INDIA , the largest democracy in the world , a country with enormous diversity , a country that believes in treating their guests as god , a country accommodating people of different regions , religions and the list goes on and on and on.
This is what you get to hear from every Indian. But is it true ?
Surely India is the largest democracy in the world , but is it really democratic in its true sense ? Surely we Indians believe in treating our guests as god , but do we really practice this belief ? Surely India is a country with diversity and is accommodating people of different regions , religions , but as individuals are we really open to all the communities ?
One community that we don’t talk much about is the 3rd gender or the trans community. You don’t normally see the 3rd gender except in cases when there is a function. Have you ever thought why ? Where do these people live ? Why do they come out only when there is some function ? Do they have the invisible cloak of Harry Potter ? Or they don’t want to step out of their circle ? Actually the answer to all these questions is “we”. We are very ignorant about this community and don’t want to include them in our society. We don’t see them as humans and thereby treat them in a pathetic manner. We have all created a social circle in which we don’t let the people of other communities enter. Trans community is a subject on which ignorance too often abounds.
Transgenders in India are overlooked by most of the people. People say that all of this is against our rich Indian culture. But little do these people know that the trans community was prevalent in the ancient India and to your surprise in Mahabharata as well. Today i will tell you about the theory of origin of trans community.
Aravana was Arjuna’s son. He was granted a boon to die a heroic death in the battle after witnessing the war for 18 days. But Aravana demanded to get married before his death as he wanted his widow to cry in his memory. But no king would give his daughter’s hand to a man who they knew would die in the battle. Therefore , Krishna took the form of Mohini and married Aravana. On his death , Mohini who is basically Krishna mourned his death. It is from Aravana’s lineage that transgenders are said to have been born. Transgenders in Tamil Nadu marry God Aravana and mourn for 18 days on his death.
But the sad part is that even after establishing links and proving the existence of the trans community as pure like every other person’s existence , we Indians have comprehensively failed to register the idea of the 3rd gender within us.
Lets join our hands together to bring change in the society and improve the condition of the trans community in India.