Reclaiming Identity at the Margin: A Study of Laxminarayan Tripathi’s Me Hijra, Me Laxmi

Abstract

Marginalization has posed innumerable unanswered questions to the peripheralised sections of society for which answers are not forthcoming; probably the most relevant and pressing question is that of identity assertion. Peripheralisation or marginalization refers to deliberately keeping a person in an undesirable social position where the individual is denied basic economic, social, political and cultural rights, thereby resulting in his/her social exclusion. Marginalized groups comprise the poor, working children, victims of gender inequality, the disabled, persons of ethnic minorities and the differently sexed. The basic issue of one’s identity being at variance with that of the larger part makes it very difficult for an individual to lead a meaningful life. The topic of identity is very pertinent for most of the socially alienated and marginalized groups but it becomes very crucial for the sexually diverse communities of the LGBT clan. The LGBT is an umbrella term that includes the following classes- lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender: lesbians are women who are sexually attracted to women, gays are men who enjoy sex with men, bisexual refers to those who are equally happy with male as well as female sexual partners, and transgender, the last category of the LGBT community, encompasses the transgender, the transvestite and the transsexual. While transgender alludes to those who desire to acquire and perform the gender roles of the opposite sex, transvestite signifies those who cross-dress for sexual gratification and the last category, that of transsexuals, being aware of a mismatch in their body and mind regarding their sex/gender, strive to become members of the opposite sex through medical treatment including sex reassignment surgery and/or hormonal therapy. While the majority of society follows the gender binary norm, little consideration is given to those who are other-sexed individuals and are rather slightingly termed queer.