LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:2 February 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Romancing the Third Gender:
Analysis of the Representation of the Transgender in
Delhi: A Novel, with Special Reference to
the Character of Bhagmati

Ms. Subhra Roy, M.A, NET., SET.

Delhi Novel cover

Abstract

In Delhi : A Novel Khushwant Singh has represented the history of Delhi through different voices. Various characters from different social milieu are brought together to give a successfully authentic account of the history of an ancient city in India which is now known as Delhi in the world-map. To keep the representation of history unbiased and lively, Singh has introduced the character of Bhagmati, a hermaphrodite, who binds the chapters of the novel together. Apart from the character of Bhagmati there are other transsexual historical characters in the novel who were an integral part of the history of Delhi. In this article I have tried to highlight how Bhagmati and the other transsexual characters in the novel deconstruct the West’s mythical concept of the celebrated acceptance of the transgenders in the non-Western culture. Characters like Bhagmati, Khusro Khan, Basant Ali Khan and Qutubuddin Mubarak Shah reside at the outskirt of the social periphery or in between the binary opposition of gender roles. But in the corpus of western thinking , it is commonly believed that the preindustrial or non-Western societies are more accepting or accommodating of erotic diversity and gender variation in comparison to the West. But this is only a romanticised myth which gets subverted in the novel.

Singh goes beyond stereotypes when he gives agency to Bhagmati at the end of the novel by giving her the power to save the life of the Sikh journalist during the time of communal riot of 1984. She turns out to be the most sane and humane human being who is ready to risk her life to save the person she loves . In the novel she is neither deified nor dehumanised ; she is presented as a “normal” human being who knows how to express her views boldly.

Key words: Khushwant Singh, Delhi-A Novel, transgender

Delhi and Bhagmati in Co-existence

‘’...although I detest living in Delhi and am ashamed of my liaision with Bhagmati , I cannot keep away from either for too long. In these pages I will explain the strange paradox of my lifelong, love-hate affair with the city and the woman.’’(Singh, 2)

Thus begins Khushwant Singh’s description in Delhi : A Novel, and the “woman’’ in the above lines is a hermaphrodite or hijra whom the narrator prefers to call “she’’. The character of Bhagmati has been paralleled with the dying city of Delhi which is no less uglier than her. But both of them have an appeal which is hard to ignore, and to realise it one has to “cultivate a sense of belonging to Delhi and an attachment to someone like Bhagmati’’ (Singh,1) .

In this novel we find that Delhi and Bhagmati exist side by side, and both of them are strongly craved for by their admirers, like the ageing Sikh journalist of the novel. Apparently we may wonder how an old city like Delhi, having a great historical value, can be compared with a transgender who spits out slangs every now and then. But they are bound by one similarity – both of them have been long misused by rough people and so “they have learnt to conceal their seductive charms under a mask of repulsive ugliness’’ (Singh,1). Their worn-out condition parallels to the existence of Tiresius, the Greek mythical character who was cursed to bear the burden of a long tell-tale life in which he had to live as a man, as well as a woman.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Subhra Roy

Ms. Subhra Roy, M.A., NET, SET. Research Scholar
Department of English
Tripura University
(A Central University)
Suryamaninagar 799022
Tripura (west)
India
suvizimu@gmail.com
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