Navigating and Surpassing the Survival Works: The Relationship Between Occupations and Identity Construction in Hijra Life Writings

Abstract

This paper argues that survival occupations function as a primary, yet paradoxical, site for identity construction in contemporary hijra life narratives. Moving beyond traditional ethnographic accounts, this study conducts a qualitative textual analysis of six key life writings, treating them not as mere chronicles of survival but as political interventions that document a conscious project of emancipation. The analysis first explores the “sacred stigma” of traditional roles, such as bhadai, demonstrating how the community’s ritually sanctioned authority is a fragile and geographically contingent status that simultaneously confers reverence and enforces marginalisation. It then examines how begging and sex work are navigated as performative acts of survival in hostile public spaces. The narratives reveal how hijras must strategically deploy stereotypes to secure their livelihoods, a process that exposes them to systemic violence from both society and the state. Employing a framework that combines gender performativity and labelling theory, the analysis demonstrates how hijra identity is performed through labour, contested through resistance to debilitating social labels, and ultimately reimagined through the dual forces of professional achievement and political activism. The study concludes that the life writings themselves function as a form of emancipatory labour, seizing narrative control to articulate a new, rights-bearing trans woman identity rooted in professional aspiration and modern citizenship. This articulated shift from survival to self-determination demands affirmative state policies, such as reservations in education and employment, which move beyond mere legal recognition to enable tangible economic empowerment.