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ABSTRACT
Hijras (Eunuchs) in India have practically no respectable public identity. They have no acceptance and no protection from prejudice and abuse. The discrimination against them is often translated into violence. The main factor behind the violence is that society is not able to come to terms with the fact that hijras do not conform to the accepted gender divisions. Male and female-these are the only sexual categories which have secured society's approval. Individuals, who do not fit into these two classes, have to bear social ostracism, isolation and contempt. Politically, legally and socially the community of hijras is marginalized and victimized. The invisible clutches of social forces do not permit the hijras to carve their own design beyond the patterns recommended and accepted by society. Mahesh Dattani gives the hijras of India a voice to articulate their feelings and predicaments in the English theatre through his play Seven Steps Around the Fire. The case of a hijra is focused in the play who secretly marries the son of a minister and has to bear dire consequences. The role of the police, politicians and the society as a whole is questioned.
Keywords: Hijras(Eunuchs), genders, unacceptable, invisible, marginalized, victimized.
Mahesh Dattani, a Sahitya Academy Award winner playwright from India, in his play Seven Steps Around the Fire has spotlighted the plight of the hijras in the Indian society. Having a recorded history of more than 4,000 years, the hijra community is deprived of several rights under the civil law because the Indian law recognizes only two sexes. They are isolated and segregated and constitute an 'invisible minority' within the society. They are the neglected gender. They sing at the wedding and at childbirth with other hijras and people give them money otherwise they put a curse on them. They are considered as the 'chosen of God' and the curse by them cannot be revoked. The author has ironically portrayed this aspect that would not have otherwise received any attention, for any matter related to the hijras is of no importance to anyone. For many Indians - both upper and middle class - hijras exist at the periphery of their concern, making themselves visible only on certain occasions. Dattani is probably the first playwright who...