The terms most widely used in English are transgender and transsexual, though the latter is now dated and less favoured. After the landmark NALSA vs Union of India & Ors. 2014 judgement, the recognition of a “third gender” category was legally affirmed in India.
In 2016, the Aravani Art Project was founded by both trans and cis women, advocating for the reclamation of public spaces by creating varied artistic projects to raise awareness and visibility for the transgender community and the larger LGBTQIA+ community in India.
The collective’s name comes from Lord Aravan, a patron deity for many hijra and aravani communities across South Asia. With a practice rooted in public spaces, Aravani Art Project’s mission is to bring visibility, challenge the stigma towards trans people, and subvert systematic discrimination towards transgender, gender non-conforming, and queer people at large. Their collaborative and participatory approach enables communities to gather, create, and celebrate intersectionality through visual art—a tool for expression, storytelling, and consciousness.
A brief history
Transgender people have been an integral part of Indian society. Their existence has been recognised in ancient texts like the Mahabharata and Ramayana. They were highly revered during the medieval period and held important positions of influence in the royal courts.
M Michel Raj, in his research publication ‘Historical evolution of Transgender community in India’, notes that during the Mughal period, hijras played a pivotal role in the royal courts of the Islamic world. They served as political advisors, administrators, and guardians of harems.
Hijras were considered intelligent, trustworthy, and fiercely loyal, and were granted privileged access across courtly spaces. This influence allowed them to play a dominant role in the politics of empire-building and to receive patronage from rulers. As a result, hijra communities enjoyed significant social standing during that period.
While trans communities were granted prominent status throughout the Mughal era, their position was undermined under British colonial rule. From the 18th century, colonial regulations targeted them with suspicion and hostility. By the mid-19th century, the British sought to criminalise hijras and strip them of rights and recognition.
In 1871, the Criminal Tribes Act formally categorised hijras as “criminals” by birth, describing them as “addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences.” This legislation institutionalised stigma and violence against them.
The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 was overturned in 1952, and its legacy continues to date in municipal regulations and social stigma against trans communities. Although the NALSA judgment has made major headwinds in the upliftment of these communities, a change in social attitude takes considerable time. The Aravani Art Project thus seeks to plug this gap by using art as a medium of change. In association with the XXL Gallery, Mumbai, they presented works by trans and other queer artists.
On the occasion of a marriage or the birth of a child, trans women are traditionally invited to bless families through dance and song. These blessings are considered auspicious. The distinctive element of these rituals is the tin tali, a specific way of clapping. It is both a blessing and a demand for recognition in society, and is something that cannot be replicated by others.
ताली बजाना हमारी ताकत है। जैसे लड़के लोग लड़ते हैं, हम ताली बजाते हैं, ताली!
Sometimes a voice, at other times, a means to communicate. The clap blots the ears with colors so bright that it punctures through and through and yet invites. Sometimes, a playfight and banter as someone claps and says
How dare you talk to me like that, sister?
At other times, a celebration!
The clap utters as it declares the existence of a spirit that now envelops you.
Additionally, if you talk to some women, they shall tell you that if you put oil on your hands, the clap will sound louder and better. Plus, not to forget! The doctors have assured the benefits of clapping to improve your coordination and circulation!
It is a sign of disagreement with the norms and a very powerful assertion of the non-normative ways of being and living. Jeff Roy and others have noted how the clap of hijras is a distinct marker of their identity, of their pehchan.
Showcased in Gallery XXL, On The Cusp Of The Eighth Day, summoned the life and works of Aravanis. Celebrating 9 years of the collective’s art practice and praxis, the exhibition presented canvases, photographs, testimonies, and narratives that confront discrimination, social stigma, and systemic inequality through art as the vehicle, voice, and tool.
The exhibition’s title draws from the story of Aravan’s sacrifice in the Mahabharata. His death—necessary for the Pandavas’ victory in the 18-day war—became a pivotal moment for aravani and hijra communities, who gather in Tamil Nadu each year during the month of Chaitra (April/May) to celebrate the Koovagam festival.
The festival holds a ceremonial marriage of Iravan (Aravan) to the people of the community and is followed by their widowhood after the ritual re-enactment of Iravan's heroic death on the eighth day of the war. With this threshold on the eighth day of a war where a sacrifice is necessary for a new beginning, the exhibition’s curation explores dualities: day and night, individual and collective, home and world, body and cosmos. Collapsing the binaries of underground and street, private and public, mirror and body, the exhibition provokes reflection on how gender, identity, and desire are lived, resisted, and re-imagined.
In the confines of Gallery XXL, the Aravanis arrive with joy, resistance and pride to expand the meanings of desires into modes of survival, the meanings of belonging with respect to chosen families, the meanings of work vis-à-vis art, unabashed expressions, the body, and the meanings of art into praxis, culture work, and living.
South Asian Salon and I would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Sarah from Gallery XXL for providing all the necessary information and photos.
