Envisioning the humane society for Transgenders: Tracing the struggle of Transgenders from Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps Round the Fire to Kalki Subramaniam’s WE ARE NOT THE OTHERS

Abstract

 The research paper aims to study the hegemonic, arbitrary, and biased gender construction of Indian society and the need to dismantle them and envisage a society in which every individual will be given humane rights irrespective of their gender.  The present paper aims to study the journey of transformation of the transgender community from the period 1999 to 2021 and to visualize a humane society for them through the portrayal of their struggle in the insightful playwright, Mahesh Dattani’s play, Seven Steps Round the Fire and the transgender activist writer, Kalki Subramaniam’s WE ARE NOT THE OTHERS. The stereotypical image of Hijras has always been very comical. They are portrayed as mere ‘objects’ to be mocked. They are often seen as child thieves, indulged in sex- rackets, and rendered as very crude and cruel. They create an image of awe and fear in the conservative society of India. But with time the transgender community has become aware of the atrocities inflicted on them from the very beginning of the gender construction in society. Transgenders have come up to the forefront of society without their gender identity being a hindrance. The ‘third gender’ option while filling out forms, the seatbelt campaign, and reservations for the third gender implemented in Kerala are some of the recent revolutionary changes that have taken place. Transgender writers like Smile Vidya’s I Am Vidya: A Transgender’s Journey ((2007) and A. Revathi’s Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story (2010), Vivek Shraya’s God Loves Hair (2010) Laxmi Narayan Tripathi’s Me Hijra, Me Laxmi (2015), and Vivek Shraya’s I'm Afraid of Men (2018) are the autobiographical works that truly showcase the real struggle faced by the transgenders.  These writers have not only written about their hardships but they have also participated actively in spreading awareness about their community. The present paper is a modest attempt to trace the journey of struggle in the portrayal of the transgender community from the groundbreaking play Seven Steps Around the Fire by Mahesh Dattani, in 1999 to the recent revolutionary multi-genre book WE ARE NOT THE OTHERS (2021) by transgender artivist, Kalki Subramaniam.