communicating their emotional care and concern for me, and this thesis, and for being helpful in so many ways.

Last and most importantly, I thank (soon-to-be Dr) Siddartha Darla for being the most patient and supportive partner. His unconditional love and resilience have supported us both through our thesis writing phases and PhDs.

Delfi Chinnappan August 2020

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Statement of Original Authorship

The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.

QUT Verified Signature

Signature: Delfi ChinnChinnappan

Date: 18 December 2020

xv Publications

Chinnappan, D. (2019, 7 October). Digitally mediated hijra identity: The case of the 6 Pack Band. Critical Asian Studies. https://criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2019/10/7/201920-delfi-chinnappan- digitally-mediated-hijra-identity-the-case-of-the-6-pack-band

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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 OVERVIEW

This thesis is an exploration of hijra community-based organisations (CBOs) and their use of social media for representing hijra identity(ies) in contemporary India. Hijras are the institutionalised ‘third gender’ in India. Ina Goel specifies the ‘hijra identity is a unique blend of gendered and sexual identities, underpinned by religion and bound by a tight-knit social structure’ (Sapiens website, Goel, 2019). Hijras live in residential clusters commonly known as gharanas, organised around a social structure and kinship. Hijra gharanas are complex apprentice systems of households/residential units that follow a hierarchical structure between gurus (teacher/leader) and chelas (disciples/learners). In recent years, CBOs have emerged from these complex residential and structural units to empower the hijra community, promoting welfare, rights, advocacy and equal opportunities for community members.

This thesis examines three hijra CBOs—namely, the Humsafar Trust (HST), Triveni Samaj Vikas Kendra (TSVK) and the Astitva Trust (AT)—located in Mumbai, a city considered the queer1 capital of India. In this thesis, I primarily explore how hijra CBOs have used Facebook pages for community-building and self-representing hijra identities. I examine the hijra CBOs and nature of hijra identities in the context of legal recognition and their structural connections to their gharanas. Through this examination, I contribute to the domain of how specific groups of sexual minorities show resilience in managing under-representation and/or (mis)representation and fragmented visibility in digital and public spaces.

1The term ‘queer’ is contentious and could mean different things when used in contexts. In this research, I use the term queer to represent a broad range of fluid identities also included in the LGBTQ+ classification. Additionally, existing literature in India and other countries/regions have necessarily used the term queer in accordance with queer theory, and I have adopted use of the term when referring to that literature and associated case studies. LGBTQ+ is used to refer to people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer or alternative diverse gender or sexual identities aside from or in addition to cisgender and heterosexual identities, such as asexual or pansexual. This study discusses a wide range of individuals but only the ‘T’ for ‘transgender’ from the gender spectrum will be examined in detail. As the broader subject area of this research, LGBTQ+ will be used appropriately throughout the thesis.

I was drawn to this research because of my anthropological research interests in identity and gender, and because my questions are pertinent to the contemporary status of the hijra community in India. Further, a distinct video representation released in 2017 was fundamental to the development of this project and its aims. In early 2017, Vicks India,2 a popular consumer health brand in India, released a video entitled Generations of Care as part of its Touch of Care campaign. The video, distributed on television and across various social media platforms using the hashtag #touchofcare, did not advertise any Vicks product but instead promoted its corporate social responsibility by addressing an important issue in contemporary Indian society. The Generations of Care video presents the story of Gauri Sawant, a hijra who runs a shelter home in Mumbai for hijras who have left their families at a young age to pursue their hijra identity. The vicks motherhood video went viral (Goel, 2018). Having received extensive coverage, both locally and internationally (Sachdev, 2017), it generated global awareness and promoted a discussion of the issues facing the hijra community.

Gauri Sawant is a well-known transgender activist based in Mumbai, and Vicks presented her as an inspirational ‘trans mommy’ in the video. The video narrates Gauri’s life, raising an orphaned girl named Gayatri as her own child despite having no legal rights to adopt a child and also facing social stigma. The video demonstrates how ‘normal’ her motherhood has been. This video positively impacted Indian and international audiences, both online and offline, and contributed to existing debates around the self-representations and gender identity of ‘third gendered’ individuals on social media platforms. The video was a pioneering initiative for the Indian transgender community. The Vicks advertisement is a seminal case and among very few corporate-made advertisements that, despite being critically reviewed by transgender activists, attracted appreciation for presenting and discussing the social cause and disseminating the novel content to audiences in India and abroad. This mainstream media representation, interwoven with audience responses and the emergence of Gauri Sawant as a hijra celebrity, compelled me to investigate further the role social media plays in promoting hijra identities in contemporary India.

Using the above vignette as central to the conceptualisation of this project, I build my research questions on the premise that (social) media representations are integral to the process of identity formation and presentation in different contexts (Allen, 2015; Gomillion & Giuliano,

2 See https://www.facebook.com/logical.indian/videos/1195943770535340/

2011; Greenhow & Robelia, 2009; Steinke, 2017). This thesis examines how hijra CBOs negotiate their identities on social media to increase visibility and engage in creating and curating self-representations on social media. Specifically, this research understands the identities presented via social media from the hijra community perspective; a segment of the sexual minority in India who only intersect with mainstream society on specific occasions. This research also traces the hijra community’s appropriation of digital technology, as well as the accessibility of new modes of communication, which further aids the community’s presentation of organisational activities on social media platforms. Contemporary scholars working on issues related to queer communities in India have contributed to the understanding of the uses of digital media as platforms for identity constructions. There are also instances of social media being used as an instrument to raise awareness and galvanise efforts towards seeking social justice via Facebook groups (Dey, 2019). The shifting sociopolitical climate and dynamic digital landscape in India influence the self-representations made by queer groups. Therefore, this research on hijra CBOs and key players in the community operates within the context of these sociopolitical changes occurring not only within the hijra gharanas but also in the broader Indian queer context. To understand the self-representations made by the hijra CBOs on social media in contemporary India, it is important to note the advent of technology and social media adoption within the community. Thus, this study also charts the trajectory of these changes and the influences of a changing sociopolitical context on this marginalised community.

The increased visibility of the hijra community is evident even in recent media productions depicting community leaders. For instance, a popular tea brand in India named Red Label sponsored project Six Pack Band3 features six musically talented hijras selected through auditions conducted only for hijras across the country. Red Label’s Six Pack Band provided the hijra community with an opportunity to make their presence felt on a larger scale and pursue a potential career in music (Chinnappan, 2019).

The NALSA judgement has legitimised the nature of hijra CBO work to address rights and advocacy issues for recognition within these marginalised communities. With the introduction

3 Y-Films’ Red Label project, the Six Pack Band, is India’s first transgender band. Popular songs include ‘Hum hain happy [We are happy people]’ and ‘Sab Rab de bande [All people belong to the same God]’. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msbZUmaUBuI Sab Rab de Bande https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blvOBnSRfVc Hum hain Happy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3oteSP2OHI Ae Raju

of technology and the easy availability of the internet, social media platforms have become available for all. The structurally close-knit and otherwise impenetrable gharanas are not immune to these developments, and hence, these platforms have made their way into the gharana households. This study demonstrates how exposure to information and communication technologies (ICTs), further aided through gharana based training programs, has expanded the network of CBOs. This has enabled the CBOs to increase their visibility on social media, promote CBO work and gharana activities, and mobilise support for tolerance towards transgender communities.

Lastly, the thesis examines the narratives of two important hijra leaders and activists who have celebrity-like status in India—Gauri Sawant and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi—to understand individual social media outreach in addition to the CBOs’, to demonstrate their growth as faces of the hijra community. Their offline and online presence reveals how they negotiate their space to convey their message to a wider audience about hijra identity(ies). Studying both community and individuals within the hijra community allows a holistic understanding of the significance of social media for the CBOs. Hence, this thesis contributes to an understanding of how hijra CBOs have used social media in the construction and representation of hijra identities following legal recognition of the ‘third gender’ in India in 2014.

This introduction provides an overview of the key terminologies used in the thesis, establishes the context for research, discloses the motivations behind the current study, identifies the principal objectives and questions guiding the research, and outlines the thesis structure.

1.2 TERMINOLOGY

By analysing self-representations of hijra CBOs on social media platforms, this thesis engages with ongoing debates and discussions generated in contemporary India around gender definitions, especially following the legalisation of the ‘third gender’ category in 2014 and the subsequent laws for the protection of rights of the transgender population. It restricts the focus of the study to a specific section of the transgender community identified in South Asia and unique to India, known as hijras. As Gupta (2019) asserts, ‘India has a diverse, complex and elaborate spectrum of same-sex sexual cultures in the variety of social spaces and without the political rhetoric of the West’ (p. 71). There is no equivalent for the sociocultural constellation of hijras when addressing similar populations on a global level, and the hijra community is unique to India. Serene Nanda (1990) defines hijras as ‘a religious community of men who

cross-dress and adopt a feminine mien and whose cultures are centred on the worship of Bahuchara Mata, one of the many versions of the Mother Goddess worshipped through India’ (p. ix).4 The structure among hijras is formed on ethnic-religious clusters, known as hijra gharanas. The hijra community comprises male-to-female transgender individuals and the many myths, legends, rituals, religious roles and themes in Hinduism that outline the notion of sexually ambiguous or dual gender manifestations (Nanda, 1990; Reddy, 2010). This is unlike kinnars, kotis or panthis,5 who also sit under the umbrella term ‘transgender’.

For Gayatri Reddy (2005), hijras go ‘beyond a sexual category but as with any other community in India, cross-cut by a range of axes (such as kinship, religion, class) shaping their identities’ (p. 4). The hijras constitute the visible majority among sexual minority groups in India because they actively participate in society through their designated roles in traditional religious occupations. Scholars studying critical trans studies in India such as Aniruddha Dutta (2012) highlight hijras as a ‘quintessential marker of Indian gender/sexual difference’ (p. 826). For administrative and official purposes, the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) judgement has clustered all the sexual minority groups under the umbrella category of ‘third gender’. This judgement specifies that individuals who identify themselves as ‘third gender’ are now eligible to apply for national identification documents, granting access to basic rights and welfare schemes.

There are many issues associated with using the term ‘third gender’, which scholars in this area of research have previously addressed. According to Goel and Nayar (2012), the right approach to the issue of sexual minorities would be to recognise ‘a pluralistic expression in gender that would encompass those who identify themselves as cisgenders, cissexuals, transvestites, transgenders, hijras, homosexuals, gender queers and genderless among the many others who find space beyond the established binaries of gender’ (p. 21). A review of the literature written

4 This definition was conceptualised at a time where there was hardly any literature about the hijra community. Serene Nanda is one of the pioneering scholars to study and define the hijras of India; however, this is an over simplified definition of the hijra person and community. I hope to further the understanding of hijra identity(ies) in this thesis by researching hijra CBOs in Mumbai. 5 The Supreme Court Judgement of India in the NALSA Judgement 2014, describes kotis and panthis together as a heterogeneous group, referring to them as biological men exhibiting varying degrees of being effeminate. Some hijras identify as kotis but not all hijras see themselves as kotis. Kotis do not live in separate communities. Kinnar is a term used invariably in North India instead of hijra (see glossary for further meanings and variations).

explicitly by hijras themselves6 critiques this categorisation that reduces individuals to ‘just one singular identity’ (Hall, 1995, p. 140). A key problem with applying a term such as ‘third gender’ to a variety of people with an assemblage of supposed ‘similar features’ is that it generalises and conceals variations within this community. There is an awareness of intricacies around hijra definitions, the complexities of the hijra identity(ies), reductionist approaches to defining hijras and the mainstream ‘othering’ articulated in previous scholarly works (Hall, 1995; Reddy, 2010), which are discussed further in Chapter 2.

I acknowledge that definitions and ways of discussing identities are produced through power relations that privilege some people over others (Foucault, 1980, 1990, 1995). However, some definitions are necessary to communicate the purpose of this research. This thesis employs the term ‘trans’ or ‘transgender’ to refer to people who identify as transgender. By using this term, I refer to a range of gender identities often contrasting with the expected gender expression, given one’s assigned sex at birth (Smith et al., 2014). The term ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ is ‘when a person’s gender identity matches social expectations given their sex assigned at birth’ (Smith et al., 2014, p. 6).

In accordance with these definitions, hijras are viewed as a niche community within the spectrum of transgender identities in India. Hence, there is an attempt to dissect this niche identity within the vast spectrum, and chart their social media presence, activities and performance to understand their assertions of identity(ies) in and through social media. The term hijra is used throughout the thesis to denote this specific community; however, relevant broader terms, such as transgender, are used to denote all variations or to make a global comparison.

The next sections briefly outlines the key literature to establish the research context for this project. In the next sections, I cover the legal developments in India concerning the transgender population and an exploration of the present digital context in India. These themes not only draw an understanding of the hijras’ position in India but also depict contested realities of the hijra community despite legal transformations.

6 Personal accounts of hijras include Laxmi Tripathi’s (2015) Me hijra, me Laxmi and A. Revathi’s (2010) A truth about me: A hijra life story.

1.3 RESEARCH CONTEXT

Historical context of the hijra community in India

In numerous parts around the world, the ‘third gender’ or the non-normative gender variations have different labels, such as hijras in India, kathoeys in Thailand, meti in Nepal, berdache in North America, f’afafine in Polynesia, muxes in Mexico, xanith in Oman, serrers in Africa, and more (Émon & Garlough, 2015). Notably, in India the hijras do not constitute the entire transgender community; rather, different variations exist.7 The hijras are a subset of the broader Indian transgender community, and the general public commonly understands them to be intersex or napunsak. Hijras are believed to have ‘special sanctifying strengths’ ordained on them by Hindu deities due to the rigorous formation period undertaken to become a hijra. Their connection to the divine confers them a special place in society due to their liminal status— neither male nor female (Nanda, 1990).

According to the National Human Rights Commission of India’s (NHRC) first report to the Regional National Human Rights Institutions Project on inclusion, the right to health and sexual orientation and gender identity, in 20158 there were 50,000 transgender people in India. However, the report indicates that this number is grossly under-reported. Further, the NHRC report contends that 92 per cent of the total transgender population in India does not have access to employment opportunities equal to the rest of the population, which forces them to participate in the illegal occupations of sex work and begging.9 Hence, similar to the socially excluded cultures across the world, there is a deep-rooted marginalisation and discrimination of the transgender community, leading to a lack of access to equal opportunities (Chakrapani et al., 2004). Additionally, hijras are also stigmatised as sex workers and subjected to violence.10

7 The NALSA Judgement recognises the variations that form part of the transgender community in India, such as kinnars, koti and panthi, and recognises them as a ‘third gender’. 8 See https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/inuth-epaper- inuth/think+nhrc+report+on+transgenders+is+horrifying+here+s+what+you+can+do+to+help-newsid-94633257 This figure is based on the 2011 Census of India. Statewide reports can be accessed at https://data.ove.in/. 9 Under the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959 and Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, begging and sex work are considered illegal activities in India and are punishable offences. 10 Sex work is a common occupation among the hijra community, which has translated into common assumptions and stereotypes about the hijra community, particularly regarding the rise and risks of HIV/AIDS among its members (Nanda, 1990). The hijras often face discrimination both by police and members of civil society due to their HIV status, their occupation as sex work, or for begging, all of which are stigmatised in Indian society.

7 Hijras have been a part of the Indian subcontinent for centuries and are a testament to the sexual diversity that is important and persistent in Indian culture. Ancient religious epic texts such as Mahabharata and Ramayana11 mention legends and myths of ancestral transgender persons to whom the hijras trace their descent, which further endorses this standing. Hijras also held religious positions and served as harems in the courtesan culture during the reign of Mughal empires over the subcontinent. However, their social ostracism began around the time of British colonisation of India (Gettleman, 2018). The introduction of the 1871 Criminal Tribes Act criminalised hijras (including nomadic tribes) due to their association with activities considered illegal in India, such as indulging in carnal relationships (Hinchy, 2019). Until the Criminal Tribes Act and ban on homosexuality12—both British-imposed restrictions that greatly impacted the subaltern identities such as hijras, in the form of harassment—the hijra community held a position of respect in Hindu religion and occupied religious roles. With these legal impositions, the punishment for involvement in such illegal activities included imprisonment for two years or a fine, and sometimes both. The discriminatory law spread a popular belief that hijras kidnapped young boys and forced them into castration. Notably, these beliefs persist in contemporary popular culture, and occupations (sex work and begging) continue to remain illegal. As a result, hijras have remained in ghetto-like residential settings (now identified as gharanas) consisting of similar people for security and to avoid arrests (Jami & Kamal, 2017). Ina Goel traces the origin and functioning of hijra gharanas to the stylistic schools in North Indian Hindustani music, possibly due to an association with the traditional occupations that hijras occupied involving music and dance. Hence, the concept of gharanas may be borrowed from traditional gharana system of musical lineages in India (Goel, 2018). Early scholars studying hijra communities have noted the presence of strong gharana cultures in members that mark their entry into the hijra community, distinguishing a ‘real’ hijra from a ‘fake’ hijra, in addition to signs of resistance to the heteronormative notion of family (Nanda, 1990; Oldenburg, 1990).

Consequently, violence and hate crimes are commonly perpetrated against them, especially in cases of housing and safety (Chettiar, 2015). 11 They are ancient Hindu epics that outlay the principles to lead a Hindu life. 12 See Section 377. Unnatural offences are one of 41 former British remnants that criminalise all sexual acts between men and women that are against the order of nature. Between 1861 and 2013, about 200 cases were filed under this act.

For the hijra community, the struggle for equal rights and opportunities continues. Recent sociopolitical developments and increased social media and public presence have led to a growing sense of acceptance for the community (Chinnappan, 2019; Goel, 2019). Non- governmental organisations (NGOs), along with hijra organisations, work to break stereotypes and raise awareness among the general public to increase tolerance of the community and their occupation.13 Further, writings about the life and culture of the hijras by scholars such as Reddy (2010), Nanda (1990), and Khan et al. (2009) have added to the depth of knowledge and literature about the uniqueness of the community and their important position in Indian society. The hijras, who are the most visible queer community in India, have been a part of Indian culture for centuries, yet they remain under-represented in the digital discourse (Mitra & Gajjala, 2008). Even though the hijra community occupies ritual status, their existence had been considered illegal until the recent NALSA judgement that brought legal recognition.

Legal developments in India regarding transgender rights

In 2014, the Supreme Court of India14 passed a historic judgement in favour of reservations15 (understood as quotas) for the ‘third gender’, along with other special categories such as Other Backward Castes (OBC), Dalits or Scheduled Castes, Tribals or Scheduled Tribes, and disabled persons.16 This judgement, known as the NALSA judgement, ‘recognises Transgender persons’ right to decide their self-identified gender’ (Justice K.S Radhakrishnan, NALSA Judgement, 15 April 2014). Put simply, the NALSA judgement allows individuals to self-determine their gender identity as male, female or third gender rather than forcing sex-reassignment surgery or hormonal therapy to prove their identity as third gender. The judgement directs central and state governments to grant legal recognition of hijra identity, such as male, female or third gender

13For information of hijra rallies and protests, see: https://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8737:rally-dharna-by-the-hijra- transgender-community-against-the-transgender-persons-protection-of-rights-bill-2016&catid=129:events-and- activism&Itemid=195 14 NLSA: Petitioner versus Union of India & Other Respondents (Supreme Court of India 15 April 2014), see http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/outtoday/wc40012.pdf 15 ‘Reservations’ is the term used by the Constitution of India for the ‘allocated share of seats’ by a particular community to claim education, employment and political positions. 16 The Indian Constitution provides reservations, a system similar to ‘Positive Discrimination’ in the Australian Human Rights Commission and ‘Affirmative Action’ in the United States. Accordingly, certain castes under the lists of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Class are reserved a set number of seats in educational institutions and positions in government employment. Individuals from these categories are exclusively accommodated in these seats or positions.

9 and take appropriate action to promote rights and welfare activities for people who identify as third gender. This judgement recognised people not conforming to gender binaries and brought them into the public forum as legal citizens in India. This recent legal action follows similar legislation in countries like Nepal (2007), Pakistan (2009) and Australia (2011), which have created distinct categories for individuals who do not identify themselves with gender binaries. This shift coincided with changes on Facebook’s gender categories. In 2014, Facebook expanded its gender settings for user profiles by introducing more than 50 options (Bell, 2015).17 These changes made it possible for users to represent their fluid gender identity on Facebook.

In line with the NALSA judgement, on 6 September 2018, the archaic British law that deemed homosexuality a criminal ‘unnatural offence’ in India—Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code18—was repealed by another Supreme Court judgement, allowing LGBTQ+ individuals the freedom to express their gender identity and sexuality (Bhatt, 2018). The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 is legislation that protects the rights of transgender persons, which was passed unanimously by both Houses of Parliament: Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The Act has been criticised as being patriarchal and reinforcing heteronormative notions of the institution of family (Ghosh & Sanyal, 2019). Apart from changes at the national level, several measures have been undertaken by different state governments to provide support and socio-economic welfare to minority communities, including hijras.

Along with the NALSA judgement, the subsequent introduction of gender-sensitive laws during the last five years in India indicates the changing sociopolitical climate. This has paved the way for marginalised communities and individuals to identify themselves legally and seek rights to equal educational and employment opportunities. Although hijras have now received legal recognition in society, the hijra gharana culture that relies on a system of non-biological kinship structure and norms anticipates formal recognition. Thus, the legal changes introduced by the Indian government, together with Facebook’s gender categories evolution in 2014, have had a significant impact on the hijra community. The change made by Facebook determines

17 These gender categories were created by Facebook as a means of providing users with multiple gender options and not restricting users to the binary categories of male and female chosen by default. This strategic move is viewed as a way to let users select the option that best represents their gender identity, thereby allowing each user at least 10 options for identification. Facebook has also made provisions to add more to the list by asking users for comments and suggestions. 18 See https://theconversation.com/indias-sodomy-ban-now-ruled-illegal-was-a-british-colonial-legacy-103052

this social media platform as an important site of investigation in the context of the hijra community in India.

Present Indian digital landscape

India is a established market for major technology companies due to its growing population and noticeable media consumption patterns. Despite heavy investment from the Indian government and various multinational companies working to improve the digital landscape in India, there is still a dearth of literature in India that considers technology and its overall impact on peoples’ lives. The current Indian government initiated the Digital India project (2015–2020),19 which promises to transform India digitally into an empowered society under the banner, ‘Digital India: A better India’. As a result, the number of internet users in India has expanded from 494 million in March 2018 to around 637 million in March 2019. The numbers of broadband and wireless internet subscribers have increased significantly (KPMG Report, 2019). Additionally, India is experiencing a proliferation of internet-enabled mobile phones. Internet-enabled mobile users have already surpassed 300 million and are expected to reach 700 million by 2021 in India, with a population of 1.3 billion. The India internet section in the 2019 KPMG report, India’s Digital Future: India’s Media and Entertainment Report, states the 72 per cent of Indian’s urban internet users (approx. 139 million people) and 57 per cent of rural users (approx. 109 million) access the internet daily. Moreover, the report predicts that digital advertising will become the largest advertising market in India by 2024.

As part of the Digital India lead, Google has partnered with RailTel Indian railways and telecom industries, to offer free wi-fi at 400 railway stations and platforms across the country. While details of the timeline were not specified, according to reports, Google has already set up wi-fi service at over 100 railway stations (Network T.M., 2016). Further, over 100,000 km of optical fibre cable has been laid for high connectivity. Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the government-owned telecom subsidiaries, have already built over 2,500 hotspots across the country. Moreover, an estimated 55,000 villages are expected to be connected by 2021 (KPMG Report, 2019). India’s digital services and distribution market is growing rapidly with the introduction of Jio in 2016. Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited is a mobile service provider and a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. This mobile provider has been

19 ‘Power to empower’ is their goal. See http://digitalindia.gov.in/ for further details.

11 instrumental in providing people-friendly, affordable cellular and internet-based plans to major cities, including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi and has also managed to establish connectivity in India’s remote villages (Reliance Jio official website, 2019). Jio internet plans have completely swept the market and derailed all other service providers, slowly gaining a monopoly over the telecom industry. The cheap tariffs and plans, which make the internet accessible to individuals from different regions and social classes across the country, make it the preferred supplier. The affordability and ease of smartphones and the internet have further facilitated an increase in media consumption and digital access. The growth of the smartphone culture, together with increasing access to internet plans over the past five years in India, has radically changed the way people use media technologies and consume information.

The overarching digital landscape has direct linkages with the way the internet and smartphones became accessible and available to the hijra community. To understand how hijra CBOs utilise social media platforms to negotiate identities following the NALSA judgement, it is important to understand present social media uses and motivations against historical and contemporary contexts. This thesis briefly documents the emergence and penetration of media technologies into hijra gharanas through the use of smartphones and low-cost data plans and their entry into the traditional hijra gharanas. This affords a better understanding of how social media is perceived and used among the members, and the resulting use of Facebook, particularly, for promoting community work and increasingly hijra visibility in wider public networks.

Against this background, the thesis focuses on social media activities (particularly Facebook pages) of the hijra CBOs to represent their community through online social media platforms and the digital mediation of hijra identities. Previous scholarly research (Dasgupta, 2017; Dey, 2019; Mitra, 2010; Mitra & Gajjala, 2008) has investigated queer groups within Indian contexts and recognised changing perceptions of queer groups as a result of digital media interventions in contemporary India. This research builds on previous work by empirically examining a particular group within Indian queer groups by studying hijra CBOs and their social media use for community-building and self-representations. Bound by changing legal definitions of the third gender, gender identity and India’s dynamic digital demography, this thesis explores the hijra CBOs’ community-building, promotion of community work and representation of hijra identities through the use of social media among the hijra gharanas and CBOs in Mumbai.

1.4 MOTIVATIONS OF THE STUDY AND SCOPE

In addition to the motivations arising from the hijra context and emerging media representations, one key catalyst to undertaking this project is a gap in the academic literature concerning digital media and the hijra community in existing studies on queer identities in India (see Dasgupta, 2014, 2017; Dey, 2019; Mitra, 2010; Mitra & Gajjala, 2008). The current study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by addressing the gaps in previous queer research in India. Further, the study responds to and addresses the 2014 NALSA legislation, which is iconic because it gave a legal recognition to previously stigmatised identities and reflects the growing acceptance of these minorities. It has provided a space to negotiate equal opportunities in education, employment and other socio-economic and political spheres for the third gender, even though there are gaps in its implementation. In addition to these changes, the developments on social media platforms, specifically the attempts to accommodate individuals with diverse gender identities on Facebook, seem to lessen the digital divide and make these spaces more accessible. Moreover, Vicks India, a popular national consumer health brand, released the Generations of Care video20 as part of its Touch of Care campaign. The video, distributed on television and across various social media platforms using the hashtag #touchofcare, did not directly advertise any Vicks product but instead promoted its corporate social responsibility on the occasion of International Transgender Day of Visibility, celebrated on 31 March each year.

This consideration of transgender issues and concerns in mainstream media has become a potential strategy to secure funding from international agencies to address the plight of the marginalised. For instance, the Vicks advertisement garnered much discussion around various platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. This paved the way for advocacy related to a broad umbrella of rights such as adoption and marriage for the transgender community. Videos and initiatives like Vicks advertisement and the Six Pack music group push the boundaries and definitions of transgender identity(ies) in India. Apart from moving beyond traditional roles, these portrayals also question the traditional occupations historically held by the community. This has also benefited the Indian companies whose sales increased after their unique LGBTQ+ driven advertisements received a widespread response from the general public (Nambiar & Sahani, 2018). The circulation of these multimedia messages has brought these gender-fluid identities closer home. The increasingly visible positive recognition and

20 https://www.facebook.com/logical.indian/videos/1195943770535340/

acceptance in society through these digital platforms has encouraged a process of ‘coming out’ and accepting hijra identities, mediated by digital platforms. These media representations are changing the rhetoric around transgender identities in India and need critical examination. Thus, I position this research in the domain of research in transgender studies, digital and social media in an Indian context.

The above are some of the reasons for a close examination of the hijra community’s social media practices. The overarching aim is to capture and document these changes made through self-representations of hijra identities, to further contribute to queer literature from the perspective of the members of the hijra community. Hence, examining three hijra CBOs using conceptual threads from discourses on digital media, communication and social anthropology, elucidates how hijra CBOs use social media for community-building and self-representing hijra identities in India.

1.5 RESEARCH AIM AND QUESTIONS

The central aim of this thesis is to articulate how hijra CBOs in Mumbai negotiate hijra identities to broader audiences in and through social media. The academic discipline of media and communication studies grounds this thesis. Further, it draws strength from anthropology and digital media studies while borrowing from other disciplines that engage with transgender, identity and social media. Thus, a curated assemblage of concepts and methods have been borrowed from the above disciplines to facilitate a holistic understanding of the hijra community and the connections with their history, culture and media use. This thesis seeks to fill the gap that exists in the paucity of literature on the use of digital media within the hijra community. These practices are explored in the context of the legislation in favour of the third gender category in contemporary India. Further, the study aims to explore the reasons behind the use of specific platforms for representations of hijra identities. Given the national debates around changing definitions of transgender identities and the increasing significance of social media (particularly on Facebook) making these appropriations visible, this study explores the following research questions related to hijra identity(ies). The project’s primary research question is: How do hijra community-based organisations use social media platforms to negotiate hijra identities and build community representations following the 2014 NALSA judgement in India?

The primary research question informs two secondary questions: 1. What is the nature of hijra identities constructed by hijra CBOs via social media platforms, with an emphasis on Facebook pages? 2. How do these identities curated by the CBOs and community leaders contribute to existing deliberations around the ‘third gender’ category? How do they help improve hijra visibility and representation in contemporary India?

As highlighted earlier, this thesis is based on the study of three hijra CBOs in Mumbai to understand their use of social media platforms for representing hijra identities. The study employs qualitative methods to explore and attempt to understand the linkages between social media use and the experiences of individuals involved in negotiating hijra identities as presented on Facebook pages. As part of the methodology (see Chapter 3), this study employs social media ethnography consisting of observations and textual analyses of social media platforms. Additionally, it includes semi-structured interviews with professional members of the CBOs to understand in-depth experiences pertaining to the questions outlined and themes identified by a close reading of social media platforms, focusing on Facebook pages that are public-facing and significantly used by the identified CBOs to promote their community work to wider audiences.

This thesis contributes to existing research in the interdisciplinary fields of digital media research, gender and sexuality, and digital anthropology scholarship about transgenderism in a non-Western context. Analysis of the main findings from this research will cast light on 1) how hijra CBOs use social media for CBO and non-CBO (gharana) community work; 2) how their use and non-use of particular platforms have provided recognition, freedom and visibility to hijra communities; 3) how hijra identities as communicated across social media have challenged mainstream notions and transforming stereotypes against hijras in India; 4) how active advocacy/activism over social media discussions has empowered community members and created potential to change laws and reframe existing legal frameworks for transgender persons; and 5) how Facebook has served as a medium to form everyday hijra community networked publics. The key findings demonstrate the significance of community work presented via the numerous social media by the three CBOs. The CBOs’ Facebook pages have contributed to the formation of digital knowledge repositories about hijra communities in India. I argue that the hijra CBOs’ response and participation on social media constitutes a resistance to the (mis)representation and/or under-representation of the hijra community in mainstream media. The study establishes how culture, technology and community vision perform a critical

role in the way social media is perceived and used among the hijra community. Lastly, the representations of community work by the hijra CBOs signal its significance in hijra identity in contemporary India. This thesis argues that social media, particularly Facebook, plays a vital role in augmenting the presentation of community work and increasing visibility in contemporary India.

1.6 THESIS OUTLINE

This thesis comprises seven chapters, organised according to the stages of data collection and based on the analytical themes.

Following this introductory chapter, Chapter 2 presents the literature review in an inverted pyramid model—a critical analysis of the literature most relevant to the thesis. The literature review builds on three main themes of research by focusing on digitally mediated identities of the LGBTQ+ communities, identity and social media, and global presence of transgender communities with a specific focus on the hijra community located within this milieu. I borrow from scholars in the area of LGBTQ+ and internet studies, sociologists and anthropologists studying hijra culture, queer and sexuality studies, and those focused on queer identities and social media in conjunction. Using secondary literature as a background, I outline examples of recent mainstream media representations of transgender groups in India and their popularity on and through social media to understand the self-representations made by hijra CBOs. At the conclusion of Chapter Two, I situate the study within an interdisciplinary field of research supported with a particular socio-historic-political and digital landscape in India. Taken together, this study sits at the intersection of digital media and transgender scholarship in South Asian contexts. This chapter sets a background for the thesis by combining a range of academic and contextual literature most relevant to understanding hijra culture, hijra CBOs and need to appreciate social media representations made by hijra CBOs.

Chapter 3 outlines the research design and methodology for the empirical, case study component of the study and describes the selection criteria, sampling procedure and methods of data collection. This chapter also discusses the study’s guiding epistemological and ontological stance and the rationale for employing social media ethnography among the examined hijra CBOs. In this chapter, the key goal was to determine the criteria to select the three CBOs that were functional both as a CBO and on Facebook or other social media platforms to facilitate a suitable study sample to conduct this research. Additionally,

incorporating key leaders as microcelebrity figures from within the CBOs ensured holistic community and individual perspectives of social media representations made by the hijra community. Lastly, this chapter includes a note on ethical considerations and researcher position.

Following the literature review and methodology chapters, the project’s three CBOs are presented concurrently in each chapter instead of in individual chapters. This allows me to draw similarities and differences between the CBOs and avoid repeating common findings on the organisations’ social media uses and motivations.

Chapter 4 introduces the three CBOs’ Facebook pages and explains the nature of posts and activities carried on Facebook using the affordances of the platform. The main themes, including promoting community work and the online embodiment of hijra identities, are discussed based on observations and textual analyses of the three CBOs’ Facebook pages. In this chapter, I elaborate on the distinctive use of Facebook pages by the CBOs by focusing on the CBO goals and purpose served. Lastly, I argue that the community work presented on Facebook pages is central to hijra identities today and examine the formation of networked publics among hijras.

Chapter 5 focuses on the contemporary social media landscape among hijra gharanas, outlining their perceptions and presence across social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Before examining the diversity of the mainstream social media platforms used, particularly by HST, this chapter presents a brief chronology of ICT and smartphones in the gharanas. This chapter primarily draws on interviews collected with professional members of the CBOs and addresses the research question regarding the construction and curation of hijra identities and the distinctive use and non-use of social media platforms by hijras. Charting the uses of social media platforms other than Facebook allows an in-depth understanding of how and why Facebook is used moderately, actively and preferred commonly among the three CBOs, and how it fits into the hijra community’s wider social media ecology. Finally, this chapter demonstrates that the popularity of Facebook among the hijra community coincides with the popularity and growth of the platform in India. Additionally, this chapter argues that the individual hijra and community uses of Facebook align with uses of the platform among LGBTQ+ counterparts in other countries.

Chapter 6 shifts attention from organisations to discuss the Facebook pages of two important personalities within the CBOs, namely Gauri Sawant and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, to understand community leaders’ social media intervention in negotiating hijra identities as celebrities and activist figures in the public domain. The narratives of the two leaders indicate the growth of microcelebrities as activist figures who, through their social media presence and base of followers, argue to mainstream the hijra community and contest newer issues through individual projects for community members. Together with the CBOs, these leaders have spearheaded the assertion of hijra identities on Facebook after the NALSA judgement.

Chapter 7 concludes the main findings of the study, pulls them together and situates them in the larger body of transgender politics and self-representations in India. The chapter discusses the implications of the emerging digital media among hijra communities, community-building and self-representation on social media as a means of mainstreaming the hijra community and increasing visibility of the community work undertaken by the hijra CBOs. Limitations of the study and emerging research questions are included in this chapter. This thesis is formative in documenting the social media accounts of self-representations made by three hijra CBOs in Mumbai. In doing so, I contribute to knowledge on hijra discourse, particularly on and through Facebook. Lastly, this thesis’ main contribution is arguing that hijra identities are multifaced. In addition to encompassing religious, ethnic, gender and legal components, I contest that professional community work is a crucial aspect of hijra identities in contemporary India—one made visible and significant through self-representations on social media platforms, particularly the CBOs’ Facebook pages.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents an analysis of the literature most relevant to the present research. The literature review builds on important research themes in the field of digitally mediated identities and the LGBTQ+ community, both across the world and in India more specifically. The chapter also outlines examples of media representations of transgender groups to build an understanding of the current identity(ies) narrative in the Indian context. I focus especially on the literature regarding the hijra community in India. This chapter charts the territory of literature published in this field of research to date, to identify gaps and establish a rationale for the current study.

There is abundant literature in the field of digitally mediated LGBTQ+ identities around the globe. However, LGBTQ+ communities in the Indian context is a growing field of study. The recent legal changes around the third gender, coupled with the dynamic Indian digital and social landscape, create a need to explore the significance of (social) media in enabling identity construction among them. The following sections build a narrative about the need for research on hijra communities and their identity construction and curation on mainstream social media platforms in India.

This chapter analyses the existing literature in relation to three main themes. Section 2.2 explores examples of digitally mediated LGBTQ+ groups. This section discusses the performance of identity(ies) across LGBTQ+ groups and draws a comparison between the use of sexuality-specific apps and mainstream social media. The affordances of social media for LGBTQ+ communities are also discussed. Section 2.3 considers literature specific to transgender communities across the world, with a focus on the Indian transgender community. Section 2.4 reviews literature specific to the hijra community to establish an understanding of the community’s norms and practices. I delineate the hijra community and its social organisation within the transgender community in India by examining crucial ethnographic texts. By interrogating these texts, I trace the development of CBOs among hijra communities and explore topics of mainstream media representations and hijra activism in contemporary India. Finally, I establish the context for the study by collating literature and demonstrating the

need for further research about hijra CBOs’ social media interventions for community-building and mediating hijra identity representations on digital platforms.

2.2 STUDYING DIGITALLY MEDIATED LGBTQ+ GROUPS

The section provides a broad understanding of the non-normative gender performances of LGBTQ+ individuals in public and digital spaces. These varied gender identity performances depend on the goals and expected outcomes explored in this section. Lastly, I discuss the possibilities and limitations of social media platforms as ‘appropriate case studies’ for examining how LGBTQ+ identities are shaped through digital mediation.

Identity performances across digital and social spaces

While LGBTQ+ history and identity representations vary across countries and political environments, there are indications that the visibility of diverse gender identities in public spaces, especially through digital technologies, can influence people’s attitudes towards queer groups (Gray, 2009). For instance, a research study in the United States demonstrated that greater acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex marriages was associated with having gay or lesbian acquaintances and/or contact with the community in daily life (Pew Research Center, 2013). Another apparent change is the desire to dissolve the ‘us versus them’ language around gender and sexual identity, and adopt an ‘us and them’ attitude that seeks to build bridges between people, going beyond matters of gender and sexuality (Ghaziani, 2011).

The growing research on pride festivals—celebrations of LGBTQ+ identity that occur annually in many cities worldwide—shows that these kinds of events can be a ‘party with politics’ (Browne, 2007, p. 75) through public declarations of serious LGBTQ+ political concerns alongside playful queering of gender and sexual norms. These pride displays, parties and parades throughout urban centres can challenge the assumed heteronormativity of public spaces (Brickell, 2000). While these identity performances take place in public spaces, LGBTQ+ identity performance also (increasingly) occurs in digital spaces, which is the focus of this study. This section discusses the range of approaches to studying LGBTQ+ groups’ identities in digital spaces and establishes a background for why LGBTQ+ identity performance on social media is a relevant topic of study. This background is essential in acknowledging that there is no boundary between ‘the real’ and ‘the virtual’ (Rogers, 2013). However, sexual and gender

20 performances have a sociocultural history, which may have some continuity with performances on social media.

LGBTQ+ people have been subject to a long history of discrimination, including criminalisation of homosexuality, inhuman and degrading treatment, and threats to personal safety. There has been a gradual change in the rhetoric around gender and sexuality politics across the world, which has led individuals to find their peers, meet in secrecy, form many gay groups (like organisations), and establish communities (Chauncey, 1994; D’Emilio & Freedman, 2013). Considering the shift towards more tolerant attitudes and laws in certain countries, LGBTQ+ populations perceive hostile attitudes as aggressive (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2020).

One of the reasons why individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ have decided to come out on digital media platforms is to find peer support and share stories digitally (Raun, 2016; Vivienne, 2016). Amin Ghaziani (2011) further explains that popular media accounts of individuals from the LGBTQ+ community present a post-gay identity, meaning ‘to define oneself more than one’s gender and sexuality, to disentangle gayness with militancy and struggle, and to enjoy sexually mixed company’ (p. 102). This resonates with the idea that the routine identity performances of LGBTQ+ individuals in digital and/or public spaces have political effects that equate with everyday activism (Vivienne & Burgess, 2012). Thus, urban demographics, design and governance enable LGBTQ+ identity performances to become part of everyday interactions that lead to a greater unity across social divides (Ghaziani, 2011, 2014). Communicating LGBTQ+ identities can therefore ritualise interactions specifically among individuals of a group defined by a sexual or gender identity.

Sexuality-specific digital platforms for LGBTQ+ groups and mainstream social media

The development of communication technologies and the ritualisation of LGBTQ+ individuals’ everyday lives have allowed them to find each other. With the development of communication technology, sexuality-specific signalling and interaction have become increasingly mediated (Mowlabocus, 2010). In the early 1970s in Britain, a television support service for gays and lesbians generated a sense of community among these individuals (Weeks, 1977). With a rise in internet services in the 1990s, early group chat platforms such as Internet Relay Chat facilitated connections between gay men online (Grov et al., 2014). These social platforms

21 provided a space where these individuals could share online embodied experiences as they exchanged fantasies and built discourses relating to gay men’s bodies (Campbell, 2004). Women identifying as lesbians also formed communities through conversations, peer support and flirting on early social platforms, such as bulletin board systems (Correll, 1995). These technologies were precursors to the contemporary digital strategies through which LGBTQ+ people find each other, whether physically located in heteronormative public spaces. Therefore, LGBTQ+ individuals’ reliance on communication technologies to connect has increased significantly (Gray, 2009; Nash, 2006). These websites and platforms can create sexuality- specific boundaries with benefits and limitations for their respective identity performances and interactions.

Modern sexuality-specific online spaces range in form and purpose, with many websites and platforms designed specifically for gays, lesbians and, less commonly, for other sexual minorities. There are many ‘affinity portals’ (Campbell, 2005) such as AfterEllen or Out.com, which are multi-purpose sites that include discussion boards, blogs, LGBTQ+ media and celebrity news. Some portals also offer matchmaking functions, among others. For example, in her interviews with LGBTQ+ rural youth in the United States, Mary Gray (2009) found that affinity portals allowed individuals to access information about their sexual and gender identities and communities where they could gather peer support and possibilities for relationships.

Similarly, Sharif Mowlabocus (2010) found that the myriad of technologies available for gay men—from dating sites to chat rooms and pseudonymous online cruising boards (cybercottages)—have allowed gay men to form their own digital culture. This has prominently impacted their life, shaping their relationship with their bodies and subsequently, how they find partners for sex and relationships (Mowlabocus, 2010). This self-established gay digital culture, with chat rooms to find support (A. Thomas et al., 2007) and mobile dating apps (such as Grindr), has allowed the visualisation of a proximate gay community, even while interacting in a heteronormative physical space (Blackwell et al., 2015).

While these findings reflect the volume of research regarding gay men’s use of communication technologies, other studies have identified how online communities of lesbian and bisexual women have enabled participants to develop multiple self-representations (Laukkanen, 2007), find support in coming out, deal with life changes (Cooper, 2010) and question stereotypes

(Edwards, 2010). Transgender online communities have also helped individuals to mostly connect, organise activism, disseminate information and shape a collective trans identity (Shapiro, 2004). Many of these outcomes are similar to the aims of support groups, which attempt to provide safe spaces where LGBTQ+ people can express themselves and find communities while having access to support, resources and businesses targeted to their needs (Ghaziani, 2014).

Sexuality-specific online spaces and platforms also face problems similar to those in gay groups, including commercialisation, homogenisation and segregation from the diversity of other people (Browne & Bakshi, 2011; Nash, 2006). Commercialisation is apparent on popular affinity portals such as Gay.com, where advertising appears next to community discussions in ways that trivialise political conversations (Campbell, 2005). The profitability of LGBTQ+ specific advertising has led to the conglomeration of portals into sites owned by large media monopolies, producing homogenised content for mainstream gays and lesbians that has become the most visible and well-funded LGBTQ+ subject matter online (Aslinger, 2010). Consequently, commercialising these sites leads to homogenising the community.

Dating sites and more socially focused sites such as Gaydar are also designed with targeted advertising and data selling in mind. These profile features include drop-down menus where users can indicate identity and preferences to specific markets, such as ‘bear’ or ‘twink’ (Light et al., 2008). The perpetuation of such categories and stereotypes encourages gay men, and arguably other LGBTQ+ individuals on different sites, to engage in self-surveillance and bodily regulation to attain these idealised identities (Mowlabocus, 2010). As a result, differences become erased in sexuality-specific spaces, such as minimising racial differences in profiles (Gosine, 2007). This produces homogenised communities where users appear to fulfil all other normative categories aside from their shared non-normative sexual identity.

This discussion has illustrated the opportunities and disadvantages of modes of communication that allow individuals to seek and interact with others based on commonalities in their gender or sexual identity. Through multiple means (e.g., apps, chat rooms, social networking and dating), communication technologies allow the LGBTQ+ community to find each other, access information and support, form communities and meet romantic and/or sexual partners. However, these exchanges are often made possible and influenced by advertising-driven platforms, which can lead to commercialisation and pressures towards becoming ‘ideal’. While

gentrified gay villages present upscale properties, restaurants and entertainment districts that lead to an influx of heterosexual people (Browne & Bakshi, 2011; Ghaziani, 2014), LGBTQ+ specific websites and platforms do not have the same appeal. Aside from individuals’ intention on trolling or those who identify as heterosexual but engage in same-sex activities, few heterosexual individuals are visible in LGBTQ+ spaces, just as there are few cisgender users spotted on trans and gender variant platforms. As a result, sexuality-specific platforms can provide a safe space for individual and collective identity development but do not help LGBTQ+ individuals to develop identity performances that serve them in heteronormative public spaces. The segregation of sexuality-specific digitally mediated communities from platforms populated with diverse identities precludes everyday interactions with others that may shape attitudes towards gender and sexuality. Therefore, to access and engage with other friends, peers and heterosexual culture, LGBTQ+ people also participate in mainstream and sexually diverse social media.

Over time, media and communications scholars have undertaken studies of digital media technologies and its relationship with identity relations, practices and meanings. These are important relationships to be addressed through digital media research. Son Vivienne (2016) contends, ‘With respect to this activist agenda of representing themselves, queer women in Australia craft out their activities of “pre-production, during production and distribution practices” as a means of maintaining privacy in the public-ness’ (p. 26). She identifies three textual approaches, ‘visible, bounded and pseudonymous and also three modes of sharing, namely targeted, and ad hoc and proxy and classifies in terms of their otherness and outness’ (Vivienne, 2016, p. 26). These networked identities reveal binary choices of ‘face-to-face’ interaction and ‘online’, ‘acquainted and unknown’ and ‘sympathetic and hostile’.

Vivienne (2016) builds on the participatory nature of digital storytelling that gives producers, in her case queer women, complete ownership of the agency and their product. The queer women who are part of the Australian queer rainbow family provide significant evidence of the agency and the privacy found in public-ness through the self-representations. Vivienne (2016) associates the engagement of the queer women as a digitally mediated civic affair, whose strategies are explored by and belong to self-defined minorities. In conclusion, the opportunities and obstacles faced by queer women storytellers are characteristic of other digitally mediated forms of self-representation. Improved awareness of these forms of representation is mainly beneficial for the creators of social policy and cultural growth programs.

The next section highlights the different ways LGBTQ+ identity is represented on social media and the meaning of such representations.

LGBTQ+ identity-based representations on social media

To date, identity has been a central theme of analysis in the existing literature on queer individuals and their representations on social media. This section discusses the range of approaches to studying LGBTQ+ identities in different digital spaces and their impact on LGBTQ+ individuals. It demonstrates the need for researchers to examine LGBTQ+ performances on social media. The next sections explore transgender representations under the umbrella of LGBTQ+ and identity-based representations.

2.2.3.1 Western literature on identity representations and social media

The concept of identity and its prevalence in digital media is central to digital media studies. Queer studies constitute a postmodern approach to gender and sexuality studies that views identity—meaning sexuality or gender—as fluid and inherently unstable (Beasley, 2005). In a departure from essentialist or naturalist perspectives that view gender as biological and fixed, the queer approach asserts that the engagement with identity performances constructs relations. In her groundbreaking paper, Nina Wakeford (1997) summarises:

The construction of identity is the key theme which unites almost all cyberqueer studies. Identity is significant in its relation to the ‘queer’ and ‘cyber front’ because of its prominence in a new space that is viewed not as an end in itself, but rather as a contextual feature for the creation of new versions of the self. (p. 31) Our digital society is held together by the social actions we perform and the structures of media platforms on which we perform them. Before the emergence of mainstream social media platforms, studies bridging themes of gender and the internet traditionally considered the negotiation of masculinity and femininity in online and offline settings (Kendall, 2002; Mazzarella, 2003). Later, studies investigating LGBTQ+ identity performances on social media examined the role of platforms in shaping those identities (van Dijck & Poell, 2013) and LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of certain social media performances (Raun, 2016; Vivienne, 2016).

2.2.3.2 LGBTQ+ identity representations on mainstream social media platforms

The change in attitudes and tolerance towards LGBTQ+ people is a result of the cyclic response to legislative changes in many countries and states recognising same-sex marriage and

25 LGBTQ+ rights. Together with greater sexual and gender diversity in the media (Pullen & Cooper, 2010), this has afforded the rise of transgender media personalities such as Laverne Cox (Steinmetz, 2014) and many others in different countries. Studies show that LGBTQ+ people are actively using media and communication technologies to seek information, peers and romantic relationships (DeHaan et al., 2013; Gray, 2009; Mowlabocus, 2010). However, the focus is on the use of sexuality-specific platforms and websites like ‘Grindr’, which is designed for gay men, or mainstream platforms for communicating with individuals with similar sexual or gender identities (Livia, 2002; Mowlabocus, 2010) such as gay men’s groups on Facebook (Cassidy, 2013). Such mediated forms of communication present similar opportunities and issues as those in gay support groups: providing services, resources and a sense of community alongside segregation, commercialisation and lack of diversity (Campbell, 2004; Gosine, 2007).

Though they are likely to reflect the heterosexual majority in the population, mainstream social media platforms offer greater diversity and therefore, more opportunities for LGBTQ+ and heterosexual people to share everyday encounters. For instance, consider the user base of mainstream platforms like Facebook compared to Gaydar or any other identity specific platforms. Social media platforms present possibilities for gathering users around a public dialogue (Marwick & boyd, 2011) and encouraging connections that are particularly profitable for social media companies (van Dijck & Poell, 2013). However, existing literature about LGBTQ+ people and social media use tends to emphasise platform affordances (Cooper & Dzara, 2010; Duguay, 2016) or identity performances (Raun, 2014).

While digital spaces used by the general public have been extensively researched and studied, there is a relative paucity of literature around the LGBTQ+ community’s use of mainstream social media. Elija Cassidy (2013) notes this lack of research in a study examining crossover activity between the gay men’s dating site, Gaydar, and the highly popular social media platform of Facebook. Cassidy found that gay men migrate their Gaydar connections to Facebook to extend their communication and take advantage of Facebook’s platform-specific features, such as verifying identities and connecting with gay Facebook communities, which are otherwise absent on Gaydar. His work provides insight into why LGBTQ+ individuals develop connections with gay men on one platform, then migrate to more diverse platforms for day-to-day interactions. Cassidy (2013) contends that Facebook’s self-branding, design and user dynamics are central to how gay men form and maintain connections with each other.

Cooper and Dzara (2010) discuss Facebook’s use among the broader LGBTQ+ community. Here, using ‘broader’ points to the relationship between their research and Cassidy’s. Cooper and Dzara found the utility of Facebook allows LGBTQ+ individuals to express identity, form communities and engage in activism. However, they also note that its features require users to self-regulate and self-censor as they add new contacts to avoid inadvertently outing themselves across broader networks. This risk, precipitated by Facebook’s business model of sharing and building a unitary identity (Raynes-Goldie, 2010), is further investigated by Stefanie Duguay (2016), who analyses LGBTQ+ users’ responses and self-presentations on digital platforms. While these studies incorporate some analysis of the role of platforms in communicating LGBTQ+ identities and interactions, they focus more on the social media platform itself without an in-depth analysis of the users’ identity performances.

Vivienne (2016) explores the practices of the Australian queer rainbow family, specifically queer women (lesbians and trans women), and comments on digital storytelling. She describes digital storytelling as a workshop-based participatory tool for self-representation and explains how public self-representation occurs among sexually marginalised groups in Australia. Digital technologies ‘have extended opportunities for self-representation to marginalised groups (p.iii); however, inequalities and discrimination continue to exist’ (p.iii). Vivienne (2016) claims digital storytelling is important for a variety of contexts, especially the empowerment, education and advancement of marginalised groups. Her work draws heavily on the notion of everyday activism, which she refers to as the sharing of stories in online spaces to challenge a particular status quo. This often involves an expansion of definitions of organised and strategic activism.

Vivienne (2016) further discusses the interesting cultural position the queer digital storytellers have in negotiating diverse the ‘networked publics’ (boyd, 2008); they consider being a ‘part of these communities and/or apart from these communities’ to generate a creative personal narrative. Drawing parallels from LGBTQ+ youth in the United States, Gray (2009) explains that there are patterns of dress or communication that is visible in online spaces in the representations of their experiences of ‘coming out’. For rural youth, ‘coming out’ is a form of validation for the ‘community members relying on being known/knowable and familiar to people around them, which is beyond the visibility provided by mainstream media or in reality’ (Gray, 2009, p. 1164). Similar fears and anxieties are evident in coming out videos and the pressure of societal acceptance or rejections queer people experience. However, Vivienne (2016) affirms that queer women who have come out through digital storytelling have done so

in the hope of gaining visibility, acceptance and mutual respect, generating empathy and eventually creating wider social acceptance.

2.2.3.3 Transgender identity representations and social media

Contributions to the existing literature on the broader LGBTQ+ community include research on the more specific area of transgender identity representations in digital spaces. Shapiro (2004), Hill (2005) and Whittle (1998) have investigated text-based internet approaches and the possibilities for transgender politics and community-building. Others, like Tobias Raun (2016), discuss the use of video or vlogs for trans individual’s self-representation. Jackson et al. (2018) examined trans advocacy and community-building among transgender women on Twitter through #GirlsLikeUs networks to form counter publics. Scholars stress the importance of trans individuals using online platforms to form communities that help individuals connect with each other, organise activism, disseminate information and shape a collective trans identity (Shapiro, 2004). Many of these outcomes are similar to the aims of gay support groups, which attempt to provide safe spaces where LGBTQ+ people can express themselves and find communities while being able to access support, resources and businesses targeted to their needs (Ghaziani, 2014).

Avi Marciano’s article, ‘Living the VirtuReal: Negotiating Transgender Identity in Cyberspace’ (2014) is based on a virtual ethnography of online platforms. One of the discussed platforms is a newsgroup called Transgender and Friends, and another is a website called GoTrans—both considered significant among the transgender community in Israel. Marciano (2014) discusses transgender consumers’ manoeuvres between the ‘online and offline worlds …[to negotiate their] complicated gender identity and to overcome offline impediments’ (p. 824). She uses terms like ‘cyberspace’ or ‘online versus offline debates’ that are considered redundant in digital studies today; however, they are nonetheless important for understanding the transgender community. Marciano (2014) categorises her analysis of texts and patterns into ‘preliminary, complementary and/or alternative spheres’ (p. 830), contending that the transgender community in Israel use online platforms for the following purposes. The preliminary sphere provides users ‘an opportunity to virtually go through experiences before “entering the real world”’; for instance, for romantic relationships, ‘often with the hope of transferring them to the offline worlds’. The complimentary sphere ‘completes the offline world and constitutes a supplemental part of it’; that is, ‘it serves as another social arena, like school

or work’ (pp. 829–830). Lastly, the alternative sphere is what ‘constitutes a parallel world that provides them with different and contradictory experiences from those available in the offline world’ (p. 830)—that is, revealing themselves; their name, sexual orientation—which may be difficult otherwise due to stigma or marginalisation. The online sphere, as created by the transgender people, can be perceived as a ‘VirtuReal’ world (a term coined by Marciano). For the transgender individuals, this ‘empowering virtual experience compensates for offline social inferiority and discrimination by mainstream society but may be subject to offline limitations’ (p.823). Given the sexual minority community profile, transgender empowerment, especially in the field of Internet studies, highlights the discourse around the ‘negotiation between the marginalized users and the Internet’ (Marciano, 2014, p. 824).

Apart from Marciano’s observations, some studies examine identity performances without particular attention to a platform’s influence. An early study of gender performances permeating sexually diverse boundaries examined the way cross-dressers’ blogs, with photo galleries and candid responses to criticism, facilitated the visibility of everyday lived experiences (M. L. Williams et al., 2015). Similarly, Raun (2016) studied trans users on YouTube among the Anglo-American community using a virtual ethnography. He found that by creating videos chronicling their transition, (trans individual) vloggers were able to explore their gender identity with other trans people, and influence cisgender individuals’ understanding of trans experiences. Vloggers take advantage of the ‘multimodality of the medium to narrate stories of the trans people that can animate and motivate others to dare to be visible or claim a trans identity’ (Raun, 2016, p. 376). Raun (2016) further demonstrates that the vlog acts as a digital diary, which is like a mirror for trans individuals and hence promotes a healthy narcissism. He stresses the transformative potentials vlogs have for trans individuals’ self-representation and community-building. Further, platforms such as YouTube facilitate identity expression, connection with a culture of other LGBTQ+ YouTubers, and increased visibility through the popular genre of ‘coming out’ videos and disclosures of sexuality (Alexander & Losh, 2010). This increases the likelihood of access to trans individuals’ vlogs when searching for LGBTQ+ content. In this ongoing process, the trans community becomes increasingly visible to others and is constantly ‘presenting images in multiple subjective reflections’ (Raun, 2016, p. 368). These studies indicate that such activity has the potential to generate highly visible identity performances, and further potential to impact individuals encountering this content. However, there is a lack of information regarding platform influences

and users’ engagement with (or resistance to) platforms, which limits understanding of these outcomes. Marciano (2014) and Raun (2014, 2016) discuss trans individuals’ use of social media in different contexts and their impact on individual identities and community representations. However, both these studies analyse individual case studies and not community-based perspectives.

This section has explore Western literature, which primarily indicates the opportunities (as well as limitations) offered by social media for the LGBTQ+ community to reach out to and interact with others with common identity representations. Multiple means, such as chat rooms, apps, social networking and online dating platforms, provide these opportunities. However, these exchanges are often made possible and influenced by advertising-driven platforms, which can lead to commercialisation and pressures to conform, which further reduces diversity. Commercialisation may not necessarily be negative, but it drives diverse communities to present a uniform identity (Campbell, 2005). Hence, participation in mainstream social media may seem necessary to engage with a diverse community to find friends, peers and partners.

2.2.3.4 Identity representations and social media in a non-Western culture

Major studies on the LGBTQ+ communities and digital media performances, such as on dating apps like Grindr (Blackwell et al., 2015) and Tinder (Duguay, 2017), take place in a Western context. In non-Western contexts, research on LGBTQ+ communities is a growing field of study; this is especially the case in India. Among the existing research on LGBTQ+ communities in India, there is more emphasis placed on transgender and queer communities due to their cultural position in society, compared to the prominence of studies on Lesbian and Gay communities in Asian contexts. There are studies on the kathoeys or the ladyboys in Thailand (Totman, 2003) and transgender communities in Japan (McLelland & Dasgupta, 2005). Cultural differences and less societal acceptance of communities limits the scope of LGB studies on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. However, LGB communities continue to exist despite the discrimination and resistance they face from mainstream society. For instance, Jeffery Roy (2015) and Gayatri Gopinath (1998) provide examples of South Asian queer studies as highlighted in the media and Bollywood, while Rahul Mitra and Radhika Gajjala (2008) discuss Indian queer blogging trends. These works document a focus on studying representations about queer communities in mainstream media versus the communities’ self-representations. The studies discuss the articulations of power and shifting expression of self-representations of

identity embedded in symbolic and cultural influences in writing explored through textual blogs on the internet. They do not focus on the hijras and their digital media use but more generally discuss various queer groups and their upcoming trends identified in the elite members of the queer community in large Indian cities. Dating apps like Grindr and Tinder are still new and are spreading among populations living in big metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi (Dasgupta, 2017). The extent of applications like Tinder and Grindr’s reach among urban populations highlights the issues of digital access among the hijras, who are a marginalised minority despite India’s rich cultural heritage of transgenderism. Many ethnographic studies discuss transgender culture and its presence and assigned roles in Vedic texts and Hindu traditions (Reddy, 2000, 2005); yet, there are few studies that comment on digital media use within these communities. Existing literature primarily talks about the hijra community in the absence of digital media use in day-to-day lives. Efforts are in place to document the digital cultures among queer communities, like Dasgupta’s (2017) study of the gay community in Kolkata, Rahul Mitrav’s (2010) work on queer Indian bloggers to understand community formation through a bloggers’ reading of India’s pride parades, and Dey’s (2019) research that captured experiences of LGBTQ+ peoples’ use of Facebook groups as part of identity construction and group formation to seek justice.

Due to the lacuna that still exists in current literature that captures experiences of queer communities as a whole or a particular fragment of the population—like Dasgupta (2017) in his study on gay men’s experiences on Facebook and Planet Romeo—this study documents and discusses the specific case of hijra communities and their use of social media for community work and identity representations. The upcoming sections extensively discuss existing literature on the Indian community.

2.2.3.5 Indian queer community and digital cultures

In his pioneering work, Digital Queer Cultures in India: Politics, Intimacies and Belonging, Rohit Dasgupta (2017) charts the queer culture and landscape in contemporary India. Dasgupta’s study is fundamental in terms of context and timing, on the cusp of legal transformation in India, exploring the existence of queer communities amid the historical context, cultural traditions, multi-party-political agendas, growing globalisation and commercialisation trends.

Dasgupta traces back the debates and discussions around queer identities in 2013 regarding Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code—a colonial remnant that criminalised homosexuality in India. The initiative to decriminalise homosexuality in India is considered a major milestone within the (class-based) queer community. The role of ‘class and intimacy’ within the queer discourse are central elements, as the study participants belong to an upper class and live in the metropolitan city of Kolkata, known for dance, acceptance of gay culture and Durga Puja.21 Dasgupta (2017) takes the example of this community of gay men and their use of social media to argue that new media, social networking sites and similar technologies do not exist in isolation, nor can they be studied in isolation. He argues that queer online practices are embedded in queer movements in India.

Dasgupta (2017) acknowledges the fundamental role social networking sites and digital technologies play in Indian youth and young adults creating intimate virtual relationships. Through an ethnographic study of young gay men in Kolkata, he analyses their digital exchanges on platforms like Facebook and Planet Romeo in 2013. The investigation of close virtual connections among the gay men reveals technologies of ‘queer neo-liberal subject formation’ within contemporary India. This leads to the emergence of topics related to sexual rights, one that is ‘consumer-citizen driven within the free India market economy’ (Dasgupta, 2017, p. 1). Thus, the citizen is embedded in the circuit of globalisation, dominated by right- wing organisations that control gender performances in society.

Dasgupta (2017) further explains that the ‘representation of intimacy and celebration of conjugal love’ (p. 1) is seen through the evolution of novel dating apps like Grindr and Tinder, which are slowly making their way into metropolitan cities, like Mumbai and Delhi. Within the context of India, he explores the understanding of queer identity that enables young gay men to play out their Indian-ness. This is important given the context of nationalist anxieties and significant cultural markers of intolerance towards queer groups in India. For instance, recent articles in India document ‘moral policing’ by Hindu right-wing groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Valentine’s Day or other occasions on which public displays of affection can lead to arrests (Flock, 2018).22 This

21 A specific type of Hindu goddess with an allocated season, as per the Hindu calendar and festivals of worship. 22 For more examples of moral policing, see: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/protecting-valentines-day-in-india/553244/

assumed task of morally policing the so-called ‘corrupt minds’ of Indian people was seen as a move to protect Indian integrity and culture. These are huge impediments to the free expression of identity. Dasgupta (2017) concludes by expressing hope for a movement towards the free expression of queer identities, without the restrictions of mainstream nationalist law and policies. The present study builds on and addresses the gaps identified by Dasgupta by contributing to the evolving position and trajectories of queer politics in India, where transgender communities especially are at the margins despite being the most visible, due to their cultural position and prominence in Indian society.

Social media affordances for LGBTQ+ communities

Social media platforms afford increased persistence, visibility, spread-ability and search-ability that facilitate the formation of publics structured by networked technology, or networked publics (boyd, 2010, 2014). Networked publics are simultaneously ‘the space constructed through networked technologies’ and ‘the imagined collective that emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology, and practice’ (boyd, 2010, p. 39). This definition resonates with Michael Warner's (2002) notion of self-organised publics that includes both personal and impersonal ways to address frequent contacts like family or friends compared to strangers. In a study of teens’ social media use, boyd and Ellison (2007) identify how youth can form publics through discourse. Publics represent ways for teens to develop a sense of identity, gain independence and become politically engaged in public life. Similarly, in her ethnographic research with young individuals, Mizuko Itō (2010) demonstrates that participation in networked publics—such as friend communities on Myspace or interest-driven communities on YouTube—can impact outcomes on identity development, collective learning and dissemination of ideas into broader publics.

Studies focusing on social media consider how to attain such outcomes for individuals and broader groups in networked publics. Social media encourages individuals to share personal and affective expressions (Gehl, 2014), often in the form of personal narratives (van Dijck, 2013). These types of expressions allow both familiar and unfamiliar actors to feel personally addressed in ways that foster engagement (Hayward, 2013) and lead to the increased circulation of personal content. When paired with ordinary symbols, activities or self-expression, such as

https://www.firstpost.com/india/bajrang-dal-asks-hyderabad-pubs-restaurants-not-to-celebrate-valentines-day-as- it-defies-indian-culture-4348639.html

33 self-portraits, can open dialogues with diverse audiences (Piela, 2013). Anna Piela (2013) found this outcome in her study of Muslim women’s ‘selfies’ (self-portraits), taken while wearing niqabs and engaging in everyday tasks. The women’s personal photos featuring them participating in everyday activities, like reading a magazine, generated effective engagement from others who identified with and responded to these types of identity performances.

However, sharing personal information can pose dangers, especially for LGBTQ+ individuals who are at a higher risk for discrimination and cyberbullying (Varjas et al., 2013). This requires a negotiation between personal disclosures and public expressions. In doing so, individuals engage in networked identity work (Vivienne & Burgess, 2013), the co-creation of identity in a networked public that balances privacy and public-ness in ways that generate intimacy with multiple audiences. This can take the form of carefully curating self-representations (Vivienne & Burgess, 2013) or tailoring messages to speak differently to specific recipients (Vivienne, 2013). These are some of the techniques mentioned by the participants in their identity performances on these platforms.

Studies exploring the significance of how social media facilitates or inhibits LGBTQ+ individuals’ participation in public include Michael Warner’s (2002) vision of world-making and Nancy Fraser’s (1990) challenge to find ways for multiple publics to speak to each other to overcome their differences. Berlant and Warner (1995) describe how queer discourses can be employed in sexually diverse publics to critique the assumed heterosexuality of people and space. This can create queer publics that ‘can afford sex and intimacy in sustained, un- chastening ways; publics that can comprehend their own differences of privilege and struggle; publics whose abstract spaces can also be lived in, remembered, hoped for’ (Berlant & Warner, 1995, p. 344). Literature in the field of social media affordances in India has become a growing area of scholarly work, especially documenting organisations social media work in the public domain as part of increasing networks and organisation mission. Radhika Gajjala (2018; 2019) views the intersecting forces of NGO and IT sector has major factor in shaping the formation of the digital publics.

This discussion of the possibilities of social media for facilitating the formation of publics has set the background for how LGBTQ+ identity performances on platforms have the potential to form queer publics that influence attitudes towards gender identity(ies) and representations. The next section highlights literature related to transgender communities, specifically within the

Indian context. I critically examine discussions in the field of transgender studies and digital spaces and provide a background for understanding the hijra community in India.

2.3 TRANSGENDER COMMUNITIES: GLOBAL AND INDIAN CONTEXT

Queer and feminist studies have grown in popularity and now offer cross-cultural understandings of gender roles and relationships. The foundational works of Foucault (1990), Warner (2000), Butler (1988), Sullivan (2003) and Stryker (2006) have contributed significantly to existing queer literature. However, there is a paucity of literature available on the third gender.

Understanding gender and identity

Broadly, sex is understood as a biological construct and gender as a social construct. Gender is a multi-layered, a complex phenomenon viewed differently across contexts. Concepts of gender and gender identity have become more fluid over the years, particularly in Western academia. Gender is not a stable identity; instead, it consists of a ‘stylized repetition of acts’ (Butler, 1988, p. 519). Judith Butler (1988) argues for the fluidity and instability of gender, defining gender as a ‘performative accomplishment compelled by sanction and taboo’ (p. 520). Hence, the acts through which we perform gender are highly conventionalised and historical; they are socially sanctioned acts. Therefore, terms such as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ are simply social constructs, consisting of a set of behaviours and actions expected of an individual that do not necessarily pertain to the individual’s identity. Thus, in accepting a gender, we perform the gender by acting the roles and responsibilities associated with that gender.

In gender studies and queer literature, ‘transgender’ is a term with multiple meanings and is constantly ‘under construction’. Transgender stands for a wide variety of phenomena, of which hijra is one. Susan Stryker (2006) defines transgender as ‘the movement across a socially imposed boundary away from an unchosen start place’ (p. 1). By this logic, a lesbian woman who questions female gender stereotypes can also have a transgender identity (Stryker, 2006). Therefore, the study of transgender individuals is nuanced and does not necessarily take one direction. According to Stryker (2006), there is a significant difference between ‘the study of transgender phenomena’ and ‘transgender studies’ as a field. While the former is a ‘long- standing, on-going project in cultures of European origin’, the latter is a more recent phenomenon that ‘considers the embodied experience of a speaking subject, who claims

35 constitutive knowledge of the referent topic, to be a proper indeed essential component of the analysis of transgender phenomena’ (Stryker, 2006, p. 35).

In her groundbreaking ethnography on the hijras of India, Serene Nanda (1990) debates the cultural position of Western transsexuals as lower than that of hijras, stating that the designation ‘trans’ implies a lower cultural status. The West defines ‘transsexual’ as a transitional status, which suggests the ambiguity will be resolved by the movement towards one identity, through hormones and/or reconstructive genital surgery. She says that ‘the category of the transsexual was created to “relieve ambiguity” ’ (Nanda, 1999, p. 138). In a similar process, the hijras pass through the process of castration known as nirvana, which translates as ‘salvation’. Achieving salvation or an integrated hijra life means removing one’s male genitalia.

This perspective draws on the concept of gender dichotomy by looking at transgenderism not as an alternative gender identity, but as a matter of simply being born with the ‘wrong’ anatomy. This view is particularly interesting, as people who feel threatened by such alternative gender identities—or ‘unruly bodies’—often argue based on ‘nature’ and how being transgender is ‘abnormal’. However, in her article ‘The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough’, Anne Fausto-Sterling (1993) explains how, biologically speaking, there are many gradations between the two categories of male and female, as ‘along the spectrum lie at least five sexes and perhaps even more’ (p. 1). The rate of genital operations on intersex babies—previously known as hermaphrodites—has reduced over the years. Parents who want their children to grow up as a heterosexual male or female are the ones who opt for such surgeries. In comparison, sex reconstructive surgery is more common among adults than hermaphroditic babies.23 These pursuits are primarily to ‘fit in’ and be ‘normal’. Moreover, as Fausto-Sterling (1993) explains, ‘society mandates the control of intersexual bodies because they blur and bridge the great divide. In being hermaphrodites and embodying both sexes, they challenge traditional beliefs about sexual difference’ (p. 6). This also applies to transgender people who are not necessarily born intersexed. These alternative performances of gender identities challenge conventional conceptualisations of gender that are closely tied to power hierarchies.

23 For more for US-based examples, see https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/u-s-gender-confirmation- surgery-19-2016-doctors-say-n762916

Gender identity and non-Western cultures

The idea of transsexuality24 first appeared in scholarly literature in third gender discussions, but frequently was used to emphasise comparative gender fluidity connected with three-gender cultures (Miller, 2017).25 Nanda (1999) traces the historical development of discourse around gender in cultures that were more accepting of gender ambiguity, such as Brazil, Thailand and India. Across different cultures, discussions of the phenomena of specific transgender identities are in keeping with the performance of what consists of a complex set of ritualised acts and behaviours. These are communities of transgender individuals who have created a niche identity under the umbrella identity of ‘transgender’. Providing the community with a specific name is a way of asserting that group of individuals’ uniqueness. There are also instances of specific gender performances (e.g., men cross-dressing as women) without identifying with that specific gender. For instance, the berdaches were North American Indians (16th century–late 1980s) who identified as biological males but took on the roles, occupations and dress of the other gender. As this community of individuals was starkly different from the rest of the native Americans, these identity distinctions were kept intact (Greenberg, 1986). The Mahu of Tahiti also have a common and distinct category for transgender individuals (Bullough, 1993), and male transgender individuals in the contemporary Philippines cross-dress with social approval. In the Malaysian context, there is a transgender community called Mak Nyak; primarily individuals born as men who ‘behave and look like’ women (Slamah, 2005, p. 100). In South Asia and India in particular, foundational work by Nanda (1990), Reddy (2010) and Hall (1995) provide insight into the sociocultural dynamics of the transgender community, especially the hijra community.

2.3.2.1 Perception of individuals with fluid gender identities

There are some similarities and differences in the treatment of individuals and/or communities across cultures. It is notable, however, that transgender persecution is present almost everywhere, even in societies with high transgender tolerance. In cultures that are unaccepting and unfamiliar with gender fluidity, transgenderism is often confused for homosexuality

24 A transsexual person is born with an assigned sex, either male or female, but identifies or feels the opposite. 25 The idea of comparative gender fluidity as explained by Shae Miller, refers to incorporating a third gender alongside the normative male and female, to emphasise that gender fluidity can bring social justice and gender identity can be used as site of everyday resistance.

37 (Bullough, 1993). There are also examples of cultures that accept gender fluidity. Nonetheless, the literature paints a reductive picture of transsexuality.

The nature of discrimination and challenges faced by the Mak Nyahs in Malaysia is similar to those of the hijras in India. These challenges arise from religious, legal and societal norms that Islamic laws impose on expressions of sexuality and sexual behaviour, in conjunction with a refusal to recognise the gender status of Mak Nyahs. Hence, they often face police harassment in the form of sexual violence and random arrests for indecent behaviour. Most members of the community participate in sex work as their only means of earning a living, due to lack of access to employment and educational opportunities. Further, ‘Mak Nyahs are unable to access the law when facing sexual violations. A Mak Nyahʼs rape complaint is not recorded because the law only recognises ‘sexual attacks on a “biological female” by a “biological male” as rape’ (Slamah, 2005, p. 103). Thus, Mak Nyahs face stigmatisation and discrimination at every level, which pushes them to the very margins of society.

Conversely, Thailand is hospitable to its transgender communities, the Kathoeys, who are often referred to in English as ‘ladyboys’. According to Totman (2003), the term ‘ladyboy’ has a fairly negative connotation; as such, these individuals often self-identify as a type of male with female traits, rather than as a woman. However, as with other transgender communities, there are varied identities within the Kathoey community. Unlike the Mak Nyahs, Kathoeys seem to have access to (predominantly female) occupations, such as working in shops, beauty parlours and restaurants to make a living. Moreover, they have gained visibility recently in the media, as well as through films, sports and popular culture.26 However, the Kathoeys also face stigma and discrimination due to an absence of legal status that, in turn, restricts access to resources. Moreover, many Kathoeys are sex workers, which makes them vulnerable to HIV infections and other STDs (Totman, 2003).

The above section reflects the complexity of understanding gender identities across different cultures. Identity and social performances are closely linked. It is important to understand the context of transgender and/or transsexual identities across the world to establish an appreciation of the hijra community in the following sections. The following sections further explore this

26 Butak Api is a documentary directed by Osman Ali, released in 2000 and screened at several international film festivals.

niche identity of the hijras and problematise use of the term ‘third gender’ within the Indian context.

2.4 THE HIJRA COMMUNITY

The following section explores meanings and definitions associated with the hijra community. It draws on existing literature, mainstream media representations and knowledge gained through my previous scholarly associations27 with one hijra CBO.

Social organisation of hijra community and culture

Adnan Hossian (2012) describes being a hijra and part of the hijra community as a ‘complex process’ based on his study of hijras in Bangladesh, that is very similar to hijras in India (p 495). Hossian further illustrates ‘hijrahood as a process that is acquired by various and repeated ritual and gender practices that are described as hijragiri’ (p.495). The following sections outline the social organisation of the hijra community and culture by discussing hijra etymology, social structure, gharana system, communication patterns, kinship and occupations.

2.4.1.1 Etymology

The word ‘hijra’ originates from the Urdu word ‘hjr’, which refers to someone who has walked out of their tribe or community (Tripathi, 2015). Thus, a hijra is someone assigned male sex at birth who has left mainstream society to adopt a feminine gender identity, and joined a community of hijras. According to Nanda (1990), hijras occupy ‘an institutionalised “third gender” role in India [and] are neither male nor female but contain elements of both. They are believed to be intersexed, impotent men who undergo emasculation and adopt a female sense of dressing’ (p. xi). Despite the use of the term hijra in common parlance, it is often also used as a pejorative term of insult. Other words, such as ‘chhakka’ (meaning ‘number 6’), are used to refer to someone who is effeminate. These expressions primarily refer to men who portray feminine characteristics; that is, adopt a style of dressing and mannerisms of a woman.

27 I studied the hijra gharana belonging to the TSVK as part of my MPhil thesis, ‘Third gender’, communication and representation: A study among the hijras of Mumbai (2015–2016), University of Hyderabad, India.

39 2.4.1.2 Social structure

The hijras form a community based on their common interests, behaviour and residence. Their social structures come from the Hindu guru (leader/head)-chela (disciple) system of social dichotomy, and their hierarchy follows a matriarchal family structure (Kalra, 2012). Each hijra belongs to a gharana (house or lineage). The nayak is the head of the household, followed by the guru and then the chelas. The guru-chela relationship is hierarchical, with seniority among hijras as a principle of both social organisation and social control,28 characterised by the unequal power dynamics between gurus and chelas. Regardless, this relationship is reciprocal, with both parties performing their roles and responsibilities to uphold the guru-chela system. The guru-chela system is a sort of substitute family for most hijras, and together with the gharana space, offers hijras much-needed protection and solidarity, in a predominantly hostile urban environment (Phadke, 2012b).

2.4.1.3 Gharana system

The gharana culture among the hijra community follows a long tradition and translates as a system of in-community segregation based on discipleship and residence. In India, there are seven major hijra gharanas types spread throughout the country and each sub-gharana in any city associates themselves with one of the seven varieties. Presently, Mumbai is home to all seven types of hijra gharana: Bhendibazaarwalla, Bullakkwalla, Lalanwalla, Laskarwalla, Poonawalla, Dongriwalla and Hadir Ibrahimwalla (T. Thomas, 2013). These seven major types of gharanas formed on the basis of tradition and leadership nomenclature. Each house has its own set of rules and code of conduct, except the Laskarwalla, which has a special status for resolving disputes that arise between the houses. The panchayat (council), similar to a village council, consists of the nayaks of all seven gharanas and holds meetings twice a year. The CBOs and participants selected in this study are affiliated with the bullakwala type of gharana.

Nanda (1999) identifies the advantages and limitations of living within a hijra gharana. She states:

This dependence of hijras on their (gharana) community is entirely consistent with the values and organisational principles of Indian society: a willingness of individuals

28 For more on social structure and social organisation, see Raymond Firth’s (1951) Elements on social organisation.

to submit to hierarchy, a combining or resources and expenditures (as in a joint family) as means of economic adaption, and a conviction that there is no security without a group (Nanda 1999, p. 54). As in a traditional Indian family, unconditional respect for and obedience to your community and its elders is expected from every member. Thus, Nanda (1999) makes a crucial point about hijra culture as definitely being on the fringes of Indian society, but clearly not outside it:

The hijra world may be considered a deviant world, surely it is outside the bounds of respectability, but it is not outside of the Indian society. Although becoming a hijra means making a commitment to a stigmatized identity in some respects, it is commitment that nonetheless gives social support and some economic security, as well as cultural meaning to their lives, linking them to the larger world rather than isolating them from it. (p. 54) 2.4.1.4 Communication patterns

The hijra system of communication is unique due to the exclusivity of their group identity. This system of communication (consisting of verbal and non-verbal language) significantly contributes to the presentation of their identities. The hijra language is called hijra farsi or gupti, depending on the religion of the hijra individual. The body language and movement— kinesics and paralanguage—are distinct and easily identifiable in a crowd. The hijras adorn female clothes, typically sarees,29 and wear elaborate make-up. The hijras follow a signature tali or clap, which resonates and signals their presence and proximity. Some scholars identify this behaviour more specifically as a ‘begging technique’ (Allahbadia & Shah, 1992, p. 48). Anne Ogborn is a Caucasian American male-to-female transsexual who travelled to India in 1994 and joined the hijra community located in Delhi. In her interview with India Currents, Ogborn (1994) emphasises:

We also make our traditional clap, a hollow handed, and sharp cracking sound that carries for blocks. It is our communication device to call the group to a ‘find’. Our clap is the most distinctive symbol we have. No non-hijra in India would ever clap that way. (p. 28) Table 2.1 utilises Govind Singh’s (1982) work with the hijras in Lucknow, India, and is representative of the different types of claps among the hijras and their respective meanings.

29 A long garment made from cotton or silk that is traditionally draped in a stylistic manner by women and commonly found in South Asia.

Table 2.1: Selected examples of hijra tali Source: Singh (1982)

Sr. Form Meaning No 1 Adhi tali (half clap) An indication of disapproval e.g., with respect to the performance of a particular action 2 Dedh tali (one and a half claps) A negative or abusive evaluation, often used in reference to a fellow hijra i.e., a full clap followed by a half clap e.g., haye haye mue piche lage hai [Oh no, these (a full clap is performed by bringing idiots are after my life] the palms together with straight, spread, raised fingers, resulting in a loud, crisp sound) 3 Dhai tali (two and a half claps) A signal of danger, a warning that there is a danger in the vicinity i.e., two full claps followed by a half clap e.g., chalo chale, utho, chalne ke liye taiyar ho, hosiyar, khatra hai [C’mon, let us get out of here, get up, be ready to go, be alert, there is danger] 4 Four short claps followed by placing An indication that an outsider is a real sucker a finger on the cheek i.e., a hijra, after noticing that an outsider is fascinated by their conversation, uses this clap to indicate that they should demand a lot of money from him 5 A raising of the middle finger A single farewell followed by a full clap i.e., I am leaving now, Namaste! 6 A raising of the three middle fingers A joint farewell followed by a full clap i.e., C’mon, we’re all leaving now

Hence, the hijra clap is a system of communication that holds significance and meaning, both among the hijra community and for non-hijras.

2.4.1.5 Rituals and kinship

As mentioned earlier, the hijra community is exclusive, and this exclusivity renders them a separate identity within the transgender community. An initiation ceremony ensures restricted entry into the community. A person who decides to become a hijra must first find a guru to perform her initiation rite or reet. Following this action is a ceremony where the person is given a new (female) name, chosen by the prospective hijra and her guru in mutual agreement. The

guru then becomes the hijra’s mother, and the chela becomes the guru’s daughter. By this logic, the guru’s other chelas become the hijra’s sisters, the guru’s sisters become her aunts or massis, and the guru’s guru becomes her grandmother or nani.

As noted above, the hierarchy follows a matriarchal kinship structure. Existing literature indicates that hijras have unique kinship terms and relationships, which are used as a form of resistance to the ‘mainstream’ kinship terminology from which they are ostracised (Hall, 1995). Social rather than biological ties are the basis of the kinship structure, which expands as new members join the community. Hijras can adopt children; usually, those found begging on the streets or born as hermaphrodites given away by their biological parents. Notably, the Vicks Generations of Care video demonstrates the kind of motherhood performed by hijras. They fulfil their desire for motherhood by adopting children and raising them. Lastly, those identifying as men in the household are usually husbands or partners of hijras who are married or in a relationship.

2.4.1.6 Occupations

The hijra gharana is a self-sustaining unit that depends on the members’ earnings and participation in the unit, like in any heteronormative family. The entry of a hijra novice is marked with preparation to engage in traditional occupations. Hijras usually earn a living by collecting alms and receiving payments for performances at weddings, births and festivals (Nanda, 1990). This occupational engagement is necessary as the gharana cannot fend for all its members unless members undertake some form of paid work. To survive and quickly generate an income, hijras turn to begging or paid sex work in cities where these options are available.

Hijra sex workers are traditionally associated with households of prostitution specifically meant for hijras (T. Thomas, 2013). Begging at traffic signals, outside local shops and on local trains and public transport are common. A traditional means of income is participation in badhai, a blessing ritual or celebration that socially sanctions their presence. Hijras are believed to be associated with the Mother Goddess, Bahuchara Mata (worshipped across India), and therefore have the power to curse or confer blessings, especially on male infants (Nanda, 1990). Hence, the celebratory badhai involves music, dance and chanting of blessings for the newborn and

their families.30 This gives hijras a special status in society within the purview of socio-religious position. Older members, such as senior gurus of the gharana, train the novices and other chelas to engage in these traditional hijra occupations. Prior to the NALSA judgement that officially recognised hijras, there were hardly any employment opportunities available to the hijra community (Dabas, 2016). While the judgement permits the employment of hijras in occupations other than begging and sex work, removing legal impediments to equal rights and opportunities is only the first step; stigma and discrimination persist. Recent debates around what constitutes hijra identity(ies) include the markers that stem from rituals, community, structures, traditions and those outside the transformed male-to-female body (Gupta, 2019; T. Williams, 2015).

Hijra culture and the problematic third gender

There is an evident understanding of the hijras and their community in anthropological texts dealing with the cultural and historical origins of hijras in Hindu and Muslim mythology. In Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India, Nanda (1990) contends that Hindu mythology has always offered a space for the ‘third gender’. Instances of individual characters in Hindu mythology, described as ‘neither men nor women’, blessed by gods and goddesses, occur in religious texts such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Nanda (1990) asserts that ‘like all humans, hijras engage in the essentially and characteristically human activity of interpreting and constructing culture, so that their lives are not merely lived, but are given meaning even as they exist at the fringes of society’ (p. xxi). Therefore, instead of looking at the hijra community in a vacuum, it makes sense to think about how ‘hijra culture mirrors, perhaps in some oblique way, much in Indian society and culture’ (Nanda, 1990, p. xxi).

Hijras, with their more conspicuous performance of gender(s), reflect the notions of gender dichotomies held in India. Hence, their gender performances (Butler, 1988) deconstruct conceptions of nationhood and a clearly defined gender dichotomy. To an extent, the hijras’ feminine gender performance mocks the ‘good woman’ ideal. This is primarily because these

30 Badhai is a ritual ceremonial song and dance performance by the hijra community at Hindu birth or wedding occasions. The hijra community is specifically invited by traditional Hindu families to perform and bless the new born male child as hijras are revered to possess the special powers of blessing on auspicious occasion life-cycles such as birth or marriage ceremony. This action is considered auspicious in Hindu culture and in return, hijras are renumerated in the form of money and goods.

44 ‘unruly bodies’ are the epitome of transgression and sexual deviance (Phadke, 2012a). Hijras create fear and anxiety in the general populace for many reasons: fear of the unknown gender, fear of their power to curse, anxiety over imagining being in their position, and fear of the consequences of loss of control over gender and sexuality. These fears resonate with the social control imposed on women in a patriarchal society. Despite existing variations in the performance of gender identities, even within the transgender communities, there is ignorance about this variation. For Hall (1995), ‘it is this very singularity that continues the scholarly invisibility of the many identities who do not fit so easily into the “third gender” tropes of structural academia’ (p. 140). Although previous ethnographic inquiry has made scholars aware of this diversity, representation of the hijra identity is particularly singular in the literature. Being a hijra is a highly contextualised experience; for example, being part of a hijra community in Mumbai is different from being a hijra in Tamil Nadu. Local language, cultural and religious practices vary from one part of the country to another; for instance, hijras are known as aravanis in the state of Tamil Nadu in India.31 A different nomenclature asserts a different identity representation rather than shapes a hijra’s identity. Consequently, there are multiple permutations and combinations of these variations drawing on the sociocultural associations, which is especially true and figurative for the diverse Indian context.

Scholars studying transgender communities in India have identified and acknowledged their diversity; for example, Reddy (2005, 2010) acknowledges the presence of and calls the participants in her study koti or hijras. As hijras form a visible majority, they are a well- researched category. Early researchers explored the process of emasculation or attaining nirvana. Reddy (2000) is one of the first researchers to emphasise the performative aspects of gender identity by focusing on clothing, make-up and verbal and non-verbal gestures. On the question of hijra culture and identity, she asserts that her study:

Questions representations of hijras as the personification of a third sex while also challenging the sufficiency of sexual politics and gender performativity as adequate glosses on hijra identification and practice. Ultimately, it endeavours to show hijras (and kotis more generally) are coherent identities crafted by diverse ethical practices; practices which do not construct them merely as sexual identities, but identities articulated by and through a multiplicity of morally evaluated differences. (Reddy, 2000, p. 17, emphasis in original)

31 Aravanis is the term for hijras in Tamil Nadu, India; however, they identify themselves as women trapped in male bodies and preferred to be called thirunangi.

Recent studies typically investigate the health status and occupational hazards of sexual minority groups in India as a result of the increasing HIV status among these groups (Math & Seshadri, 2013). Many academic investigations examine equal opportunities and the human rights conditions of sexual minorities. These contributions have led to increased awareness and the legal recognition of the third gender category in 2014, with various legislation passed in the last five years that favours of sexual minorities (see Section 1.3.2).

Despite the examinations of different aspects of the hijra community noted above, research into their communication needs and patterns is scarce. Few studies, like that of Hall (1995), Nanda (1999) and Bakshi (2004), have highlighted the nature and function of the language system, rituals and traditions adopted by hijras. Indeed, representations of hijras in rituals, ceremonies, folktales, mythology, urban legends and folk art have allowed them to create a culturally significant and institutionalised, albeit marginalised, space within South Asian societies (Nanda 1999). With over 50,000 hijras in India alone, 32 this community has established a novel and unique position in the Indian context. Scholars researching queer communities in India and the issues they face, have identified them as ‘an ideal case in the transnational system of “alternative” gender/sexuality’ (Reddy, 2005, p. 2).

However, none of these studies examines identity(ies) formations and performances on social media. With the advent of ICT in India, digital media has entered the gharana spaces,33 making these technologies accessible for (some) hijra communities, depending on markers such as geography, class and attitudes of members to the adoption of technology. Hence, it is important to explore the digital presence of the hijra community on social media platforms. The next section explores the work of hijra CBOs, marks the territory of their activities and discusses hijra activism.

Mapping hijra CBOs and NGOs

India is home to many NGOs and CBOs. While the former is usually a registered organisation, the latter is an informal or semi-registered community group that caters to a specific group of individuals. A further difference is that NGOs are led by activists, mainstream actors or other

32 According to the 2011 Census of India. 33 I am not implying that all hijra gharanas have access to technology and digital media, as the digital divide continues to exist in India. However, the sample of hijra CBOs selected in this study use digital media as part of organisational activities, as documented in the thesis.

46 individuals who are not necessarily from the community whose needs are being represented, while CBOs are solely run by members of the community. Notably, the boundaries between the two can be blurred, with many CBOs subsumed within the NGO structure. This study concerns itself with the nature and operation of hijra CBOs that emerged from hijra gharanas.

Hijras establish CBOs for the welfare and empowerment of their community. These organisations form under a banner of a trust that suggests it is an informal organisation; however, most of them are registered by the state government for official records. These organisations have unique names that represent the community’s vision. Through my past and present research experiences of interacting with the hijra community, I have come to understand that hijra CBOs are self-sustaining units that function on the principle of community ownership. Each member is assigned a specific role, and community members share tasks and responsibilities. Usually, the head of the hijra household becomes the head of the CBO and has an assistant who helps in managerial tasks. Most hijra CBOs are residential, so the members work from a separate room designated for CBO activities.

As mentioned earlier, digital media has made its way into these gharanas and hijras are now making use of these means in their community-led action and participatory activities. The prevalent use of social media is evident through the activities published on CBO websites and social media pages. The range of information and updates regarding training programs, issue- centric rallies, fundraising and information about outreach programs is available on CBO websites and social media profiles. Each CBO receives basic funding from its parent organisation and some community donations, which caters to the infrastructure and technological needs (computer and tablets) depending on their size and growth.

NGOs perform diverse roles, such as attending to rights and issues related to the hijra community (traditionally the role of a CBO), organising activities and gathering funds for these activities. For example, in Mumbai, the HST is a leading organisation working for LGBTQ+ issues and is associated with several hijra CBOs for outreach activities. Scholars working on hijra issues in India and Bangladesh have emphasised the important role of CBOs, their significance in community development and how they are unique to South Asian countries (Khan et al., 2009). Such CBOs within hijra gharanas provide opportunities for community members and tend to offer them work. Presently, the state of Maharashtra in India has approximately 42 hijra CBOs officially registered with the India Network for Sexual Minorities

(HST, 2015), thereby representing the state with the largest number of hijra CBOs. Therefore, this geographic location (Mumbai lies within the state of Maharashtra) is considered an apt location to study hijra CBOs (see Section 3.3.1).

Rights of and for transgender people and hijra activism in India

With the legalisation of the third gender category in India in 2014, the work undertaken by several hijra/transgender activists and hijra CBOs has contributed to third gender awareness and further nuanced the broad term that risks homogenising the diverse minority groups that fall under this category. Third gender is an umbrella term used to classify all sexual minorities in India. Dutta (2014) argues the NALSA judgement oscillates between broad and narrow definitions of the term ‘third gender’, transgender categories, between gender and self- determination and biological essentialism. These opposing predispositions suggest the judgement needs further clarity and classification to accommodate the variations existing in the transgender and third gender category. The judgement tends to homogenise diverse variations, which complicates and restricts essentialist self-assertions to be recognised as a hijra, panthi, kothi or kinnar, and so on.34 Additonally, works of scholars such as Nagar and Dasgupta (2015) through their distinction of the kotis and jananas highlight their representations in response to the legal recognition as a response from the various LGBTQ+ movements across India. At the same time, the third gender category provides a common identity and legal recognition to a marginalised group of sexual minorities.

The transgender community in Tamil Nadu (who identify themselves as aravani, or the female form of Lord Krishna), have been pioneers in transgender activism (Rajgopal, 2017). They were the first in the country to legalise the third gender and form a welfare board in 2008. In ‘Facebook and Queer Feminisms In and Beyond South Asia’, Rahul Gairola (2018) emphasises the innovative pedagogical agreements and argues that digitalisation should be reformulated ‘to stretch the spatial configurations of identity and place in the queer public sphere’ (p. 102). This opens the discussion to identify the resilience and activism of the various hijra activist groups in shaping hijras’ position and politics in India.

34 These terms signify a regional spectrum of feminine-expressing persons, usually male at birth, who hold fluid and overlapping subject positions, interpreted as transgender or gay in Anglophone contexts (Dutta & Roy, 2014).

48 Arvind Narrain (2004) highlights the resistance to talking about sexual and queer rights in India in his assertions for intergrating sexual rights as part of human rights. One of the most basic arguments in the Indian queer discourse is recognising the importance of issues beyond sexuality, such as poverty and the effects of urbanisation. Narrain (2004) asks, if one concedes the basic humanity of all people as the foundation of human rights discourse, ‘then why is a hijra getting abused and tortured by the police less of human rights concern than the torture of a Naxalite?’35 Further, he argues that ‘only when we see rights as indivisible and interconnected … we can address human deprivation in all its facets’ (A. Narrain, 2004, p. 1). As long as a hijra’s right to live with dignity is compromised, bodily integrity is not guaranteed because they breach conventional conceptions of gender and sexuality. Some of the concerns articulated by Narrain (2004), including the need for a more ‘inclusive vision of human rights, as there is no alternative to broad queer rights as an integral human rights concern’ (p. 2), took form through the NALSA judgement and abolishment of Section 377. Parmesh Sahani (2020) in his work on ‘Queeristan: LGBTQ in the Indian workplace’ reflects on the need for corporate workspaces to be more open and inclusive to members of the LGBTQ+ community in India along with the creation of laws and rights at a corporate/company level to employ people from diverse gender categories.

The NALSA judgement that recognised hijras and other transgender people as the third gender traces back to a treatise called trittiya prakriti (Vanita, 2002), in which persons having same- sex desires and their representations in ancient and medieval India were mentioned, though not given a stringent categorisation. In recent years, with the contemporary sociocultural and political climate, the intervention of hijra activists and CBOs has made a significant contribution to discussions around laws in favour of transgender people. Further, the regressive policies of India’s colonial past and lack of laws protecting LGBTQ+ communities and organisations have urged many cyber-activists to take up issues of identity and citizenship. This public activism, demonstrated both online and offline, has generated spaces for dialogue and interactions with the general public (Berry, 2003). As an editorial statement in India Today illustrates:

The LGBT community in India has been persecuted, harassed, discriminated against, often molested, and beaten for their apparent ‘sexual deviance’. Their Right to Life, one of the seven fundamental Rights of the Indian Constitution, has been violated and

35 Naxalite refers to a member of any political organisation deriving claims to the Communist Party of India based on Marxism and Lenin schools of thought. Colloquially referred to as rebel groups in the Indian context.

snatched away from them. For many, this is not their first fight, possibly not even their hardest battle; that would be when they have had to come out of the metaphorical darkness and suffocating closet to face society (Maheswari, 2014).

Recent years have also seen an upsurge of pride marches in major cities across the country, such as Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad, held by individuals in the community as well as those supporting the fight for equal opportunities and rights. These organised protests and rallies have taken up the issue of marginalisation of sexual minorities. Hijras, or aravanis in Tamil Nadu, who simply feel like a woman and wish to be treated as one, have started collaborating with women’s rights groups and marching with them during protests (Revathi, 2011).

The Indian People’s Union for Civil Liberties (2004) reported the cruel acts of violence committed against hijras by the state, the police, and society generally:

The pervasive and deeply sexual nature of the violence cannot be explained by reference to the police alone. It is social institutions such as family, the media and the medical establishment which constantly reinforce the idea that the norm is for biological male to behave in a gender appropriate manner, i.e. like man, and thereby legitimize the violence suffered by hijras and kothis (p. 32).

The lack of transgender people’s right to bodily integrity in most parts of India has gained prominence since the Supreme Court judgement in 2013 decriminalised gay sex between two consenting adults. There have been several debates over laws and policies that affect sexual minorities, with such debates and interventions a factor in the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

The recent surge of activism has focused on employment and education opportunities for the third gender, along with reservations in public institutions. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 has been widely criticised as discriminatory. Activists and CBO representatives have taken up these and similar issues, and responded over Twitter and other social media platforms, such as the following post on Facebook, circulated as #stoptransbill2019:

What is wrong with the Bill—Giving those who commit sexual violence against transgender people a less severe punishment (up to 2 years and a fine), as opposed to those, commit sexual violence against women (7 years up to life imprisonment). Rape is Rape, nomatter gender.

Individuals and activist groups working with hijras have also critiqued the Act for inequitable access to education, employment, health care and law enforcement. These debates have made their way through the intellectual circles of hijra activists in Mumbai and Delhi, and actively represented on social media platforms as well. This content has also been made available on CBO social media pages, and spurred protests in offline spaces. Ultimately, there is a growing dependence on social media for activism and encouraging the general public to act.

The power of representation: Mainstream media

Hijra portrayals in mainstream media give a narrow perspective of the hijra community, and there is a gross under-representation of the hijra community in mainstream advertisements, films and other content for public consumption. However, there have been efforts to represent these voices and stories in the past few years. Some of these portrayals are problematic as they reinforce stereotypes about the community; for example, a stereotype often used in content to sensationalise and caricature hijras is that they steal male children. Performances of actors as drag queens and hijras in fictional movies are often ridiculed, exaggerated and used for comic relief.36 Notably, few representatives from the community are available to shed light on the incorrect portrayals of hijra lives and identities. For example, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi37 is the only transgender celebrity regularly seen on national and international news. Other public figures such as Tripathi and Bobby Darling—an Indian actress, who identifies as transgender— fail to represent the community’s diversity and cut across occupations and class dimensions. Further, the limited number of transgender voices in the mainstream media, may or may not choose to represent the voices of the community. They are not necessarily bound to advocate issues of sexuality and awareness in the content produced. Hence, a few of these voices perpetuate stigma and stereotypes by participating in the ridicule and comic portrayals. However, there have been some exceptions to the norm. Tamanna [Desire] is a film released in 1997, themed around a hijra character called Tiku who raises a young orphan. The film sensitively elucidates motherhood themes. Other films, like Mani Ratnam’s Bombay (1995), Deepa Mehta’s Water (2005) feature complex portrayals of hijras (Pattnaik, 2009).

36 Examples of such stereotypical representations in mainstream Bollywood movies like Page 3 (2005), Heroine (2012) and Traffic Signal (2007). See http://www.mid-day.com/articles/a-look-at-hindi-films-that-have-explored- the-third-gender-thoroughly 37 She is the first transgender person to represent the Asia-Pacific region at the United Nations in 2008. Presently she is a transgender activist and runs Astiva, an NGO in Mumbai.

51 The media plays a significant role in forming perceptions of individuals and communities. Due to under-representation and misrepresentations of the hijra community and related issues, little is known about hijra lives other than their engagement in sex work and begging. Their identity portrayals are limited to the ‘clap’, feminine dressing and their traditional occupations. In the absence of information from diverse perspectives, the community is typified as having these characteristics, and fear of the unknown perpetuates further stigma and misinformation. Documentaries like Kismet (2013) and the Black Sheep (2017) further demonstrate how mainstream media reinforces myths and represents hijras in a negative light.

It is important to explore the idea that being exposed to hijras, their life stories and everyday activities via social media, could potentially facilitate greater acceptance. For instance, a study on homosexuality in China presents similar arguments. Wu et al. (2018) introduce the concept of ‘contact hypothesis’ and ‘parasocial contact’. The study demonstrated that contact with a marginalised community (such as those with diverse sexual preferences and identities considered in this thesis) is one of the most effective ways to overcome stigma. Social media contributes to generating awareness among people regarding equal rights and opportunities and a greater acceptance of homosexuality because the broader community can experience the lives of a different community through social media.

The accessibility and ease of social media platforms allow marginalised groups to represent themselves and their identities in a manner that is perceived to be safe. There are a few examples of these from India. The Seatbelt Crew project,38 released in June 2014 on YouTube, is an initiative by hijras as part of Ogilvy & Mather India and Channel V’s ad campaign for road safety. The public service announcement features hijras speaking about the importance of seatbelt safety in a funny, quirky and interesting manner that subtly comments on the community’s culture and addresses the stereotype of hijras badgering travellers on roads for a few Indian rupees. Further, Y-Films—the online wing of popular Bollywood production house Yash Raj Films—presented hijras singing and facilitated their potential screen presence in India’s first transgender musical project, the Six Pack Band, established in 2015. At the time of writing, they had produced four videos featuring the six hijras alongside famous Bollywood singer Sonu Nigam, and actors like Hrithik Roshan and Arjun Kapoor. This project provides

38 See https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/06/17/323026150/indias-transgender-community-turns-seatbelt-safety-into-video-hit and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muCU6_Y_Kyo The Seatbelt Crew Video

opportunities to discuss hijras’ lives and dispel misinformation (Chinnappan, 2019). The presence of famous Bollywood personalities is de-stigmatising in itself and has attracted some 8 million views.

As noted earlier, the Generations of Care video, which has gained 10 million views on YouTube alone,39 presents the story of Gauri Sawant, a hijra who now runs a shelter home in Mumbai for migrant and homeless hijras. The video received extensive coverage, both locally and internationally, generated global awareness and promoted discussion on social media regarding the multi-faceted issues facing the hijra community (Sachdev, 2017). These examples illustrate how a surge in this community’s media presence can lead to mainstream acceptance of their issues. This process of inclusion has extended to several netizens who now tweet, share, comment and discuss Indian transgender communities’ issues in public and/or digital spaces, as with the Generations of Care video and Hijra Project Facebook page.40

These videos distributed across social media platforms depict the hijras in a positive light and attempt to change the status quo. They have created a platform for the general public to engage with the lives and stories of hijra community members and discuss the issues concerning them, which paves the way to community acceptance in the Indian context.

2.5 EMERGING QUESTIONS

Despite the focus on LGBTQ+ and identity-based representations on digital media in Western research studies, as articulated in this literature review, there is a dearth of studies on the role of technologies, digital cultures and social media use among transgender communities in India, particularly among the hijra community. The recent studies conducted in this field include Sreyoshi Dey’s (2019) focus on numerous Indian LGBTQ+ Facebook groups and Rohit Dasgupta’s (2014, 2017) examination of a specific Facebook group, the Pink Kolkata Party, which involves a range of queer identities (mostly gay men) based in Kolkata. To date, the focus has been the aggregates of community identities as inclusive queer identities, which does not represent their internal diversity, although scholars of the diverse queer community in India do acknowledge the diversities of sexual and gender cultures in India. Leading researchers of hijra communities, such as Nanda (1990, 1999) and Reddy (2001, 2005), have expressed the

39 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zeeVEKaDLM 40 See https://www.facebook.com/TheHijraProject/

need to ‘increase the visibility of the hijra community within disciplinary regimes in India resulting in greater scrutiny of their lives’ (Reddy 2005. p. 3). The discussion in this literature review demonstrates the gap in research on representations of the hijra identities by CBOs on social media. This is particularly pertinent due to the recent spurt of hijra representation in mainstream media through advertisements (such as the Vicks ad) and initiatives (the Seatbelt Crew and Six Pack Band mentioned above). I make an argument to view and locate hijra communities in the context of changing gender definitions, the existence of queer and trans social movements and contemporary ideas of sexuality and gender that frame hijra identities in India today.

With the recent changes in India’s sociopolitical environment and the subsequent changes in the status of sexual minority groups, there has been greater visibility in the public sphere. This visibility has encouraged the hijra communities to represent themselves and present their stories, which go beyond the popular constructions of hijra-ness as evidenced by scholars and journalists who have documented the hijra community. The narration of hijra identities as a collective through their CBOs on wider, digital technology-based public platforms, sits at the heart of this study. Through an examination of the structure, function and everyday activities of the three CBOs chosen for the study, I seek to understand their narratives of hijras’ self and collective representations on Facebook. I also attempt to explore the lives of new celebrities and/or activist personalities within the CBOs to understand their motivations and perceptions of representing themselves and the community on broad public forums. Hence, this study is an exploration of digitally mediated performances of hijra identities in and through online platforms, particularly Facebook.

The next chapter outlines the research design and methods selected to undertake this study and meet the objectives of the research.

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter outlines the methodology adopted to address the research questions and objectives of this project, which examines hijra uses of social media in the context of three hijra CBOs in Mumbai. It begins with a discussion on the epistemological foundations for conducting the in- depth study of the hijra community through the medium of CBOs formed by the gharanas. This study is an ethnography of the social media activities of the hijra gharanas and CBOs. The subject matter connects disciplines of digital and social media studies and social anthropology. Given the aims and objectives, the study adopts a qualitative approach to explore and decipher the meaning and patterns of hijra CBO activities on social media platforms. The following sections define and contextualise the study’s social media ethnography framework. Semi- structured interviews were conducted with key participants in Mumbai to facilitate a nuanced understanding of the CBO activities, networks and social media presence. The chapter details the sampling strategy, sample size, demographics of the participants and analysis strategies, then outlines the ethical considerations and limitations of the study.

3.2 EPISTEMOLOGICAL FOUNDATION

Central to the research design is my own ontological and epistemological foundations, which guided the target population selection and study conduct. I have grown up in India witnessing the hijra community’s cultural reverence and symbolic mannerisms performed in public spaces. My curiosity, coupled with reading about the hijra community’s role in Indian society, fuelled my intention to study the hijra community. As noted in Section 2.4, I worked closely with TSVK for my master’s dissertation, which is when I became interested in looking at hijra communicative patterns and CBO practices.

The hijra community’s growing media presence following the NALSA legislation’s recognition of non-binary gender in India prompted me to investigate how hijra communities use social media for self-representations. Prior to the NALSA judgement in 2014, the academic literature broadly focused on themes related to gender identity(ies) and the rights of this marginalised sexual minority amid a predominantly heteronormative culture. However, the

judgement has brought about a significant shift in the media politics of the LGBTQ+ community in India, evident in the increasing number of media productions involving transgender issues and transgender personalities, as discussed in the previous chapter. There are several instances of large companies incorporating these marginalised identities to promote their corporate social responsibility. Since 2014, the media has begun to pay attention by representing the issues of the transgender community, particularly the hijras, and through the current study, I contribute to this burgeoning area of research. The hijra community has gained some visibility in the media because of their interactions and participation in mainstream media, such as the Generations of Care video, the Seatbelt Crew and Six Pack Band (see Section 2.4.5).

My previous fieldwork with the hijra community helped me understand the significance of the internet and digital platforms in the lives of these individuals. There are a plethora of applications accessible to all smartphone users. Public digital platforms make it possible for this previously ‘invisible’ community to express themselves. The paucity of literature regarding the digital experiences of the hijras in the Indian context deserves visibility in academic literature. Hijras form a unique community in the Indian subcontinent and have developed a niche identity(ies). Despite social discrimination and marginalisation, the hijra community are moderately visible due to their interactions with mainstream culture, such as the badhai blessing ritual. Some of these cultural characteristics, alongside community work, are becoming digitally visible through the CBOs’ Facebook pages, and form the essence of the thesis. Hence the focus on studying the social media usage patterns and self-representations of hijra identities of this niche community.

This exploratory research has developed over time as a result of the changing sociopolitical landscape and intervention of media into the day-to-day lives of hijras. This study is born out of a need for research into understanding digitally mediated hijra identities and practices of community-building in the hijra community. The anthropological literature discussed in Chapter 2 delineated the community and its digital media presence rooted in the contemporary Indian queer context at this point in time. This study follows an interpretive ontology and builds a premise on a social constructivist epistemological structure. Consistent with Bryman and Bell’s (2001) ontological perspective, this research ‘asserts that social phenomena and their meanings are continually accomplished by social actors and implies that social phenomena and categories are not only produced by social interaction but that they are in a constant state of revision’ (p. 12). This study incorporates an interpretive and social constructionist stance to

understand hijra CBOs activities and experiences on social media using a qualitative research approach.

3.3 SELECTION OF THE COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANISATIONS

The following sections explain the field location and criteria for selecting CBOs for the study. From the outset, it is important to stress that I chose to work with CBOs instead of the hijra gharanas directly for reasons of accessibility and concerns for personal/individuals’ privacy. Entry into hijra gharanas through the CBOs is logistically possible for researchers because CBOs operate and network with other organisations and people; whereas, hijra gharanas are exclusively private residential spaces shared by community members.

Field location: Mumbai as a site of study

In addition to being one of the largest countries with hijra populations in South Asia (variations of the hijra community also exist in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan), India is a relevant site for investigating the hijra community and the CBOs within these communities. Located in the state of Maharashtra in India, Mumbai is considered the queer capital of the country.41 According to the 2011 census,42 the city has a population of 18.41 million. There are approximately 21,000 hijras in Mumbai alone (HST, 2018), including those who have migrated from other parts of India to join one of the seven types of hijra gharanas (see Section 2.4.1.3), with a literacy rate of 47.47 per cent.43 The latest census of India in 2011 included hijras under a special category, ‘other’, and determined a total national population of 50,000 (Chettiar, 2015). Hijras occupy more than 400 residential units in different parts of Mumbai (HST, 2018); most live in ghettos (similar to gharana type of living conditions) and bastis (slums), and the remaining few stay in private apartments or independent houses. Zones occupied by hijras are popularly known as hijrakhanas. As with other marginalised communities, geography and location are a marker of socio-economic status. Hijras usually live in the periphery areas or the unknown suburbs. With soaring and unaffordable real estate prices in Mumbai, hijras have

41 Mumbai is identified as India’s queer capital by several tourist (MakemyTrip) and organisation reports (NDTV city-poll survey) and one of the most progressive cities in India. Additionally, Mumbai is the only Indian city that hosts the annual queer cinema festival, KASHISH. See https://www.ndtv.com/cities/is-mumbai-emerging-as- indias-gay-capital-422355. 42 Census of India: State-wise reports can be accessed at https://data.gov.in/ 43 https://www.census2011.co.in/transgender.php

57 moved to smaller townships on the outskirts of the city, such as Navi Mumbai (New Mumbai) where the cost of living is affordable.

Figure 3.1: Map of Mumbai Source: Google Maps

Figure 3.1 shows the city of Mumbai with various suburban areas. The areas occupied by hijras are spread across Mumbai; however, their respective gharana and network affiliations unite them. These affiliations help them achieve a sense of belonging and share costs while living in communal structures.

Mumbai is an ideal site to investigate hijra CBOs for many reasons. The city has a large population of hijras; the only one with all seven types of hijra gharanas (T. Thomas, 2013). Further, the state of Maharashtra houses the largest number of hijra CBOs in India (Sanchaar Report, 2015). Previous ethnographic studies on hijra culture have focused on the Indian cities of Delhi and Banaras (Nanda, 1990), Banaras (Hall, 1995), Hyderabad (Reddy, 2005), Mumbai (Chettiar, 2015) and Delhi (Goel, 2016). Therefore, to build on the existing literature, Mumbai is a relevant site for investigation.

58 Selection of CBOs

An initial investigation into the structure and function of the relevant Facebook pages began towards the end of 2017. Existing Facebook pages related to hijra communities included NGO/CBO pages, hijra activist/celebrity pages, fan pages of prominent hijras and local pages that cover transgender issues and events. In my initial searches, I narrowed my focus to CBOs based in Mumbai. I quickly realised that most of the search results consisted of fan pages or the pages of transgender organisations in different cities of India. Among the suggestions were Telangana Transgender Samiti44 and Third Gender Hijra TG.45 I filtered the search results by location to arrive at Mumbai-based organisations, among others that emerged in the initial search period. Since the study focuses on the use of social media platforms (specifically, public- facing Facebook pages) by hijra CBOs, I restricted the search to official pages of CBOs and not those created by civil society groups or personal Facebook accounts. I messaged the administrators of the official pages for verification of authenticity and later contacted them to schedule interviews.

There were two main criteria for the selection of CBOs for the study: an established area of work and an established social media presence.

Established area of work The following criteria informed the choice of CBOs for the study:

x officially registered according to the guidelines of CBOs in India with a minimum of 5– 8 hijra members as part of the core CBO team x recognised as a CBO within the transgender sector, and documented in reports of organisations such as the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male and Transgender Communities (APCOM) and SANCHAAR Media x working in Mumbai with institutional support from local Mumbai Municipal Corporations x organising and conducting activities in the local/residential gharanas as part of CBO goals x have an association with celebrities or activist figures associated with the CBO.

44 https://www.facebook.com/telanganahijratrans/ 45 https://www.facebook.com/Third-gendarhijra-tg-cd/

59 The CBOs chosen for the study had an establishment period of at least five years, which corresponded to their presence on social media platforms (especially Facebook). Therefore, I was able to study their social media presence between 2014 and 2019.

Established presence on social media platforms Since the study focuses on the negotiation of hijra identities on social media, I sought CBOs with an established social media presence. This meant they:

x needed to identify themselves as hijra organisation and the nature of hijra identities were visible on their account/page description and through the activities posted on the social media platforms x must have a Facebook page under the CBO name and have actively used the page for over two years after the April 2014 NALSA judgement x needed to have a minimum of 500 likes/followers on their Facebook page at the time of data collection x had an active presence on Facebook between April 2014 and April 2019 x have an additional presence on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter for comparisons of their usage patterns across platforms.

I added a list of hijra organisations from an APCOM REPORT (2015) study to the initial Facebook search for hijra CBO pages in Mumbai. Then, I assessed the web-based activities and presence of each of these organisations to determine whether they met the criteria of social media usage outlined above. I also considered the geographical diversity within Mumbai when selecting the CBOs. With these criteria, a purposive sampling method was employed to arrive at the three CBOs chosen for the study. For a holistic understanding of both community and individual perspectives of self-representations made on social media, two prominent leaders within the selected CBOs were identified as case studies. Further, considering the role of prominent individual personalities such as activists/celebrities in the hijra CBO structure, Gauri Sawant and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi were chosen as case studies based on their association with TSVK and AT, respectively. Based on the selection criteria, the three CBOs chosen were HST, TSVK and AT.

The Humsafar Trust (HST)

HST is located in Santacruz, a suburban area of Mumbai. It is the oldest LGBTQ+ organisation in India and works on a broad spectrum of issues concerning sexual minorities. It was founded by journalist and activist Ashok Kavi, who spoke openly about his sexual identity as a gay man

60 when there was little support for LGBTQ+ issues in India. HST was instrumental in lobbying for the NALSA judgement, declared in 2014.

HST works in collaboration with many hijra gharanas in Mumbai and networks with other hijra gharanas across the country. The organisation collaborates with and receives funding from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and foreign institutions like the National AIDS Control Organisation, the Joint United Nations AIDS Program (UNAIDS) and the Multi-Country South Asia HIV Program. Members associated with HST are media practitioners, health specialists, academics and activists. This varied membership also includes members of the hijra community. HST is involved in advocacy, health campaigns, capacity building and research in the field of issues concerning the LGBTQ+ in India (Humsafar Trust, Official Website 2020). HST provides financial and advocacy support to the many hijra CBOs under its aegis. Additionally, HST organises training activities and workshops for many hijra CBOs in Mumbai.

Triveni Samaj Vikas Kendra (TSVK)

TSVK is a CBO that works with members of the hijra community in the surrounding neighbourhood, mentored by the parent organisation Navanirmaan Samaj Vikas Kendra. Registered in 2009, it works with approximately 1,800 transgender people (specifically, kinnars and hijras) in the Malwani area of Malad, a western suburb in Mumbai. It is a residential-based CBO46 that employs the literate members of the gharanas. The main foci of the CBO include a range of activities such as awareness and sensitisation towards HIV/AIDS testing and treatment, counselling services and advice on contraception, lobbying the Maharashtra government for rights and opportunities, and assisting fellow hijras to access bank accounts and government- certified identity cards. TSVK also runs a retirement home for elderly hijras and caters to the needs of hijras who require medical care and assistance. The hijras belonging to this household not only work in the CBO, they are also involved in other traditional hijras occupations such as badhai functions, begging at traffic signals and on trains, and sex work. Activist and celebrity Gauri Sawant is also actively involved in training and decision-making within TSVK’s shelter home for elderly hijras.

46 A hijra residence-based CBO is where gharana members manage the CBO activities in the place of their residence. In this study, only HST has a separate office location in addition to their gharanas. TSVK and AT manage CBO work in the gharana residence itself.

61 Astitva Trust (AT)

AT is located in Thane, a central part of Mumbai, and was founded in 2006 by popular hijra transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi. She now runs the trust in collaboration with the members of her gharana. It was founded with the aim of addressing stigma and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, especially against hijras, in Indian society. AT focuses its work on creating awareness about sexual health issues, promoting a safe environment and positive attitudes towards the community, and taking steps towards the integration of the hijra community in Indian society. It conducts a host of activities around the health and general wellbeing of the hijra community within the gharana premises. The main office is in the Thane- based gharana for administrative purposes. Approximately 30 hijras work at AT as community welfare developers in conjunction with approximately 1000 hijras living in and around Thane.

3.4 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN

This study used a qualitative research design to address the main research question: ‘How do hijra CBOs use social media platforms to negotiate hijra identities and build community representations following the 2014 NALSA judgement in India?’ Qualitative research allows for a ‘rich and deep’ (Gray, 2009, p. 166) understanding of the subject matter. Critics of qualitative research have also pointed out that it invites ‘subjective interpretations’ and is susceptible to bias (Masue et al., 2013, p. 211). However, a planned, systematic research design keeps subjectivity in check. Rigorous research is characterised by the ‘quality of its groundwork or fieldwork’ (Charmaz, 2006, p. 67). Charmaz (2014) asserts that some healthy practices to employ during fieldwork include ‘maintaining a field diary, detailed note-taking and recording individual and collective actions occurring in a particular setting’ (p. 78). In line with the principles of qualitative research, I maintained a diary to record my observations, field notes, anecdotes and interview observations, which added to the essence of the data. This method of this study is largely ethnographic; in particular, I employ Postill and Pink’s (2012) established social media ethnography practices in this project.

Social media ethnography

In their article ‘Social Media Ethnography: The Digital Researcher in a Messy Web’, Postill and Pink (2012) describe the approach as:

62 [A] plural concept of sociality that allows a focus on the qualities of relatedness in online and offline relationships. This offers a better way of understanding how social media practices are implicated in the constitution of social groups, and the practices in which they engage together (p. 132).

This is an apt method for investigating how the hijra community and their practices as a social group are constituted through their social media practices for negotiating their identities. This methodology allowed me to explore connections between the subjects’ online and offline hijra identities. Given the range of possible social media performances, it serves to ‘make sense of the shifting intensities of the social media landscape as it emerges online, but also interwoven with offline activities’ (Postill & Pink, 2012, p. 132). Additionally, the field of traditional ethnography has undergone changes to incorporate nuances of varied methodologies to include distinct fields of digital ethnography (Pink, 2016), internet ethnography (Hine, 2015), virtual ethnography (Hine, 2000) and digital anthropology or the anthropology of communication (Horst & Miller, 2006, 2013). As the subject of the investigation is social media platforms with an added focus on Facebook, social media ethnography allows for fluidity and flexibility in examining these online performances (Postill & Pink, 2012). This study integrates an amalgamation of internet ethnography (Hine, 2015) and principles of on-field traditional ethnographic fieldwork. In her article ‘Fieldwork in Social Media: What Would Malinowski Do?’ Markham (2013) urges researchers to adapt their fieldwork based on ‘21st century networked communication practices and cultural formations’ (p. 442). Hence, this study incorporates an eclectic qualitative approach to study a dynamic social media environment, with ethnography at the core of its enquiry process.

The ethnography was undertaken in different stages. The first stage involved the observation and close reading of social media platforms operated by the three selected CBOs, and identification of prominent content patterns across these platforms. The content on these platforms was studied in depth and analysed using textual analysis to determine the pattern of activities conducted by the CBOs and the nature of their presence. The themes emerged from the content available to followers or audiences, which is a feature of Facebook pages. In the second stage, semi-structured interviews were conducted with key members of the CBOs to investigate and corroborate the emergent themes. I employed required practices of the social media ethnography framework, such as ‘catching up’, ‘sharing’, ‘interacting’ and ‘archiving’ (Postill & Pink, 2012). Catching up was particularly important for the study. It involved keeping up with posts to get a sense of content posted by the CBOs, as well as the public discussions

around these posts. Staying abreast of the content on these platforms to archive (document) material was necessary for planning the interview questions and creating an interview guide. Sharing the posts and interacting with members occurred at the interview stage to extend the archiving. The last stage of inquiry involved interviews with two well-known leaders/activists.

The following sections discuss these three stages of enquiry in detail.

Observation of social media platforms and textual analysis

I observed the three CBOs Facebook pages for a few hours a day over a considerable period between October 2018 and April 2019 until the posts on each page within the time range were achieved. The practice of daily check-ins and note-taking was important to increase my familiarity with each of the CBO pages’ functions and understand their key activities in these spaces. I manually reviewed the three Facebook pages for their activities dating back to April 2014 (through to April 2019), to capture content produced during the five years since the NALSA judgement, passed on 15 April 2014. Based on the data gathered from the observations, I conducted a textual analysis of the content from Facebook pages. Daily observations of the pages between October and November 2018 pages clarify the conspicuous and inconspicuous conventions, norms and cultural tropes that dominated the patterns of communication on these pages. In this phase, I observed and scrolled back on the Facebook pages, regularly noting down the issues covered in the posts. I also took screenshots of posts to study the pattern, style, content, references and decipher meanings of the target audiences for these posts, as all the posts contribute to how the CBOs use their pages.

Textual analysis is an approach that understands a text as anything from which people create and comprehend meaning (McKee, 2014). It is a method of ‘looking for evidence that people produce in the course of their everyday lives about how they make sense of the world’ (McKee, 2014, p. 32). Thus, textual analysis is an appropriate method because the objective of the study was to understand how the hijra CBOs in Mumbai mediate hijra identities and community work to wider audiences in and through social media. The uses and significance of these Facebook pages for the CBOs were explored in depth through an analysis of the content posted on the pages between April 2014 and April 2019. This practice of observations included examining interactions between the content posted by administrators and the responses of page followers. I explored possible differences in the perceptions of content by audiences embedded in the broader cultural context. Understanding the cultural context in which these texts circulate is

64 vital to understanding their purpose (Hartley & Hartley, 1996). A crucial step in undertaking textual analysis is establishing links with other texts or content (McKee, 2014).

The observations of the Facebook pages also helped identify potential candidates from each CBO for the in-depth interviews. Hence, the data from the interviews corroborated the data collected from the Facebook pages, which was particularly useful in instances where the textual data on Facebook was unclear to me and required elaboration. Importantly, this corroboration helped keep subjectivity in check and understand all information from the perspective of community members and those participating in these activities. Multiple perspectives facilitated a holistic understanding of the intentions behind the activities and thereby, the posts on Facebook. During the observations of Facebook pages, I noticed the judicious use of other social media platforms; for example, in addition to Facebook, HST made use of YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. As a result of cross-linking between platforms and sharing links from Twitter or Instagram on their Facebook page, I briefly observed the other platforms to distinguish the peculiarities of the CBO’s use of Facebook compared to the other platforms. However, this aspect of inquiry was mainly explored during interviews with professional members of HST to understand their diverse presence and use of social media platforms.

The need for a researcher profile on Facebook to access these Facebook pages was ruled out as a result of the platform feature. The CBO (HST) accounts on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter were accessible publicly and observed during data collection in Mumbai during scroll back interviews with participants. For the first phase of observation, my position was a social media spectator without an engagement with the community. I also refrained from being involved in the activities on these pages, or any engagement with these posts in the form of likes, shares, comments or other reactions throughout the period of data collection (October 2018–April 2019). This was mainly to achieve some degree of objectivity by consciously avoiding any form of participation with the hijra community.

Observations and textual analysis of the content helped me understand the background, identify patterns, determine usage of social media affordances by the CBOs, and draw themes of discussion. The posts were classified into a typology to arrange the data from the observations and textual analysis. This included CBO community work in the gharana; government, legal or political posts; hijra identity; ephemeral events; and Facebook affordance-based activities (see Figure 4.2). Tied together, the analysis of the Facebook pages provided a detailed account

of how hijra CBOs construct a discourse on hijra identities on and through their social media, particularly on Facebook (see Chapter 4).

3.4.2.1 Screenshots, rationale and documentation

Links to these pages have been made available in the analysis sections of the thesis. These relate to a variety of platforms on which the organisation (HST) has accounts (see Appendix C). Discussions of these Facebook posts in the analysis sections use specific verbatim records, as the posts are labelled under CBO names and do not pose a risk to any particular individuals. Screenshots from HST’s Twitter and Instagram demonstrate uses of the platforms in Chapter 5. Insight into the other social media platforms was mainly acquired from the interviews, following a close reading of Twitter and Instagram to make connections.

Using screenshots, I captured some of the posts for their novelty and precision to communicate themes (included in the analysis). I recorded screenshots under the categories created according to the typology to document the observations from these pages systematically. Notably, these screenshots were primarily from the organisation’s home page; no screenshots of individual comments were taken or recorded, to protect the privacy of the users concerned on the Facebook pages. Taking screenshots during the observations was a useful guide to identify the themes during textual analysis and complemented additional data from interviews.

Semi-structured interviews

The analysis of the Facebook pages informed the questions for the semi-structured interviews. To articulate how hijra CBOs in Mumbai represent hijra identities and community work to broader audiences through social media, semi-structured interviews, which allow for ‘thick descriptions’, were fitting for exploring this empirical reality (Geertz, 1973, p. 213). Gray (2009) posits that ethnographic data collected in the field provides a better understanding of the ‘real workings behind the reality’ (p. 33). Through in-depth interviews, the investigator ‘describes and probes the intentions, motives, meanings, contexts, situations and circumstances of action’ (Minichiello, 2008, p. 5). Further, the ‘direct lived experiences’ allow for true representations and understandings that provide accurate insights of transactions leading to events (Minichiello, 2008, p. 5). Additionally, semi-structured interviews provide an opportunity for the respondents to answer freely in an uninhibited way (Pawle & Cooper, 2006).

66 3.4.3.1 Participant overview and interview recruitment process

A sampling strategy to recruit interview participants was crucial to gain relevant data. Mason (2002) explains ‘purposive or theoretical sampling as a set of procedures where the researcher manipulates their analysis, theory and sampling activities interactively during the research process, to a much greater extent than in statistical sampling’ (p. 137). Thus, to achieve the purposive sample in this project, I conducted a meeting with the CBO head and/or management team to identify the key participants occupying positions on various social media teams. I deployed the purposive sampling strategy to generate a potential list of participants involved in various social media teams to gain the most useful information for the aims of this study (Creswell et al., 2007). The identified participants were contacted individually for interviews based on their roles in the social media, advertising, public relations and management teams in the three CBOs. The celebrity hijras—Gauri Sawant and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi—were identified during the observation period, based on their visibility on the CBO pages, in local newspapers and at public events concerning transgender issues. In total, 30 participants from the three CBOs were interviewed for the study (see Appendix D for interviewee profiles).

In-depth interviews were primarily employed to explore the perspectives of the participants involved in managing the Facebook pages. Through this process, participants shared their personal and professional experiences of being part of the hijra community and making sense of its representation, as an individual and as a part of the CBO. The interviews afforded the opportunity to look at some of the content in greater depth to ensure a holistic understanding of their intentions. I also used the scroll back method (Robards & Lincoln, 2019) during the interview, which involved walking through the Facebook page using specific posts. It literally involved scrolling back longitudinally on a particular platform (e.g., Facebook page timeline or Instagram public account) using a device, such as a mobile phone, tablet or laptop, during the interview. For instance, scrolling back on a CBO’s Facebook page or group served as a quick reminder about the CBO activity, which facilitated participants’ capacity to engage in a storytelling-type experience during the interview. Scrolling back during interviews served to examine patterns and strategies of usage across platforms and time. This walk-through created a structured conversation around the nature of the content posted and allowed flexibility for the participants to share their own experiences openly. Together with notes from the first phase, the scroll back method aided in documenting main events from the last five years based on the activities on the Facebook pages. The questions were framed in a way that did not lead the

participant but created a format involving generic questions that allowed interviewees to move forward into detailed elaborations and further address CBO-specific questions. The main three questions were ‘what does the post convey’, ‘what are the ideas/activities behind such a post?’ and ‘what is the sociopolitical and legal context around these posts?’ The interviews were recorded using a mobile device and backed up on OneDrive so that recordings were available for translations at a later stage. Interviews were multilingual depending on the language chosen by the participant as the main medium of conversation. Each interview ranged from 15 to 35 minutes. My familiarity with hijra culture and local Indian languages aided the interview process. Participants had the flexibility to communicate in vernacular languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and English, made possible by my native familiarity with these languages. Most of the participants demonstrated limited working knowledge of English.

The interviews helped to balance the textual analysis findings, and allowed for an analysis that was not necessarily removed from the participants’ context but retained some measure of objectivity. Moreover, interviews with participants involved in various social media teams ‘allowed for their truth to shine through’ (Thody, 2006, p. 164). Since the interview was conversational, much information, unforeseen patterns and themes emerged (Minichiello, 2008). Analysis of a community that is unique in its practices required this level of engagement to interpret the Facebook page observations and interview data. Further, such emic discussions with the CBOs members and other non-hijras working with the CBOs helped me appreciate the hijra identities, community-building strategies and self-representations at large. This important phase of the research was necessary to minimise the impact of an outsider studying the hijra community through digital media alone.

Themes emerged from the observations and textual analysis of the content on social media platforms, which then informed the design of a flexible interview schedule based on the participant positions in the hijra gharanas and role occupied in the CBOs (see Appendix A and Appendix B). This interview guide (S. J. Taylor & Bogdan, 1998) and notes from the observation were used during the process. Participants were recruited from different teams or departments to understand the distribution of responsibilities and structure of the organisation. The interview schedule varied for each of these individuals to gather information pertinent to the participant. Since the focus of the study was only on their social media usage (specifically concerning Facebook), I asked questions directed at meeting the objectives. Apart from interviews with CBO members, I conducted an in-depth interview with Sawant as the leader of

one of the CBOs. Attempts to interview Tripathi were not successful, due to her unavailability and participation in the Kumbh Mela 2019. Hence, an interview with her team provided specific details from the leader/activist’s perspective.

My gender identity as a woman further aided the interview process, as participants mentioned that they felt comfortable talking to a woman. This helped in building an effective rapport with the participants, evident from their comfort in sharing their personal life experiences during the interview process. The information gathered through the interviews was transcribed and then further translated into English. The quotes used in this thesis are translated texts of the original comments recorded in the interviews. The benefit of face-to-face interviews allowed me to observe participants’ body language and the work environments that formed their gharana and CBO premises.

3.5 DATA AND THEMATIC ANALYSIS

The data and thematic analysis in this thesis heavily rely on an interpretivist approach, which guided that analysis. The long-term observation, textual analysis and the in-depth semi- structured interviews conducted as part of this study inform the interpretation of the social media data consisting of Facebook pages and other platforms. As this research is a bottom-up approach to examining hijra representation, it emphasises the participants’ perspective, intentions and worldview in the analysis of data. Thematic analysis proposes ‘an accessible and theoretically flexible approach to analysing qualitative data’ (Braun & Clarke, 2012, p. 77). Further, it ‘is a method for systematically identifying, organising and offering insights into patterns of meaningful themes across a data set and allows the researcher to see and make sense of collective or shared messages and experiences’ (Braun & Clarke, 2012, p. 57). This study employs thematic analysis to organise the data and analysis, utilising Braun and Clarke’s (2012) six steps: 1) familiarising oneself with the data, 2) generating initial codes, 3) searching for themes, 4) reviewing potential themes, 5) defining and naming key themes, and 6) producing the report.

Adapting to the social media ethnography framework, I began with an observation of the Facebook pages to identify patterns with self-representations of hijra identity(ies) and arrive at key themes, followed by a detailed examination of the screenshots collected for textual analysis. I divided the themes into smaller categories, which formed the basis for questions in the interview guide. Next, I conducted in-field interviews with participants occupying significant

roles in the CBOs’ social media teams. The data from the interviews, observations and textual analysis was thematically organised and presented for analysis in Chapters 4–6. The main keywords for segregation during this research process included ‘hijra identities’ and ‘social media’ to answer the main research question: ‘How do hijra CBOs use social media platforms to negotiate hijra identities and build community representations following the 2014 NALSA judgement in India?’

The data gathered from the participants included personal localised narratives of their participation and experience with social media for community-building and constructing hijra identities. The transcripts of the interviews were imported into NVivo software for coding and analysis. Microsoft Excel was used to organise interview participant information and key themes from each interview to arrive at code trees (see Appendix E). This helped in organising data for coding, arriving at themes emerging from the interviews, and asserting relationships between clusters and themes. The data gathered from social media platforms were manually coded from the study of the screenshots and notes during observations and the textual analysis of Facebook pages. Each CBO and its social media activities were documented individually to identify common themes and patterns. A grounded theory informed-coding system (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) was used to create codes from the data based on inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning and expansion of the themes derived from textual analysis allow for the in-depth study by identifying common links and motivating factors across hijra CBOs’ use of social media. These themes have been documented as primary findings from the thesis and elaborated on in the following chapters. Triangulation of data gathered from observations used for textual analysis, together with semi-structured interviews, comprised a holistic social media ethnography of hijra identities and self-representations on social media platforms.

3.6 RESEARCHER POSITION

The role of a researcher occupies a significant role in any ethnographic study as the main source of the data collection, and it becomes mandatory to state any personal assumptions and biases outside the study that impact the research process (Creswell, 2014). My position as a researcher was that of an outsider, despite having prior connections with the community for research purposes. Since I do not identify as a hijra person, the community treated me as an outsider. This brought both advantages and disadvantages. This outsider position helped in achieving some level of objectivity to research hijra CBOs throughout the duration of the study. Even

though the nature of the project relied on interpretative and subjective analysis throughout, the strength lay in my position as an outsider to study hijra CBOs and social media platforms. However, given the PhD tenure and scope of the project, I have been able to gain critical insights into the hijra community and their complex relationship to social media to understand their lived experiences, despite my own cultural connections to the group as a local to the city of Mumbai and India more broadly.

Throughout the study, I was aware of our cultural differences and located myself as a researcher identifying as a heterosexual woman, hailing from a middle-class Catholic family located in Mumbai. Further, I was aware of my position as a doctoral scholar pursuing the program at an Australian university. Working with a vulnerable and marginalised community, it was important to be aware of my social position. However, there were some commonalities, as we were contemporaries, living in the same city and sharing the same language. This helped me develop a rapport with a community that is generally perceived to be guarded.47 Once a relationship was established, the participants provided me with a glimpse into their worlds and helped me deconstruct their social media experiences as part of the CBO community work.

3.7 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

This project took into consideration the ethical issues of using social media data and studying sexually minority groups in India. The ethical considerations for this study comprise two parts. Phase 1 involved the observation and collection of publicly available social media data with a significant focus on five Facebook pages (three CBOs and two celebrities). QUT’s Human Research Ethics Committee approved Phase 1 of the study under negligible risk on 18 September 2018 (QUT Approval number: 1800000864). Phase 2 of the study, which involved interviews with professional members of the hijra CBOs, was approved under low-risk classification on 29 October 2018 (QUT Approval number: 1800001015). Ethical considerations required to conduct both phases of this study were applied for, considered and approved by the committee prior to the data collection process. There was strict adherence to ethical guidelines throughout the research process.

47 This point is also made by Nanda (1990, 1999) and Reddy (2001, 2005) studying hijra communities in big cities such as Delhi and Hyderabad.

Ethical considerations: Social media data

This phase of data collection involved gathering data regarding the CBOs’ presence primarily on Facebook, and in the case of HST across social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. At this stage, the possibility of multiple and/or fictitious accounts had to be ruled out, so each page was verified and the nature of the content posted on the page studied. Those clearly linked with the organisation names, and seemingly updated recently were chosen as part of this study. The study design set out to examine the Facebook pages commonly used by the three CBOs that became the particular focus of study. By observing the contents of the page and identifying information such as CBO name, types of posts shared further helped to verify this information. Posts containing the personal details of individuals were not recorded, even though they were in the public domain. There were a few posts with names of gharana members tagged onto the post. The posts identifying individual members of the gharana (not part of the CBO) were neither excluded nor highlighted, as some of this information was not relevant to the objectives of the study. The social media teams of the respective CBOs created and owned the pages analysed; they did not belong to individual parties.

As noted in Section 3.4.2, a researcher profile was not required to access information on these pages, since it was publicly available due to the platform features. There was no engagement with any information posted on these pages. No personal information was purposely elicited from the participants unless they chose to share this information during interviews. The data used for the study came from social media pages available to the general public, and due reference made to CBOs in the examples quoted in the thesis. There was no personal involvement in the creation and management of any content posted on the social media platforms studied in this project.

Ethical considerations: Semi-structured interview data

This phase of the data collection involved in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with the professional members of the three CBOs in Mumbai. I identified the participants through an introductory meeting with the respective heads and assistants of the CBOs that helped clarify the CBOs’ social media management structure. The sampling strategy involved a diverse selection of CBOs varying in size and scale of activities.

72 I identified key stakeholders and individuals for the in-depth interviews through this first phase of observation and initial meeting with the CBOs. While the identities of the CBO team members were protected (their names changed in the reporting), the identities of activists/leaders were maintained due to being public figures whose identities and activist work are also in the public domain. There were measures taken to ensure the anonymity of participants who requested anonymisation during the interview. The names of the three CBOs are mentioned throughout the thesis, as this is public knowledge and adheres to the ethical considerations involved with examining social media platforms. Each participant provided informed consent after an explanation of the research and its goals, the interview process and their right to confidentiality. Participants were informed that their identities would be anonymised when the analysis mentioned information from their interviews. Subsequently, 23 of 30 participants provided consent to share their names and identities and consented to use of their names in the thesis. An in-depth understanding of the hijra community, gained through my previous research experience, helped in capturing their worldview. The interviews provide an understanding of hijra experiences as part of the social media team in the CBOs from their perspective, though crucially, without assigning meaning to these experiences. This perspective was explained at the beginning of the interview, as well as the stance of ‘not knowing’.

Ethical considerations: Data analysis and thesis write-up

The interview schedule (see Appendix A and Appendix B) did not purposely seek any personal information regarding interviewees’ sexuality and gender identities. It was the choice of the participant to share or refrain from divulging any personal details as a background to understand their current professional position in the CBOs. Any information disclosed by participants during the interview process not relevant to the scope of the study was excluded from the transcripts; for instance, at times participants tended to share mundane information about their personal lives or personal participation in queer events in Mumbai. This was shared as a part of the conversation and not necessarily relevant to the study. However, I did not universally discard this information as it helped in building an understanding of the context and writing the findings chapters. I verified the translation of interviews in a summary format with the participant over the phone and WhatsApp to ensure it captured the essence of the meaning communicated by the participant.

73 3.8 LIMITATIONS

It is important to acknowledge the limitations of the methods of study. Of the three CBOs, HST was the only organisation with a presence across several social media platforms. The objective of this project was primarily to study their Facebook pages; however, in the process of data collection, HST’s presence on other platforms (such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube) was also found. Thus, the data reported from platforms other than Facebook (such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube) is primarily from the HST. The other two CBOs (TSVK and AT) primarily used Facebook for the presentation of community work. The main aim of the study was to examine the Facebook pages of the three hijra CBOs and the two celebrities; however, the thesis mentions the adequate reference of other social media platforms used by HST, which aids the significance of Facebook among other platforms.

Since the study utilised a small sample of hijra CBOs and significant stakeholders, the generalisability of the results is limited. However, qualitative studies are designed to capture in-depth experiences, so the emphasis on generalisability is limited. These findings cannot be generalised to hijra communities or CBOs in other parts of the country. This is also due to the nature of hijra communities, which are unique and context-dependent in the geographically diverse country of India. It is also important to acknowledge the study location and focus—in the metropolitan city of Mumbai, on hijra organisations that have an established area of work and social media presence. Such is not the case with other hijra CBOs and organisations broadly. CBOs are a nascent concept among hijra gharanas; the nature of CBOs studied in this thesis does not represent hijra CBOs across India, although potential similarities and differences can be observed and explored in future research.

3.9 CONCLUSION

The chapter presented the methodology adopted to address the main research question, ‘How do hijra CBOs use social media platforms to negotiate hijra identities and build community representations following the 2014 NALSA judgement in India?’ The study is a social media ethnography, consisting of the observation of social media platforms, textual analysis and in- depth interviews with 30 participants. These methods enable the development of an understanding of digitally meditated hijra identities on social media. The chapter also explained the researcher position and ethical considerations, as well as the limitations of the study.

The following three chapters (Chapter 4–6) present the primary findings of the study. Chapter 4 explores the role of the three CBOs’ Facebook pages based on observations and textual analysis carried out during the first phase of the study.

Chapter 4: Facebook Pages—CBOs’ Community Work and Self-Representations

4.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents data from a close reading and thematic textual analysis of the three selected CBOs’ Facebook pages. This illustrates the CBOs’ creation and curation of their pages to increase hijra visibility through the presentation of their community work in the gharanas, building representations for the hijra community in the wider public consciousness. As detailed in Chapter 3, this study embraces a social media ethnographic (Postill & Pink, 2012) approach, focusing on three hijra CBOs in Mumbai—HST, TSVK and AT—whose official Facebook pages are the sources of data for this chapter. This chapter begins with a prelude to the creation and curation of the CBOs’ Facebook pages. Within this section, I highlight multi-functional use of these Facebook pages and discuss the strategies adopted by the CBOs to promote the offline community work in gharanas through online communication. In the last segment of the chapter, I illustrate how the online embodiment of hijra identities on Facebook pages facilitates the formation of hijra networked publics.

Similar to the common usages and practices of Facebook pages as identified in the literature review, the hijra CBOs have used Facebook pages to represent their hijra identities and perform various functions. The research findings demonstrate the uses of these Facebook pages by the three CBOs and classify them using a typology of posts. The findings also present a nuanced understanding of the hijra identities and the motivations behind the use of Facebook for promoting community work. This chapter answers the research question, ‘How do hijra CBOs use social media platforms, particularly Facebook, to negotiate/mediate hijra identities and build community representations following the 2014 NALSA judgement in India?’.

4.2 CREATION AND CURATION OF HIJRA CBOS’ FACEBOOK PAGES

The affordances of Facebook are abundant, as evident in transnational literature, particularly among LGBTQ+ communities. The rise of digital media and social networking sites, including Facebook, have created a platform for LGBTQ+ communities to form support groups

(Cipolletta et al., 2017) explore identity construction and social justice (Dey, 2019; Lorenzana, 2016), manage their social identities and networks (McConnell, Neray et al., 2018; Y. Taylor et al., 2014) and build relationships that assist with their wellbeing and mental health (McConnell, Clifford et al., 2017). In this chapter, I aim to contribute to the body of literature in the field of transgender studies and digital media by showcasing how hijra CBOs use Facebook pages in the Indian context.

Creating Facebook pages is a common practice among NGOs for numerous purposes. These include creating a page to help build a brand for an organisation, creating fan pages (Bernal et al., 2016; Mare, 2017), and creating pages to respond to events or issues (Marwick & Ellison, 2012; Matamoros-Fernández, 2017; Schwartz, 2015). Facebook’s primary affordances, such as the creation of profiles, friend lists, groups, pages, commenting practices (likes, comment, sharing and reactions) and allowing users to present status updates, are vital channels of public communication that form ‘networked publics’ (Papacharissi, 2010). Facebook, as a social media platform, expands its social networking options beyond the operation of profiles to also allow users to create a page that contains details of brands, organisations or public figures. These pages allow organisations to promote their work via ordinary text-based posts and rich media content, such as videos, that appear on users’ newsfeeds, or to simply use Facebook as a platform to update others on their activities.48 In the context of this study, the user is the hijra community; a collective group that has created Facebook pages under their respective CBO names, based on their culturally specific gender identity and residential segregation. The Facebook pages’ ‘About’ sections each provide a short description of the CBO, its foundation date, aims and goals and contact details. This description is indicative of an organisational page, not merely a social or informal one, and provides information to its followers.

As seen in Table 4.1, the pages were created years after the founding of the CBOs, indicating that the community work existed long before the general public could witness it on Facebook. HST and AT created their pages before the NALSA judgement (in 2014), whereas TSVK created their page after the judgement passed. The advancement of new media in India and increased affordability of smartphones for all populations have augmented the community work

48 See https://www.facebook.com/help/282489752085908/?helpref=hc_fnav

and capacities for hijra gharanas to transfer their work to a global audience through Facebook pages.

Table 4.1: Overview of the CBO’ Facebook pages (updated May 2020)

Name of the CBOs and Facebook Page Facebook Page Details Likes/Followers Establishment Creation Date Date Humsafar Trust @TheHumsafarTrustOfficial 15 August 2009 14,372 likes April 1994 18,810 followers Triveni Samaj Triveni SAMAJ VIKAS Kendra 23 March 2015 2,729 likes Vikas Kendra 2,755 followers October 2006 Astitva Trust Astitva Trust 10 May 2010 869 likes November 2006 856 followers

The founders or heads of each CBO, who play a critical role as the guru in their respective gharana (except in the case of HST, whose head identifies as a gay man and does not belong to the gharana type of social organisation), initially created these pages. These individuals went on to become important public figures (discussed in Chapters 5 and 6) and are easily found on Facebook by entering the name of the CBO in Facebook’s search bar or a Google search. The nature of public pages on Facebook makes them accessible, even without logging into a Facebook account. During my observation and textual analysis of the three pages, I examined the activity on these pages and the nature of the content posted by the CBOs.

Below, I outline the three CBOs’ Facebook pages individually, based on the visual features, content and presentation of the page shaped by the affordances of the Facebook page—page creation and likes/followers statistics—as well as existing post content and reactions dating back five years (April 2014–April 2019). Facebook’s metrics, in terms of likes and reactions for each post on the page, functions as an indicator of success and the response received (Marwick & Ellison, 2012). In this study, I observed that certain posts received a higher number of likes and reactions than others, while some received no response from the followers/audiences.

During observation of the three pages in the first phase of the study, I created a typology of posts based on similarities in patterns across these Facebook pages. I identified themes based

on repetition in patterns of posts and engagement across the three CBOs, and classified them into the typology detailed in Table 4.2. This typology was a systematic way to understand the diversity in the three CBOs’ posts and helped to draw out similarities and differences between the pages. The intention was not to compare the CBO pages, but simply depict the diversity of content and presentation of hijra identities and community work, as represented on these pages. In this phase of the study, my role as a researcher was limited to being a social media spectator, refraining from participating or engaging in the posts published on these pages. These identified typologies are illustrated as themes in the later parts of the chapter.

Table 4.2: Typology of posts based on the three CBOs’ Facebook pages arranged in the order of frequency on the appearance of categories.

No Type/Category Significance Example

1 CBO Activities carried out locally Visit from researchers or neighbouring community or nationally in gharanas or CBOs work in other parts of Mumbai Health promotion activities such as camps gharana Reporting of training, events, and counselling/medical services seminars, inaugurations distribution Government/ Laws, Supreme Court Elections 2 legal/political judgement, bills in Parliament, Voting Third gender definitions and Request for toilets for transgender people in categorisations public spaces Community activism Critics to Transgender Bill Enabling or calling for identification document preparation Transgender ambassadors from the community Commentaries/dialogues/critique 3 Hijra identity Promoting cultural Birthday photos significance, community Dance/song/badhai performance norms, linguistic and gender Group outings to Mosque/temple identity representation, life- Gifting traditions cycle rituals 4 Ephemeral Announcements, reminders, Job opportunities events remembrance, discussion Annual yearly events, e.g., Annual Day celebrations, Talent shows CBO anniversary and celebrations Topical issues locally; e.g., Rape cases, Caste and Religious Discrimination Motivational posts Significant days: World AIDS Day, Transgender Visibility Day Event notices and call for auditions, e.g., Gulabi Mela casual lunch photos Celebration of Indian festivals

5 Facebook Capturing events live, Speaker sessions affordance- capturing and documentation Rally/political protests based Cross-platform linking Awareness drive Sharing URL’s, mainstream Street theatre acts media links Post-performance uploads on YouTube Sharing/resharing valuable posts from WHO/UNAIDS (relevant renowned organisations and hijra celebrities/activist leaders/news channels The following sections describe the types of ideas, practices and sharing reflected in the posts. An examination of these posts, ties the ideological and political positions or aspirations of the CBOs and their connections with the hijra gharana to discourses of transgender and queer politics in India. I discuss each CBO’s sharing strategies based on observations with specific examples. Due to ethical considerations and to protect users’ privacy, the posts used in this chapter have been paraphrased and names omitted, thus the posts go without citation or attribution. This content contributes to hijra realities and community work, progressively informing hijra identities in India not previously captured in academic literature.

Facebook page: Humsafar Trust

4.2.1.1 Overview of the page

When I first searched for HST on Facebook, I found three results. The first page, Humsafar Trust49 was created on 5 September 2014 and had 3025 likes (as of May 2020). The second one, Humsafar Trust Support (Project),50 was established on 26 September 2012 with 547 likes (as of May 2020). The third is the official page of Humsafar Trust,51 with the identifier @TheHumsafarTrustOfficial, created on 15 August 2009 with 14, 255 likes (as of May 2020). It appears that their brand identity, public presence and social media strategy underwent several revisions, which could account for the existence of multiple pages. The third page appears most prominently on Google search and has been used for the purpose of this study.

The official HST page appears to be more organised than the other two CBO pages studied in this project. It displays the Trust’s office address, office hours, contact number, a link to its official website52 and reviews based on 151 users’ opinions. Considering HST is India’s oldest LGBTQ+ CBO, the diverse nature of its work (across all LGBTQ+ groups) seemed to be well

49 https://www.facebook.com/humsafar.trust.9/ 50 https://www.facebook.com/Humsafar-Trust-Support-Project/ 51 https://www.facebook.com/TheHumsafarTrustOfficial/ 52 https://humsafar.org/

80 represented and curated on Facebook. HST’s Facebook page (parent organisation) has multiple pages for various wings or projects and allied activities. For instance, Humsafar Support (for general events and collaborations), Yaariyan and Bombay Dost (dealing with Lesbian and Gay communities) have distinct Facebook pages and align activities and management under the aegis of HST. Another important page is TRANScend,53 which aligns with the transgender community project, created after the legal recognition of the third gender. Through this project, HST works in collaboration with several hijra gharanas to perform hijra welfare and community activities in different parts of Mumbai with official organisational support from Publicis Sapient India.54 Created after NALSA judgement, this project aims to be a bridge between employers, society and trans persons. The posts associated with this project shared on the HST page are in line with TRANScend’s key areas of work around acceptance for transgender persons by all sectors of society, especially educational institutions, corporate workplaces and bureaucracy.

The page bears a standard profile photo with the organisation name ‘The Humsafar Trust’, which remains a constant across all their social media platforms. The cover photo celebrates their 25th anniversary (in 2019), carries their logo, and is representative of its sub-groups and projects (Yaariyan and Umang celebrating their 10th anniversary). The HST page strikes a balance between original posts (a combination of text-based and visual photo/video posts) and shared posts of mainstream media content such as videos or articles from newsfeeds. The posts (including images and hashtags) adopt multiple languages—English, Hindi and Marathi—to reach wider audiences. Their page was current in its representation of activities conducted by the CBO at a local and international level. The page has approximately 1,000 posts over the five years since the NALSA judgement in April 2014 and the end of the observation period.

As a reputed and prominent CBO in India, HST’s activities often appear in the media. They also receive requests from users and beneficiaries seeking guidance and counselling services provided by HST for gender identity related issues. This is evident in an array of posts on their Facebook page. One illustration of a user request/question on the ‘opinion and ratings’ section of the page (paraphrased) is:

53 https://www.facebook.com/TheHumsafarTrustOfficial/videos/2664629410238093/ 54 Publics Sapiens is a digital business transformation hub in the Group. Their work is focused to help and assist client’s growth and efficiency around consumer behaviour and technology.

I am a boy… but in the soul of a woman, I engage in cross-dressing and I want to change my sex and engage in social work to help people like me … I do not have parents and need guidance to show me the right way, please help me. Requests such as these are common, which is indicative of the interactive function the page serves for a diverse community of people.

HST has actively used Facebook for advocacy and bringing about change in Indian queer politics, visible in both their online and offline engagement. The presentation and the detailed crafting of each post are indicative of the effort towards community engagement. Each post is creative, accessible and amiable to a variety of audiences and appears prominently in individual newsfeeds. Their content seems well-researched, studied and carefully worded for political correctness and indicates sensitivity to LGBTQ+ issues. In my observation of their Facebook page, I also found other CBOs as followers of the page, often engaging with and sharing information from the HST page on their own pages and websites. During the early observation in October and November 2018, the social media team at HST published posts each day (and multiple times in a day) that attracted comments and reactions alike. HST’s Facebook page is the most sophisticated and professionally maintained in the study sample and demonstrated a decisive and strategic use of the page to promote the CBO activities and build strong hijra representations through its social media presence.

4.2.1.2 Legal and health communication

Similar to strategies used by other NGOs, HST uses their Facebook page in conjunction with other social media platforms to create and promote their brand identity in the field of LGBTQ+ organisations in India. HST has won awards such as the Shivananda Khan Hero Award in the Asia-Pacific Region for extraordinary achievement for a lifetime devoted to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ people and people affected by HIV in November 2017.55 The achievements of the organisation in legal battles and social recognition as awards are shared on the HST Facebook page and Twitter.

Apart from its primary communicative function, which aims to provide information about its activities throughout its networks, what makes this page worthy of study is its engagement in

55 See https://www.facebook.com/notes/humsafar-trust/indias-lgbt-and-hiv-hero-ashok-row-kavi-received- special-prize-at-asia-pacific-c/10155284885739200/

contemporary politics in India. For example, the HST page demonstrates several instances of critiquing policies and laws that were discriminatory towards the transgender or LGBTQ+ communities. In particular, several posts on their page expressed resistance to the (then) Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2016 for its discriminatory definition of transgender persons. Similar posts were against the Surrogacy Regulation Bill, 2019. These types of posts received several shares and comments, generating a discussion in the comments section of the posts. Both bills ‘reinforce the idea of family as patriarchal, heterosexual and casteist institution and fail to account for the other models of chosen families and intimacies that co-exist in India’ (Ghosh & Sanyal, 2019, p. 1). In these public announcements of their political stance, the posts challenge audiences to rethink ideas of family, sexuality and hijra identities. These kinds of posts question the mere recognition provided after the legalisation of the third gender, and the gaps in implementation of the equal rights and opportunities promised by the judgement. This has been argued by several scholars working in this field, such as Gairola (2018), who examined the critical commentaries produced by Bombay Dost, the print magazine produced by HST. While the HST community certainly celebrated the success of the judgement—evident through the annual reposting of the judgement in lay language—these same posts continue to raise questions regarding its implementation. In this context, posts related to the judgement become a starting point for a broader conversation about realising LGBTQ+ rights.56 The response to these posts (in the user comments) reflects the appreciation of, and applauds, the CBO. One such comment by a user identifying as a member of the LGBTQ+ group states that ‘Humsafar’s work in the direction to fight for our rights is supported by us’.

The nature of posts has evolved from focusing on sexual health and minority health issues to identity-centric, activist discourse where the organisation seems to move towards the politics of and for LGBTQ+ communities in India. For instance, the use of specific tags and hashtags corresponding to the government or local parliamentary representatives brings noticeable attention to issues raised by HST. The CBO accompanies each post with hashtags and stylises campaigns to reflect the brand name #humsafarfightsvoilence, #humsafartogetherfortrans, and so on. My findings on the use of hashtags on Facebook in textual/visual posts reflect the nature

56 For instance, a huge number of posts after April 2015 to September 2018 dealt with pressing for changing and total legalisation of homosexuality in India, referring to complete eradication of the criminal charges associated with Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

of hashtags and the co-occurrence of hashtags on Twitter informing publics. The use of tags for the posts circulated on Facebook is similar on Twitter.

4.2.1.3 Celebration of ephemeral events

The HST page frequently posts content related to ephemeral events, such as remembrance days, transgender visibility day, commemorating an achievement of a member in the community, and paying homage to deceased members of the community on AIDS Day. These posts communicate with a variety of audiences. They are meant to carry personal meaning, yet are strategic in their communication of LGBTQ+ presence. Such celebratory and occasion-related posts are largely visual in combination with texts that are educative for its audiences. Additionally, these posts are cross-linked and shared across platforms. Figure 4.1 is an example of an Instagram post regarding transgender visibility day, also shared on Facebook.

Figure 4.1: Screenshot of a post on Instagram regarding on the occasion of International Transgender Day of Visibility Source: Captured by the researcher

4.2.1.4 Platform for forming networks and collaborations

The HST Facebook page illustrates a broad range of issues indicating their involvement in issues regarding gender rights. These include posts related to the hijra community, the broader LGBTQ+ community and those produced in collaboration with gender activists to post material condemning violence against girls, women and trans women. An important category of HST’s

Facebook posts is those related to gaining funds to support their initiatives—the ‘call to action’ posts. For instance, a post in November 2018 reads, ‘Help. Share. Donate, please help the transgender community in difficult times … We aim to provide financial assistance to at least 600 members and 100 affected till the end of December 2019. Donate now’. This message is followed by a link and a string of hashtags, creating further visibility by the principles of Facebook’s algorithms. These posts are typically used for attracting funders and gathering financial support. Facebook posts also showcase the distribution of the organisation’s funds and acknowledge the support of its partners. For instance, each year before annual events such as Gulabi Mela or Umang, there are major fundraising events and a call for sponsorship is executed on Facebook in the form of several posts. Apart from networks within gender-based community organisations, the HST holds a number of events promoting LGBTQ+ rights and specifically focusing on challenges faced by hijras. These events are showcased as a collaborative effort between several organisations and funders, to portray gender equality and rights as an issue inviting intersectoral involvement. Hence, Facebook becomes a space where networks and collaborations can be explored, formed and publicised to larger audiences.

4.2.1.5 Promotion of CBO activities and goals for creating awareness about transgender communities

Along with the popular print magazine Bombay Dost (India’s first gay magazine in the 1990s) produced at HST, their digital presence across social media brings the LGBTQ+ community together (Dore, 2016) and collectively creates authentic representations for the community. The analysis of their posts reveals HST’s values of aiming for a free, equal and non-violent India for the LGBTQ+ community, evident through the activities and performances on their Facebook page. Apart from the CBO’s offline activities in the gharana premises and local and national events, there are efforts to increase the online promotion and reporting of these activities. This is due to the realisation that a significant number of individuals vastly and rapidly consume online content. It is becoming the fastest and the most effective method to reach out and spread the word about one’s work in India, as statistics show that India has become Facebook’s largest user base (Statista, April 2020). HST’s work on the digital front is moving rapidly towards improving visibility, specifically for the hijra community.

Moreover, the page serves as a key avenue for advocating for hijra and LGBTQ+ issues and promoting events in the gharana, CBO and Mumbai or Delhi units. It challenges the followers

(audience) to rethink notions of gender, identity and stigma against hijras and members of the LGBTQ+ community. To illustrate, one post consisting of a group photo of leaders in front of a rainbow flag backdrop was captioned, ‘India’s transgender activists raise their voices, even though we are growing in numbers marking our territory online, social stigma remains strong’. The stylised art, banners, sponsor details during events, and change of cover page each month are indicative of the experienced team behind the creation of such content. Its attractiveness and accessibility to followers contribute to the content’s positive reception in the form of likes, shares and reactions. The HST page demonstrates a balance between original posts and sharing relevant information from other platforms and pages.

By adopting a proactive approach, HST pioneers in disseminating information and expressing their political stance. The discussion of transgender issues—such as marriage equality, separate toilets for transgender persons, adoption rights within existing legislation, and measures for the creation of new laws and policies—indicates their emerging role in queer politics in India. HST’s role as agenda-setters is clearly evident through their Facebook posts.

Facebook page: Triveni Samaj Vikas Kendra

4.2.2.1 Overview of the page

When searching for TSVK on Google, their Facebook page57 and website58 are the first to appear. TSVK also has an individual profile59 under the CBO name on Facebook, which consists of a mix of personal posts of the hijra gharana members alongside CBO activity posts that serve the same communicative functions. The function of the profile is similar to an individual’s profile, with friendship requests needed to gain access to all the posts published under the profile. While a page is public-facing, a Facebook profile is meant more for a private audience. The CBO continues to use the page, profile and the website in combination.

Although TSVK has been officially registered since 2006, the Facebook page was created on 23 March 2015 and has 2729 likes (as of May 2020). During the observation period, I examined the TSVK page in detail rather than the profile to maintain the focus on studying publicly available data. The ‘About’ section of the page introduces the organisation as ‘a community-

57 https://www.facebook.com/Triveni-SAMAJ-VIKAS-Kendra-798687410220198/ 58 http://www.trivenisamajvikaskendra.in/ 59 https://www.facebook.com/triveni.kendra.3

86 based organisation that works for about 1000 TG (Transgender population) in Malwani area of Malad in Mumbai’. TSVK works for a niche target group of hijras in the suburban area of Mumbai. Their page illustrates gharana activities (birthday celebrations and visits to public spaces such as religious institutions and malls as a gharana) and CBO related community work (such as training, attending events and representations at rallies).

4.2.2.2 Types of posts and functions

The TSVK page fulfils the role of an all-purpose platform for the followers of this page. This implies that the page content caters to audiences across LGBTQ+ categories and others interested in this content. First, the page caters to the hijra gharana members by presenting information relevant to the gharana, such as announcements of training workshops and health camps. Second, there are posts related to national news, local events, reminders to gharana members about upcoming opportunities for local jobs, free health consultations and treatments, and night schools. Third, the page also publishes bulk posts on activities conducted in the CBO. This practice is indicative of their strategy to update larger audiences about the activities conducted in the CBO in the form of text and photos/videos. The posts are about particular events, such as resource mobilisation and sustainability for hijra CBOs, stalls organised to sell hijra-made handicrafts at a local exhibition, and group discussions organised in the CBO regarding legal information awareness for hijras. These sporadic bulk uploads are important to portray sustained visibility and be seen as an active organisation by the Facebook community and parent organisations supporting the gharana for CBO work. By using the tag feature in these posts, the CBO asserts their acquaintance with local politicians and police offers, who they often tag on posts and photos with the director and core team members. Fourth, the page also serves as a complaints portal, with posts related to sanitation issues in the gharana localities using the names of local municipal authorities often visible. The share feature on these posts helps attract attention and traction on minor civic issues, which increases the possibility of a quick resolution of the issue. However, there were no follow-up posts (e.g., about completed maintenance) to indicate whether this strategy has worked for the CBO. The activities reported on the TSVK page declined in 2018–2019, with little use of the Facebook page during this period compared to activities presented on the page in 2015–2017. Plausible reasons for this are migration to the newly formed website and/or distribution of posts across their Facebook profile, page and website.

This CBO acquired its recognition in APCOM and the SANCHAAR Media organisation report due to the presence of Gauri Sawant (see Chapters 5); a transgender activist, associated with this CBO and gharana. Her appearance in the aforementioned Vicks ad brought her social media recognition and also normalised her portrayal of hijra identity in average households. Section 6.4 discusses the impact of this ad further.

The TSVK Facebook page publishes different posts on different topics taken from other portals. These posts bring attention to the ephemeral events organised by the CBO on hijra identity and the lives and issues faced by the hijras in the gharana. These posts also serve to communicate with broader audiences about their community work and build a sense of identity and visibility for the CBO. At times, the posts provide important recognition of the efforts of the team members. All posts appear to serve the function of communicating and engaging with the larger audiences to challenge stereotypes and stigma against the transgender community.

In addition, several motivational posts address mental and physical health issues and wellness for community members. Examples of these posts include a poem drafted by a gharana member urging families to accept fluidities in gender identities in children and provide a space to explore these identities, so they do not have to leave home. Posts contain important information for the hijras, photographs of celebrated festivities, and involvement in several gharana based activities. These posts tended to engage community members (in the form of likes and shares) more than the broader Facebook audience. This was evident in the way individual users addressed the tagged members of the post in the comments, indicating that they belonged to the same gharana or were close associates. The community members actively commented on posts containing photographs of hijras dressed for badhai, extending kinship gestures of reciprocity and appreciation over cultural posts displaying collective groups.

The majority of the posts about internal gharana activities and the work of individual hijras indicates that the focus of TSVK is more inward than outward. The CBO members seemed to understand Facebook’s affordances, considering the presence of a page and a profile, and the process of creating, curating and posting content. As an organisation, TSVK identifies itself as a hijra organisation, evident through their identity assertions (content) on their Facebook page, which is different from HST’s focus on broader LGBTQ+ issues.

TSVK’s Facebook page belongs to the pool of small-scale CBOs in Mumbai and continues to contribute to building a CBO name for their gharana. The existence of few, yet significant,

posts related to the activities carried out in the CBO for fellow hijra members and others interested in knowing about the community work of TSVK, reflects the scope to grow further as an organisation. The visual nature of the posts reflects the limited use of texts, understanding of platform features among the administrators and team members, and signifies the tremendous potential for further improvement to advance the promotion of CBO activities on the Facebook page. While the CBO engages in a large number of offline activities, as seen during the fieldwork, their online presence is limited. There is an active effort to improve their visibility on these platforms due to the increased media literacy workshops discovered during the interviews and discussed in Section 5.3.3.

Facebook page: Astitva Trust

4.2.3.1 Overview of the page

The official page of Astitva Trust60 is the first to appear in both Facebook’s and Google’s searches. It was created on 10 May 2010 and has 869 likes (as of May 2020). The AT page is the least active and most inconsistent in terms of activities performed on the page of the three CBOs analysed in this study. Renowned transgender personality and activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi founded the CBO (see Chapter 6). The page appears to have been active during its initial days but eventually lost prominence as the CBO leader gained a strong individual social media presence. There was no activity observed on the page between 2018 and 2019. The CBO commenced at the time its leader/guru was gaining fame and rose to prominence for becoming the first transgender person to represent India (Asia-Pacific) at the United National General Assembly meeting on HIV/AIDS held in New York in 2008. The leader’s status and prominence in national and international networks are integral to the CBO’s fame and recognition. Due to this status and recognition, international media have covered the CBO.

Until 2018 (before the page became inactive), it championed posts related to transgender issues, news/online sources about the challenges of the community and press interviews between Tripathi and Bollywood celebrities. One of the most engaging posts on the AT page is a video of Tripathi speaking at the 2008 United Nations Assembly panel on HIV/AIDS in New York. This particular post received 2,800 views and 36 shares and comments about the pertinent issues raised by the activist in her speech. Interestingly, the page hosted numerous posts shared by

60 https://www.facebook.com/Astitva-Trust-115951748443851/

89 international photographers who studied the gharana and captured hijra lives and realities visually. These photographs/posts document the day-to-day lives of hijras within the gharanas. They also document the hijra castration process, initiation ceremony, in-residence facilities in the gharana, and several visuals of intimate hijra lives that the general public cannot otherwise access. These serve as an informative magazine for a layperson seeking to understand the hijra community. Prior to 2018, the organisation was also a collaborator with other queer/trans- inclusive activist groups and organisations (such as HST), along with Tripathi, who was one of the petitioners of the NALSA judgement in 2014. This important information was laid out in several posts on both the HST and AT Facebook pages.

Detailed observations helped me develop some insights into why the page lost prominence. First, the absence of posts on Facebook rendered the page redundant, so followers were no longer engaged. Second, the controversy surrounding Tripathi and her affiliation to kinnar akhada61at Kumbh Mela (a religious event) in 2018–2019 (see Section 6.4.2.4) and her adoption of the position of Acharya Mahamandaleshwar (religious title occupying high ritual status)62 was considered problematic and attracted a lot of negative press. Third, there was much focus and attention given to building Tripathi’s brand identity as a celebrity, towards which the social media team concentrated their energies. Hence, building the CBO as a brand name and increasing its visibility to online audiences was paid little attention. Notably, a declining presence on social media is also indicative of the organisation’s declining relevance and participation in community work around hijra issues observed during fieldwork, and thereby a decline in its Facebook prominence63.

The organisation is not defunct, but their social media presence on Facebook and Instagram is redundant. Despite the page not being active in the last two years, their earlier posts (between

61 A hijra representation in the Hindu festival around faith and worship organised at Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj in 2019. It is held once every 12 years in Allahabad, North India. For more details, https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/transgender-laxmi-narayan-tripathi-kumbh-mela-kinnar-akhara-1435168- 2019-01-20 62 The equivalent of a similar position occupying religious significance in the hierarchy in western Christianity would be the hierarchy as seen in among in the order of beginning as a Priest moving on to become a Bishop, Cardinal and rare instances Pope. 63 I want to clarify that this there are no individual social media posts that explicitly show this comparative rise/decline between AT and Tripathi, and that the argument regarding the decline and limited use of social media derives from my overall analysis of social media posts and my interviews with hijra and CBO representatives at AT.

April 2014 and November 2017) reflect their commitment to hijra welfare and work to improve hijra visibility. The AT page provides links and mainstream media content useful to hijras to amplify their representations. The transition of the CBO and the growing prominence of Tripathi and her social media team has been discussed extensively in Chapter 6. Interestingly, there is a vast difference between the CBO page and that of the leader, which is active and garners huge support from followers. The existence of 869 likes and new content on the page makes it a site of public significance for those who revisit the page or accidentally come across it on Facebook.

Overall, observations of the TVSK and AT pages suggest the organisations have experienced difficulty in sustaining their presence on Facebook. This finding relates to the importance of a systemised procedure for ensuring sustained updates. The study notes that a declining CBO presence on Facebook relates closely to a declining prominence in the organisation to present their offline hijra activism and community work to online audiences. An online presence is a marked indicator of an organisation’s existence, especially in the contemporary context, which relies on the internet and online portals for information sharing and representation.

Additionally, the introduction of individual religious projects (kinnar Akhada initiated by Tripathi, discussed in Chapter 6) and the shift to Facebook profiles and WhatsApp groups (for TSVK), indicates declining activity on the respective CBO pages. These migratory platform shifts, familiar to AT and TSVK, are explored in detail in Chapter 5’s discussion of social media use outside Facebook. Chapter 5 highlights the use of diverse platforms for a variety of purposes; specifically, the use of WhatsApp for day-to-day communication to manage gharana and CBO work. Additionally, the emergence of a website, in the case of TSVK to perform similar functions as the Facebook page, was discussed in the interviews.

In the following sections, I discuss commonalities and differences between the three Facebook pages.

Discussion

The comparison of the pages’ content on these Facebook pages illustrate the landscape of activities carried out by the hijra gharanas and CBOs, including skill and vocational training programs, news about local events concerning transgender people and health-related campaigns/information for community members. Taking to social media is relatively new and

91 challenging for small-scale hijra CBOs where members need to address survival issues and work for CBO welfare, apart from making their presence felt on wider platforms. At present, a handful of individuals with limited knowledge and expertise in managing social media in TSVK and AT are exploring the potential extent for using Facebook’s affordances. To demonstrate a sophisticated use of social media platforms, there is a greater need for resources, trained professional staff and appropriate technologies to include social media in their communication strategy. Media skill-based training like those conducted in TSVK (see Section 5.3.3) address some of these gaps by attempting to increase digital literacy with the hope of feeding into the CBO brand identity and profile.

Health topics and communication are pertinent to this community, considering the health risks of sex work, as well as issues related to physical and mental wellbeing after sex-reassignment surgeries, HIV/AIDS treatments or traditional castrations (nirvana). Hence, the use of Facebook pages for sharing important health-related information is common across the three CBOs, although the nature of these posts varies. While there is information for awareness, HST’s page also provides information regarding health care services (such as counselling) available at the CBO. The other two CBOs—TSVK and AT—use and share information from other portals regarding such services as they are not directly involved in service provision. As previously noted, the content on these pages is available in vernacular languages (primarily Hindi and Marathi) and English for a variety of audiences. The CBOs also share the pages across WhatsApp groups (see Chapter 5).

Study participants from HST spoke about the importance of publishing valid information on their Facebook pages. They took it as their personal responsibility to publish data and information reliably, considering marginalised groups access the information for clarity on issues not discussed elsewhere. Thus, hijra CBOs bear the responsibility of sourcing important and accurate information for the members of the hijra community and others and exercise caution in the way content is framed and posted. As the HST organisation caters to a wider LGBTQ+ audience, they use politically correct terminology. While the nature TSVK and AT posts is mixed for a diverse population, they primarily focus on the hijra and transgender community.

The three CBOs appear to have had a similar trajectory in terms of their introduction to the world of social media. Although founded in the 1990s and 2000s, there came a point when the

need to join platforms such as Facebook was deeply felt. This relates closely to the introduction of information technology, fast internet and the changing digital and communication media landscape in India (explored in Chapters 5 and 6). The CBO members also had to adapt to these changes. In the interviews, I found that a majority of the gharana members had not completed school. Their exposure to digital media was restricted to what they had learnt through observation; members had limited digital literacy and English language skills. Hence, these gaps had to be filled to make this digital presence on Facebook successful. Their background and these learnings fed into the decision to create content that is friendly for audiences not well- versed in English. To cater to wider audiences in India, the pages needed to use vernacular languages, especially if the gharana members consumed the information imparted on these pages. Apart from this, visual content seemed to be more appealing than written content and could attract a significant population of uneducated individuals. The use of multimedia posts seemed to attract more significant likes and comments in the form of emoticons, potentially signifying the popularity of visual posts.

Based on the observations, HST appeared to have a wider audience aware of transgender issues, whereas the other two CBOs’ audience networks appeared to consist of members from within the hijra gharanas and networks. Hence, the posts serviced an outward- versus inward-facing audience, respectively.

4.2.4.1 Digital repositories about hijra communities

As highlighted in Chapter 2, there are significant gaps in the literature around hijra identities from an insider’s perspective. Ethnographies that focus on the hijras’ lives do so from the vantage point of a non-hijra. In such a context, the Facebook pages seem to serve as digital repositories of information about the hijra communities and an understanding of various facets of their identities. These can be further interrogated by exploring individual profiles of hijra members, which is not the scope of this study. Since the content is posted by those belonging to the community, their vantage point is accessible through these posts. Apart from curating information about the community from an insider’s perspective, these pages disseminate important information to the hijra community (both gharana and others).

Using the affordances of the platform along with concepts of digital storytelling, the pages seek to engage a broad network of followers regarding the community. These campaigns, posts and pieces of content provide a contemporary perspective on the hijra community and their

sociopolitical status. Crucial public service announcements published in the format of short videos or memes (often produced and shared by HST) help increase visibility and discussion around the issue and circulation of the media artefact across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. To address critical issues such as stigma and the discrimination, harassment and violence the hijra community faces, short videos, posters with messages and manual reports are prepared and published to capture nuances of gender and sexuality. Documenting the cultural remnants on Facebook pages also offers the community an opportunity to preserve hijra culture for broader circulation and viewership on social media. An essential aim of the social media presence of these organisations is to create a representation of hijra identities to be consumed by larger audiences, especially after the 2014 NALSA judgement. The content posted on these pages receives engagement in the form of likes, comments and shares, indicating followers’ interest in learning more about their lives and the activities conducted at the CBO.

4.3 PROMOTING COMMUNITY WORK THROUGH FACEBOOK PAGES

The following section outlines critical themes surrounding the community work emerging from my observation and textual analysis of these Facebook pages. The themes are illustrative of the CBOs’ work and day-to-day practices and include challenging laws and policies, hijra leadership and skill development, community-building, information sharing, celebrating events, expression of political ideologies and activities in the gharanas.

The many representations hijras are limited to their struggles with poverty, identity representations, rights, sex work and health, acknowledged in the writings of contemporary scholars studying the hijra community in modern India (Maitra, 2015). However, the three Facebook pages demonstrate unique everyday hijra representations through activities. Strategically created on a platform used by the majority of the Indian population (Statista cite 378.9 million active users in February 2020), these pages share a common purpose for the hijra community. Through the creation and use of Facebook pages by the CBOs, there is an attempt to create a representation for larger audiences, especially post-2014. What makes these pages truly authentic is they are created, managed and run by members from the community; unlike other celebrity or fan pages, which encourage idolisation of images that are out of common individuals’ reach. The stories about their lives, work and challenges, often presented in an ‘imperfect’ language and style, makes these posts relatable to the general public. It helps

followers understand they are telling a story about their ‘imperfect’ lives, far removed from celebrity status.

Even though two of the CBO pages are less active, the existing content on these pages speaks volumes about their understanding of their identities and lives. This information takes form as a personal narrative of the hijra gharanas and CBOs. Engaging in activism may not have been the initial the aim of the pages, but in the last several years it appears they have moved in the direction of becoming politically strong to fight for rights of the hijra community. Further, the three pages present an implicit message of activism through the sharing and reporting of mainstream information, news and articles about issues concerning the transgender population.

Challenging laws and policies

The data gathered during the observation period indicates a strong critique of systemically regressive laws and policies that render an outsider status to the hijras and transgender communities. For instance, the HST page has several posts demanding the need for separate washrooms for transgender persons in all public spaces, as the current spaces are unwelcoming and difficult to use. Other members of the community sharing memes regarding these issues fuel these discussions. There is also an attempt to raise topical issues affecting hijra and the broader transgender community. Participation in initiatives such as the Clean India Movement and various sanitation action summits enable a prominent presence in the global digital world (Curry, 2016). The timing of some of these posts coincides with current discussions on specific legal issues, which indicates the proactive CBOs’ ability to move with the times. For example, HST increasingly used the ‘going live’ features to cover LGBTQ+ gatherings, general elections, 2019 campaigning and voting under the ‘third gender’ category, which the head office in Mumbai covered.

Hijra leadership and skill development

Apart from skill enhancement workshops, participation in conferences and seminars, and leadership training programs for members as reported on the pages, the CBOs aim to hone leaders from the community with the capacity to represent themselves and promote community work. An example of such a leader is Urmi Jhadav. She is a hijra activist who is now a prominent leader within the community and contributes effectively to CBO work, while also strongly asserting her gender identity. Ashish Sawhney captured her life as a gender non-

95 conforming individual in the short film, Forbidden Love, which screened at Kashish 2015, a film festival in Mumbai. The story challenges the notions of gender binaries (Maitra, 2015). Chapter 6 discusses similar examples and case studies of hijra leaders acquiring fame and recognition through social media and using it to the advantage of the hijra community. Hence, the CBOs’ community work provides opportunities for community members to be involved in a wide variety of professional work, which encourages skill development and training so members can take up jobs outside of begging and sex work.

Community-building

The three Facebook pages represent the collective identities and shared community spirit common across all hijra gharanas. The pages document activities accomplished by the CBOs, details of the event, the participation of the hijras and visual representations through photographs. These posts create an experience of ‘being present’ at the event and invite a sense of camaraderie and collaboration from the audience. Experiences and testimonies of members from the gharana are recorded in vernacular languages and shared with English captions, such as the testimonies of CBO representatives at book release events and press meetings. These types of posts receive appreciation from the participants and other organisations, demonstrating a coming together of all community members in the appreciation of community empowerment.

Information sharing

Another defined category of posts is information sharing, which is pertinent to all hijras. For example, audiences engage with posts related to information and services available for name/gender change certifications by requesting more information. The legal recognition gained from the NALSA judgement, which allows hijras to claim a place in the education, health and employment sectors, has increased demand for identity documentation. The strong presence of relevant information regarding topics concerning the transgender community suggests a strong demand for such posts/information among the wider hijra community who are also followers of these Facebook pages. Notably, these posts are popular because the wording in simple language, free of jargon—for instance, the term ‘queer’ is absent from posts targeting the hijra community—and written in both vernacular languages and English. This ensures the essential information is accessible to the target community, including those with lower levels of education.

96 Celebration of events

The Gulabi Mela—a collective initiative of multiple organisations for talent acquisition and exhibition—has several posts on the HST page, as it is organised on a large scale and attracts a lot of visibility and recognition. The event lasts for 2–3 days and incorporates a range of activities. There are several posts dedicated to the same event, which indicates a communications strategy followed by a variety of CBOs to cater to identifiable groups, including the LGBTQ+ community, non-CBO members, students and researchers, and other laypeople interested in the event. Popular hashtags used in these posts—such as #gulabimela2019, #humsafartrustindia and #hijraunited—are consistently used in all these posts. News features and interviews about the event are shared, increasing the visibility of the event on Facebook. These posts also receive user comments, shares and likes, which indicate their popularity.

Expression of political ideologies

The posts observed exemplify varied political viewpoints and ideologies. Affiliations to parties could be discerned through some of these posts:HST and TSVK share a liberal left-leaning affiliation to parties such as the Indian National Congress, while AT supports the majoritarian right-wing saffronised parties, such as the BJP.64 Under Tripathi’s leadership, AT has been supportive of the BJP, an affiliation that became more prominent with the inauguration of Tripathi’s kinnar akadha (a group of hijras practising Hinduism) and title of ‘Acharya Mahamandaleshwar’, conferred to her during her participation in the Kumbh Mela (see Chapter 6). These posts raised concerns regarding the politics of the hijra CBOs and their stance on representing queer rights in India. I discuss the case of the Ram Mandir controversy surrounding Tripathi and various hijra CBOs, and gender-conforming organisations who united in condemning this public performance Chapter 6. The three CBOs are located within the populous of Mumbai, a city home to Shiv Sena, a right-wing regional political party in Maharashtra. Although no post made by the three CBOs take directly at the local politics, but several of public events organised the HST and TSVK include members of Shiv Sena at public

64 This study classifies the three CBOs’ affiliation or leaning towards politics in India based on the social media analysis and interviews. Very few participants displayed the need to combat personal versus organisational political stance as a result of conflicting opinions. This was only evident in the case of Humsafar Trust. Whereas, the other CBOs, TVSK and AT held a more collective stance towards political ideologies and decisions made by the guru of the gharana.

97 talks and inauguration of programs. The CBOs definitely hold and involve in local advocacy that has funded by political parties, however acknowledges are made on such occasions.The hijras, as a minority community in India, possess limited public spaces in which to claim their religious and political choices (Graham & Sundarram, 2018) in a gharana setup. In the politics of the marginalised, a strong political stance in favour of majoritarian politics raises concerns and issues. It also raises the question of how the CBOs choose to represent themselves on their social media pages.

Activities in the gharanas

Another type of post relating to community work at TSVK included representations of activities conducted as a gharana. The circulation of such personal activities from the gharana members helped me identify the depth of what was considered community work in TSVK. These posts were indicative of community-building and leadership programs in the gharana. The members are encouraged to participate in a range of activities that exposure them to alternate forms of livelihood and employment. The style of reporting these activities indicates that the primary purpose is to validate the efforts of the gharana members. Being represented on a larger online platform is a source of encouragement for the gharana members, which is enhanced by reactions in the form of applause and appreciation for the work and comments on personal stories of similar representations. Apart from performing basic communicative functions, the CBO pages also serve as a platform for garnering support and encouragement for one another and other leaders of the hijra community.

These are some of the points of comparison between the three CBO pages. My findings resonate with a few other studies of Facebook groups and pages dealing with queer issues or communities. For instance, in her study among queer private/secret groups on Facebook groups in India, Dey (2019) found the groups performed similar functions as the CBOs pages. Like moderators in groups, CBO page administrators attempt to regulate a discussion with the audiences to prevent potential crisis and controversy. A post on the HST page illustrates this function: a comment on the post was pinned with a response stating that ‘it does not endorse any personal views of the chair/board/team members. HST is a safe and inclusive space irrespective of sex, sexual orientation, gender, caste, religion or disability’. I observed that the page administrator repeatedly commented and pinned comments on posts to control the nature of discussions and deter trolls on such posts.

98 The pages promoted the CBO and their community work through the presentation of activities carried out. Facebook as a platform has connected and aided small-scale CBOs, such as AT and TSVK, in becoming visible, acquiring a network of followers and also providing relevant information to a broader audience. These pages present a CBO ideology that is engraved in the activities undertaken, nature of the posts and discussion of issues over Facebook. Organisations such as HST have been able to advocate for a change in laws and policies through online and offline platforms. These efforts have contributed to the NALSA judgement and decriminalisation of homosexuality. For small-scale CBOs such as TSVK and AT, the presentation of community work on Facebook and its impact in the gharana presents an opportunity to increase the visibility of their work, seek funding and collaborate with other CBOs. Moreover, the content on Facebook pages reproduces hijra identities as they are presented and practised in the offline gharana space. There are examples of the celebration of events, achievements, acknowledgement of individual community members’ word, and also expressions of anger and dissent over choices made by community leaders.

The use of social media demonstrated in the above sections builds on the tradition of minority and transgender activists’ use of social media their social and political agendas. In Mumbai- based hijra CBOs, the pioneering HST has effectively utilised the media space by recognising its potential to transform everyday activism for the LGBTQ+ community. These self- representations have shaped hijra identities and contributed to documenting the community work hijras undertake alongside the cultural roles they occupy. The Facebook pages used by hijra CBOs also function as alternate sources of learning about the hijra community. These reformulations of digitally mediated hijra identities are evidence of informative and socioculturally relevant data circulating in the digital world. With the long history of marginalisation and absence of citizenship rights until April 2014, the hijra community is making strong efforts towards creating their space in the public sphere; aided and propelled through platforms such as Facebook.

Each CBO co-creates its digitally mediated hijra identities in unique ways, which is reflected in the posts on each CBO page. The hijra members contributing to the creations of self- representations on Facebook pages, and creating information for educative purposes to be consumed by larger masses, who are otherwise unaware of LGBTQ+ issues. These serve as digital repositories about hijra communities in India. Patterns of similar activities across the three CBO pages are illustrative of the common motivations and similar agenda among the hijra

gharanas. Importantly, the observations and insights discussed above indicate how hijra gharanas, along with their CBOs, create and curate information/content for their Facebook pages in particular. I have raised questions of hijra involvement in the creation and curation of content regardless of the role they occupy in the CBO and gharana, whether these endorsements on these posts are representative of collective agreements, and whether this presentation is creating universal hijra representations across the gharanas. The community work presented over the pages arguably present strong notions of empowerment, sense of togetherness and display of collective hijra identities mediated digitally on and through Facebook.

4.4 ONLINE EMBODIMENT OF HIJRA IDENTITIES ON FACEBOOK

‘People’s self-presentation in different online spaces are a product of social performances, site norms and expectations’ (van Dijck, 2013 p. 202). This includes their identity (individual or collective) related performances. There is ample evidence of (under)/(mis)reporting hijra news in India, which includes misuse of terminologies, insensitivity or disrespect towards the community (Bearak, 2016). Given the complexity of hijra identities and the legal and self- definitions of being a hijra, the CBOs commonly showed hijras as those living outside the gender binary, adopted by a leader and included in an in-group residence called the gharana system (Goel, 2014).

The activities carried out under the three CBOs were distinct in their presentation of gharana culture, and communal living shared between its members. The data gathered indicates that the CBOs in the study oversee the representation of these identities on their respective Facebook pages. The next chapters explain the reasons for centralised control; basically, there is a need to represent an identity that is consistent and stable over time through the communication of standardised messages. If individual members are left to their own accord to manage these pages, there would be no consistency in the way information is communicated. Using Facebook to market and create a CBO brand is the gharana strategy. This relates to the popularity of the platform among Indian populations that makes India the largest Facebook userbase in the world (Statista, 2020).

Each CBO similarly constructs and conveys hijra identities; however, the representations of group/collective identities are unique. This is evident in the specific use of terminology in the posts that reiterate the terms guru, chela and gharana, and the clustering of specific teams of gurus and chelas belonging to specific gharanas. Hence, these pages hold different meanings

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for different CBOs and thereby its members. TSVK’s page has members’ narratives in the form of celebrations or birthdays displayed on the page, so it is a space for celebrating one’s hijra- ness in the context of the gharana. When photos and videos unrelated to CBO work appear on these pages, they are using the space to assert their identity and to receive public recognition. Not all members of the gharana are involved in the CBO activities, so a few CBO members organise these activities for the rest of the gharana. In most of these posts, the entire gharana is represented on the pages, irrespective of whether they participated in the CBO activities. In turn, other members participating in the offline activities in the gharana learn and practice skills and follow their representations on these pages. They share, like or react to some of those posts and gain benefits in return. Hence, the reciprocal nature of representation helps in developing a sense of collective ownership.

In addition to those who gain directly from the CBO pages, these pages serve as spaces for the presentation of hijra identities, voices, views and community assertions that are different from the mainstream media, academic literature or representations made by others regarding the hijra community. Facebook has bridged the offline gharana activities conducted by the CBO and mobilised them to online networks to form hijra networked publics. The following sections outline how hijra networked publics form and what they communicate for the followers, audiences and networks.

4.5 FORMING HIJRA NETWORKED PUBLICS

This section draws on the presentation of hijra identities and how a large network of audiences perceives it. danah boyd (2010) developed the concept of networked publics in her study of young people’s use of Myspace and Facebook. It described ‘(1) the space constructed through networked technologies and (2) the imagined collective that emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology and practice’ (boyd, 2010, p. 39). This concept is relevant to understanding how the CBOs create these spaces for identity representations and how hijras constitute themselves to be part of these networks. boyd’s (2010) explanation can be used to understand how using Facebook’s affordances, the content produced by hijra CBOs is ‘enduring and highly visible to potentially vast and overlapping audiences’ (p. 41) (hijra gharana members and more general followers in this study). These then facilitate representations in the form of networked publics, that further facilitate dialogue and participation in public life (boyd & Ellison, 2007).

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From a close reading of the three Facebook pages, I established that the online communication disseminated through the CBOs’ Facebook pages reorganises the circulation of information flow and communication within the gharana. For instance, the Facebook pages function as broadcasting networks for health and legal information for members within the gharanas with the use of specific tags or names, replacing the traditional face-to-face interactions and information sharing in the gharanas. Since the followers of each CBO page include members of the gharana and other members of the hijra community, the platform offers ease in communicating valuable information and organising welfare activities for empowering hijras in the gharana. The activities performed on the CBO pages effectively blur the boundaries between public and private for those living within the gharanas. This is especially visible on TSVK’s page, which consists of numerous individual posts, such as check-ins to various public places in Mumbai. There is equal representation of these posts and posts on CBO activities. The personal community-building activities and events in the gharanas shared by these members further blur the public-private divide perceived among members. One criticism I have of TSVK’s communication strategy after observing the page is that the posted content is intermingled, complex and evolving. Additionally, the decline of activity on the page between 2018 and 2019, the migration to a newly formed website to perform similar functions and the preference of WhatsApp groups for managing activities is noteworthy and explored further in Chapter 5.

Conversely, HST emerges as the organisation with a more professional and strategic posting of content. The CBO draws a clear distinction between public and private posts and refrains from presenting personal gharana activity (such birthday celebrations or visits to a religious institution), which stray from the goals and objectives of the CBO. Anderson’s (2006) notion of the public as an ‘imagined community’ appears differently on HST’s and TSVK’s pages. Distinctions between public and private are no longer understood as separate categories or binary opposites (Livingstone, 2005) in hijra networked publics. The concepts overlap and yet cater to different imagined audiences. Further, Facebook’s features and functions obscure the lines between these networks of followers that consist of a network of CBOs, hijras, non-hijras, friends and families of the members. Instances of reporting activities to an ‘imagined’ hijra community can reconfigure networks from public spaces in the gharana or CBO premises to technologically and digitally facilitated networks. This practice is not new for the organisations examined in the thesis. However, what makes this contestation interesting is the shifting

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presentations of hijra identities that are increasingly digitally mediated to imagined communities, and that these identities transcend beyond the digital spaces. These networks enable dialogue and participation between both CBO members (hijra community) and general audiences who also form part of the follower networks.

The data presented in this chapter posits HST as an outward-facing organisation with a focus on advocacy and activism around issues concerning the LGBTQ+ community. TSVK is a community-focused organisation with representations of CBO related activities, and AT is an exclusively digital information repository for its followers. The previous sections in this chapter aggregate the communicative function the CBOs’ Facebook pages play in the public sphere. The pages help to create a network of diverse followers from within and outside the community. The advantages of being a follower include the possibilities of learning and knowing more about the hijra community and the CBO in particular. Additionally, it also means the gharanas could promote their community work beyond their own ranks to these imagined communities over Facebook.

The notion of publics—as constructed by Livingstone (2005)—refers to the public as a collective of people who share ‘a common understanding of the world, a shared identity, a claim to inclusiveness, a consensus regarding collective interest’ (p. 9). The hijra gharanas that house the CBOs in their residential premises form the publics in this context. Based on observations, it is difficult to position an/the unknown public within the context of hijra networks. This needs further exploration with members occupying various positions in the hijra CBOs. Conversely, the audience network includes fellow hijras from the gharana, like-minded CBOs locally and nationally, LGBTQ+ organisations, researchers, laypeople interested in following CBOs, family and friends of members working in the CBOs, international/national news houses and funding organisations. These networks were inferred from the nature of the posts during the observation period and later verified in the interviews with CBO members. The study participants’ perceptions of this diverse audience varied across the three CBOs. In some posts, this audience was a specified person or community of individuals; and in other posts, the nature of the audience targeted was left open for interpretation. In their work on the cyberqueer in South Asia, Rahul Mitra and Radhika Gajjala (2008), explore Anderson’s imagined communities. For the authors, ‘the media plays a vital role in the circulation and sharing of such alliances, creating an “imagined” community of people around the world’ (Mitra & Gajjala, 2008, p. 14). I recognise that it is essential to be aware of the interaction that exists between the

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creators and the audiences where these networks are formed and restructured at the same time. For LGBTQ+ individuals in general and hijra gharanas and CBOs in particular, overlapping contexts are reinstated (Livia, 2002), as discussed in Chapter 5.

Hijra Networked publics Facebook: hijra gharana/CBO mediated by digital technologies

Audience: Includes fellow members from gharanas, like-minded CBOS, external organisations, family and friends

CBOs

Hijra gharanas in Mumbai

Figure 4.2: Visual representation of hijra networked publics—exploration of the tangled, overlapping yet independent networks across various publics in the physical gharana premises.

Building on boyd’s (2010) notion of networked publics, hijra networked publics embedded in the CBOs’ Facebook pages emerge from the ‘invisible audiences’ and also include the gharana members who created these networks considering their geographical location (see Figure 4.2). Sharing content on Facebook between publics and audiences creates a system of coexistences. As a researcher, I belong to this network, although I distanced myself from reacting or responding to the posts on any of the CBO pages to limit bias while studying these pages. My participation in the network ranges from getting to know the CBOs’ Facebook pages to interviewing them in their CBO gharana spaces.

104 These hijra networked publics have increased visibility for the hijra community. The hijra identities produced as a result of these networks are mediated by technology and curated by the hijra community itself. The page for each CBO reveals the nature of community work carried out among members and the values held as an organisation working towards improving visibility and hijra representation in India. For the hijra community that has experienced marginalisation digitally and socially, these pages on Facebook provide opportunities to share testimonies and create and curate self-representations in ways that hold significance for the community. boyd (2014) suggests there is no clear indication of finding logics in the digitally mediated identities via the networked publics. The multiple roles performed by the networks create a mandate for the mediation of hijra identities and representation in digital spaces.

Questions regarding the formulation of what comprises hijra networked publics need additional background on the hijra CBOs’ social media landscape. Further, questions relating to how hijra CBOs generate their understandings of networked publics are crucial to explore. The following chapters further investigate the hijra networked publics and question whether these pages are created with specific target audiences. Digital technologies and skill training workshops that enable members to use social media for individual and community purposes facilitate access to these networked publics, which the next chapter explores.

4.6 CONCLUSION

This chapter detailed the findings from my close reading and textual analysis of the HST, TSVK and AT Facebook pages, and illustrated the emerging position occupied by hijra CBOs in promoting their community work on this platform. The affordances of Facebook facilitated the production and sharing of content on the pages. Although the hijra CBOs differ in their experience and profile, each has managed to create a network of followers. The typology of posts reveals the range of activities, reflective of the nature of work carried out by the hijra CBOs. This data is corroborated using interview findings, presented in Chapter 5.

Based on the field observations in Mumbai, a more active and vibrant gharana culture was seen at TSVK and AT in the offline settings, which contrasts with their activities on Facebook. These activities highlighted the differences between the three CBOs. Since HST is one of the oldest organisations supporting hijra gharanas and CBOs in the city, they had a well-established brand culture communicated through strategic use of social media. This was dissimilar to TSVK and AT, both small-scale CBOs focused on the hijra gharana members. Like other queer CBOs in

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India, the three Facebook pages are symbolic of the ‘progressive ideals towards open dialogue and creating queer spaces in the city but at the same time failing to engage, and address issues of diversity among the different class and economic backgrounds that it purports to represent’ (Dasgupta, 2014, p. 276)—particularly for hijras and dialogues about the wider hijra community.

Facebook offers the opportunity for hijra CBOs in the Indian context to promote their community work, use the pages along with the existing groups and profiles for various communicative functions, and form hijra networked publics. Hijra CBOs’ representation of their community work on Facebook pages has led to a translation of hijra identities, their gharanas and CBOs to a broader audience on Facebook. This self-curated representation by the CBO has allowed the hijra community to position themselves in contemporary India through their community work. The platform not only promotes their community work, it develops a niche for the members by becoming socially distinguished figures; creators and curators of their CBOs’ content that includes narratives of the hijra community. Hence, Facebook has facilitated hijras in digitally mediating their identities, with the benefit of self-representations. In their form of networked publics, hijra CBOs now have the autonomy to present and promote their community work to increase visibility for the hijra community. Given these complexities around the use and non-use of Facebook pages, it becomes crucial to delve into the context of the hijra gharanas that are, in turn, shaping the choices of hijra identity representations.

The next chapter presents the overall social media use landscape of the hijra gharanas and the related struggles, motivations and perceptions. It explores the importance and relevance of Facebook within this landscape through an analysis of the range of social media platforms used by the hijra gharanas. The experience of using other social media platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and WhatsApp), has resulted in Facebook’s selection as the means of official communication to broader audiences as it is better suited to their needs. The perceptions and motivations discussed by participants point to their strategies for community- building and improving the visibility of their community work on social media. The next chapter presents narratives gathered through semi-structured interviews, supplemented with observations from social media platforms. The participants working on various social media- related teams in the CBOs have explicitly described their role in the CBO, articulating the CBOs’ adoption and use of ICT.

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Chapter 5: Social Media Landscape Among Hijra CBOs— Perceptions, Presence and Uses Across Platforms

5.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents findings from the semi-structured interviews conducted with professional members from the three CBOs examined in this thesis. The 30 participants were selected based on their roles in social media, advertising, marketing, management and public relations teams in the CBOs. Apart from holding positions in the CBOs (which were determined based on their expertise and specialised background), the participants hold diverse kin roles across the hijra kinship structure in the gharanas and played an important part in CBO operations. Appendix D provides an overview of the participants and their organisational roles in the gharanas and CBOs. Building on Chapter 4’s outline of the CBOs’ use of Facebook pages to promote community work and represent hijra identities, this chapter traces the overall social media landscape among hijra gharanas and CBOs.65 It highlights their perceptions, presence and uses across various social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. The analysis and findings presented in this chapter comprise the empirical interview data that supplement the findings of the close reading and textual analysis of the CBOs’ publicly available social media platforms as identified during interviews. The goal of this thesis is to understand how hijra CBOs use Facebook to negotiate and represent hijra identities post the NALSA judgement. Understanding the hijra gharanas’ overall social media landscape is crucial to discerning how Facebook fits within these wider social media ecologies for the hijra CBOs.

Following the introduction, the first two sections of this chapter trace patterns of traditional communication among the hijras, and changes influenced by the advent of technology (introduction of ICT and social media). They highlight the variations in hijra gharanas’ shift from traditional intra- and inter-group communication to outward-facing communication practices shaped by the motivation to self-represent using various social media platforms. The

65 In this chapter, I specifically use the term hijra gharanas when referring to activities carried out as part of communal living, as opposed to hijra CBOs, which implies activities carried out as part of professional community work.

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next section explores the role the WhatsApp messaging app has played among hijra gharanas in changing the nature of work among hijra CBOs and the communication within the gharana itself. In Section 5.5, I focus on external-facing communication among hijra gharanas to promote their CBOs and manage hijra representation using mainstream platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and CBO websites. In the concluding section, I outline how hijra gharanas use Facebook and the ways it differs from the CBOs’ use of Facebook for promoting community work and self-representation. Finally, this chapter aims to explore the role of social media platforms among the hijra gharanas and CBOs as informed by participants’ perceptions and presence across the social media ecosystem.

5.2 TRADITIONAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICES AND EMERGING ICT AMONG HIJRA GHARANAS

The empirical data presented in this section was primarily collected through interviews with three senior gurus in the gharanas,66 whom each had a rich experience of over two decades. These oral histories gave a glimpse into their early communication practices and the gradual adoption of emerging ICTs in the hijra gharanas in Mumbai.

Traditionally, communication patterns and social structures among hijra gharanas adhere to a hierarchical system of discipleship called guru-chela (Kalra, 2012; Reddy, 2010). The unique and complex systems of social stratification (Goel, 2016) and community-living in the gharanas enables the members to live as a close-knit, independent household that functions as a parallel society that resembles a heteronormative family (Turner, 2017). The responses of the gurus indicate that their communities are secretive as a result of societal discrimination and high rates of violence and harassment against hijras in bigger cities (Mal, 2018); hence, their strict functional norms and restricted access. The hijra community’s contact with the outside world occurs through their traditional occupation as cultural performers during a badhai ritual (Nanda, 1990). Despite their sociocultural prominence and importance, the hijra community are a marginalised group due to their liminal identities and the stigma associated with the other occupations hijras engage in, such as begging and sex work.

66 Each gharana is headed by a guru. Two or more gurus may coexist in a single gharana. The most senior guru in the gharana decides the norms and regulations for their respective gharana.

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Against the backdrop of this social standing, Anjali, a 43-year-old guru at AT, recalled one of her first experiences of visiting local tea stalls. These public spaces were a hub of local news and know-how as in many localities in India, with the presence of television and newspapers in the pre-digital media era. She recalled limiting her visits to such spaces as they would lead to unnecessary attention and dialogue with strangers. Anjali mentioned that men would gather around these spaces and pass remarks about her and the hijra community. She remembered feeling uncomfortable and scared in such public spaces. The feeling of being mocked and ridiculed in public was a crucial barrier to communicating with the outside world. Hijras are easily recognisable in public spaces due to their bold make-up and dress sense and the clapping gesture that attracts both attention and aversion from people.

Chandni, a 42-year-old guru at TSVK recounted her initial days of entry into the community and the strict code of intra-group communication she had to follow. She recalled that in the (pre-smartphone) 1990s, communicating messages about the wellbeing of gharana members while they were out and performing their duties was difficult, yet vital. Gurus of each gharana received updates on the members of the gharana during short visits to Hindu religious festivals (especially Holi and Navratri).67 The gurus, who are the leaders and primary caretakers of the household, were primarily in charge of record-keeping and ensuring the safety and security of the gharana members.

Gossip was another common means of transmitting less important messages or information about the private lives of hijras that circulated during occasions when members of the gharana met with one another face-to-face. Gurus’ double standards, sex and relationships, love interests and two-timing partners were popular topics during such discussions. Gossip shared among hijras, like others, tends to have its ‘inner-circleness’ and customarily passes between people with a common history or shared interests (Rosnow & Foster, 2005).

Both Chandini and Radhakrishna (a 46-year-old guru from HST) mentioned that, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, an emergency landline phone was available at the wealthier gharanas. The Public Call Officer could be used to make phone calls. The Indian Postal Services could only be used in a limited capacity due to the temporary nature of their addresses, as most hijras gharanas frequently relocate and move around different areas in the city. Hence,

67 The festivals Holi and Navatri include elaborate worship of Hindu Goddesses. These festivals provided opportunities for hijras to seek some extra monetary alms in exchange for granting blessings on givers.

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communication was mostly reliant on telegrams and postcards. The older participants shared instances of sending postcards to their respective families; however, contact with biological families was intermittent after joining the hijra community. Only five of the 30 study participants mentioned contacting families and staying in touch via social media.

Although there was a strong community need, means of communication were limited in the late 20th and early 21st century. Determinants such as the socio-economic class of the hijras was a significant barrier in the adoption of cell phones as vital communication means. This digital divide among minority and insular communities has a socio-economic aspect, along with other elements of social deprivation such as social exclusion, social class and discriminatory caste dynamics in the Indian context (Schement, 2009).

Concerned for the safety of her chelas, Chandini introduced the first Nokia cell phone under her leadership in 2003 (eight years after the launch of the first mobile phone in India).68 Since then, their expenditure on a mobile phone (1000–1500 INR, approx. 20 USD) has not changed significantly. Apart from day-to-day communication, preservation of the hijra culture through songs and scripts used during badhai functions was an important need felt by the community. The gurus emphasised creating and incorporating the hijra lexicon and cultural imprints in the folk songs used during badhai. They asserted the need to maintain and preserve the traditional hijra folk culture before it became extinct due to the decreasing religious significance of traditional occupations such as badhai in big cities in India and Bangladesh (Khan et al., 2009). They relied on oral communication, although some folk songs were also committed to writing and available to those members who could read and write. In her interview, Anjali described how younger hijras in her gharana use their mobile phones to document songs, lyrics and performances for wider circulation through WhatsApp and other social media platforms, remarking on popular digital trends infiltrating the hijra community.

Preservation of cultural aspects of their practices is easier using these common platforms among hijra gharanas compared to the record books or any written texts created and curated by the literate members in the gharana. However, opinions differ between the senior and younger members of gharanas regarding the adoption and use of technology. The three gurus discussed

68 Asa Doron posits the decline of the landline industry in India is aided by the rapid growth of the cheap cell phone market in India, and states that while there were still 26 million landline subscribers in April 2015, there were 970 million mobile subscribers. See http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/news-events/all-stories/terminal-decline- indias-landline-phones

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the resistance of other senior members in their respective gharanas towards adopting newer forms of communication and embracing technology to diversify work options. They spoke on behalf of elderly members of the gharana who were not necessarily involved in CBO work but stayed active in the gharana premises where many CBO activities occurred daily. Radhakrishna mentioned they sought:

To exercise control on younger hijras and prevent them from becoming vices of upcoming trends. They (elderly members) want to protect the traditional hijra culture and restrict interaction and communication among members only. Ours is a community of the hijras, and others do not understand our culture and traditions. Our interactions with the outside world are when we work, be it with our customers during sex work or marrying men interested in hijras. If our hijras succumb to the fancies of the worldly desires, we will lose our gharana traditions and culture. (Radhakrishna, personal communication, 9 February 2019)

This statement reflects a degree of fear regarding exposure of the hijra community to the outside world, which was perceived to be a potential threat due to the stigma and discrimination senior community members had faced. By cautioning their chelas and younger members regarding media interventions, elders seemed to protect their community members and also exercise a degree of control. The responses indicated that this fear led to creating rules and regulations around the use of technology for outside contact and self-expression. Since the gharana is an institution with defined norms, mostly laid down by the guru’s vision for the household, several chelas in their interviews reported seeking permission from the gurus when buying or upgrading their phone, switching jobs, or deciding to leave gharana residence to cohabit with a partner. Hence, gurus are a pivotal figure in allowing access to technology and embracing social media to manage community work or hijra self-representations. A need is perceived for the hijra guru to support the gharana beyond traditions, and structures of hijra communal living seemed to resemble subtle bonded labour—a common argument among hijra gharanas that find the guru-chela relationship inherently hierarchical and suppressive (Goel, 2016). Additionally, participants in the gharana mentioned that their positions in the CBOs and professional work informed their agency to influence or introduce technology among other members in residence. A guru’s wariness of new technologies and forms of communication could restrict the younger hijras in their adoption and use of technology. In defence of the technology-averse standpoint, Anjali explained:

The anger and hesitation felt by the members are a product of the long-built oppression and discrimination faced by the hijra community. Our elders feel because society

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never accepts us for our unique gender identities and liminal status, we keep it to ourselves and not engage with them. Whereas, some members of the community are now using public backlash as motivation and work for welfare of the hijra community in the form of CBOs. (A. Mehta, personal communication, 27 January 2019) Anjali highlighted an important paradox in their approach with the outside world. The hesitation in displaying hijra selves through the various channels of communication and resistance identified by Anjali was not necessarily towards the use of technology, but discriminatory people. However, a perceived threat to hijra culture was acknowledged and further expanded by Chandini, keeping in tune with the modern times:

I agree we must preserve our rich hijra culture, but we also must move ahead of our times and social conditions. Now, the government and state recognise hijras as the third gender, we qualify to benefit under categories of health, employment, politics, education and even included as citizens of the country. If our community members restrict our social interactions, we will not be able to make a living and pursue our identity freely and work in society. People’s attitudes towards hijra communities are changing, and we have a huge role to play in it. If hijras conduct themselves in appropriate ways, society will not discriminate us. (C. Shaikh, personal communication, 18 November 2018)

In this statement, Chandini advocates for integration with mainstream society despite discrimination and social exclusion. She was the only guru who revealed her previous social media presence on the now-defunct social network Orkut69 to interact with people before organising the CBO, TSVK. This corroborates Doron’s (2012) work, which confirms that the ‘relatively poor people in India were first able to reconfigure their social life of technology through the ownership of a mobile phone that reconfigures the premises of consumer capitalism’ (p. 584). Figure 5.1 details the cell phone reach across various consumer archetypes as of 2019. Despite their differing approaches to embracing new technology and outward-facing group communication, the three hijra gurus of the gharanas currently engage in CBO work in varying capacities. They have now adopted smartphone culture as part of their everyday life and use the internet, especially social media, for managing their gharanas, CBOs’ community work and representing hijra identities on social media.

69 Owned by Google, Orkut was popular in India in the mid-2000s and lost its prominence to Facebook.

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Figure 5.1: Screenshot of report on cell phone consumption among the Indian population Source: World Economic Forum (2019)

This section has acknowledged hijras as a community with a complex social structure. Despite the contradictions between senior gharana members regarding technology adoption and use, the gurus have managed to establish CBOs using existing media technologies such as smartphones to preserve their culture while moving with the times. In doing so, they can enhance members’ welfare and hijra community representations in broader society.

The following section discusses the evolution of social media among the hijra gharanas and its scope for hijra CBOs.

5.3 EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG HIJRA GHARANAS AND DEVELOPING TRENDS

The issues reported by the hijra gharanas before the advent of phones and social media included delayed communication and transfer of information and difficulties in maintaining community networks. In mapping the internet ecology of India, Pandey (2016) asserts that the introduction of the internet in India, especially access for lower-economic groups, has

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historically provided opportunities for the poor through the use of technology. In my study of the hijra gharanas, exposure to the internet and social media occurred through the introduction of the smartphones, ICT and media skills workshops among the community. These help first- time users create digital identities for themselves. Additionally, the first-time uses of digital technologies by gharanas members have aided in the use of social media platforms for community purpose, such as the establishment of the CBO and creation of CBO Facebook pages for promoting community work, validates Pandey’s (2016) point.

Development of social media among hijra gharanas and CBOs

When asked about their first need for outward-facing communication, the gurus spoke about wanting to expand the visibility of the CBOs’ community work and build a network of followers. The gurus recollected embracing the media technologies around the time their respective CBOs formed, though the reasons for establishing the three CBOs were diverse. Chandini associated the creation of the CBO TSVK in 2006 with members’ interest in resource funding and sharing capabilities for community welfare work. Conversely, AT was established in 2006 as an initiative of Tripathi’s growing celebrity status and public recognition as the first transgender representative on international committees of organisations such as the United Nations. In the early 21st century, many CBOs formed to target HIV/AIDS prevention and increase awareness about safe sex and good health among hijra gharanas.70 Chandini, guru and director of TSVK explained:

The idea to form our gharana CBO came from the position of the members in our household and their abilities to perform CBO work. If my gharana was a traditional and more vulnerable one, and members would not have been exposed to technology or able to find work for the upliftment of the community, our CBO would not have come into existence … We formed our CBO after six years of our gharana living together. (C. Shaikh, personal communication, November 18, 2018)

HST, registered in 1994, has a holistic organisational approach that formed for the diverse LGBTQ+ groups in India and now supports many hijra gharanas to organise the CBOs that emerge within gharana premises in Mumbai and Delhi. TSVK and AT also support members within their gharanas to learn and participate in several activities in the CBO.

70 A list of CBOs in India and their regional activities is available at: https://www.aidsdatahub.org/sites/default/files/documents/APCOM_Report_TG_Mapping_South_Asia.pdf

114 Growing cell phone culture and associated social media trends among hijra gharanas

Mobile phones were first introduced in India in 1995 and slowly made their way into the hijra household.71 Today, the availability of affordable smartphones from Redmi, Oppo and Huawei72 have made it possible for every hijra to buy a smartphone with a decent portion of their savings. Pranali, a 28-year-old hijra at AT explained: ‘My sisters [hijras] in the community often save up a part of their wages for five things: sex-change surgery, breast implants, hormonal injections, make-up, and a good quality smartphone to click photos and share them’. The chelas also talked about the recent trend of gifting phones to hijra novices on the day of their reet (initiation ceremony). This has also resulted in hijra peers giving prepaid phone recharge for a month or data plan top-up cards along with other presents for occasions. Popular plans preferred among the participants included Reliance Jio phones and data plans that catered to their internet needs along with availing free Wi-Fi at the CBO premises.

Participants from AT indicated their desire to be updated with technological gadgets and visible on social media platforms. This appears to have been inspired by their director, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, who garners significant attention from mainstream and local news channels. Participants witnessed the instant social media fame of ordinary hijras—through self- expression, original content creation and vlogging culture via Facebook, YouTube and Instagram—that occurs when ordinary individuals acquire celebrity-like status on social media as content creators (Abidin, 2018). Popular examples of inspirational figures within the gharanas examined include Gauri Sawant, famed for her depiction as a transgender mother in Vicks’ Generation of Care ad, and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, who rose to fame appearing in television reality shows and uploading her cultural dance performances on Facebook. The internet has popularised these hijra leaders’ work and social cause, thereby making them official faces and spokespersons for the entire hijra community with many followers on social media. There are similar cases of ordinary hijra individuals who have acquired fame and high- profile status through their presence, talent, activist work and increased following on social media, such as Urmi Jhadav and Soumya Gupta at HST. These members began with basic

71 See https://www.news18.com/news/tech/on-this-day-20-years-ago-the-first-mobile-phone-call-was-made-in- india-1028471.html 72 Redmi is a China-based smartphone brand owned by Xiaomi; Oppo and Huawei are also Chinese manufactured smartphones. They are very popular among the lower-class populations in India. Their devices start from 1500– 2000 INR (20–28 USD) and have basic to advanced features pre-installed.

115 technological devices and training received within the gharanas. Their association with CBO work has turned them into influencers today. There is not only a need for hijras to increase their media presence but also a larger community need for media and technology literacy to manage CBO work. The CBOs’ attempts to address these needs and train gharana members with basic and advanced media literacy to prepare them for CBO work includes workshops and skill training, discussed in the next section.

Media literacy skill training workshop

Research indicates the important role of a community-driven intervention program to mobilise CBO members in strategic planning, participatory evaluation, leadership development and community-building (Sadhu et al., 2014). The CBO TSVK has been training its members through the Media Literacy Training workshop conducted by two hijra experts. The 10-day workshop is run annually by community members in various hijra CBOs in Mumbai.

Shashi, a 63-year-old hijra workshop facilitator, talked about the need for such workshops to prepare members for CBO work and employment outside the hijra community:

The purpose of the workshop to be to make hijra community members aware of the Internet and the power of using it to our advantage. We begin by a basic introduction to technology devices especially phone and computers, teach members to use these devices in CBO work, and apply for identification documents and manage their applications, find relevant information for jobs, networking and read laws concerning hijras. The workshop is a combination of theory and practice, allowing members to work in groups and learn from each other. (S Mishra, personal communication, 17 January 2019)

The head of TSVK confirmed the relevance and usefulness of such training for members of her gharana. The trainers—Shashi and 32-year-old Roohi—have bachelor’s degree qualifications and joined the hijra community with previous industry experience. Gopika, a social media team member at TSVK and alumnus of the training now occupies a professional position in the CBO. The heads of the CBOs encourage younger hijras to participate in the workshop and apply their skills in part-time positions at the CBO. Trainers lead the workshops in English and Hindi, and provide laptops and computers; participants are also encouraged to use their phones. The workshops are conducted at beginner and advanced levels each year in one gharana. HST resources and funds the workshops due to its affiliation with TSVK and local CBO premises, which is where the workshops are held. The trainers measure the impact of the training through

116 practical exercises and validate effectiveness through the social media activities in the CBO after the workshop is complete. Shashi elaborates:

In specific relation to TSVK, I have conducted the workshop with them thrice in the past years, and I have seen them evolve in their media use and using social media in particular effectively for promoting their CBO work and trying to make visibility among hijra CBOs in Mumbai. … now they use WhatsApp more than their Facebook page that was active during the first time we conducted the workshop … third time members created their website and were taught about other social media platforms other than Facebook to promote their CBO. (S Mishra, personal communication, 17 January 2019)

The skills learnt during the workshop enable members to use social media effectively for personal and professional reasons, as outlined in detail in the following sections. The cell phone culture and media literacy skills training has facilitated exposure and technical knowledge to use various social media platforms for CBO and non-CBO work. The advertisement for workshop participants is circulated on HST’s and TSVK’s Facebook pages. Through my interactions with the general managing staff in the CBOs, I could estimate the impact and need for such a digital and media skill training intervention among the hijra community. With these backgrounds, I now shift the focus of the chapter to analyse the role social media plays in the hijra gharanas and CBOs to chart the social media landscape in the hijra gharanas. During this process, I gained an understanding of HST’s use of multiple social media platforms in addition to the Facebook pages that I primarily intended to capture in the thesis. Thus, it is important to understand the perceptions and motivations of using Facebook pages in combination with other social media platforms as used in the hijra gharanas and CBOs. In the next section, I discuss the role of WhatsApp among hijra gharanas, followed by other media platforms.

5.4 WHATSAPP

The availability of inexpensive smartphones with a pre-installed WhatsApp function, access to free wi-fi in public spaces (including gharana premises) and affordable Jio data plans have made it the preferred application among the hijra gharanas. This section examines the role of WhatsApp and other messaging apps for group communication and personal use. The aim is to understand its prevalence—and prominence—in participants’ lives, and the purpose it serves.

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Motivations and WhatsApp use among hijra CBOs

It is important first to understand the participants’ use of the application and motivation for doing so. Studying the use of such media for everyday purposes contextualises its function from a user and recipient perspective (Sandvik et al., 2016, p. 9). Interviews with the professional members of the CBOs indicate that WhatsApp is the preferred application for day-to-day communication. WhatsApp is user-friendly, faster than the messaging app, and safer than other platforms such as Facebook—a feature enhanced in 2016 with the introduction of end-to-end encryption.73 Almost all participants (29 of 30) talked about the active use of WhatsApp in their daily lives to coordinate community work and circulate information. This was observed through the participants’ preference to confirm appointments for the research interviews over WhatsApp. Participants also enlist preferred platform features such as broadcast lists, group messages and audio/video calls, which have simplified mundane tasks. The participants primarily used these features for broadcasting announcements related to health camps, employment opportunities, training, workshops, sharing reminders, circulation of hijra cultural artefacts (songs, dance performances, badhai photos) among inter- and intra-communities and personal use. Participants at AT and TSVK additionally emphasised using WhatsApp multiple times in a day to communicate and clarify concerns instead of emailing or using expensive telephone calls or text messages. Although its features are an extension of traditional phone calls and texts, participants preferred it because it relies on the internet. Dheeraj, a 28-year-old male, working as a media representative at HST, clarified that ‘all you need [is] a strong wi-fi network that the office or gharana premises has installed and our work gets done over the app’. A variety of features have enabled the participants to use the platform for multiple purposes. For instance, Shanti, a 37-year-old hijra at TSVK, uses WhatsApp video call to seek her best friend’s approval (from another gharana) while she gets ready for sex work. The WhatsApp video feature allows her to connect with her friend personally:

I get a few suggestions from my friend while I get ready and use my time to catch up with her. Once she approves of my look of the day, I click a selfie and post it on my Facebook and also upload it on my WhatsApp status. (S. Praveen, personal communication, 29 January 2019)

73 https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/android/28030015/

118 The interviews indicated that a widespread motivation for initiating WhatsApp use was a common interest in managing CBOs. For this purpose, the WhatsApp groups function was reported to be the most suitable. Participants spoke about how groups on WhatsApp seem to mimic an actual social group, consisting of an in-group and a person in charge of the group. For instance, the groups are either created by the guru or a member of the community responsible for tasks. There are groups for different purposes, consisting of different members; for example, a chela group and a guru group. These groups have simplified management, supervision, progress monitoring and day-to-day communication:

WhatsApp is a great medium to assign and allocate routines in the gharanas … I demand to see that the task has been completed through the use of images and short videos. For example, sharing photos of a clean house or cooked food posted by relevant members in the groups … (Radhakrishna, personal communication, 9 February 2019)

Participants from AT talked about Tripathi’s dual role managing CBO duties and the gharana, along with independent activities carried out as a celebrity and activist. Sanjay, a 36-year-old hijra managing staff at AT remarked:

Our director is absent for prolonged durations due to the other positions [leader of Kinnar Akhada and activist status]. She regularly conducts meetings over video calls and she assigns work ... She monitors the attendance of members at the CBO premises. (S Kamti, personal communication, 18 February 2019)

These responses indicate a shift in the traditional functioning of the hijra gharanas and CBOs as a result of the active use of the messaging app.

Chandini, guru of TSVK, talked about how WhatsApp has helped them overcome the problem of being updated with each other’s day-to-day activities, which was a huge barrier to ensuring the safety of gharana members in the pre-smartphone era. She mentioned, ‘I insist on knowing the locations through location share feature on the app they travel for begging or commercial sex work’. WhatsApp has also encouraged a sharing culture among hijra gharanas, like other populations, which involves sharing forwarded messages, morning and evening greetings and seasonal greetings, regularly circulated via WhatsApp groups. This culture appears to also exist on other social media platforms, such as Facebook groups, for participants at TVSK; however, participants stated they respond differently to WhatsApp’s sharing culture. Anjali expressed feeling overwhelmed by a barrage of messages, images and videos on her phone; others

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expressed their involvement in the sharing culture as part of a larger ‘community spirit’. Participants at HST discussed developing their own norms of WhatsApp use; specifically, for groups that are largely shaped by their own experiences of using these features. For example, group administrators do not allow the sharing of irrelevant messages or forwards. In this way, community members monitor the messages circulated in groups meant for specific tasks and purposes according to the relevance of content for group members.

Contrary to the circulation of non-essential, informal messages, participants reported that WhatsApp groups distribute important information. Janaki, 34-year-old hijra working specifically on disseminating information on WhatsApp groups at HST, illustrated the use of groups for circulating essential information regarding the general elections in 2019. The platform was effective in raising awareness regarding political parties, their manifestos, the application process for voter ID cards and registration to cast votes. She explained the functioning:

Each area has about 200–2000 hijras living in a location spread out across various residences. It became difficult for us to reach each physically, so we managed our information dissemination through groups formed especially for Elections 2019. Each transgender representative from contesting political groups was part of the groups. The role was to bring political consciousness among hijras for the incoming elections. For the first time in history, hijras will be voting under a separate category ‘third gender’ after the NALSA judgement in 2014. (J. Chandra, personal communication, 13 January 2019) Janaki also mentioned that apart from written information in vernacular languages, visual content such as posters and banners were also circulated (see Section 5.5.2). The management team at HST had to be active to respond to questions and moderate differences of opinions that arose in the group. The WhatsApp group also served as calls for volunteers, announcements to mobilise activism events, and public events organised during the pre-election time in the CBO premises. Alternatively, events were recorded and shared live on Facebook and in the form of videos over WhatsApp making effective use of the different platform features. HST also used the WhatsApp status feature to broadcast crucial reminders of events that appear visible for 24 hours instead of using groups, as messages could lose impact amid in the high traffic of multiple messages shared by members. Table 5.1. charts the patterns of WhatsApp use among hijra CBOs as informed by participants interview responses.

Table 5.1: Summary of WhatsApp uses among the CBOs

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CBO HST TVSK AT WhatsApp Inter- and intra-gharana Maintenance and management Maintenance and uses communication of the gharana management of the gharana and CBO Closed groups to manage Division of work for CBO work between teams activities Main source of communication between Coordinating actions Announcing important CBO head and between team members announcements/reminders for management team gharanas and CBO team Making an important Sourcing information and announcement with Easy communication among news/legal rights related broadcast lists and groups/clusters (only chelas or materials to members in WhatsApp status gurus) the gharana Sharing educative Maintaining relationships with Virtual/video call meetings multimedia messages gharana members by forming (including vernacular texts) closed groups Sharing multimedia messages personal and Used at individual hijra General information flow to professional level to maintain networks members in the gharana (work and everyday updates, food, groceries lists) Monitoring work progress communication with family in gharana and CBO Sharing multimedia messages and friends personal and professional Used at individual hijra level to maintain networks Used at individual hijra level to and everyday maintain networks and everyday communication with communication family and friends

The WhatsApp groups created especially for CBO work serve a vital and novel function of content creation for other social media platforms. Discussions and opinion-sharing exercises on WhatsApp are facilitated, moderated and curated by group administrators. When asked about how they create content for their Facebook pages, participants responds, ‘WhatsApp!’ Janaki and Dheeraj explained: ‘We type in the theme for the day that is generally allocated to us, within one hour we will notice a string of replies that we (working at the CBO) manage. We can organise a whole seminar over WhatsApp’. This content could be in the form of excerpts from text or audio messages, images or short videos, which are participatory in nature. Janaki further affirmed:

All members receive equal opportunity to voice their opinion within the given time. The primary purpose of content creation and negotiation on WhatsApp is to include hijras involved in multiple occasions to participate in CBO activities on-site. (J .Chandra, personal communication, 13 January 2019) The interviews revealed that this process aligns with their participatory and collaborative approach, also seen and shared among members in gharana premises. This is a democratic, bottom-up approach of content generation in an organisation that gives an equal opportunity to all group members to voice and represent their views. In this sense, WhatsApp has enabled the

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group administrators to democratise the process and ensure the participation of those individuals who would not have an opportunity to contribute otherwise. The process is labour intensive, as responses are gathered, documented and curated. There is caution exercised in ensuring representation of each person’s opinion. There are also challenges in managing such conversations; for example, HST reported increased state surveillance when elections were ongoing. In such a context, the gurus have had to supervise the messages and content shared on WhatsApp. The administrators also expressed the issue of circulating fake news and have advised group members on such matters.74 While the participants’ and organisation’s strategies of using WhatsApp for CBO work at HST were clearly articulated and accepted among participants, those from TVSK and AT discussed the responsibility of the sender in ensuring authentic information is shared. They explained that these sensitive issues have been discussed with their respective groups but not strictly adhered to by members. Perhaps the digital literacies among members of TVSK and AT were limited compared to the professional team at HST where members were trained exclusively to work for hijra welfare and possessed educational qualifications and understandings of digital media and representations.

Hence, WhatsApp creates opportunities for members to interact within the gharana and CBO, and also maintain networks outside the gharanas. The hijra community members have been able to use the app in a novel manner to fulfil their communication needs with members travelling in search of work and diverse schedules. Various members in each hijra gharana made use of the app uniquely for the hijra community and made information and communication functions easier in the stratified hijra gharana. Patterns of outward-facing communication among the hijra gharanas through use of Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook are discussed in the following section.

5.5 PLATFORMS

This section documents the comprehensive use of diverse platforms by the CBOs. Notably, the use of a variety of social media is only evident among HST; TSVK and AT mainly incorporate WhatsApp and Facebook to promote their community work. Tables 5.2–5.4 demonstrate the

74 Fake news was circulated in the aftermath of the earthquake in Kashmir and Indo-Pak air strife, resulting in interventions by government to report users circulating fake information. It was also on the rise around the elections in April 2019. See https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47797151

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range of social media platforms used by the CBOs, and their reach (expressed as numbers of likes, followers, friends and subscribers), as of March 2020.

Table 5.2: The Humsafar Trust

Facebook Page YouTube Twitter @TheHumsafar Instagram Channel Name: Social Media @Humsafar Trust TrustOfficial @TheHumsafar Humsafar Trust Platform Joined September Created on 15 TrustOfficial Joined 20 2010 August 2009 September 2011 Number of 14, 407 likes 4,445 followers 3, 999 followers 3,610 subscribers likes/followers 14, 684 493 posts 4, 209 tweets 359,857 views followers

Table 5.3: Triveni Samaj Vikas Kendra

Facebook Page Facebook Profile @ Triveni SAMAJ VIKAS Social Media Platform Triveni Samaj Vikas KENDRA Kendra Created on March 23, 2015 Number of likes/followers 2525 likes 281 Friends 2552 followers

Table 5.4: Astitva Trust

Facebook Page @AstitvaTrust Social Media Platform Created on May 10, 2010

Number of likes/followers 873 likes 884 followers

Each platforms is examined in detail in the following sections. I discuss the themes that emerged regarding each platform during the interviews with professional members in the CBO. This provides CBO members’ insight into the community functions these platforms serve alongside their perspective on the use of platforms for personal and professional purposes. The data gathered indicates how social media platforms serve numerous functions, such as connecting with others, sharing information with groups and individuals, keeping updated about online trends, and reuniting with family members. Platforms discussed in the following section have enabled CBOs to increase their public visibility at a national and international level. They have

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also enabled members to express and represent their opinions regarding the inclusion of equal rights for trans persons. These have proven especially useful for those members who are actively engaged in CBO work.

Social media platforms have been effective in communicating the message to larger audiences because of the strong presence of the general public and members of the hijra community on these platforms who form part of hijra networked publics. It is common for the hijras and other members of the LGBTQ+ community to use social media sites or platforms such as Facebook— or sexuality-specific sites such as Planet Romeo (Dasgupta, 2014, 2017)—to connect with like- minded people, share mutual support and connect in digital spaces away from heteronormative society (Berry, 2003).

Lastly, it is important to note that the participants continue to be a part of their own close-knit hijra gharana. Upcoming sections discuss participants’ experiences of identity negotiations within these hierarchically structured gharanas, which influence their social media presence

Twitter

The use of Twitter as a means of communication appeared limited due to several reasons, and its usage varied across participants. The participants at TSVK and AT saw Twitter as a medium of communication for a global English audience.75 Whereas, participants using Twitter at HST as part of their CBO work noted that there is no demonstration of vernacular languages on HST’s Twitter feed, compared to their activities on WhatsApp and Facebook. The platform requires communication in concise messages due to character limit. The hashtag culture is not necessarily understood and known by all hijras involved in CBO work. These are some of the reasons why the HST presence on Twitter is not exclusive to hijras but addresses the entire LGBTQ+ community, as evident in a close reading of HST’s Twitter feed. Additionally, professional members from the social media, advertising and public relations team at HST emphasised the importance of having a presence on Twitter specifically to present content from local narrations and share CBO activities and updates with the larger LGBTQ+ community.

75 The primary medium of instruction in the hijra gharanas in the thesis are Hindi and Marathi, followed by Telugu, Tamil and English. Members preferred conversing in local languages over English. However, participants selected for interviews demonstrated a limited working knowledge of English compared to other members in their gharana. Reference to a global English-speaking population is made to distinguish themselves from others (native speakers). Participants within the hijra gharanas acknowledge their linguistic position among others working in the CBO.

124 HST mainly uses Twitter to advertise CBO activities for a global audience and share (retweet) relevant information from organisations and news channels beneficial to followers.

HST’s use of Twitter was noticeable during the interviews with CBO participants. Additionally, HST’s official handle, @HumsafarTrust, has a significant number of followers (4128 as of March 2020). Ashok Kavi, a 56-year-old male director of HST, summarised the use of Twitter:

People who follow our Twitter handle are researchers interested in LGBTQ+ communities, local activists, and staff working at Humsafar offices based in Mumbai and Delhi. Even though our Twitter handle is verified and has our blue tick, our communication on Twitter is for a broader audience and not for our target communities whom we work with at a field level. On Twitter, Humsafar follows, national and local news channels, queer activists, funding agencies and relevant organisations such as World Health Organisations, American Red Cross, United National Development, etc. (A. Kavi, personal communication, 25 November, 2018) Hence, HST’s handle functions to reach out to a broader audience for various purposes—such as increasing global presence and outreach, awareness-raising and attracting funders—that are not restricted to hijra community members and activities in CBO premises. The CBO also uses the page to assert their brand identity, vision statement and organisational values (see Figure 5.2).

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Figure 5.2: Screenshot from HST’s Twitter feed Source: Captured by the researcher

They have also linked the Twitter handle to their Facebook page. As with other organisations, this link helps create a synergy of content between the two platforms. It is also an important dissemination exercise to ensure all information shared is seen as a part of a comprehensive communication strategy. For the HST social media team, the platforms serve different purposes due to variances in the traction each receives. While Facebook has a more functional purpose in organisation-related communication activities, Twitter emphasises the CBO’s presence in the national and global forum. Wider audience engagement can be gauged by reading the re- tweets. This has led to individuals from outside the LGBTQ+ community expressing their interest in working with HST. The HST social media team also talked about the process of garnering a following across Twitter and Facebook, noting that gaining traction on Facebook was harder. The Facebook page was established in 2009, and by the time they created the Twitter handle in 2010, many individuals who were familiar with the organisation’s work through Facebook seemed to engage with their content on Twitter as well.

The pattern of engagement for HST involves tweeting and retweeting content, like most other influencers on Twitter. Figures 5.3 and 5.4 provide examples of content posted by HST. These include a commemoration of the critical landmark judgement and celebrating anniversaries, acknowledging members for supporting specific events, promoting activities and workshops in the CBO, and announcing the health care facilities available at the CBO. Retweeting is an act of engagement and of carrying forward a discussion also seen in the tweeting patterns at HST. It is an important way of emphasising a theme of discussion and garnering more followers. The social media team is mindful of these points while retweeting content. Participants at HST also mentioned using their private accounts on Twitter to retweet content on the HST page to create a ‘Twitter buzz’ around the content posted. The themes include topics related to the nature of work carried out by HST as a CBO: health advocacy (a health centre, medication distribution), community-rights, dialogue on gender-inclusivity and awareness, census-data collection among LGBTQ+ communities in Mumbai, and displaying CBO activities. Such content helps the wider Twitter audience understand the CBO’s purpose and establishes them as an organisation that actively engages in issues related to the LGBTQ+ groups in real time.

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Figure 5.3: Screenshot of HST’s Twitter feed Source: Captured by the researcher

Figure 5.4: Screenshot of HST’s Twitter feed Source: Captured by the researcher

The tweeting pattern for HST is communicative and suggestive of their CBO brand. This communicative function on Twitter is consistent with studies identifying Twitter role in fortifying brand impressions among people (Watkins, 2016). A similar communication pattern is evident on their Facebook page, which functions to communicate announcements related to forthcoming events and discussions on the themes mentioned above. The mixed responses of

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participants working at HST indicated the occasional use of Twitter among the gharana based on the working knowledge of the platform among members.

The data gathered around the perceptions of, and motivations to use, Twitter did not indicate any specific pattern of communication carried across the three gharanas on this platform. There are individual Twitter accounts for well-known community leaders at TSVK and AT (discussed with the cases of Sawant and Tripathi in Chapter 6). However, these CBOs do not have a Twitter presence, as the platform is perceived as a space for furthering those with an established brand identity. The management team at TVSK and AT also believe there is a gap in their knowledge and skills to run a platform, like Twitter, that caters to a more ‘sophisticated’, well-read audience. Chandini mentioned using Twitter on a few occasions to read specific tweets. This is possible because the platform does not require users to have a profile to access tweets. However, both CBOs attributed their non-use of Twitter to a lack of skill and familiarity with platform affordances and sociocultural-based assumptions about the platform among gharana members. The use of Twitter as a communication platform is limited as compared to WhatsApp and Facebook. However, the CBOs demonstrated an understanding of Twitter as a valuable means to assert brand identity, initiate discussion on important topics, disseminate information and engage with the larger educated audience across the globe. The following section discusses the perceptions and presence of hijra CBOs on the use of Instagram, YouTube and CBO websites in their emerging capacities.

Emerging platforms: Instagram, YouTube and CBO websites

Instagram and YouTube are slowly making their way into the hijra CBOs, even though they are not as widely used as Facebook and WhatsApp. The presence of the three CBOs on these platforms represents an effort to increase social media presence through different modalities. With each of these modalities, the emphasis is on reaching out to different audiences. Participants specifically mentioned using these platforms for self-representation; however, they are restricted to individual use in TSVK and AT, and promoting community work and building hijra digital repositories in the case of HST.

HST has two Instagram accounts that are managed by members of their social media team. The official account has 4644 followers as of March 2020. The content available on these accounts speaks to the broader LGBTQ+ community and is not specifically about hijra issues, similar to HST’s Twitter presence. There may be specific posts related to hijra issues, but the account is

128 designed to attract audiences interested in knowing about the LGBTQ+ community as whole. Designated posts address wider community issues, as well as individual community-focused issues. In doing so, HST perceives their brand as being inclusive of all queer identities. HST has separate committees to manage specific LGBTQ+ areas, with a leader who is interested in working in that specific area. The interviews revealed that most of the content posted on Instagram (as with Twitter) is in English and not necessarily meant for those who are not familiar with the language. Even though all hijra gharana members associated with HST are invited to events, the responses are primarily from those who use Instagram frequently. For these reasons, such invitations are also extended in person by leaders and members working in the CBO.

As Instagram is a visual (storytelling) medium, it can reach those who are not comfortable with written text. The themes of the posts on HST’s Instagram feed include a visual announcement of various events, group photos, and advertisement for informal occasions within the CBO premises. HST’s Instagram account displays a visual collection of posts that reflect the creative labour involved in creating and managing each post. The media team explained that their focus is not on creating visually appealing designs but on creating relatable posts, increasing engagement and promoting the values and ideals of the organisation in support of LGBTQ+ identities existing in India. Figures 5.5 and 5.6 depict the visual nature of posts on HST’s Instagram feed. Figure 5.6 demonstrates how important information, such as an organisation branch opening, is shared on all social media platforms alike.

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Figure 5.5: Screenshot of HST’s Instagram account Source: Captured by the researcher

Figure 5.6: Screenshot of HST’s Instagram account Source: Captured by the researcher

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In my study sample, HST76 was the only CBO actively using multiple social media platforms to achieve their communication goals, as opposed to having a tokenistic presence on these platforms. Their YouTube channel (created on 20 September 2011) has 3,780 subscribers with a total of 377, 288 views as of March 2020. As Ashok Kavi explains:

Our YouTube is a free platform to represent the talent our members have; the videos consist of our annual events, Gulabi Melas, public talks or interviews, some short films or educational videos. The channel is not made and managed with any monetisation agenda, but to document and share our artistic performances captured locally by our members. (A. Kavi, personal communication, 25 November, 2018)

YouTube enables visual documentation of events and activities and serves as a digital diary for CBOs where videos remain until taken down. The videos represent the work of the organisation and are accessible to a larger audience because they do not rely on the written medium. YouTube is a platform that encourages the use of videos to tell a story. These do not necessarily have to be professionally shot: video shot on a hand-held phone can also communicate an interesting story or message. This is what makes the platform accessible to a broader user base. HST has been using YouTube to increase its presence and visibility beyond the LGBTQ+ audience. Individual Facebook accounts also serve as spaces where personalised video clips can be uploaded and further shared on WhatsApp groups.

In his book, Out Outline: Trans Self-Representation and Community-Building on YouTube, Tobias Raun (2016) documented the use of vlogs as a vehicle for identity representation and creating a sense of community via YouTube. Even though the current study’s participants did not mention vlogs or vlogging culture in their interviews, they talked about personal and collective identity representation through the videos documented by the CBOs to recognise staff achievements and credit workers.

Figure 5.7 demonstrates the nature of the videos uploaded to HST’s YouTube channel and the number of views for each video. The social media team handling the YouTube channel ensures timely and frequent uploads on the YouTube channel and adds links shared to their other social media platforms. A significant challenge is to continually create or find content relevant to the channel to sustain audience interest and update the channel with fresh information.

76 HST’s YouTube channel is available at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcic8-og0GA1nRPnEjQvg7w

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Figure 5.7: Screenshot of HST’s YouTube channel Source: Captured by the researcher

Additionally, websites hold a critical management and distribution responsibility for the participants belonging to HST and TSVK. They are an important part of the communication strategy and serve as a resource book for those interested in queer issues or seeking relevant information, and a space containing information on all projects initiated by the CBO. It is a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all information about the CBO.

HST has a fully developed website77 and a support team responsible for the maintenance, content creation and management of the website. HST’s website serves as a certification of the community work and engagement among LGBTQ+ groups. It plays a vital role in managing their public relations with other networks. Urmi Jhadav, a 28-year-old hijra, a public relations representative at HST explained:

The purpose of the website is to disseminate information about our community-based projects and provide educational material related to health, rights, research and advocacy for the LGBTQ+. As a parent organisation to the smaller gharanas, our responsibility is to ensure that they function independently with moderate intervention from us. The website gives us the space to talk about and support their work. (U. Jhadav, personal communication, 29 November, 2018)

77 HST’s official website is https://humsafar.org/

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The website plays a prominent role in seeking national and international funding. It provides information on the current sponsors and partners but also offers a space to invite new partnerships. Displaying current partnerships helps the viewer understand the nature and extent of support received by the CBO. This support is further garnered through a display of the CBOs’ work and achievements across various platforms (see Figures 5.8 and 5.9).

Figure 5.8: Screenshot of HST’s website, also used as a cover photo of the Facebook page October–November 2018 Source: Captured by the researcher

Figure 5.9: Screenshot of HST’s website: The initiatives carried out by the CBO as a whole as displayed. Source: Captured by the Researcher

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TSVK’s website78 resulted from a media literacy skills workshop conducted in early 2019. It is a basic website that requires little maintenance. The team expressed their desire to have a fully functional website in the future with funding and technical support from partners. Those who have subscribed to the page receive updates of recent activities conducted by TVSK via email or text messages (see Figure 5.10). Chandini, head of TSVK, reiterated the importance of one post a day on their website as a reminder of their presence and brand name as a CBO. As with HST, they use social media platforms like Facebook and their website to seek funding for various purposes, including renting workspaces, storage for medical aid supplies and purchasing office equipment.

Figure 5.10: Screenshot of email updates about CBO activities at TSVK; activities previously posted on the Facebook page now are updated on the website Source: Captured by the researcher

78 http://www.trivenisamajvikaskendra.in/ Triveni Samaj Vikas KendraOfficial Website (Last accessed on October 10, 2019)

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AT does not have a website presently and uses its Facebook page to promote their CBO and its activities. Team members attribute this to funding issues and an absence of investment from the leadership, whose focus has shifted to advocacy and religious and political representation for the hijra community as a celebrity and activist.

This discussion of emerging platforms demonstrates that HST’s brand and communication strategy is more nuanced and elaborate than TVSK’s and AT’s. This is consistent with the extent of exposure received by the gharanas, which translates into their use of technology for communication purposes. In the following section, I introduce Facebook as the most prominent and widely used platform among the three CBOs. The section outlines the overall use of Facebook for CBO and non-CBO work, building on Chapter 4’s discussion of the pages’ use for promoting community work and self-representations.

Facebook

Facebook is the most widely used platform. This section discusses the process of absorption of Facebook in the lives of individuals in the gharana, its uses in their day-to-day lives and perceptions related to the platform. Facebook presents to these individuals the possibility of connecting—with one another and to a global network—which they did not have access to previously (Kumar, 2014).

Among the participants and the CBOs examined in the study, the platform is widely popular with younger hijras in the gharana. Interviews revealed that 26 of the 30 participants have a Facebook presence for personal and professional reasons. These participants disclosed that they created a personal Facebook account for themselves apart from the CBO public pages. Some of the elderly gurus also have accounts created with the support of younger group members, primarily to be tagged and included in the posts, and not to feel left out in the social networking era. In this regard, Ashok Kavi asserted that ‘Facebook has found its presence among hijra communities beyond just being the first app that is downloaded from the play store suggestions list’. The gurus mentioned in their interviews mentioned that pre-installation of the app on novices’ phones is a prerequisite for exploring the app and the culture of social networking. This pre-installed app feature on the Android ecosystem is a shared deal between telecom companies and social media firms.79 After its initial use, Facebook tends to become a part of

79 https://www.zdnet.com/article/android-ecosystem-of-pre-installed-apps-is-a-privacy-and-security-mess/

135 their lives. The users share and discuss a performance uploaded on Facebook, keep track of the reactions gathered over posts, visit individuals’ profiles, create an individual presence and participate in the Facebook world through comments, likes and posts. The pattern of usage and engagement on Facebook can be traced to personality traits (Ross et al., 2009). I discuss the usage patterns and motivations of the hijra gharana members using Facebook below.

This section draws on Erving Goffman’s (1959) seminal work The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Goffman (1959) observes that ‘individuals present a tailored ‘front-stage’ self to particular audiences and a less formal ‘back-stage’ self when those audiences are absent’ (p. 102). Participants in the study revealed the importance of Facebook as a means of presenting hijra identities within and beyond hijra networks (fellow hijras, friends, family and larger networks). This resonates with Goffman’s (1959) notion of presentation for impression management in managing audiences that form part hijra networks. Being an online, virtual platform, Facebook provides opportunities to present aspects of the self that may or may not be consistent with real life, thereby presenting front-stage performances to imagined audiences that may be absent in their back-stage performances in the gharanas.

Aruna, a 41-year-old female media spokesperson for HST and activist, elucidated that, ‘the confidence and recognition the NALSA judgement 2014 and Facebook’s gender categories expansion has given to hijra communities and allowed hijras to come out publicly, on their personal Facebook profiles is remarkable to witness’. Aruna’s statement suggests increasing visibility of presence among hijra gharanas. Apart from ‘coming out’ to themselves, families and communities, the process of creating virtual identities on Facebook is also an aspect of ‘coming out’ to the rest of the world. Participants talked about using Facebook as a platform to create and maintain networks (Papacharissi, 2010) and strengthen networks with the hijra community locally and internationally. This has accelerated post-NALSA judgement due to its legal acknowledgement of their existence. The hijra community consists of members who have pursued and performed their gender identities within the hijra network (mostly referring to the middle-aged and older participants). However, legal recognition has manoeuvred their identity proclamation to a broader network through acknowledging their own identities over social media platforms, including Facebook. Consequently, the presentation of the hijra self and identity occurs through personal (individual) and professional levels (as part of a community group or CBO).

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Participants were asked ‘Why do you post what you do?’ so I could understand their individual use of Facebook. Participants responded by talking about the difference between an individual presence (primarily driven by individual agency) and professional presence (based on community preferences) on Facebook. Specifically, for posts related to the CBO, a consensus would have to be arrived at, eliminating personal biases and perspectives to create a community message. The fundamental difference between these accounts is evident in the ‘about’ section, which would include details about the CBO for professional accounts and details about the person for an individual account. Typically, participants’ posts on Facebook profiles include routine updates of leisure activities through the ‘check-in’ function on Facebook. This could be at different places, such as the gharana office, malls, restaurants, public places and tourist spots. These could also include posts related to engaging in day-to-day activities—posts about eating, cooking and spending time with friends, which other studies also report (Chang, 2015). Some of the younger chelas at TSVK scrolled through their phones to demonstrate the nature of posts, which included birthday celebrations, posts about festivals and primarily posts related to self and identity (written or visual) photos, short videos and status updates. Lizzel, a 27-year-old hijra at AT, exhibited an understanding of how to use increased traction on Facebook to her advantage. She understood the concept of metrics and capturing advertisers (T. Williams, 2015). It appeared she posted information about herself on Facebook to gain likes and new followers. Lizzel’s strategy of presenting her hijra identity seemed to resemble that of her guru, Tripathi, who came across as a person equally interested in beauty, clothing and public appearance as activism and religious work. Most participants spoke of the importance of likes, reactions and comments on their private and public posts, which seemed to be important for them to ‘feel good’ about themselves personally and professionally (Borah & Xiao, 2018; Zell & Moeller, 2018).

The findings align with the literature on the positive impact social media on self-representation of identities and curation among LGBTQ+ communities in various national contexts (Blank & Lutz, 2017; Hanckel et al., 2019; Hswen et al., 2018). Emphasis on presentations of self was also seen among other younger hijras who spoke about showcasing their make-up and transformed bodies (e.g., photos displaying the cleavage as the result of breast implants) to fellow hijras and others on their networks. This seemed tied to the idea that a certain body image is popular and considered ideal. Presentation of these images leads to noticeable attention from followers on Facebook, as Lizzel affirmed when discussing the importance of ‘appearing

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her best self’ to the community of hijras on Facebook. She also mentioned that such an outward- facing performance of gender creates prominence and recognition and enables access to clients for sex work, similar to the sex work carried out among migrant ‘Brazilian Travetis’ (Vartabedian, 2018). Hijras undergo rigorous male-to-female transformation wherein the transformed physical appearances (closer to those assigned to a normative woman) allows individuals to come closer to their hijra-ness.80 Several documentary and photography projects81 illustrate the hijra culture through the lens of beauty and body image. This body- focused presentation of identity is quite contrary to the way older members represent hijra identities. The older members limit the use of Facebook to discussing their opinions on the rights of community members, and political issues facing the country. This finding aligns with the political and activist archetype, indicating the use of Facebook for enabling online civic engagement by leaders and activists (Warren et al., 2014).

Participants also mentioned that they create Facebook profiles with their actual names and add ‘hijra’ as their family name or surname on occasions to indicate their identities. Photographs, posts and names are some of the ways to assert identity on Facebook. Social media literature on LGBTQ+ individuals explains how self-representation on various social media platforms have enabled participants to express their sexual and gender identities (Lucero, 2017) and explore their self through such presentation on social media. Several studies in the field of social media have highlighted the role of Facebook status updates among young individuals in the creation of online identity and managing audiences in personal networks (Pozzi, 2014). Similarly, among the hijras, presentation of self on Facebook has enabled members to create and maintain networks with friends, family and other hijras.

The uses of Facebook for CBO work starkly contrast with its use for personal reasons. A few trainee participants belonging to HST revealed that they regularly interact with the activists and leaders. The training provided by the CBO on community engagement has helped them to use Facebook as a platform to bring together opinions, critique and comment on political issues, share information and news, learn from one another and beware of privacy concerns while operating the community account. Participants shared examples of how this engagement has

80 Biographies such a Me Hijra Me Laxmi by Laxmi Narayan Tripathi (2015) and The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story by A. Revathi (2009) speak about the importance transforming (mentally and physically) into a woman, pursuing a feminine role and adoption to female-like characteristics among hijras. 81 https://www.lensculture.com/articles/shahria-sharmin-call-me-heena-hijra-the-third-gender

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proved beneficial. For instance, Preet, a 30-year-old hijra in the advertising team at HST, shared an example of a Facebook post she had posted in November 2018 ‘about the need to include a separate washroom for transgender persons in public spaces’. She recounted that she got a positive response for the post, not only from the community but the larger global network on Facebook. This response has motivated her to use Facebook, along with other social media platforms, to mobilise online activism (Warren et al., 2014) to discuss hijras issues and encourage public dialogue. A few of these participants also belong to traditional hijra gharana where senior members hesitate to use social media, especially Facebook, as noted above.

As discussed earlier, the modality of engaging through posts is not available for all within the community due to limited education. Hence, the focus of the content on Facebook has primarily been for entertainment, education and networking. In the process of using Facebook daily, members of the community with limited education are learning to engage with the modality. This resonates with studies conducted by Lorenzana (2016) and boyd and Elison (2007) that emphasise social media as a driving force for entertainment and education among all populations. The reasons for restrained engagement by some senior members in the CBOs and those part of managerial functions in the CBOs directed on limited use of Facebook include unfamiliarity with the modality; feelings of shame associated with expressing opinions publicly and personal experiences of abuse; and discrimination and torture, which may have made the participants averse to engaging with others on Facebook. At the same time, participants articulated that their experience with CBO work has given them the confidence to voice their views in processes of content creation and inform their use of social media platforms.

The following section outlines the uses of Facebook among younger hijras for interpersonal relationships with friends, romantic partners, families and clients.

Finding friends, romantic relationships and performing kinship on Facebook

As already noted, Facebook is especially popular among the younger hijras, for whom accessibility to smartphones and wi-fi has become relatively easy. Purvi, a 31-year-old hijra at TSVK, mentioned how wi-fi is available at a few public spots and younger members are often spotted at these locations. When pushed away from public spaces such as coffee shops, they are quick to change their location to access wi-fi. She also mentioned how her friends run out data plans often and have to rely on public wi-fi, provided by Tata Docomo and Jio. These locations

139 seem to coincide with begging hotspots; hence, the opportunity is taken by those who are out in search of work.

Commonly, their Facebook friends are fellow hijras in the gharanas, friends from neighbouring gharanas, work colleagues, non-hijras from CBOs, and friends and family from their home towns. I noted that friends tend to focus on enhancing each other’s presence, followers and likes. The acts of sending friend requests, chatting in different languages, and sharing photos, videos, texts and messages are common occurrences. Participants belonging to TSVK emphasised the role of Facebook as their gharana’s digital diary. Facebook’s affordances of the ‘memories reminder’ have allowed members to relive their memories together as a community. This function enables participants to re-mine old photographs and posts, symbolic of their identity expression and assertion.

Participants also talked about the prominent role of Facebook in finding friends and, at times, romantic relationships. They spoke about increased connectivity with friends, hijra peers from other cities and families, which has impacted their lives significantly (Schwab et al., 2018). Shweta, a 24-year-old hijra at HST, talked about experiencing a global network of peers through Facebook:

I would not restrict my usage of Facebook to earn money or economic activities. I also use it to know about the happenings in society, to have updates of other hijra friends, influential leaders, and learn about cooking and make-up suggestions. Facebook is like a shopping mall, it has so much to offer, and I can pick the relevant for me … I even have connected with other transgender people from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey whom I share about hijra culture in India; we also share useful informing about bodily transformations. (S. Gave, personal communication, 6 February 2019)

The responses of the participants indicated a wide variety of topics and interest areas are discussed, such as sports, fashion, film and music, politics, news articles, employment, shopping, cooking and local promotional deals. Shweta explained:

I use Facebook for finding information and making friends … some friends from home town and some at work. I get to know about their life … So our Facebook is full of hijra friends and hijra updates, and news. I also get to learn about new songs and games or events (beauty pageants and dance contests) nearby through Facebook, and I have attended some of them. (S. Dalvi, personal communication, 17 November, 2018)

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Rupali, a 29-year-old hijra at HST and Chandini, guru at TSVK also talked about the significance of Facebook in helping them find partners:

I even found love on Facebook, I have a boyfriend with whom I am romantically involved, and he is interested in hijras. We both met on Facebook and continued our conversations offline through WhatsApp. Earlier we would chat on Messenger, now we have exchanged our phone numbers, so we call and text each other. It has been six months of our association with each other. There are no plans of marriage as of now. I am so glad I found someone who truly loves me for who I am and is willing to live with me. (R. Dehra, personal communication, 22 January 2019)

Participants of AT are aware of their director and guru, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi’s, romantic relationships through Facebook. Her declaration of partners (ex and current) has remained an interest for local and national media.82 The gharana members draw inspiration from their guru and do not hesitate to share their personal lives on Facebook. Radhakrishna, another guru in this gharana, stated:

The concept of hook-up culture is not prevalent among the hijras. It is an individual hijra preference, as a community, we do not encourage hook-ups. Hijras indulge in sex work, use Facebook and other apps to find customers for paid sex work. In the past, we have seen customers falling in love with hijras and eventually marrying them. (Radhakrishna, personal communication, 9 February 2019)

This finding among the hijra gharanas contrasts with other LGBTQ+ groups who use mainstream platforms as well as sexuality-specific platforms for hook-ups or casual relationships (Dhoest & Szulc, 2016). Chandini, guru and director of TSVK, revealed how she met her husband through Facebook, and now they have an adopted son together. The participants’ Facebook presence seems to align with gharana norms. Chandini talked about maintaining guru-chela relationship in the way members are addressed on Facebook or WhatsApp: ‘Our chelas are taking our [respective guru’s presence] very seriously, they are cautious and signalled with kin terms of reference in Hindi [guru, nani, behen, didi] , and we teach them to follow it’.

Vasavi, a 32-year-old hijra and immediate chela to Chandini described various performances of fulfilling kinship obligations on Facebook:

82 https://www.indianwomenblog.org/exclusive-transgender-laxmi-narayan-tripathi-introduces-her-husband-to- jwb/

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Firstly, we have distinctive groups consisting of first order of chelas of our guru, then there are separate groups for those doing CBO and all those staying together in one residence unit of a gharana. We have groups on Facebook that have now transferred to WhatsApp for one year … as hijras living together in same residence and gharana, we follow mutual norms on our social media interactions. (V. Chikala, personal communication, 24 November 2019)

Further, she added, ‘hijra chelas have taken inter-gharana guru rivalry from gharana spaces onto Facebook silence, where unfriending, blocking, not liking or commenting on important issues is evident on some rare occasions’. Vasavi indicates an important aspect of their interpersonal communication shared in a public space. Facebook also allows participants to exhibit behaviours that would otherwise occur in person. Vasavi narrated that a clash between two leaders could range from minor to significant issues about codes of conduct and gharana regulations violated Facebook.

Hijras are restricted from sharing details of the process of castration. Radhakrishna affirmed that having moderators supervise their Facebook activities ensures their gurus are respected and retain control over community norms. Chandini, Radhakrishna and Anjali further emphasised maintaining surveillance (Fulton & Kibby, 2017) on the Facebook activities of younger hijras and assigning responsibilities to older members to monitor self-expression and interactions with strangers. They also mentioned the importance of informing and alerting members against revealing personal details and in-depth information about hijras. There appeared to be a gap among the community members concerning the commitment to use Facebook. This gap has allowed for moderation in the kin relationships maintained within gharanas. The relational dependence and regulatory behaviour on Facebook are also seen in maintaining relationships with biological families of hijra members, which I discuss next.

Reuniting with biological families through Facebook

This section highlights the emotional significance Facebook holds for these individuals, in the form of reconnecting with their biological families. Most of the participants mentioned the need to run away from home to pursue their hijra identity. Only two participants spoke of their family, supporting them through their process of discovering their gender identity during their childhood and youth. Being separated from their respective families, participants reported looking for their siblings’ neighbourhood friends and reconnecting with their families through Facebook. Gopi, a 26-year-old hijra at TSVK, talked about a sense of social acceptance, which is a motivating factor in reinstating connections with the family:

142 Now that the government has accepted us, our families know it is reasonable to be hijra, and that is not a crime to live our hijra identity. Gaining legal recognition and our families being aware of the change makes them live with respect in their neighbourhood. At least when I die now, I will not feel the burden of bringing shame to my family. (G. Devasi, personal communication, 29 January 2019)

There were differences in the desire to approach families. Those who worked with the CBOs appeared more confident than those pursuing stigmatised occupations like begging or sex work. As noted, some individuals have received continuous support from their families in their pursuit of self-discovery. Preet at HST Trust is from a privileged, upper-middle-class, educated family. She lives with her biological family and maintains gharana affiliation; their acceptance has helped her pursue her hijra identity freely and without any pressure or stigma. She revealed, ‘I am a hijra, and I choose to live with my parents, and I also have a guru. Both my families are essential, and I maintain cordial relations with both houses’. She believes that her engagement in CBO activities, online activism and the support she has received for expressing her identity has set an example for other families supporting trans persons.

As mentioned earlier, not all hijras in the gharana engage in CBOs; the gharana elders equip younger novices with skills to work in CBOs. In the initial days of joining the community, hijras strive hard to make a substantial amount of money to undergo sex-reassignment surgery, breast enhancements and hormonal treatment to transform their body. For many hijras, jobs that bring easy money are the only option, as some do not possess the necessary skills or education for employment in regular jobs. Very few novices in the community move into working with CBOs or pursue a field (career) of their choice. Participants paid full-time for CBO work also conveyed the need to do additional jobs to meet their financial needs. A few participants (younger members) mentioned that even in a financial crunch, sending money back home to support their families became a way to reconnect with them. Facebook and other social media platforms help in maintaining this contact with the family members. Gopi explained that families are an effective mechanism to ensure the conservative presentation of self-identity on these platforms:

My brother follows my Facebook and Instagram, I have to be careful about how I present myself, my parents, nephew and niece see my activities and are updated of my wellbeing through my Facebook. My brother is aware of my hijra identity; however, in the community, there are members’ families who are patriarchal and whose families are ashamed of their son wearing a saree and adorning make-up. They prefer unfriending them. (G. Devasi, personal communication, 12 January, 2019)

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As discussed earlier, the gurus play an important role in this preservation and identity mediation between hijras and others (families or Facebook networks). The gurus do so not only to exercise control over younger members but also to assure the wider community’s wellbeing. Radhakrishna clarifies:

There exists an extreme display of body on Facebook posts consisting of semi-nude selfies or photos that allow people to misinterpret the community members. Hijra community indulges in sex work as a source of extra income. We are not just prostitutes. We hijras, also deserve to be respected and treated with dignity despite what we do for a living. Younger hijras perpetuating misconceptions or misrepresenting themselves and hijra community is certainly not acceptable to any guru or hijra community members. (Radhakrishna, personal communication, 9 February 2019)

In the absence of biological families, the gharana serves as a family in providing safety and a sense of belonging. The guru assumes a parental figure even on Facebook and other platforms and displays a sense of affection by liking, commenting on and sharing posts. The gharana system is an important source of strength and empowerment for a hijra and exclusive to those residing in one unit (see Section 2.4.1.3). However, the participants also spoke about and acknowledged the ongoing exploitation that takes place within the community that translates into behaviours exhibited on the digital platforms as they would in social settings.

Tables 5.5–5.7 summarise the patterns evident in social media use in each CBO.

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Table 5.5: Summary of patterns of use of social media platforms among HST

Social media Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube CBO Websites platfor m HST Knowledge providing Communicating Short Documentation Provides and seeking /broadcasting to video clips and public information wider audience viewing about the CBO Forming CBO/gharana Document and all group/page Retweeting ation Staged branches of important issues performances Building networks for Each work and updates links shared local hijras project has from other with family and Resource a separate Collaborating and national and friends folders for account networking for other global LGBTQ+ CBOs or minority organisations individuals groups Information for Raising awareness health/medical about hijra issues and facilities and legal rights helplines locally Legal advocacy work Portfolio for Organising signature branding and campaigns international collaborations

Table 5.6: Summary of patterns of use of social media platforms among TSVK

Social media Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube CBO Websites platform TSVK Knowledge Used by Used at To self-teach, Created as a providing to the head to individual hijra entertainment product of the audiences gain level for and news at Media Literacy information personal reasons individual workshop Presentation of CBO about hijra level community work, No CBO/Group Presentation of events and hijra gharana account found CBO activities issues activities, health and with tagline around the Head uses medical facilities description country personal To reconnect with account for Used for CBO friends and family professional branding, and reveal hijra purposes on portfolio to identity occasions attract funders Meeting similar hijra individuals and sense of connection with the hijra community

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Table 5.7: Summary of patterns of use of social media platforms among AT

Social CBO media Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Websites platform AT Establishing networks Occasional Used at individual To self-teach, No and relationships within use by office hijra level for entertainment website the gharana staff to gain personal reasons and news at news, no individual Documentation and No CBO/Group pattern level presentation of CBO account found observed activities Tripathi holds Tripathi (head Knowledge sharing of several accounts and guru) important hijra/legal and uses for holds personal issues, cases from personal account prominent transgender- celebrity/activist identified persons purpose

The following section interrogates the interconnections between multiple platforms. I analyse how hijra gharanas are altering their use of social media platforms to suit requirements individually and as a CBO.

5.6 MULTI-PLATFORMS USE AND MOTIVATIONS AMONG HIJRA CBOS

The hijras in this study demonstrate media multiplexity (Haythornthwaite, 2005), using multiple forms of communication technologies to connect with other hijras, find friends, reunite with family members and also network with hijra CBOs. From the data gathered, I determined that the participants use diverse social media platforms for personal and CBO work. This exemplifies media multiplexity, which asserts that ‘relations of a strong tie using greater communication and maintenance of more relations called relational multiplexity found hand in hand with the use of more means of communication’ (Haythornthwaite, 2005, p. 130). There are several reasons why participants have a multi-platform approach. Each platform serves a different purpose and functionality. For example, while WhatsApp facilitates day-to-day communication that is swift and easy, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and websites serve the function of broadcasting and networking. Further, I observed relationships between these platforms. As mentioned, content created or generated on WhatsApp is often used on other platforms. Within the gharanas, each platform is meant for a different audience.

These platforms each hold meaning in the participants’ lives. For instance, participants seeking friendships or romantic relationships on Facebook demonstrate how relationships evolve with time and relationship quality deepens by adding more ‘mediums to their communication’

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(Haythornthwaite, 2005). Initial contact with individuals for interpersonal relationships or clients for sex work occurs through Facebook. At this stage of initial contact, there is no sharing of personal information, even though a lot about the individual is available on their profile. Once the conversation deepens or moves forward, contact details are shared, which allows access to each other’s WhatsApp profile. This more personal space ensures direct and personal contact. Scholars studying digital dating app culture (Cassidy, 2013) have examined cross- platform convergence strategies. Case participants involved in sex work have developed mechanisms to build a clientele using multiple platforms. The stages of multi-platform use involve the identification of a potential client, followed by sharing information via Facebook messenger and extending communication through WhatsApp to share location details. The participants who publicly acknowledge their hijra identity on Facebook discuss this openly with their clients. This is important to establish trust and ensure there is no accusation of fraud from the client. Such a conversation is usually sustained for a period of time, at the end of which there is an acceptance or refusal for sex work. Participants indulging in sex work mentioned that during this period, there is usually a mechanism to cross-check the credibility of the client. This practice of cross-checking or verifying is noted in Cassidy’s (2013) study, in which men tried to verify identities of potential partners (clients in the context of my study) through the use of Facebook. In the current study, this practice of verification occurs over WhatsApp texts and calls before meeting the potential client at the designated location.

Multi-platform uses among hijra gharanas are also governed based on the platform affordances that attracted the members. Based on the preferences of the gharana members, the same message can be communicated across different platforms. This is to ensure that everyone is included in creation and reception of the message. For instance, content broadcast on private Facebook groups can is also be discussed in WhatsApp groups. As already noted, WhatsApp is more user-friendly and quick; others are still emerging in the technology platform universe of the gharanas. The data indicates that using a single platform cannot sustain CBO work, as they crucially rely on different platforms for different functions, as discussed here. Haythornthwaite (2005) associates the inter-dependence of the platforms to the number of mediums used in the communication.

Specifically, social media platforms have allowed hijras to be co-creators in knowledge production and sharing. This has further enabled them to explore a ‘converged environment in

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which the lines between leisure and learning, public and private, work and play are increasingly, and productively blurred’ (Livingstone, 2008 p. 6 ).

5.7 CONCLUSION

This chapter has shown how hijra gharanas and CBOs use social media platforms to promote community work and represent hijra identities. Among them, Facebook emerged as a platform that is preferred and actively used at individual and community levels. Interviews with the professional members of the CBOs demonstrated the diverse use of platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube and the popularity of Facebook among hijra gharanas. The data gathered through the field interviews helped in understanding and tracing the landscape of social media presence across the gharanas and CBOs. This chapter documents the social media uses by the CBOs based on the perceptions, prevalence and uses of the specific platforms to negotiate hijra identities and build community representations after the 2014 NALSA judgement.

The chapter provided a detailed account of the social media landscape among hijra CBOs, with the three gharanas providing evidence of their perceptions and presence across platforms. The chapter began by tracing traditional communication practices among hijra gharanas and changes with the adoption of ICT despite apprehensions from elderly members in the gharana. The introduction of the cell phone and internet exposed the hijra gharanas to social media and social networking. Additionally, motivations within the community to impart skills through media literacy training allowed members to use social media creatively for CBO and non-CBO work. Facebook and WhatsApp emerged as the most widely used platforms because of their ease of use and availability. The participants used these platforms for interpersonal communication, self-representation, expanding CBO networks, showcasing CBO work and creating a social media presence. Participants spoke of these platforms as modalities for expression of their hijra identities. They also spoke about negotiations with the gharana norms and regulations in expressing and asserting their identities. Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, and CBO websites emerged as platforms supporting a brand identity and reaching out to a broader audience. The demonstrated use of social media was dynamic, extending beyond expressions of hijra individuals and their CBOs, to reconnecting with friends, families and peers, and feeling accepted by the larger context.

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Chapter 6 presents case studies of two hijra celebrities and activist figures—Gauri Sawant and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi—who are closely associated with the hijra gharanas and the CBOs examined in this thesis. By examining the Facebook pages of the two prominent leaders, the chapter outlines how they further negotiate hijra identities and community representations in wider public networks. Finally, the chapter contributes to burgeoning literature on the hijra community’s self-representation. It explores how hijra identities constructed by the CBOs and the two celebrity-like leaders and activists in the hijra community have improved hijra visibility and representation in India, and counter mainstream media (mis)representations.

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Chapter 6: Community Leaders’ Social Media Intervention—Rising Fame and Negotiating Hijra Identities

6.1 INTRODUCTION

The previous two chapters examine hijra CBOs’ use of social media for promoting community work, community-building practices and representing hijra identities according to the size, experience and expertise of the CBOs. The findings of those chapters demonstrate how the selected CBOs promote community work and increase the visibility of their organisation by using social media platforms in addition to specific usage for inter- and intra-gharana communication. In this chapter, I move from the organisation to the individual to focus on two case studies of prominent hijra community leaders—namely, Gauri Sawant and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi—who are closely associated with two of the CBOs examined in this thesis. This chapter investigates how these prominent community leaders negotiate their identities through social media as hijra celebrities and activist figures. More specifically, this chapter examines how these leaders manage their rising fame, power, activism and advocacy, and in the process, strive to create authentic self-representation through social media platforms, particularly Facebook.

The first part of the chapter discusses minority celebrity cultures on social media and locates the Indian hijra community celebrities as social workers, activists and celebrity-like figures (with a focus on Sawant and Tripathi). I also rationalise the choice of these two celebrities as an extension of the selection criterion (see Section 3.3). The second part of the chapter outlines and analyses the activities performed by both leaders on their Facebook pages, over five years (as per the specified period of investigation). Using data from the close reading and textual analysis of the leaders’ Facebook pages and empirical interviews conducted with the leaders and their social media teams, I analyse themes based on the posts and issues addressed by the leaders on their respective Facebook pages. Lastly, I explore the formation of alliances between the two leaders and their CBOs to represent hijra identities in digital and social spaces. This chapter answers the question of how these individual personalities, in association with their respective CBOs, contribute to the current deliberations around the third gender category and improving hijra representations in contemporary India. This chapter suggests that the hijra self-

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representations constructed by the CBOs and these prominent community leaders on Facebook pages are 1) new ways of constructing and asserting hijra identities, and 2) constitute a resistance to the mainstream media’s general (mis)representations and under-representation of the hijra community.

6.2 MINORITY ACTIVIST CELEBRITIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

LGBTQ+ people have used alternative forms of media representations, including broadcast media, to raise their voices and demands, which in turn generates the minority movement and struggles (Atton, 2002). Social media networks provide users with the opportunity to create profiles or pages but also create networks to maintain social connections (boyd & Ellison, 2007). The role of social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter in the lives of celebrities, activists or political figures has gained academic focus, since these act as a source of political information, civic engagement and political participation (Bronstein, 2013; Schwartz, 2015).

In the context of the present study, I view the selected leaders as minority activist celebrities. I contend that the community work presented by leaders to their imagined and unimagined audiences (family, friends, fellow hijras, fans and others) involves a conscious presentation of the self and engagement with their audiences. However, these minority celebrities also demonstrate some of the characteristics identified by Alice Marwick (2015) in microcelebrity cultures on social media. In these contexts, ‘social media enables micro-celebrity, a self- presentation technique in which people view themselves as a public persona to be consumed by others, use strategic intimacy to appeal to followers’ (Marwick, 2015, p. 2). Thus, I view Sawant and Tripathi as minority celebrities performing the role of a microcelebrity, whereby both leaders consciously present their work and self on social media to attract an audience to promote their community work and social cause to increase awareness about transgender and hijra communities in India. As minority celebrities, Sawant and Tripathi are what they are and what they do on social media as outside digital spaces, unlike microcelebrities who consciously put on or create to acquire a fan base. Marwick (2013) identifies a ‘micro-celebrity as the state of being famous to a niche group of people, but ascertains it as a behaviour: the presentation of self as a celebrity regardless of who is paying attention’ (p. 114). Sawant and Tripathi do not necessarily have to please their audiences in their roles as celebrities to seek monetary rewards or keep the engagement high between them and their audiences as in the case of microcelebrities. The following sections unravel how Sawant and Tripathi—despite achieving

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celebrity-like status and enjoying a fan following and stardom—are representatives of a marginalised community and leaders associated with realities of hijra lives.

There has been substantial work in the area of minority celebrity activism and social media, mainly for political participation (Bashir, 2012). However, the emphasis has predominantly remained on Twitter and Facebook in the Western context. Lovelock (2017) argues the presentation of Jenner and Jennings (widely discussed transgender celebrities in the West) rationalise the ‘tropes of authenticity, self-reflexivity, self-revelation and manufacture central to celebrity culture’ in popular media (p. 2). In the context of South Asia—specifically, India— celebrities attract a fan following as well as criticism from the digitally literate population who consume and access information available on these platforms. The narratives of hijra celebrity and transgender activist figures among the broad classification of celebrity cultures are under- represented and only remain moderately visible in mainstream media. Hence, representations of such individuals are necessary to negotiate their needs from the cultural context of India. Rajorshi Das (2015) explains the various strands of identity politics through a close reading of Tripathi based on her autobiography Me Hijra, Me Laxmi (2015). The author further emphasises the need to look beyond the judgement as a legitimising tool and understand the unique culture and representation made by hijra leaders and celebrities. Dasgupta (2014) examines the Facebook group Pink Kolkata Party to understand political parties and advocacy by exploring the concept of community and social class in digital queer India. These texts, produced by prominent leaders who are part of the queer communities, serve as an important starting point to understand LGBTQ+ communities from their (bottom-up and insider) perspective.

6.3 BECOMING HIJRA ACTIVISTS AND TRANS ACTIVISM DISCOURSE

In case of the hijra community, which is subject to both online and offline discrimination (S. Narrain, 2003), a sense of identification and attachment with their hijra gurus, elders and prominent community leaders is vital in digital media spaces. In the case of hijra activists, a significant number of their followers, including members of their gharanas and other key networks, have moved to social media spaces and hence the extensions of these networks are visible as audiences on Facebook pages. The minority celebrity status contributes to the news and social media feeds, which further fuel the stardom and status. However, there are other factors such as ‘the power to attract news, size and scale of the organisations, which determines whether or not one will be featured on mainstream news’ (S. Narrain, 2003, p. 372). An

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important point of consideration in understanding the emergence of minority celebrities and activists is the emergence of public figures from within the hijra gharanas who represent the voice of the hijra community. The strategies used by the leaders to facilitate a new form of digital activism seem to present authentic self-representation of the hijra community in India.

Transgender communities in India have experienced offline threats and discrimination. As a way to circumvent some of those threats, activists initiate connections and dialogues with the general public to develop queer consciousness (Dasgupta, 2014) and mobilise the rights of transgender communities (Nambiar & Sahani, 2018). Hence, these celebrity pages further provide an opportunity to draw hijra community members to social media platforms. This also becomes an opportunity for these activists to communicate their leadership, individual projects, support for a specific cause and present their community work to a broader audience. By documenting some of these acts of the hijra leaders, this chapter articulates how hijra celebrities and activist figures perform their roles as Indian minority celebrities and transgender activists on Facebook pages.

Identifying and selection of hijra celebrities in the hijra CBOs

After identifying the three CBOs for the study, I developed an understanding of the leadership within them through a close reading of their respective Facebook pages. Apart from the obvious prominence of two leaders—Sawant and Tripathi—there were other emerging leaders in these CBOs. I noted a few individuals like Urmi Jhadav, known for their presence in short films and interviews. India’s oldest LGBTQ+ organisation, HST, gave rise to prominent leaders such as Ashok Row Kavi (founder of HST) and Shushant Divgkr (celebrity and activist). These individuals are equally recognised within the community, although they do not identify as hijra or transgender. I developed an understanding of the entire landscape of work and the individual contributions of these leaders. I chose Sawant and Tripathi because of their prominence and their identities as hijras, criteria that were pertinent for the study. They have gained national and international fame not only through their followers from the community but also through mainstream media and social media self-representations. The social media presence of two of these leaders was extensively studied for six months, which revealed their preference for Facebook and other platforms (see Table 6.1 and 6. 2 for leaders’ presence across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). I studied existing posts on leaders’ Facebook pages between April 2014 and April 2019, which is consistent with the observation period for the CBOs’ Facebook pages,

153 and significant due to the legislative changes in the Indian context for the third gender. Analysing posts during this phase helps in mapping the trajectory of the increasing prominence of these figures as representatives of hijra needs and identity. The Facebook posts discussed in this chapter are publicly discoverable. I corroborated the themes emerging from the textual analysis with interviews conducted with Sawant and the Tripathi’s team members in Mumbai. Both leaders’ names are used because they are public figures; the other team members’ names have been replaced with pseudonyms to protect their identities.

Tables 6.1 and 6.2 chart the social media use of the two leaders examined and are arranged in the order of the platforms most actively used by these leaders.

Table 6.1: Gauri Sawant (updated May 2020)

Social Media Platform Page Title/Handle Created/Joined Date Follower count Facebook Gauri Sawant–Indian 4 March 2014 16, 518 likes Transgender Activist 17, 019 followers @tggaurisawant Instagram @shrigaurisawant 2566 followers Twitter @GauriSawant11 August 2016 250 followers

Table 6.2: Laxmi Narayan Tripathi (updated May 2020)

Social Media Platform Page Title/Handle Created/Joined Date Follower count Facebook Laxmi Narayan Tripathi 29 October 2010 10, 509 likes @The.Laxmi.Narayan.Tripathi 10,820 followers Instagram @laxminarayan_tripathi 14,100 followers Twitter @IamLaxmi Narayan June 2009 1, 597 followers

6.4 NARRATIVES OF HIJRA IDENTITY, ACTIVISM, POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE: GAURI SAWANT AND LAXMI NARAYAN TRIPATHI

This section outlines Sawant’s and Tripathi’s use of Facebook to promote hijra issues, to generate an understanding of hijra identities and the roles they play as hijra leaders in accelerating such representation. It discusses the strategic framing of performances in digital and public spaces to increase visibility and acceptance.

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The visual aesthetics on the page allow the viewer to connect the leader with the hijra community instantly, asserted through the profile and cover photo. Hence, the page itself becomes a public assertion of their identity. It functions as a source of information for the community and the general public, along with updates on the activities of the leader and the hijra community. There has been an increase in the number of followers on these pages over the study period, which illustrates the increasing popularity of these leaders in the broader community. However, it is important to note that the measured impact of the posts is closely connected with the extent their engagement through likes, reactions and comments. I did not contact the users involved in the discussion of the Facebook posts.

The themes discussed in this section are a result of the textual analysis of the posts and discussions on these pages, corroborated with interviews conducted with key members of the team. Beneath this online text generated over five years, lies a struggle to make hijra voices heard in larger spaces, which the analysis of the leaders’ Facebook pages suggests. The majority of the posts discussed on the Facebook page relate to the leaders’ offline work and everyday performances as a hijra leader, celebrity and activist.

Facebook page: Gauri Sawant

The analysis of Sawant’s page revealed major themes: presentation of healthcare, advocacy and activism for the hijra community, a hijra can be a normative mother, the Aaji cha ghar project, achieving celebrity status, self-representations through book publications and lastly, becoming a political ambassador for the hijra community.

6.4.1.1 Overview of the page

Sawant’s page was created on 5 March 2014, under the title of Gauri SawantIndian Transgender Activist. A team of professionals separate from the CBO members manage Sawant’s public relations. I developed an understanding of the staff’s involvement in managing her public relations while attempting to schedule an interview during fieldwork. Sawant’s page is run by a separate social media team, which works with her to develop, curate and post content on the page. The page appears well-managed and provides information about her life, current projects and work affiliations. Figure 6.1. is a screenshot of a section on her page curated as a question and answer section? According to Sawant, these questions were the most commonly

155 asked by the general public through emails, direct messages and during public face-to-face events.

Figure 6.1: Screenshot from Sawant’s Facebook page, uploaded on 10 May 2019 to communicate her Sawant background and work Source: Captured by the researcher

The page is further divided into two sections and has personalised features managed by Sawant and her team, including the FAQ section labelled as ‘Ask Gauri Sawant–Indian Transgender Activist’ on the top-right corner of the page. The page is not simply a portal to receive questions from the public but to engage them in a discussion, so a few questions are also posed to the visitors: ‘Can you tell me more about yourself? Can I learn more about your background? Are you available to chat?’ The last question is open-ended; the chat option is available to visitors, subject to availability of the social media team to discuss opportunities for collaboration. Hence, the Facebook page provides opportunities for the general public to engage with the leader rather than simply absorb information posted on the page. I used a similar function on the previous edition of the FAQ section to contact Sawant’s team for an interview and was asked to meet Sawant in her gharana on an appointment basis.

An analysis of the initial posts on this page revealed that they were similar to the work carried out by the CBOs to document their ongoing activities with the hijra community. However, the nature of posts on her page changed from April 2014, with the passing of the NALSA

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judgement. This sudden change could be attributed to Sawant’s rising status and prominence; hence, the appointment of a social media team to manage the posts. Some of the early posts in April 2014 reflect Sawant’s involvement in the petitioners’ team for the NALSA judgement and the demands filled by the team. Other miscellaneous posts between April 2014 and December 2016 concern everyday activities in the hijra gharana and celebration of hijra identity in the form of photographs of Sawant, along with other members, at gharana ritual events, group outings and award functions. In her interviews, Sawant indicated difficulties with conversing in English and the preference to use Marathi and Hindi for all of her community work.83 Sawant’s Facebook page is indicative of her vernacular use of Marathi and Hindi accompanied by translations to English in some posts. She expressed her desire to learn English, to be recognised on a global platform in order to increase the reach of her work and gather support and tolerance towards hijra community in India.

6.4.1.2 Presentation of healthcare, advocacy and activism for the hijra community

On her page, Sawant identifies as a transgender activist who works in the area of human trafficking. Posts on Sawant’s page are about a variety of topics, including personal and professional work, employment opportunities for hijras, and legal and government policies relevant to the transgender community. Several posts on her Facebook page pertain to the mission to create an inclusive society and educate the general public regarding the hijra community. There are health-related posts that aim to create awareness about sexually transmitted diseases, contraception and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. In 2014, there were a few posts published that related to creating voter identities and casting votes in the local elections. A variety of posts address important issues and ‘calls to action’ for the general public. These promote a common cause, such as awareness for good health among hijras practising sex work, supporting rights and legal documents petitioned by Sawant, building shelter homes for orphaned girls and elderly hijras, and so on.

83 Marathi is the state language of Maharashtra. Sawant identifies as a Maharashtrian born and raised in Pune who now lives in Mumbai. Hindi is one of the main national languages in India and spoken widely in central, northern and western parts of India.

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6.4.1.3 A hijra can be a normative mother

Figure 6.2: Screenshot from the Vicks advertisement on YouTube Source: Captured by the researcher

The Vicks Generations of Care ad (see Figure 6.2) is one of the most popular posts discussed by Sawant and continues to be relevant beyond its initial release on 31 March 2017. Sawant used the commercial success that came from the ad as a stepping stone to create her own brand name. In retrospect, Sawant reflected on the significance of social media platforms in the circulation of the video and how it gave an impetus to her work with the hijra community:

I realised the power of social media when the Vicks advertisement, portraying my life story went viral within 24 hours. Overnight, I became known as Gauri Sawantthe transgender mother, and it was something known only to my gharana and CBO members. The response the video received was unbelievable, I could never imagine millions of people were interested in seeing my story and learning about the transgender community in India. (G. Sawant, personal communication, 23 February 2019)

Sawant made this statement to acknowledge the power of social media and its contribution to her brand name and celebrity status. Appreciation for the advertisement has come from all sectors on social media platforms. Organisations such as MSL (formerly Manning Selvage and Lee), Vicks’ global public relations and integrated communications partner, analysed the responses to the ad and stated the following on their website84:

The film went viral within 24 hours of launch, within 48 hours, with no paid media support, or promoted views, PR alone generated over 4 million views for the #TouchOfCare film. Major Indian news publications, electronic channels and international media house have given the film positive media coverage. Strategic media interviews with Gauri Sawant were organised for audiences to understand her

84 https://mslgroup.com/work/vicks-touchofcare

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journey. Organisations produced the publications on their social media platforms then shared these stories. Her impactful presence in mainstream media was a great accomplishment not only for her as a self-identified hijra, but for the entire hijra community. The ad brought this community of individuals who were living at the margins of the society to the fore. The impact was enhanced by the ad’s circulation on social media, where it was consumed by larger numbers of people. The video depicted the real story of a hijra mother. It was not the story of a ‘mother in a hijra gharana’ but a mother in a normative parent-child relationship. The video problematised and questioned the idea of a mother in a normative relationship. Although produced for the masses, the ad it invited nuanced discussions about the lives of hijras, which are so overlooked in mainstream society. Sawant acknowledged the critical collaboration of participating in the media intervention and partnering with a corporation to promote the issues of the hijra community, signalling:

Earlier I had no plans to do Vicks advertisement because I was not sure how my daughter would feel about this story coming out to a wider audience, however, as Vicks persisted and convinced me, I finally gave in as the message imparted through the Vicks ad is way more important than who produced the video.

The advertisement presented a transgender person ‘as is’, instead of mainstream media representations that have previously utilised caricatured versions of transgender persons or cast a cisgender person in the role (Pattnaik, 2009). For instance, several Bollywood movies such as Sadak (1991) and the Houseful series (2010–2019) feature male actors playing hijra characters. Sawant also spoke about her idea of motherhood:

Mother is beyond the gender, and a mother could be anyone, Mother could be a woman, Mother could be a father, Motherhood is a behaviour, and it has nothing to do with the gender of the person … to accept the different experiences and roles of a person is to start to move towards more fluid and therefore more honest and more accurate conceptions of gender, specifically for motherhood. (G. Sawant, personal communication, 23 February 2019)

Despite the legal recognition of the third gender in India since the NALSA judgement, transgender adoption and marriage rights are areas of debate. The Vicks advertisement is one- of-a-kind that portrays a transgender person—and as a mother—and raises the issue of transgender adoption rights and fluidity in the context of mother beyond womanhood. Additionally, scholars such as Ina Goel (2018) working on hijras in India, emphasise the impact of the video for Sawant and the hijra community as a progressive step. Goel (2018) asserts that:

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Trans-adoption in hijra families has always been the norm, yet it was only through cases of normative child adoption that hijra motherhood came into being was accepted in a patriarchal and predominantly trans-exclusionary society and media. The fact that video featuring hijra mother vent viral on social media may be attributed to this revelation. The celebration of the video on the internet also shows a welcoming attitude towards trans-inclusive motherhood. (p. 8)

As a public figure, Sawant speaks about her projects at various public meetings and conferences, especially about the care she provides to young girls through her nani ka ghar project. In her interview, Sawant mentioned that she aspired to become a mother from a young age. Once she joined the hijra community and embraced her gender identity, she was able to fulfil her aspirations of motherhood by adopting a girl called Gayatri, who is also featured in the advertisement. Sawant specifies that the Vicks ad has allowed her image to reach the hearts of many Indian families, except her own. Her own father refuses to accept her and her current identity as a hijra or a hijra mother:

Despite achieving celebrity status due to the Vicks advertisement, my father and family has not accepted me as a hijra, it has been 21 years now. The same applies for my chelas, most of our families do not want to associate with us and do not expect us to contact them and share about our whereabouts. (G. Sawant, personal communication, 23 February 2019)

Against that backdrop, the idea came to build a shelter home for orphans and the children of sex workers to provide care and a bright future for children that may otherwise end up falling into similar occupations as their parents.

6.4.1.4 Aaji cha ghar project

The posts related to ‘Aaji cha ghar’ or ‘nani ka ghar’ [grandmother’s home] are most prominent on Sawant’s page. This is a shelter home in Mumbai for children of women involved in sex work or orphaned girls of mothers affected by HIV/AIDS. The home opened in 2017. It is managed by Sawant and senior members of the hijra gharanas who provide care to the girls in a home-like environment. The Facebook page has numerous posts discussing this project and requesting donations to build a large residential complex at a location on the outskirts of Mumbai city. The project arose from Sawant’s vision to protect young girls from trafficking and the sex trade. As the home is managed by hijras who aspire to have a family of their own, the project serves a dual function. In India, hijras are known to adopt intersex children to raise s their own. Some members of the hijra community, including Sawant, have publicly

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proclaimed their desire to adopt and provide care to children irrespective of their gender identities.

The project was built in stages, the documentation of which is available on a separate website alongside Sawant’s Facebook page that shares links or posts informing followers of the project. The home is currently run from a gharana in suburban Mumbai, although building for the residential complex on the outskirts of Mumbai is underway. The new complex will accommodate a greater number of children. Updates on the construction of the new complex are regularly posted, including the daily activities of the young girls and babies living in the current home. Sawant often performs the role of ‘mother’ in these posts, which has attracted a lot of attention (some 200 likes and 1200+ views), especially those with short films from the shelter home. The responses received on these posts indicates a sense of acceptance from the public for the concept of transgender motherhood. These posts help the public look beyond the idea of hijras caring and proving for intersex children only. This further affirms the idea that ‘one does not need to be born with an intersex variation to be considered a hijra … no intersex variations are related to the hijra identity without the patronage of a hijra guru’ (Goel, 2016, p. 537). Ultimately, the project gained impetus in part from the success of the Vicks ad.

Figure 6.3: A image of Gauri Sawant across the rainbow colours symbolising a brown transgender woman adorned with a bindi (coloured dot) on the forehead, earrings and saree, a traditional attire worn by women in India. Source: Screenshot of an image shared on Sawant’s Facebook page, captured by the researcher

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These posts provide an opportunity to discuss the issue of motherhood and adoption within the hijra community. Sawant is often portrayed as the main protagonist with the use of metaphors, memes and figures, such as the image depicted in Figure 6.3, which was widely circulated before her book release on International Women’s Day in May 2019. Such posts, sketches, memes and visual art have contributed to her image as the motherhood icon in the last two years.

6.4.1.5 Achieving hijra celebrity status

Sawant was invited to become the showstopper at a famous annual Fashion Week organised in Mumbai. The event coincided with her book release. Sawant donned a traditional Indian saree and walked the runaway ramp with enthusiasm and confidence—a statement in itself— representing the hijra community. The event was extensively covered in newspapers and published on social media platforms. Sawant’s contact with the fashion world added to her celebrity status. She was widely appreciated within and outside the community for her attire, make-up and presence. In October 2017, Sawant and Usha Uthup, a famous Bollywood singer featured on the Diwali episode of Kaun Banega Corepati, an Indian remake of the popular British television show Who wants to a Millionaire. Sawant won 25 lakhs Indian rupees (approximately 30,000 USD) for her shelter home.

Sawant’s page illustrates the meaningful partnerships and networks she has created to increase the representation of transgender persons in fashion, beauty, mainstream media and television reality shows. She often responds to questions posed by her followers regarding the content posted on her page. For instance, a follower asked a question related to the Vicks ad: ‘Is the girl who played Gayatri in the Vicks video her actual daughter?’ To that, she replied:

The girl in the video is not my Gayatri, my adopted daughter lives away in a boarding school, and I do not want to expose her to the wider public as she has a long way to complete her education and the world is yet cruel and not just towards me, and I do not want her to be affected because of me or my identity. (G.Sawant, Facebook post, 24 August 2018)

For Sawant, her daughter’s well-being is paramount, which is why she actively keeps her away from social media as well as issues surrounding the hijra gharana. Sawant has also demonstrated her role as a mother/transgender woman at several social functions, such as wedding ceremonies (where she performs the kanya dhan or giving away the bride in marriage). She enjoys and celebrates her participation in such ceremonies. As mentioned, this has given

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an impetus to her role as the ‘motherhood icon’. This status was also recognised at the Lokmat Women Summit in 2019, where she described the variety of roles she performs in her life and the gharana. This event was published as a video and shared on the Facebook page, which has garnered an audience of 5,000 individuals.

6.4.1.6 Self-representations through book publication

Sawant’s book was launched on International Mother’s Day in May 2019 and extensively covered in the local newspapers. The cover of the book features a photo of Sawant wearing a saree, sitting on a throne and is titled Gauri: The urge to fly: A sensational story of India’s first transgender mother—Shri Gauri Sawant. The book is written and translated by Rhythm Wagholikar and chronicles Sawant’s life and struggles.

There are several posts on her page about the book release. During the book release event that was shared live on Facebook, Sawant stated that it was published:

In the hope that the book paves the way to social revolution. A cordial and united future where all are accepted with the same zest and zeal. My first book helps to provide brick to my dream project Nani ka Ghar. Funds gathered from this book to be used for the betterment of the rescued girls and abandoned transgender persons.

Further, the event was supported and circulated with the hashtags #supportgauri and #nanikaghar. In addition to expressing joy towards Wagholikar, the translator and author of her first biography, Sawant asserted:

This book will add to my responsibilities and documents some of the work in saving the girl child. When I was younger, I felt inclined towards the female child … my father hated me. Being in the Police Department, he was a tough guy and wanted me to be the same. However, I had my own plans. Now my work is to increase respect and acceptance towards transgender individuals and promote equality for the girl child in India. My book is a way to ensure this message reaches all. (G. Sawant, personal communication, 23 February 2019)

Sawant described how a previous initiative, Project Bolo85 [‘speak up’] was not successful in documenting oral histories of transgender individuals. Hence, she thought of documenting her own life through a biography, which would serve as a revelation of her hijra identity and her

85 Project Bolo was initiated by HST to document the lives and views of members of the LGBTQ+ community in India. For more, See https://www.facebook.com/Project.Bolo.LGBT/

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work as a hijra activist. She explained that the book was narrated in Marathi and later translated to English, a practice that is common among hijra leaders and similarly found in the biographies of Tripathi and A. Revathi (a recognised hijra from Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India). Those who choose to tell their stories from personal life narratives, use a language that can capture the expressions and stories as intended (Prabhu, 2014). Sawant adheres to using Marathi, her mother language to narrate her story; however, the book was released in English to be relevant to a wider global audience. This book is an effort to reach out to families in India and increase tolerance towards transgender persons and their occupation.

6.4.1.7 Becoming a political ambassador for the hijra community

The third most popular post on Sawant’s Facebook page concerned her role as the first transgender goodwill ambassador in India. The Election Commission appointed Sawant as one of the 12 election ambassadors from the state of Maharashtra, India, for the General Elections, April 2019. This position was an outcome of her community work and activist profile. Sawant was appointed the task of increasing awareness about the importance of voting and the right to vote as citizens of India. In response to the new position, Sawant added:

I consider this task of prime importance because transgender people do not exercise their right to vote as they did not have a category earlier., But now we have a separate category and need to use this privilege given to us. In 2014, only 918 votes were registered in the third gender category; however, the NALSA judgement was newly passed then, and many could not make their voters ID in time. However, around this time in 2019, I undertake the responsibility of making sure transgender communities in Mumbai are informed of their rights and can select their leaders. (G. Sawant, personal communication, 23 February 2019)

Sawant’s Facebook page demonstrated vernacular content urging hijras and other members of the transgender community to create voter identifications. The content included texts and short videos depicting Sawant speaking in Hindi and Marathi about her role and the importance of exercising the right to vote. Sawant talked further about how the use of social media has helped in her awareness work:

As an election ambassador, I am expected to visit all hijra gharanas in my ward (constituency) to educate people (transgender persons) to vote and inform about them about the importance of voting. This ensures accountability of the local leaders in their area. I have been doing prachaar (campaigning) on different platformsFacebook, in-personal rally and public meetings, poster presentations at CBO offices and residences. (G. Sawant, personal communication, 23 February 2019)

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The work undertaken by Sawant as a goodwill ambassador indicates the immense potential of digital campaigning and reaching out to hijras within local constituencies. Scholars such as Bronstein (2013), Vissers and Stolle (2014) and Wortham (2012) have recognised social media (especially Facebook) as a popular channel to send messages to audiences and mobilise large gatherings online to mediate political support events. Her work as an ambassador has been so unprecedented that a question regarding her position appeared in the state government public exam. The multiple options included her name among other Bollywood celebrities, which is indicative of the impact she created in her role as the ambassador.

Sawant addressed the issues of managing her rising fame and celebrity and ambassador status in daily life. As much as she enjoys celebrity and activist status, she enlists some hardships associated with her fame and identity in her digital and social settings. She elaborates on her tensions and struggles:

Becoming a celebrity and media recognised figure has also made my life difficult, because the vegetable vendor now feels, I am rich because I featured in Vicks video, so he charges me extra bucks on my daily groceries, and I cannot bargain with street vendors. However, as a hijra celebrity, I now hold additional responsibility to position my identity and community in a positive light. I may have some fame and power to raise my voice and hold a social position, but I am still a hijra, and my entire community is still on the margins. Despite making some impact on the existence and improving visibility of the hijra community, most of my community members continue to beg and indulge in sex work. (G. Sawant, personal communication, 23 February 2019)

The rest of the posts on her page pertain to collaborations with other human rights activists in the network, videos of public events, TED talks and public dialogues regarding transgender issues. This is symbolic of new forms of engagement and the progress she has made in the last five years. Sawant has been successful in presenting her work on these platforms in a novel manner while engaging the general public in discussions through these posts. Many factors have driven her growth as a celebrity. She has been able to leverage these opportunities to increase her visibility as a brand and as a representative of transgender issues. Sawant’s work and celebrity status as a hijra/transgender mother has enabled the ‘recognition and the celebration of lifestyles, beliefs and forms of life and identity that were previously unrecognized and repressed’ (Rojek, 2015, p. 191).

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Facebook page: Laxmi Narayan Tripathi

This section outlines the major themes that emerged from the analysis of posts on Tripathi’s Facebook page. Themes include hijra activist representations and solidarities with the LGBTQ+ community, self-representation of the hijra identity through publications, gaining status through ritual performances on Facebook, and managing dissent from the hijra community.

6.4.2.1 Overview of the page

Tripathi’s page86 was created on 29 October 2010 under the title Laxmi Narayan Tripathi. The ‘about’ section of the page mentions her interests in political activism, travel, charity and speaking, and her affiliations to organisations such as the United Nations, Astitva CBO and Asia Pacific Transgendered Network. Tripathi introduces herself as the most visible figure of the Indian LGBTQ+ community, through her film and television appearances in recent years as well as her global work for transgender rights and AIDS organisations. The page provides a cross-convergence link to her Twitter profile. The page under Tripathi’s name has multiple references and shares from other pages managed by the social media teams working with the leader. The posts on Tripathi’s page can be classified into three categories: 1) hijra advocacy/activism related to human rights, healthcare, laws and suggested reformations; 2) religious affiliations and associations to Kinnar Akhada; and 3) private celebrity collaborative events and talks at prestige institutions. Apart from these, there are miscellaneous posts that are ephemeral in nature. These posts provide an understanding of Tripathi’s idea of hijra self, relationships with organisations and leaders, and her role as a transgender activist within the hijra community.

6.4.2.2 Hijra activist representations and solidarities with LGBTQ+ community

Tripathi’s page is evidently in support of LGBTQ+ issues. This is illustrated by posts with slogans such as ‘Pyaar ka har rang’ (Love in every colour). The post consists of an image of two young men smeared in colour indicating support of the LGBTQ+ community. This is a widely appreciated post among queer groups. The post was published on the occasion of Holi (festival of colours), in March 2019, fundamentally communicating the spirit of inclusion.

86 https://www.facebook.com/pg/The.Laxmi.Narayan.Tripathi/about/?ref=page_internal

166 A recurrent post on her page relates to revisions required in the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill of 2016 (passed as an Act in 2019). She asserts:

This bill denies hijras reservations in education, healthcare institutions and employment. The bill necessarily criminalizes occupations such as begging and sex work, both relevant sources of survival and livelihood for our (hijra) community. We condemn the current bill as it stands and suggests the changes along with the majority of us not in agreement of this bill.

6.4.2.3 Self-representation of the hijra identity through publications

Tripathi is perhaps the first hijra from Mumbai to publish an autobiography in Marathi, later translated into English. In her autobiography, Me Hijra, Me Laxmi (2015),87 Tripathi shares her journey of self-discovery and struggles, from childhood through to adulthood. In the foreword, Rao states:

Laxmi’s autobiography is one of the earliest works that belong to the genre of hijra literature. It seeks to make readers aware of who the hijras are, and what goes into shaping their personalities … it seeks to dispel myths about the hijras and help us shed our prejudice (Tripathi, 2015, p. 183).

The title of the book is a strategic, public claim of her status as a hijra, which is also noticeable in her posts’ use of affirmative language like ‘I condemn’ or ‘I celebrate’. The book, and the fanfare around its launch, celebrate her life achievements, her work and her fan following despite her marginal status as a hijra. Published by Oxford, the autobiography has reinstated the cultural position of the hijra community in India.

The book describes events from Tripathi’s life, including instances of facing sexual abuse at the age of seven along with other struggles that have made her the person she is today. In the book, she elaborates on her relationship with her family and talks about enjoying privileges being born in an upper-caste family in India. Tripathi identifies the privileges and describes her narrative of being marginalised as a member of a hijra community despite this upper-caste upbringing. She discusses the support provided by her family, their early acceptance of her identity. Hence, she was able to confidently assert her identity in a public sphere because fame

87 Similar to the case of Sawant and her autobiography translated from Marathi to English and A. Revathi’s autobiography (originally translated from Tamil to English in 2010). A pattern arising from the case of the three hijras whose autobiographies are written by authors reflects attempts to publicise their book in non-native languages for better exposure of their community work by targeting a global audience.

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came early to her. The support of her family is evident at public events such as television shows and media meetings, as they often accompany her, and they support her affiliation with her gharana and CBO work. There are similarities between Tripathi’s and Sawant’s biographies. They both outline their childhood, stories of sexual abuse, struggles with gender identity, experiencing depression and using the gharana and activism work to survive. However, the stories differ in terms of the support received from their families. Both books add to a limited repertoire of literature on the narratives and experiences of an insider in the hijra community.

Tripathi published a post and a video on Facebook expressing how the book has added to her celebrity status, which she now uses to help people understand that hijras are like anyone else and should not be discriminated against. However, this visibility has not always worked in her favour. Many individuals (including members of conservative gharanas) have been critical of her being vocal in public. In a study conducted among the hijras of Hyderabad, it was found that ‘visibility makes every hijra wary of the scholars and journalists alike, and this attention has also heightened scrutiny of local disciplinary regimes, including the police’ (Reddy, 2010, p. 3). Despite the threats and the negative feedback, she emphasises having a mind of her own. Ojha, a 28-year-old member of Tripathi’s social media and PR team asserts:

Tripathi has managed to attract some of the major publishers because of her celebrity status, and her networks. With a vibrant and bold personality like that of Laxmi Ji [a term used to ascribe respect], it is comparatively easier for us to create a brand for her. (O. Seher, personal communication, 18 January 2018)

The social media and public relations teams managed to attract international publishing houses for her second book, titled Red Lipstick: The Men in My Life. Written by Pooja Pande and published by Penguin in 2016, the book captures Tripathi’s love interests and significant men in her life, about which she is very vocal. On a Facebook post before the release of the book, Tripathi revealed, ‘in this book, I pen some of deep, dark secrets of abuse that have shaped who I am today, I am Laxmi, I am a hijra’. The post received a negative response from many followers who condemned her for being vocal about her previous relationships. It was seen as a political stunt by many in the community (R. Singh, 2016). Her books are first-person narratives and experiences, and hence, the validity of the incidents quoted in the books has been questioned (Das, 2015). Despite these challenges, Tripathi advocates for the issues of the hijra community and counters them in public spaces.

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6.4.2.4 Gaining status through ritual performances on Facebook

Another important initiative undertaken by Tripathi during the tenure of observation in October 2018 was the establishment of the Kinnar Akhada (an order of hijra, kinnar and trans person priests), at the Kumbh Mela—the largest annual Hindu festival in North India. This akhada was established for participation in mela to be held in 2019. A Facebook page was created in August 2018 by a team of journalists to document the activities of the akhada at the mela; these posts are also visible on Tripathi’s page. This was the first time a group of hijras, led by Tripathi, performed a dip in the holy waters of Ganga and Yamuna, which is a ritual solely performed by upper-caste men at the mela. This event is considered noteworthy because it was seen as a step taken by the hijra community to break the long-standing patriarchal ritual and tradition performed at the mela (Goel, 2019).

During the interviews, Tripathi’s CBO team communicated the struggle, challenges and logistical planning required to establish the Kinnar Akhada. Tripathi has now acquired the title of the Acharya Mahamandleshwar of the Kinnar Akhada, giving her an elevated status as the custodian of Hinduism. In her Facebook posts, Tripathi claimed to be non-religious until 2015, when she decided it was important to organise hijras to enter the Hindu religious domain, from which the hijras were excluded. This was explicitly for those hijras who felt a deep connection to Hinduism and wished to participate in the ritual life. Facebook posts related to the activities of the Akhada received a lot of appreciation from pilgrims. The live videos uploaded by the social media team also received comments seeking blessings from the akhada—all expressed on these digital platforms. Fan and followers of Tripathi residing in North India travelled to pay their respect to the Akhada, and then posted photos of meeting the leader. Such posts received a lot of traction and were also shared on personal profiles and network pages. The high number of followers on Tripathi’s Instagram (13,300 followers) is demonstrative of the huge following Tripathi’s visual content garners. I infer this is largely because the presentation of hijras’ private photos and images displaying ceremonial ritual activities attract huge viewership by people of that particular religion (the rituals performed by Tripathi belong to Hinduism).

A majority of the posts from November 2018 to February 2019 were regarding the activities of the Kinnar Akhada and the daily routine of the troop members who participated in several rituals at Kumbh Mela. The page is filled with exciting glimpses of elaborate clothing and make- up adorned by the hijras and trans women priests. These photos were also posted on Kinnar

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Akhada’s Instagram page. Hence, activities of the akhada became another source of popularity for Tripathi. This permitted several content creators on digital platforms to share images and videos on their channels (Goel, 2019). Goel (2019) documented the hijra community’s presence on Twitter and Facebook, which was enhanced through their participation in the rituals at the Kumbh Mela and reclaiming their identity as members of Hindu society. These activities have attracted controversy due to the current Hindu fundamentalist environment in the country. Tripathi has faced severe criticism for engaging in right-wing politics, the negative responses to which are visible in posts on Tripathi’s page between November 2018 and March 2019.

6.4.2.5 Managing dissent from the hijra community

In the aftermath of the Ram Mandir controversy that arose against Tripathi’s Kinnar Akhara, she faced severe criticism from many hijra CBOs, trans, gender non-conforming and intersex collectives. On 24 November 2018, a joint statement88 was issued by opposing groups in the categories of trans, gender non-conforming and intersex individuals; LGBTQ+ groups, networks and organisations (trans, gender non-conforming and intersex led/shared spaces and otherwise); and allies in solidarity (non-LGBTQ+ organisations and queer and non-queer individuals). It included the following: ‘We condemn Tripathi’s support towards the construction of the temple and her action is seen as an implicit call to breed communal hatred’. A few transgender activists suggested that her support for the Ram temple is a result of her higher caste heritage and identifying as an elite transgender. Tripathi’s attempts to reclaim herself and provide necessary justifications to the hijra community have proved unsuccessful. A few participants talked about their disagreement with the leader because of her communal position. Suma mentioned:

I am not in favour of a leader speaking about her idea of representation of the hijra community, each gharana in the hijra community has a different set of rules and ideologies. However, we unite on a common liberal understanding that is shared among us. When one of our leaders is taking a politically incorrect stand ... we object it strongly. (Suma, TSVK, personal communication, 9 December 2018)

88 The statement is six pages long and detailed encapsulating the oppositions. It also has signatures and CBO affiliations of the individuals and groups who have signed the statement. The statement was passed over several groups and pages on Facebook to gain support for the movement and submitted to the government of India. For a public draft of the statement, see https://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9509:trans-gender- nonconforming-gnc-intersex-collectives-strongly-condemn-kinnar-akhara-s-support-for-ram-temple-at- ayodhya&catid=129:events-and-activism&Itemid=195

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The participants in the study expressed their disagreement with Tripathi’s statement and condemned the position as being discriminatory and communal. In response to these allegations, Tripathi justified her position in a video posted on all her social media platforms, which stated:

I believe the Hindu religion order has provided hijras the opportunity to reclaim their ritual status. The religion has allowed us to reclaim our religious identities. This has elevated our status from doing menial jobs such as begging and surviving on alms, to being more respectable members of the society. Apart from citizenship rights post- NALSA, we (hijras) need to have religious rights. These political opinions have created different factions within the transgender community, pitching the hijra community as the privileged faction.

In this divisive context, LGBTQ+ activist Roma Laisram wrote on Transgender India,89 urging the diverse transgender groups to be united rather than privilege some opinions over others. The post was as follows:

While I am totally for the non-homogenising of the trans experience and I’m continually trying to bring other trans identities to the forefront (especially since the hijra community is not native to the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala or Andhra Pradesh) …. Can there never be a middle ground in this movement? Does every identity have to claim its space only by defaming the other?’ (Laisram, Facebook post, August 2016)

In his interview with Vagabomb regarding the ‘I am not a hijra’ campaign90, Laisram states:

Nobody denies that India/South Asia has a considerable number of beautiful and wonderfully indigenous non-hijra trans identities. All of them need to be known, and their nuances understood, and their uniqueness(es) celebrated. But does that have to be done by insulting, shaming, and hating another community? Does one need to restate every negative, untrue stereotype of the hijra community to promote themselves as somehow being better and hence different? That I do not comprehend and refuse to call it anything but a hatred stemming from privilege.

Through these statements, Laisram urges for all in the transgender community to unite with all transgender communities in South Asia. While the non-hijra trans persons wish to be more prominent and dispel the myth that they are only meant for sex work and begging (Borges, 2016), the more visible faction of the hijras reasserts these as their primary occupations in the

89 https://www.facebook.com/pg/Transgender-India-224912497891952/photos/ 90 For example, see the interview with Vagabomb at https://www.vagabomb.com/I-Am-Not-a-Hijra-Campaign- Reeks-of-Privilege-and-Hatemongering/

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public space. There is disagreement within the transgender community regarding this position. In her reply to Laisram, Tripathi argues that these occupations of hijras present the struggles and hard survival strategies adopted by vulnerable groups. She further argues that the hijras are thus not more privileged than the others. As evident from the posts and arguments discussed above, it is difficult to decipher Tripathi’s political stance as it differs significantly regarding hijra issues. Her Facebook page is indicative of the varied opinions adopted by Tripathi to manage dissent from the hijra community and others.

Tripathi has been vocal about her personal and professional life on social media, and her team has strategically managed dissidence. Her posts include evidence to authenticate her stand and argue for thought, which is not necessarily in favour of the majority. Individuals from the hijra community, along with those working with CBOs, have been sceptical of her celebrity status and political stance, and this was evident in the interviews. As a leader, Tripathi positions herself on behalf of the hijra and the transgender community. In recent years, she has attracted criticism because she supports right-wing nationalist politics, which automatically creates disruptions in the seemingly secular space of the gharana. Her stance on the Ram temple is clear; however, the questions regarding her political opinions largely remain unaddressed. This has led to a significant drop in her number of followers, particularly between October 2018 and March 2019 when the akhada activities were ongoing. This dissent within the hijra community towards Tripathi indicates the strong sense of community that has led them to emerge as having a distinct identity (Goel, 2019).

Discussion

‘Using public backlash as motivation to emerge powerful and become a strong voice to counter the domination and discrimination from the society’, stated Sawant as she aggressively responds to negative comments on her Facebook posts. The above sections document the individual work of Sawant and Tripathi; however, there is evidence of interactions between the two, seen through posts related to each other’s performances and appreciative comments/posts regarding each other’s work. An example of such performance is on Tripathi’s Facebook page, reviewing the Election Committee’s appointment of Sawant as transgender ambassador. For instance, when Sawant was appointed the transgender ambassador, Tripathi commented, saying that ‘this progress and appointment is an indication of the growing maturity of our democracy. We as a country are heading in the right direction of extending the constitutional and

172 fundamental rights to every citizen of the country’. A comment on this post reads: ‘Laxmi, you have been struggling to uplift hijra community and such an initiative in a reasonable effort to include hijras and transgender people in Electoral management’. Tripathi’s response to Sawant’s role indicates her acknowledgement of another hijra (Sawant) and appreciation of the accomplished political position to a wider network of publics on Facebook.

Another example of this collaboration is a video that was uploaded by Sawant four years ago. The post mentioned ‘a striking performance in union with Tripathi’. It received 3,000 views and 71 shares on the page. The video portrays Sawant and Tripathi outside of their activist status and reflects the hijra cultural performances at the traditional badhai ceremony, which is rare to observe as both leaders do not engage in the traditional occupations of the community.91

The community work represented by the two leaders on their Facebook pages indicates the diversity of issues and nature of hijra identity for Sawant and Tripathi. While Tripathi is responsible for bringing hijra identity and the community to the forefront and taking it to a global platform, Sawant is credited for raising important issues of motherhood, adoption, marriage and citizenship for the hijra community. Both leaders have enhanced the visibility of the hijra community in academia and on social media. Sawant’s and Tripathi’s media association through their participation on reality shows such as Kaun Banega Crorepati (2017) and Sach Ka Samna (2008) have led to both hijra leaders to become popular faces on television. The sharing of personal stories and public sharing of current projects promotes awareness about the hijra community to audiences. The personalised narrative on television shows and Facebook pages presents the authentic hijra identity as opposed to the dramatic mainstream media portrayals.

Administrators of both pages have mechanisms to manage spam, hate comments and inappropriate posts. Sawant and Tripathi are sensitive to media portrayals of the hijras, as they are aware of a large number of young hijras within the community. A majority of the posts have audio-visual content, making use of Facebook’s affordances; for example, a text-based

91 Badhai as a traditional occupation is losing prominence in large cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Sawant and Tripathi are hijra celebrities and reduced personal involvement in traditional occupations. The current nature of activism and celebrity work carried out the two leaders is the primary source of income and sustenance, unlike other hijra gharanas or members who need to undertake in badhai, sex work or begging for survival. Here, I do not imply that Sawant and Tripathi do not engage in badhai or do not possess the ability to bless, certainly they do and it is part of their identities. However, their association with traditional occupations need not be a source of income for the leaders anymore.

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ephemeral post on AIDS Day included a message from the leader and a tribute to those who died due to the illness. On such days, there are usually a series of posts, sometimes in vernacular languages, presenting information regarding different facets of the illness. Other posts coincide with a specific event, such as the Ram Mandir controversy and annual NALSA judgement celebrations. Their performative practice on Facebook invariably ‘involves the ongoing maintenance of a fan/followers base, performed intimacy, authenticity and access, and construction of a consumable persona’ (Marwick & boyd, p.140).

The efforts involved in maintaining these platforms for identity representation is noteworthy. Sawant’s and Tripathi’s Facebook pages have almost become living entities and have ‘textualized themselves into being’ (boyd, 2008). These spaces allow them to maintain a level of agency over their self-representations within the network of followers and unpredictable audience. However, it is problematic to homogenise the community itself, given the variations of the work carried out by both leaders and their respective CBOs.

Analysis of these pages reveals that Sawant’s and Tripathi’s social media presence and performances contribute to new ways of understanding the hijra community and have dismissed the representations of the mainstream media in several instances. Their celebrity and activist status have augmented the understanding of the hijra community in digital and public spaces. Both leaders share commonalities of using the NALSA struggle and bringing about the judgement, indicating it as a result of commitment and rigour to gain recognition for the hijra community and their own identities. While they are attempting to create a representation for the entire hijra community (which they are a part of and proudly claim on all platforms), these representations are based on their own ideological positions. Hence, the nature of work carried out by these individuals overlaps, yet it is different.

The next section outlines the formation of alliances between the prominent leaders and establishing CBOs.

6.5 ALLIANCES BETWEEN LEADERS AND COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANISATIONS

Social networking and celebrity activism are a result of the complicated relationship that exists between the celebrity, the media and their public (Tsaliki, 2015). In the context of this study, the public—also viewed as ‘followers’ on Facebook—comprise the hijra community; non-

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hijras, including members of the LGBTQ+ community; and others interested in learning about the prominent leaders and their work. Sawant and Tripathi are both leaders and founding members of their respective hijra CBOs. Additionally, both leaders have created a niche for themselves in public and digital spaces. CBOs invite Sawant and Tripathi, who are joint petitioners of and for the NALSA judgement, to various events and often share posts discussing the work carried out by the two leaders. However, Tripathi’s contentious support towards the construction of the Ram temple has changed these dynamics for Tripathi and her core team. The formation of the alliances—either within hijra gharanas and CBOs or with other minority groups in India—challenge the ‘hegemony of the single-axis identity politics based on gender and sexuality alone, and emphasize the role of the intersections based on class, caste and language in the process of movement building’ (Dutta, 2019, p. 2).

The leaders use their Facebook pages to inform the general public about their work by presenting photographs, video or text-based posts, check-ins at prestigious public events, collaborations with other activists, and brand and issue endorsements. These leaders have taken ownership of representing the hijra community and therefore negotiate newer ways of performing their hijra-ness. Some of the younger participants were asked about the impact of these pages on their identity and social position. While some correspond with these leaders, others think differently. Liz, a 27-year-old hijra from AT explained:

With me it depends, I have learnt so much from my guru [Tripathi]. I like to generally share what guru shares as they are important things for my friends and family on Facebook. For example, important updates or legal changes in the country. The wholesome issues that belong to everyone in the hijra community and are beneficial I post or reshare them on my personal Facebook profile. (L. Pinto, personal communication, 15 January 2019)

This statement demonstrates that much information about the sociopolitical status of hijras is consumed from the Facebook pages of the leaders. Vasavi, a 32-year-old hijra from TSVK, admires Sawant’s work and her adoption of Marathi as her language of communication, despite being a public figure:

Sawant lives next door and often visits our gharana premises. She provides us motivation and tips to become extra-ordinary in our everyday work. I and other chelas see Gauri ma [mother] performing her roles, living up to the claims she makes outside … that’s what I want to become. On her Facebook page, the accessible and readable information in Marathi, the most spoken language among hijras here [in the gharana] makes it relevant. Not all hijras following ma on the page understand English very

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well and reading texts in Marathi makes us feel the personalised text is for our betterment and we follow it.

Hence, Vasavi indicates the popularity of these posts on Sawant’s page, which allows hijras to connect with the content easily. The practices of sharing and negotiating hijra identities on social media platforms need to be viewed in a context of how hijra CBOs want the audiences to view them.

Tripathi, much older than Sawant, has been in the public domain since 2005 and her current work primarily focuses on bridging religious and political boundaries for hijras. In contrast, Sawant more recently shot to fame due to the Vicks ad in 2017 and her rights-based work in marriage, adoption and gender identity. The Facebook activities of both leaders reflect work on hijra advocacy. The Facebook pages, along with other social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, serve as platforms for the authentic narratives produced by the hijra community. The work undertaken by Sawant and Tripathi through their online and offline performances and publication of their respective biographies is a conscious effort to define the hijra community. Further, it has been argued (Das, 2015; S. Narrain, 2003) that digital media presence is aiding the public to become aware of their existence and their unique culture. The historic NALSA judgement, the work of the CBOs and rise of prominent hijra identities have helped to increase the visibility of the community and create a self-represented space among the general population.

6.6 CONCLUSION

The chapter examined the minority celebrity practices of two prominent hijra community leaders—Sawant and Tripathi—on and through their Facebook pages. The activities of Sawant and Tripathi on their respective Facebook pages and the celebrity-like position they occupy in India has opened avenues for several other hijras to aspire to become like them. The analysis presented in this chapter supports the efforts of the leaders to improve visibility and representation of the hijra community through their civic and political engagement both online and offline in Mumbai and India more broadly. Further, through participation in collaborative events such as fashion and television reality shows, the leaders demonstrate their capacities to manage their fame to broaden their mission and facilitate the activities of their projects. This has enabled the leaders to become popular faces of the hijra community in every household and create a representation about the hijra community that is different from the traditional ritual

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performers position occupied by the community or the image created based on stereotypes and mainstream media. By self-representing hijra identities via social media, the leaders and the CBOs together reassert hijra identities and community work to larger networks.

These digitally mediated performances have helped communicate hijra realities to the general masses and, at the same time, have reinforced their identities and community work in digital and public spheres. The responses of the general public can be gauged through the posts, even though these responses were not studied in depth. There appears to be a generally positive impact and response to the ‘coming out’ of these celebrities in public spheres. These self- representations have also contributed to a body of hijra literature and knowledge that is being reconstructed following the 2014 NALSA judgement. Their use and presence on other platforms, such as Twitter, and Instagram, is not as evident; thus, their use of Facebook has been consistent due to the larger audience base established over the years and their knowledge of the technological affordances of the platform. The online deliberations, ‘calls to action’, organised protests, signature campaigns, assertive statements and reimagining of the public has resulted in the formation of various alliances of hijra leaders and their CBOs in Mumbai. A successful demonstration of these alliances is seen in the symbolic solidarity position taken against Tripathi in the Ram Mandir controversy. Together, these digitally formed alliances connect, organise and agitate based on liberal ideologies to introduce social change by increasing awareness towards marginalised groups, improving their visibility and acceptance, and fighting for equal rights and opportunities in contemporary India.

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Chapter 7: Conclusions

7.1 INTRODUCTION

This thesis has examined social media uses among three hijra CBOs to investigate how hijras negotiate their identities through self-representation on Facebook pages. The findings presented in the preceding three chapters contribute to our understanding of how the hijra CBOs have used Facebook pages to negotiate their identities and build community representations in the post-NALSA context. This chapter presents a summary of this research, key research findings and academic contributions, including limitations of the study and emerging questions for future research.

7.2 KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS

At the outset, the research questions, objectives and scope of the study were formulated to guide the study. A thorough review of literature helped in understanding the gaps in the literature, which led to the primary research question: ‘How do hijra CBOs use social media platforms to negotiate hijra identities and build community representations following the 2014 NALSA judgement in India?’

The existing research conducted by both Indian and Western scholars has focused on the nature of hijra identities, the hijra social structure and forms of organisation. The current study emerged from a growing curiosity and paucity in the literature on how the hijra community communicated and represented their own identities via digital media following legal recognition. The NALSA judgement and an increased representation of individual hijra personalities on popular media such as the Vicks advertisement, Six Pack Band and Seatbelt Crew, amplified my interest in exploring these complexities in representing identities in the current context. This was further reinforced by a reading of existing ethnographic work conducted by scholars such as Serene Nanda and Gayatri Reddy and their presentation of the hijra identities as an important contribution to knowledge on hijra literature. Taking a cue from scholars such as Rohit Dasgupta and Sreyoshi Dey and their work on Indian queer groups on Facebook in recent years, I became interested in mapping the niche hijra community and the negotiation of hijra identities through their digital presence. It was the starting point to

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conducting similar ethnographic work, but on social media platforms—the emerging spaces for construction, negotiation and representation of hijra identities. In the following sections, I briefly summarise the main findings from the chapters reiterating the multiple dimensions of CBOs’ construction of hijra identities on social media.

To answer the main research question, I began by identifying and charting the uses of the emerging popular social media platform among the three hijra CBOs: Facebook. The study adopted a social media ethnography, consisting of a close reading and textual analysis of the Facebook pages and other social media platforms in combination with 30 semi-structured interviews with professional members of the hijra CBOs in Mumbai. Each chapter in the thesis explored the presentations of the CBO’s representation of hijra identities through an analysis of the content on these Facebook pages. The analyses show how hijra CBOs use Facebook pages to present a range of community work performed in the gharana and CBO premises. This thesis mainly argues that community work lies at the centre of hijra identities in the post- NALSA phase. The multiple representations of community work by the CBOs and work on information dissemination for and about the community have brought the hijra community to the digital forefront. The CBOs have employed innovative strategies and utilised affordances of Facebook pages to represent their personal and collective hijra identities, community work and engage in activism to protect the rights of the community members.

The use of Facebook for self-representations by the hijra community is recent, unlike Western counterparts (larger transgender population). The recent surge in usage is closely linked with the growth of media and digital technologies (Dasgupta, 2017) in India, such as the advent of Reliance Jio92 wi-fi and cheap data plans since 2016. These developments have made it easier for the hijra communities living on meagre earnings to afford and utilise the internet for community work and other digital explorations, such as findings friends and reconnecting with family, seeking work and leisure.

In Chapter 4, I explored how hijra CBOs have used Facebook pages in multiple ways for self- representations of hijra identities and promoting community work. These digital spaces have also been extensively used to explore and form networks for community-building and increasing visibility for hijra communities. In this chapter, I employed boyd’s (2011) concept

92 In 2019, Jio become the largest mobile network in India and third largest in the world with a total of over 370 million subscribers in India (Jio website, 2020).

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of networked publics to understand what constituted hijra networked publics. The imagined and unimagined audiences for these networks include friends, families, fellow hijras, other gharanas, organisations/supporters of the hijra CBOs and the general Facebook public. Each CBO has a unique representation of their brand identity and what it means being hijra, which resonates with the vision statement of the CBO. Facebook then becomes a space for them to assert their identity(ies) in consonance with these goals. This chapter also demonstrated that the content posted by HST on their Facebook page is contributing to a local discourse on hijra identities and the Indian queer community that is pertinent to transnational politics, mainstream media and international organisations.

In Chapter 5, I employed Goffman’s (1959) theatre analogy of the ‘front-stage’ and ‘back- stage’ performances in hijra gharanas and CBOs to understand the uses of Facebook as a CBO front-stage performance, and some of the individuals’ uses of social media as back-stage performances in the gharanas. Further, using Haythornthwaite’s (2005) concept of media multiplexity, I demonstrated a multi-platform usage pattern within the hijra gharanas and the CBOs to accomplish a wide variety of day-to-day tasks and communicate with wider audiences that formed the hijra networks. To perform a broad communicative function, HST used multiple social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. WhatsApp also emerged as a common messaging app used by the three CBOs to manage their gharana and CBO functions. Hence, I found the parallel use of multiple social media platforms by HST, apart from patterns of communication between members within the gharanas, impinged on the ways hijra identities are represented on social media. For instance, the practice of posting content and thereby creating an online representation was impacted by apprehensions regarding the erosion of their cultural repertoire of hijra ways of being in gharanas. For a gharana like TSVK, the information circulation and its representation on these platforms was controlled by senior members of the gharana who typically hold these apprehensions. Surveillance around members’ social media activities and media interventions was identified in interviews conducted with CBO members. Meanwhile, the current leadership under Chandini guru negotiated the use of social media for CBO work despite the oppositions from the elderly members in the gharana.

The members of TSVK and AT differentiated social media uses and adoption for individual and community needs. Additionally, the use of social media by the three CBOs was driven by the aim to project their community work to broader audiences, to increase awareness about

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hijra communities, and also seek recognition and support from like-minded organisations and funding agencies. At the same time, these Facebook pages served to disseminate important information for the community members and awareness for larger audiences.

In Chapter 6, I shifted focus from studying the organisations’ social media usage towards examining two prominent case studies of hijra celebrity figures and activists, Gauri Sawant and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi. I positioned both leaders as minority celebrity activists, distinguishing them from Marwick’s (2013) microcelebrity cultures. This chapter mapped the growth trajectories of both these leaders as celebrities and activists, which included examples of their community work and social media interventions, served to exemplify current popular representations of hijra identities for wider Facebook audiences, particularly page followers. Sawant has focused on the introduction of legal rights for hijras drawing from her own experiences of adopting a young girl. The Vicks ad showcased this story and garnered her fame and recognition. This media representation positioned Sawant as an advocate for the adoption and marriage rights of transgender persons and further aided her work with the shelter home for children of sex workers. Tripathi’s trajectory has been different and seems to have shifted focus on gaining social legitimacy through the adoption of majoritarian religious practices. This was demonstrated through her efforts to establish the Kinnar Akhada, which appears politically skewed and motivated. Her participation in Hindu rituals at the Kumbh Mela was further reveal her political affiliation and perceived as a strong assertion of her upper-caste Hindu religious identity. This gathered support as well as vehement opposition, visible on social media platforms in the form of signature campaigns and posts generating dialogue around the controversy.

Despite the differences in the trajectories of these personalities, both have worked closely with their CBOs to empower hijras in their gharanas to move beyond their traditional occupations. Using the NALSA judgement as a starting point in their work, both encouraged hijras to undergo vocational skills training and seek employment opportunities, as essential steps to changing traditional notions around occupations performed by hijras. The case studies demonstrate how the leaders have used power and celebrity status to change stereotypical perceptions of the hijra community fuelled by mainstream media. These leaders continue to serve as role models for those hoping to have a different career trajectory and acquire fame and status like these activists. The CBOs’ and the leaders’ social media platforms emphasise the

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representation of community work among hijra gharanas, which is not presented in existing media representations and acts as an assertion of hijra identities in contemporary India.

Self-representations of hijra identities on social media: Contested interpretations

This study demonstrates the presentations of hijra identities by three CBOs. The content published on the Facebook pages represents a collective understanding of hijra identities. These Facebook pages also serve to promote the work of individuals emerging as strong voices and feeding into the collective identity assertions, post-NALSA judgement. The following content originally shared on Sawant’s page and reshared on TSVK’s page illustrates this point:

Today, we are five years old as hijras, an identity legally recognised in India since 2014. Prior to the judgement, we did not exist for the society; even though we existed in the mythological stories and on the streets in big cities. If using social media today is allowing me to express my identity and proclaim the hijra community in a progressive manner, I will use the platform to profess it. (Sawant, Facebook post, April 14, 2019)

Representations of hijra identities created by the CBOs are informed by the hijra culture, with a specific relation to kinship, religion, class and politics. Apart from these popular cultural representations, contemporary hijra communities want recognition for their professional community work (social work) undertaken for the welfare of their communities. Insights from the study suggest social media has provided a space for the community to present complexities of their identities to contest existing stigma and discrimination further. Hence, the presentation of these diversities in hijra identity(ies) have become possible with the dynamic technological affordances.

This mediation supported by digital developments has increased the scope for interacting with a variety of identity representations that were otherwise not possible, given the status of the hijras. In the absence of real-time interactions with the community (considering the stigma that exists) and religious interaction with audiences, this digital space becomes a medium of interaction. This study shows how representations of hijra identities were impacted by access to technology issues and restrictions associated with hijra social organisation and hierarchy. The traditional organisational structure of the hijra gharana was found to control the nature of communication on social media platforms. Hence, the possibilities of identity explorations on these platforms are somewhat limited for ordinary members of the gharanas indulging in non-

182 CBO work. Considering these factors that impinge on representations, the narratives of the CBO members and the two celebrities helped in understanding what is shown to the hijra networks (audiences) and what is withheld. Employing Foucault’s work on History of Sexuality to the Indian scenario to understand how is it gradually contested by digitally mediated hijra identities, Vinay Lal (1999) states, ‘there is something that is deeply transgressive about the life choices made by hijras, just as there is deep anxiety about their identity, since they do not fall within the paradigms of classification and enumeration that are in the modern knowledge systems’ (p. 134).

The narratives of participants and observations indicate that social media has become an important part of the lives of gharana members. For TSVK and AT, bulk uploads mark the celebration of special occasions, while HST strategically uses social media for promotion and awareness activities. These activities displayed on the Facebook pages further reinforce hijra culture and identities to followers. The active involvement of a CBO in social media activities creates a strong embodiment of the hijra identity(ies) on the digital forefront. The hijra CBOs have normalised and adapted to using social media to increase CBO reach and visibility for hijra identity(ies). The CBOs have been able to explore the potential of these digital spaces to connect with masses about their community work. Further, they have learnt lessons through community leaders and their social media exchanges. Hence, Facebook is an all-purpose encompassing platform used among the gharanas and CBOs.

7.3 ACADEMIC CONTRIBUTIONS

This study is a first step towards documenting hijra discourses with a focus on digital media that are part of the hijra community’s everyday life by self-representation of their identities and community work.

This thesis contributes to the understanding of hijra identities and social media within the evolving socio-legal-digital context in India. Its key contribution lies in the exploration of hijra CBOs in Mumbai, a study of their social media adoption, community-building and self- representations that provide an Indian perspective to the large body of literature studying transgender communities (See, Nanda 1990, Hall 1995, Reddy 2005, Goel 2016) This is an important contribution considering Western academia dominates literature in the field of gender, sexuality and digital media (See, Raun 2016, Vivenne 2016). This thesis also builds on existing queer and digital media studies in India that have highlighted the nuanced

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understanding of Indian queer communities through an examination of their class and intimacy (Dasgupta, 2017), geography, religion, sexuality (Nanda 1990; Reddy 2005), caste, and regional and state identities. The study has examined hijra CBOs’ efforts to gain digital and social recognition through their participation on social media, in a context that now legally recognises them as citizens. Throughout this thesis, I have argued that legal and social recognition hold different meanings for hijra communities compared to other minority groups in India. This is particularly evident on the Facebook pages of hijra CBOs that work towards self-representing hijra identities and the larger community.

The representation of community work as displayed by the CBOs reflect their attempts to increase hijra visibility and portray a construction of hijra identities to audiences shaped by the legal and social recognition of the hijra community. HST took an activist pathway to advocate for equal rights and opportunities, contributing to legal and policy revisions, whereas TSVK focused on disseminating essential information to the community and other audiences. Gauri Sawant’s leadership and independent projects provide opportunities for elderly hijras and orphaned children to find shelter at homes cared for by the hijra community. The reflection of these projects on and through Facebook have generated dialogues for discussion on marriage and adoption rights for the transgender people more broadly in India. AT’s page serves as a digital repository, and as a space to participate in discussions, seek information about hijra communities and local events, and keep updated about the activities of their leader, Tripathi, who is engaged in multiple awareness and advocacy related activities.

This thesis builds new knowledge on how hijra CBOs have used social media platforms, particularly Facebook, to increase the visibility of their community work and build community networks. It also highlights the role of other social media platforms and messaging apps such as WhatsApp, used for day-to-day communication and self-representation. The study of hijra digital usage patterns and practices is unique to India as this thesis demarcates an emerging area for the digital presentation of subaltern identities such as the hijra community and their CBOs. The digital lives of the hijras in the larger collection of queer identities in India calls for greater and detailed scholarly attention across various social media platforms beyond Facebook.

Finally, this thesis provides a narrative of the social media uses of three hijra CBOs in Mumbai based on a detailed examination of their Facebook pages and interviews with CBO professionals. These results are valuable and useful to other hijra CBOs in different

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geographical settings or minority organisations performing similar community work looking to increase organisational visibility and representation in India. Even though this project focuses on studying Facebook, there is evidence that the hijra digital culture is not limited to the platform, and the community has begun to explore others.

In the following section, I discuss the limitations of the study to direct emerging questions for future research.

7.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study faced certain limitations around practical constraints. First, I interviewed 30 participants recruited from urban suburbs in the metropolitan city of Mumbai. Considering the vast variations within the hijra communities (in relation to class, caste, religion and regional identities), the sample size may not have been representative of these diversities. There exist many hijra gharanas and CBOs in different cities in India that incorporate social media as part of their organisational culture. I considered these during the initial round of finalising the CBOs for the study. Other considerations included the scale, experience, expertise and the nature of leadership in the gharanas. The CBOs chosen for study are well-established and have a sustained source of income, which is not necessarily applicable to all hijra gharanas and CBOs in India. Further, the interpretations based on the findings of the study are unique to a specific group of hijras belonging to a socio-economic class and associated with well-established CBOs such as HST, TSVK and AT. The sample was selected to generate as holistic an understanding as possible of social media usage among CBOs in Mumbai. Hence, the findings can be generalised to the small subset of the hijra population residing in these spaces in Mumbai. Since vast variations exist in practices and ways of living based on the geographical locations of gharanas, there is a need for continued studies on the use of social media platforms across different subsets. Additionally, I conducted interviews with the CBO members managing different departments in vernacular languages, which were then translated into English and used to corroborate the analysis section. There is always a small degree of loss in meaning and cultural nuances in the process of translation. The qualitative design of the study allowed a specific methodological framework for sample selection, conducting interviews and observation and analysis of findings. The study followed purposive sampling to interview key individuals in these organisations. Even though the sample size was limited, I have been able to draw substantial inferences using the observation findings and the interview data. Due to the

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qualitative nature of the research, involving a social media ethnography as the methodological framework, the generalisability of the study to other hijra CBOs, is limited.

As discussed in Chapter 3, I corroborated findings from an observation of the content and posts on Facebook with interview narratives. The interviews helped validate the information that was available on the platforms. Hence, I attempted to reduce the potential errors involved in translating and interpreting findings. Participants’ opinions and views in response to questions asked during interviews consisted of their experiences alone, shaped by their involvement in the CBO and gharana. These experiences formed the main findings of the thesis.

Data was constantly uploaded and updated on these Facebook pages. However, I ceased to collect all data in May 2019 after the interviews were complete. Hence, the thesis does not document changes in the content or nature of posts beyond this period. This is especially applicable for the AT page, which appeared redundant with only reposting and no original posts in the latter half of the observation period, but may have been revived after the data collection period was over. Additionally, the ways individuals and organisations use social media has evolved over time. There was an attempt to capture these changes in the study through the ways Facebook and WhatsApp have been intergrated as part of CBO work as seen in chapters 4 and 5. An in-depth longitudinal study of these changes and the reasons for the change needs exploration to understand the perceptions and patterns of uses for the hijra community and gharanas particularly engaged in community work.

The study focused on the use of Facebook as a platform for representations of collective identity and representations of hijra identities. There was evidence of the use of other platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp (and other messaging apps) and CBO websites. These were specifically explored for one CBO, considering their active use of multiple platforms. However, the study was limited in its exploration of these multiple platforms, since all CBOs in the sample did not follow such an approach. This multi-platform approach to understanding identity representations, building a brand name as part of a communications strategy for other CBOs in India needs to be studied further.

7.5 EMERGING QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Potential areas of research emerge from the findings and limitations of this project. As mentioned above, a similar study could explore other platforms such as Twitter and Instagram

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and how the usage on these platforms relate to Facebook, as the brief discussion here relies on one organisation. It would be insightful to combine digital methods and qualitative ethnographic methods to achieve a larger data set from the hijra population. The use of social media data crawler software, data mining tools and social media analytics could yield wide- ranging information on complex features such as hashtags and tweets. Alternatively, there is also potential to extend the study by revisiting the same CBOs some five years from now to compare the evolution of CBOs’ social media usage patterns. As noted in the findings of AT, the absence of consistent active leadership and changes in leaders’ notions of hijra identities and its representations on social media, has limited the use of Facebook. The rise of alternative Facebook pages mediated by the leader’s visions for the hijra community has taken priority, as seen in Chapter 4 and Chapter 6. The proliferation of CBO aims and objectives, and its relationship with the CBO representation on social media platforms, could be explored further to understand how CBOs rationalise use of social media to suit representation needs and brand building for social justice and community work.

This study does not assess the impact of these Facebook pages on its audiences through an evaluation of engagement metrics, but community use. Such an evaluation would help in understanding the profiles of individuals engaging with this content, the extent of outreach, enhance discussions on net neutrality in relation to queer content and how to improve this engagement process to ensure the sustainability of their presence. From a qualitative design perspective, it would be fruitful to explore how these pages have impacted the perceptions and attitudes of the followers regarding their understanding of the hijra community. Exploring further nuanced understanding of transgender populations in India would provide additional knowledge about their identities and social media use. There is also a need to further map the usage of social media platforms among hijra CBOs to gain a comprehensive understanding of their social media ecologies.

Personal conversations with the participants during the interview process reflected their interest in vlogging, which seems to be making its way into the hijra gharanas. Some of the younger hijras in the community are keen on pursuing YouTube to create useful videos of different kinds (such as those suggesting beauty tips) using their phones. A potential area of study is an exploration into the uses of new media technologies and social media, particularly among sexual minority communities in India, and an examination of particular case studies regionally. More similar empirical studies are required to provide an enhanced understanding of hijra

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gharanas and their CBOs in the digital context. In particular, there is scope for a comparison of CBOs across geographical regions to understand the interplay of variables such as social class, culture and politics from the broader question of history of sexuality using Foucault’s works.

Rediscovering hijra representations following legal amendments in the context of hijra communities in India is an ongoing investigation and needs to be studied over time. This study makes a maiden attempt to study hijra CBOs based in Mumbai. There is considerable potential for this work to extend to other fields and minority groups to gain an in-depth understanding of social media use and community-building practices.

7.6 REFLECTIONS

Through this research journey I have learnt to articulate some of the complexities of conceptualising hijra identities in and through digital media. To decipher meanings of hijra identities on digital media and articulate these representations alongside existing ethnographic texts in the hijra literature has been a challenging and valuable journey. This has allowed me to understand how the hijra community creates and curates their self-representations, especially on social media platforms. I have made scholarly and meaningful connections to understand how localised and indigenous hijra communities use social media to represent their identities to build a sense of belonging and community both on digital and in social spaces. These tangled and untangled world of online and offline domains are a part of the hijra gharanas and their CBOs. By presenting such self-representations and versions of hijra identities on social media, the hijra community are offering to create knowledge about the community and counter existing stereotypes by increasing visibility and aiding change in attitudes of people. I hope that this study not only contributes to the literature on queer identities and digital culture in South Asia, but is found useful for the hijra CBOs whose work and lives formed the core of this thesis.

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Appendices

APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS I (FOR HIJRA GURUS AND PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS)

1. Personal: Use of social media and association with gharana and CBO Since when and how did you get involved in CBO work What is the significance of social media platforms among hijra gharanas and how is it different from CBOs? How do gurus/leaders use social media and moderate younger members’ use of social media? Are there any laid-out specifications for social media use among members that need to followed in gharana and CBOs? Are members allowed to express/ have political opinions different from that of the community? Who decides the content for circulation over various social media platforms? Any norms to follow? Why? How is the information managed/shared with those who don’t use any social media platforms? Are CBO activities only for those active on social media? Are members whose knowledge of social media is limited restricted from CBO work? What impacts have communications created over social media made in offline gharana premises? Significance of social media representation and use among members Impact of NALSA judgement and other laws in favour of transgender rights and identity on social media use Improved friendships/relationships with personal and professional use of social media Sharing of CBO work through personal accounts Devices/technological support for social media? Who pays for it? Ownership of the device? 2. Professional work in the CBO Hierarchy of work and information flow Motivations for joining/placed with social media teams in CBO

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Purpose and agenda for each social media platform Occasion-centric posts versus casual informative/educational posts Are opinions on a particular bill/law those of one person or a collective as a CBO? Are posts presenting hijra identities accurate as justify a collective as a CBO? Types of discussion in the offline/gharana premises for creating and curating content for Facebook/other social media? Delegation of work Why limited use of vernacular when the gharana and CBO has diverse linguistic groups? Significance of professional CBO work for professional members Perceptions of preferred platforms among members? Impact of kinship role on CBO work How does control by hijra leaders and gurus in any context for professional members play out in gharana? 3. Social media learning and use: Motivations and narratives Specific strategies Who are the targeted audience in social media representation? Clusters of posts: Educative/ CBO work-reporting/ Political/ Ideology affiliation Training provided for staff and hijra community in specific Using experience from CBO to work outside How have things in the CBO and gharana changed with the use of social media in the past five years? 4. Media Literacy Program What is the purpose and goals of this initiative? Who provides the training and how does it help? How do hijra leaders and participants measure their learning and outcomes from this workshop? Do participants attending this workshop get a direct entry into CBO work and how does it help the gharana? Participation in CBO activities and nurturing skills among hijras 5. Role-related: Social Media/ Public Relations/Advertising Association/Job based on technological knowledge and skills training Working experience with LGBTQ individuals/full hijra teams Sharing workload with fellow hijras and others

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Role of Language and hijra culture in the creation of content for posts 6. Administration and Management related: Position held and responsibilities How does moderation occur? How many posts go up day/week/month? Who decides? Follow-up and proof-reading How is the content created and approved? Protocol on type of posts uploaded? Based on what and process of curation? Management of bad/disrespectful comments Norms and regulations to be followed by professional members Management of personal and community posts on social media platforms

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APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS II (FOR COMMUNITY LEADERS/MEDIA KNOWN HIJRA CELEBRITIES)

1. Role as community-leader What are your responsibilities within this role? Additional/advanced social media use? How does having a team or employing one makes work better? Associated with ideology for CBO and gharana, being vocal about it in offline and online representations Setting example for the larger hijra community Breaking traditional hijra norms and convincing older traditional members of the community about media interviews and social media fame 2. Role as media-identified /hijra celebrity What does this role entail? Motivations, responsibilities and challenges Dealing with trolls and criticism, being politically correct/incorrect Voicing opinions on important societal issues other than concerning hijra Any performance pressure experienced and dictated by community? Relevant case study to describe how particular social platform impacted work and facilitated change/visibility? What is the impact of political association to enhance community work? Transgender ambassadors for upcoming elections? What does this position entail and how does it help promote the cause? 3. Representations Hijra vocabularies of self-presentations/ representations? How have they emerged across social media platforms? What do digital hijra identities signify? What do they stand for? Collective versus individual? How are they negotiated in the CBO work or gharana work? What role do you play as a key leader is moderating such content? Additional curation ensuring preservation of hijra culture and visibility in India today? How are hijras at gharana level and CBO presenting themselves? Are there differences between individual and group identities? Accurate representations of hijra community

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Solidarity with other queer groups over social media campaigns Formation of hijra groups/ other organisation for collaboration in Mumbai or other parts of India? Role of religious positions in representing the hijra community Personal media or advertisement endorsements and if they are answerable to their community/gharana? How does the gharana react? For example, participating in a Fashion Show, or Vicks commercial with company or writing books with big publication house Dealing with contradictions and controversies over certain representations? E.g., Kinnar Akada case

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APPENDIX C: CBOS AND ASSOCIATED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS PART OF THIS RESEARCH STUDY (UPDATED MAY 2020)

Facebook Pages (Note: number of likes are different to the number of followers for each page, given below) o Humsafar Trust (14, 281 likes) o Triveni Samaj Vikas Kendra (2224 likes) o Astitva Trust (859 likes) o Gauri Sawant–Indian Transgender Activist (16,521 likes) o Laxmi Narayan Tripathi (10,495 likes)

Instagram Humsafar Trust (4,655 followers) https://www.instagram.com/thehumsafartrustofficial/ Gauri Sawant (2,566 followers) https://www.instagram.com/shreegaurisawant/

Twitter Humsafar Trust: @bombaydost @HumsafarTrust @yariyaan Gauri Sawant: @GauriSawant11 Laxmi Narayan Tripathi: @ImLaxmiNarayan Triveni Samaj Vikas Kendra: @SheikhChandini (Guru and Head of the CBO)

Websites: Humsafar Trust https://humsafar.org/ Gauri Sawant https://aajichaghar.com/

YouTube: Channel name: Humsafar Trust, 3, 790 subscribers, 112 videos, 378,869 views.

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APPENDIX D: INTERVIEWEE PROFILES

ROLE IN SOCIAL COMMUNITY- THE DEVICE USED MEDIA NO BASED NAME AGE GENDER GHARANA JOB in CBO FOR CBO PLATFORMS ORGANISATION WORK (only IN USE transgender) 1 Ashok 56 Male Not Director Facebook Laptop (Activist and Applicable (until 2019), Twitter iPad celebrity) Founding Instagram Smartphone member YouTube Humsafar Trust WhatsApp 2 (HT) Karuna 35 Female Not Media Intern Facebook Computer Applicable WhatsApp Smartphone 3 Preet 30 Transgender Independent Adverting Facebook Laptop Twitter Smartphone WhatsApp 4 Aruna 41 Female Not Public Relations Facebook Laptop Applicable Twitter Smartphone WhatsApp 5 Urmi 30 Transgender Chela Multiple roles Facebook Laptop (Activist and Twitter Smartphone Celebrity) Instagram WhatsApp 6 Shweta 24 Transgender Chela Public Relations Facebook Computer Twitter Smartphone Instagram WhatsApp 7 Radhakrishna 46 Transgender Guru Public Relations Facebook Smartphone WhatsApp

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ROLE IN SOCIAL COMMUNITY- THE DEVICE USED MEDIA NO BASED NAME AGE GENDER GHARANA JOB in CBO FOR CBO PLATFORMS ORGANISATION WORK (only IN USE transgender) 8 Rani 32 Transgender Chela Office Staff Facebook Smartphone WhatsApp 9 Shwetambera 33 Female Not Program Facebook Laptop Applicable Manager Twitter Smartphone TRANScend WhatsApp 10 Dheeraj 28 Male Chela Staff Facebook Smartphone Twitter WhatsApp 11 Purvi 31 Transgender Senior Chela Management Facebook Smartphone Staff WhatsApp 12 Janaki 34 Transgender Chela Management Facebook Smartphone Staff/Social Instagram Media WhatsApp YouTube 13 Triveni Samaj Soumali 37 Female Not Public Facebook Smartphone Vikas Kendra Applicable Relations/Media Instagram (TSVK) Representative WhatsApp YouTube 14 Shashi 63 Transgender Senior Media Literacy Facebook Laptop member/ Program Twitter Tablet chela/guru Trainer WhatsApp Smartphone 15 Chandini 42 Transgender Guru Head and Facebook Desktop Founder: Twitter Computer TSVK WhatsApp Smartphone YouTube

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ROLE IN SOCIAL COMMUNITY- THE DEVICE USED MEDIA NO BASED NAME AGE GENDER GHARANA JOB in CBO FOR CBO PLATFORMS ORGANISATION WORK (only IN USE transgender) 16 Rajni 30 Transgender Chela Multi-roles Facebook Smartphone WhatsApp YouTube 17 Shanti 37 Transgender Chela Social Media Facebook Laptop Instagram Smartphone WhatsApp YouTube 18 Bheenu 25 Transgender Senior Chela Social Media Facebook Smartphone WhatsApp YouTube 19 Vasavi 35 Transgender Senior Chela Assistant to Facebook Desktop Head Instagram Smartphone WhatsApp YouTube 20 Gopika 26 Transgender Chela Social Media Facebook Smartphone Instagram WhatsApp YouTube 21 Chandana 39 Transgender Senior Chela Management/ Facebook Smartphone HIV/AIDS/STI WhatsApp officer in field YouTube 22 Eswari 34 Transgender Senior Chela Office Staff Facebook Smartphone Instagram WhatsApp YouTube 23 Roohi 30 Transgender Chela Office Staff Facebook Smartphone WhatsApp

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ROLE IN SOCIAL COMMUNITY- THE DEVICE USED MEDIA NO BASED NAME AGE GENDER GHARANA JOB in CBO FOR CBO PLATFORMS ORGANISATION WORK (only IN USE transgender) Media Literacy YouTube Program trainer 24 Nazra 34 Transgender Chela Office Staff Facebook Smartphone WhatsApp YouTube 25 Liz 27 Transgender Chela Management Facebook Smartphone Instagram Astitva Trust (AT) WhatsApp 26 Sanjay 36 Male Not Management Facebook Desktop Applicable WhatsApp Computer YouTube Smartphone 27 Anjali 43 Transgender Guru Supervisor Facebook Smartphone Twitter WhatsApp 28 Pranali 28 Transgender Chela Office Staff Facebook Smartphone Instagram WhatsApp YouTube 29 Gayatri 34 Transgender Chela Management Facebook Smartphone WhatsApp YouTube 30 Independent Gauri Sawant 38 Transgender Guru, Hijra Head and Facebook Laptop/Computer celebrity and Founder: Twitter Smartphone activist Aaji cha Ghar Instagram and Sakhi Char Chowghi Trust

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APPENDIX E: CODE TREE: EMERGING THEMES FROM INTERVIEWS

Facebook pages activities o Representing hijra community o Presentation of CBO work o Clarity in nature of work for CBO: diverse for the three CBOs o Networking with like-minded organisations and funding bodies o Mentioning and tagging people in posts to increase reach and visibility o Declaration of CBO ideology o Call/Advertisements for workers and opportunities o Commercialisation of hijra handmade artefacts during exhibitions and events o Careful creation and use of terminology for posts o Increasing visibility o Recognition for the work o Health communication o Addressing legal documents o Reporting and critique to existing legal changes o Advocacy

Social media platform ecologies o Preference o User-relatability o Hijra peer culture o Identification of fellow hijras inter- and intra-gharanas o Selection based on majoritarian in the gharana o Preference of a display of everyday routines in personal and CBO work o Online/digital ‘coming out’ o Cross-platform o Migration to another user-friendly platform, e.g. Facebook to WhatsApp and vice- versa

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Use of social media o Learning o Education o Seeking romantic relationships and friends o Communication o Support groups o Visibility o Connecting with friends and family o Activism o Seeking attention in form of likes and comments o Impetus in finding job/employment o Building client base for sex work o Confidence o Improving vocabulary for English language o Fashion and lifestyle

Hijra celebrity cultures o Promotion of the cause: hijra inclusion into mainstream: citizenship and rights o Combination and balance of social activist and celebrity o Moderation/curator for online and offline as in gharana spaces o Clarifications and addressing hijra stereotypes o Authentic representations o Clarity in using indigenous terms and affiliations o Making a statement as a leader o Political affiliations

Representation of hijra identities on social media o Self-representation o Hijra involvement in teams o Authentic identities o Community-building and development

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o Working together in gharana and CBO o Connecting with kin members professionally o Negotiation o Collective identity o Discussion of everyday gharana and CBO work over WhatsApp and Facebook o Forming purposive groups of interest o Challenges posed against senior gurus in gharana

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