Troubled Twilight World (part 3 of 3)

[JesusA (imported)]

At weddings, eunuchs lead the dancing procession (teasing the bridegroom being their secondary job), and at funerals they act as professional mourners. Besides their hospital connections, they also keep tabs on family events through peons in municipal offices and maidservants in affluent households. At times, they may take note of a pregnant woman and trail her to her home. Their calculations of the pregnancy's advanced state, and the precise date when delivery may be expected, are generally right on the mark.<p>In a nation like India, where newborns are scarcely in short supply, eunuchs are never out of a job. On the average, a platoon of five or six can earn nearly Rs. 5,000 a month, leading, in course of time, to material assets on the order of Nanda Kanwar's. A part of their income is unfailingly kept in reserve for support of the community shrine, which is their lone social and cultural centre. But among their strict work ethics is a territorial imperative forbidding every eunuch detail from working another's beat. Encroachments have caused frayed tempers and sporadic clashes, but community relations on the whole are cordial. The major method for keeping them that way is the akhada's insistence on settling its own disputes under its own legal system. Eunuchs never resort to the police.<p>Still, as in every society, there are black sheep among them. In the lights of respectable members, it is these mavericks who bring disrepute on the clan. The gandwas, or street eunuchs, take to homosexual prostitution to earn their living since they are not accepted as bona fide dancing eunuchs in the community. (Many of the eunuchs in Delhi and Bombay, indeed, are street hookers.) In Bombay, which has the highest eunuch concentration of 5,000-plus in India's unofficial total of 50,000, and in other big cities, however, eunuchs might be registered voters but few of them have any interest in politics and elections. "Politicians are gandus [another word for eunuchs]," scoffed Noorjehan, 32, one of the accused in the Mohamed Vora case.<p>Some are politically conscious, on the other hand, and two of them even contested elections to the Madhya Pradesh state assembly in 1962. Though both of them lost, they lavished small fortunes on their campaign expenses, to which all Madhya Pradesh eunuchs generously contributed. Their clannish loyalty at times seems to know no limits. In the Baroda case, the eunuchs have hired two of the city's most expensive lawyers to fight their case: their nayak claims to have raised Rs. 10,000 (US$850) in just two days.<p>Yet there are many subtle rank distinctions within the community. Eunuchs, in truth, are some the most caste-conscious people in India, a quality reflected in their divisions of labour: the temple priest (among Hindus) is invariably a Brahmin, for instance. The Hindus, moreover, tend to be rigid vegetarians, in some cases to the extent of refusing to drink water from a Muslim eunuch's house. "They are meat-eaters, you know," one Hindu eunuch in Baroda told Correspondent Balachandran.<p>Every year around September or October, however, eunuchs throughout India unite by convening a national conference of their "sisterhood," which is attended by delegates from all the states and where they thrash out their salient issues in common. This year's convention was held last month in, of all inauspicious places, Gujarat, near the major industrial city of Ahmedabad. Though their assemblies are not generally covered by the press, it's fairly certain that such get-togethers are a kind of festival of hand-clapping, since that is their characteristic greeting. Accomplished with the palms kept hollowed to produce the percussive smack, even while they are talking, the act strikes some as suggestive of the sexual act, for which it may well be a subconscious expression since that is a pleasure most are eternally denied.<p>Eunuch rituals stem from worship of the Mother Goddess, and they take various forms throughout the country. While in the west-central and southwestern states of Maharashtra and Kerala she is revered as Yellama, in the eastern states she goes under the mantle of the great goddess Kali, or Durga. The cult of self-mutilation, virginity and chastity is more or less the same everywhere in India, however, and the goddess, ironically, is at the same time held to be the bestower of fertility and granter of wishes for male offspring. In the latter case, some worshippers believe that, if the prayer is granted, the son should be offered to the deity. Thus are a few children ceremonially emasculated and dedicated to the next generation of eunuchs.<p>A eunuch remains different even unto death. According to one Delhi sociologist who has studied the customs of eunuchs, their funerals are among the most secretive affairs in the world. "A eunuch death is tearless," she reports. The rites take place in the middle of the night with the mourners accompanying the corpse in white robes. The deceased is carried to the burial ground not in a recumbent position but erect, on its two feet. The dead body is tied by ropes with wooden sticks strategically placed to hold the body erect, then covered in white robes to make it indistinguishable from the mourners. Two of them holding the body might appear as if they were merely helping a weak friend struggle with his walking. This element of defiance of the evidence of death - defiance, perhaps, of a society that treated her as dirt in life - may be the eunuchs' final way of flaunting their difference to the world. <p>from Asiaweek, November 19, 1962, pages 24 - 30.<p>[two photographs of Mohamed Vora can be found in The World of Sexual Behavior: Sexwatching by Milton Diamond (New York: Gallery Books, 1984). Page 42 has him/her nude, showing clearly the castration scar, and page 43 has "her" beautifully dressed in a sari. There is also a photo of the group of eunuchs which he joined. ——JA]

[JesusA (imported)]

At weddings, eunuchs lead the dancing procession (teasing the bridegroom being their secondary job), and at funerals they act as professional mourners. Besides their hospital connections, they also keep tabs on family events through peons in municipal offices and maidservants in affluent households. At times, they may take note of a pregnant woman and trail her to her home. Their calculations of the pregnancy's advanced state, and the precise date when delivery may be expected, are generally right on the mark.<p>In a nation like India, where newborns are scarcely in short supply, eunuchs are never out of a job. On the average, a platoon of five or six can earn nearly Rs. 5,000 a month, leading, in course of time, to material assets on the order of Nanda Kanwar's. A part of their income is unfailingly kept in reserve for support of the community shrine, which is their lone social and cultural centre. But among their strict work ethics is a territorial imperative forbidding every eunuch detail from working another's beat. Encroachments have caused frayed tempers and sporadic clashes, but community relations on the whole are cordial. The major method for keeping them that way is the akhada's insistence on settling its own disputes under its own legal system. Eunuchs never resort to the police.<p>Still, as in every society, there are black sheep among them. In the lights of respectable members, it is these mavericks who bring disrepute on the clan. The gandwas, or street eunuchs, take to homosexual prostitution to earn their living since they are not accepted as bona fide dancing eunuchs in the community. (Many of the eunuchs in Delhi and Bombay, indeed, are street hookers.) In Bombay, which has the highest eunuch concentration of 5,000-plus in India's unofficial total of 50,000, and in other big cities, however, eunuchs might be registered voters but few of them have any interest in politics and elections. "Politicians are gandus [another word for eunuchs]," scoffed Noorjehan, 32, one of the accused in the Mohamed Vora case.<p>Some are politically conscious, on the other hand, and two of them even contested elections to the Madhya Pradesh state assembly in 1962. Though both of them lost, they lavished small fortunes on their campaign expenses, to which all Madhya Pradesh eunuchs generously contributed. Their clannish loyalty at times seems to know no limits. In the Baroda case, the eunuchs have hired two of the city's most expensive lawyers to fight their case: their nayak claims to have raised Rs. 10,000 (US$850) in just two days.<p>Yet there are many subtle rank distinctions within the community. Eunuchs, in truth, are some the most caste-conscious people in India, a quality reflected in their divisions of labour: the temple priest (among Hindus) is invariably a Brahmin, for instance. The Hindus, moreover, tend to be rigid vegetarians, in some cases to the extent of refusing to drink water from a Muslim eunuch's house. "They are meat-eaters, you know," one Hindu eunuch in Baroda told Correspondent Balachandran.<p>Every year around September or October, however, eunuchs throughout India unite by convening a national conference of their "sisterhood," which is attended by delegates from all the states and where they thrash out their salient issues in common. This year's convention was held last month in, of all inauspicious places, Gujarat, near the major industrial city of Ahmedabad. Though their assemblies are not generally covered by the press, it's fairly certain that such get-togethers are a kind of festival of hand-clapping, since that is their characteristic greeting. Accomplished with the palms kept hollowed to produce the percussive smack, even while they are talking, the act strikes some as suggestive of the sexual act, for which it may well be a subconscious expression since that is a pleasure most are eternally denied.<p>Eunuch rituals stem from worship of the Mother Goddess, and they take various forms throughout the country. While in the west-central and southwestern states of Maharashtra and Kerala she is revered as Yellama, in the eastern states she goes under the mantle of the great goddess Kali, or Durga. The cult of self-mutilation, virginity and chastity is more or less the same everywhere in India, however, and the goddess, ironically, is at the same time held to be the bestower of fertility and granter of wishes for male offspring. In the latter case, some worshippers believe that, if the prayer is granted, the son should be offered to the deity. Thus are a few children ceremonially emasculated and dedicated to the next generation of eunuchs.<p>A eunuch remains different even unto death. According to one Delhi sociologist who has studied the customs of eunuchs, their funerals are among the most secretive affairs in the world. "A eunuch death is tearless," she reports. The rites take place in the middle of the night with the mourners accompanying the corpse in white robes. The deceased is carried to the burial ground not in a recumbent position but erect, on its two feet. The dead body is tied by ropes with wooden sticks strategically placed to hold the body erect, then covered in white robes to make it indistinguishable from the mourners. Two of them holding the body might appear as if they were merely helping a weak friend struggle with his walking. This element of defiance of the evidence of death - defiance, perhaps, of a society that treated her as dirt in life - may be the eunuchs' final way of flaunting their difference to the world. <p>from Asiaweek, November 19, 1962, pages 24 - 30.<p>[two photographs of Mohamed Vora can be found in The World of Sexual Behavior: Sexwatching by Milton Diamond (New York: Gallery Books, 1984). Page 42 has him/her nude, showing clearly the castration scar, and page 43 has "her" beautifully dressed in a sari. There is also a photo of the group of eunuchs which he joined. ——JA]

[JesusA (imported)]

At weddings, eunuchs lead the dancing procession (teasing the bridegroom being their secondary job), and at funerals they act as professional mourners. Besides their hospital connections, they also keep tabs on family events through peons in municipal offices and maidservants in affluent households. At times, they may take note of a pregnant woman and trail her to her home. Their calculations of the pregnancy's advanced state, and the precise date when delivery may be expected, are generally right on the mark.<p>In a nation like India, where newborns are scarcely in short supply, eunuchs are never out of a job. On the average, a platoon of five or six can earn nearly Rs. 5,000 a month, leading, in course of time, to material assets on the order of Nanda Kanwar's. A part of their income is unfailingly kept in reserve for support of the community shrine, which is their lone social and cultural centre. But among their strict work ethics is a territorial imperative forbidding every eunuch detail from working another's beat. Encroachments have caused frayed tempers and sporadic clashes, but community relations on the whole are cordial. The major method for keeping them that way is the akhada's insistence on settling its own disputes under its own legal system. Eunuchs never resort to the police.<p>Still, as in every society, there are black sheep among them. In the lights of respectable members, it is these mavericks who bring disrepute on the clan. The gandwas, or street eunuchs, take to homosexual prostitution to earn their living since they are not accepted as bona fide dancing eunuchs in the community. (Many of the eunuchs in Delhi and Bombay, indeed, are street hookers.) In Bombay, which has the highest eunuch concentration of 5,000-plus in India's unofficial total of 50,000, and in other big cities, however, eunuchs might be registered voters but few of them have any interest in politics and elections. "Politicians are gandus [another word for eunuchs]," scoffed Noorjehan, 32, one of the accused in the Mohamed Vora case.<p>Some are politically conscious, on the other hand, and two of them even contested elections to the Madhya Pradesh state assembly in 1962. Though both of them lost, they lavished small fortunes on their campaign expenses, to which all Madhya Pradesh eunuchs generously contributed. Their clannish loyalty at times seems to know no limits. In the Baroda case, the eunuchs have hired two of the city's most expensive lawyers to fight their case: their nayak claims to have raised Rs. 10,000 (US$850) in just two days.<p>Yet there are many subtle rank distinctions within the community. Eunuchs, in truth, are some the most caste-conscious people in India, a quality reflected in their divisions of labour: the temple priest (among Hindus) is invariably a Brahmin, for instance. The Hindus, moreover, tend to be rigid vegetarians, in some cases to the extent of refusing to drink water from a Muslim eunuch's house. "They are meat-eaters, you know," one Hindu eunuch in Baroda told Correspondent Balachandran.<p>Every year around September or October, however, eunuchs throughout India unite by convening a national conference of their "sisterhood," which is attended by delegates from all the states and where they thrash out their salient issues in common. This year's convention was held last month in, of all inauspicious places, Gujarat, near the major industrial city of Ahmedabad. Though their assemblies are not generally covered by the press, it's fairly certain that such get-togethers are a kind of festival of hand-clapping, since that is their characteristic greeting. Accomplished with the palms kept hollowed to produce the percussive smack, even while they are talking, the act strikes some as suggestive of the sexual act, for which it may well be a subconscious expression since that is a pleasure most are eternally denied.<p>Eunuch rituals stem from worship of the Mother Goddess, and they take various forms throughout the country. While in the west-central and southwestern states of Maharashtra and Kerala she is revered as Yellama, in the eastern states she goes under the mantle of the great goddess Kali, or Durga. The cult of self-mutilation, virginity and chastity is more or less the same everywhere in India, however, and the goddess, ironically, is at the same time held to be the bestower of fertility and granter of wishes for male offspring. In the latter case, some worshippers believe that, if the prayer is granted, the son should be offered to the deity. Thus are a few children ceremonially emasculated and dedicated to the next generation of eunuchs.<p>A eunuch remains different even unto death. According to one Delhi sociologist who has studied the customs of eunuchs, their funerals are among the most secretive affairs in the world. "A eunuch death is tearless," she reports. The rites take place in the middle of the night with the mourners accompanying the corpse in white robes. The deceased is carried to the burial ground not in a recumbent position but erect, on its two feet. The dead body is tied by ropes with wooden sticks strategically placed to hold the body erect, then covered in white robes to make it indistinguishable from the mourners. Two of them holding the body might appear as if they were merely helping a weak friend struggle with his walking. This element of defiance of the evidence of death - defiance, perhaps, of a society that treated her as dirt in life - may be the eunuchs' final way of flaunting their difference to the world. <p>from Asiaweek, November 19, 1962, pages 24 - 30.<p>[two photographs of Mohamed Vora can be found in The World of Sexual Behavior: Sexwatching by Milton Diamond (New York: Gallery Books, 1984). Page 42 has him/her nude, showing clearly the castration scar, and page 43 has "her" beautifully dressed in a sari. There is also a photo of the group of eunuchs which he joined. ——JA]

[JesusA (imported)]

At weddings, eunuchs lead the dancing procession (teasing the bridegroom being their secondary job), and at funerals they act as professional mourners. Besides their hospital connections, they also keep tabs on family events through peons in municipal offices and maidservants in affluent households. At times, they may take note of a pregnant woman and trail her to her home. Their calculations of the pregnancy's advanced state, and the precise date when delivery may be expected, are generally right on the mark.<p>In a nation like India, where newborns are scarcely in short supply, eunuchs are never out of a job. On the average, a platoon of five or six can earn nearly Rs. 5,000 a month, leading, in course of time, to material assets on the order of Nanda Kanwar's. A part of their income is unfailingly kept in reserve for support of the community shrine, which is their lone social and cultural centre. But among their strict work ethics is a territorial imperative forbidding every eunuch detail from working another's beat. Encroachments have caused frayed tempers and sporadic clashes, but community relations on the whole are cordial. The major method for keeping them that way is the akhada's insistence on settling its own disputes under its own legal system. Eunuchs never resort to the police.<p>Still, as in every society, there are black sheep among them. In the lights of respectable members, it is these mavericks who bring disrepute on the clan. The gandwas, or street eunuchs, take to homosexual prostitution to earn their living since they are not accepted as bona fide dancing eunuchs in the community. (Many of the eunuchs in Delhi and Bombay, indeed, are street hookers.) In Bombay, which has the highest eunuch concentration of 5,000-plus in India's unofficial total of 50,000, and in other big cities, however, eunuchs might be registered voters but few of them have any interest in politics and elections. "Politicians are gandus [another word for eunuchs]," scoffed Noorjehan, 32, one of the accused in the Mohamed Vora case.<p>Some are politically conscious, on the other hand, and two of them even contested elections to the Madhya Pradesh state assembly in 1962. Though both of them lost, they lavished small fortunes on their campaign expenses, to which all Madhya Pradesh eunuchs generously contributed. Their clannish loyalty at times seems to know no limits. In the Baroda case, the eunuchs have hired two of the city's most expensive lawyers to fight their case: their nayak claims to have raised Rs. 10,000 (US$850) in just two days.<p>Yet there are many subtle rank distinctions within the community. Eunuchs, in truth, are some the most caste-conscious people in India, a quality reflected in their divisions of labour: the temple priest (among Hindus) is invariably a Brahmin, for instance. The Hindus, moreover, tend to be rigid vegetarians, in some cases to the extent of refusing to drink water from a Muslim eunuch's house. "They are meat-eaters, you know," one Hindu eunuch in Baroda told Correspondent Balachandran.<p>Every year around September or October, however, eunuchs throughout India unite by convening a national conference of their "sisterhood," which is attended by delegates from all the states and where they thrash out their salient issues in common. This year's convention was held last month in, of all inauspicious places, Gujarat, near the major industrial city of Ahmedabad. Though their assemblies are not generally covered by the press, it's fairly certain that such get-togethers are a kind of festival of hand-clapping, since that is their characteristic greeting. Accomplished with the palms kept hollowed to produce the percussive smack, even while they are talking, the act strikes some as suggestive of the sexual act, for which it may well be a subconscious expression since that is a pleasure most are eternally denied.<p>Eunuch rituals stem from worship of the Mother Goddess, and they take various forms throughout the country. While in the west-central and southwestern states of Maharashtra and Kerala she is revered as Yellama, in the eastern states she goes under the mantle of the great goddess Kali, or Durga. The cult of self-mutilation, virginity and chastity is more or less the same everywhere in India, however, and the goddess, ironically, is at the same time held to be the bestower of fertility and granter of wishes for male offspring. In the latter case, some worshippers believe that, if the prayer is granted, the son should be offered to the deity. Thus are a few children ceremonially emasculated and dedicated to the next generation of eunuchs.<p>A eunuch remains different even unto death. According to one Delhi sociologist who has studied the customs of eunuchs, their funerals are among the most secretive affairs in the world. "A eunuch death is tearless," she reports. The rites take place in the middle of the night with the mourners accompanying the corpse in white robes. The deceased is carried to the burial ground not in a recumbent position but erect, on its two feet. The dead body is tied by ropes with wooden sticks strategically placed to hold the body erect, then covered in white robes to make it indistinguishable from the mourners. Two of them holding the body might appear as if they were merely helping a weak friend struggle with his walking. This element of defiance of the evidence of death - defiance, perhaps, of a society that treated her as dirt in life - may be the eunuchs' final way of flaunting their difference to the world. <p>from Asiaweek, November 19, 1962, pages 24 - 30.<p>[two photographs of Mohamed Vora can be found in The World of Sexual Behavior: Sexwatching by Milton Diamond (New York: Gallery Books, 1984). Page 42 has him/her nude, showing clearly the castration scar, and page 43 has "her" beautifully dressed in a sari. There is also a photo of the group of eunuchs which he joined. ——JA]

[JesusA (imported)]

At weddings, eunuchs lead the dancing procession (teasing the bridegroom being their secondary job), and at funerals they act as professional mourners. Besides their hospital connections, they also keep tabs on family events through peons in municipal offices and maidservants in affluent households. At times, they may take note of a pregnant woman and trail her to her home. Their calculations of the pregnancy's advanced state, and the precise date when delivery may be expected, are generally right on the mark.<p>In a nation like India, where newborns are scarcely in short supply, eunuchs are never out of a job. On the average, a platoon of five or six can earn nearly Rs. 5,000 a month, leading, in course of time, to material assets on the order of Nanda Kanwar's. A part of their income is unfailingly kept in reserve for support of the community shrine, which is their lone social and cultural centre. But among their strict work ethics is a territorial imperative forbidding every eunuch detail from working another's beat. Encroachments have caused frayed tempers and sporadic clashes, but community relations on the whole are cordial. The major method for keeping them that way is the akhada's insistence on settling its own disputes under its own legal system. Eunuchs never resort to the police.<p>Still, as in every society, there are black sheep among them. In the lights of respectable members, it is these mavericks who bring disrepute on the clan. The gandwas, or street eunuchs, take to homosexual prostitution to earn their living since they are not accepted as bona fide dancing eunuchs in the community. (Many of the eunuchs in Delhi and Bombay, indeed, are street hookers.) In Bombay, which has the highest eunuch concentration of 5,000-plus in India's unofficial total of 50,000, and in other big cities, however, eunuchs might be registered voters but few of them have any interest in politics and elections. "Politicians are gandus [another word for eunuchs]," scoffed Noorjehan, 32, one of the accused in the Mohamed Vora case.<p>Some are politically conscious, on the other hand, and two of them even contested elections to the Madhya Pradesh state assembly in 1962. Though both of them lost, they lavished small fortunes on their campaign expenses, to which all Madhya Pradesh eunuchs generously contributed. Their clannish loyalty at times seems to know no limits. In the Baroda case, the eunuchs have hired two of the city's most expensive lawyers to fight their case: their nayak claims to have raised Rs. 10,000 (US$850) in just two days.<p>Yet there are many subtle rank distinctions within the community. Eunuchs, in truth, are some the most caste-conscious people in India, a quality reflected in their divisions of labour: the temple priest (among Hindus) is invariably a Brahmin, for instance. The Hindus, moreover, tend to be rigid vegetarians, in some cases to the extent of refusing to drink water from a Muslim eunuch's house. "They are meat-eaters, you know," one Hindu eunuch in Baroda told Correspondent Balachandran.<p>Every year around September or October, however, eunuchs throughout India unite by convening a national conference of their "sisterhood," which is attended by delegates from all the states and where they thrash out their salient issues in common. This year's convention was held last month in, of all inauspicious places, Gujarat, near the major industrial city of Ahmedabad. Though their assemblies are not generally covered by the press, it's fairly certain that such get-togethers are a kind of festival of hand-clapping, since that is their characteristic greeting. Accomplished with the palms kept hollowed to produce the percussive smack, even while they are talking, the act strikes some as suggestive of the sexual act, for which it may well be a subconscious expression since that is a pleasure most are eternally denied.<p>Eunuch rituals stem from worship of the Mother Goddess, and they take various forms throughout the country. While in the west-central and southwestern states of Maharashtra and Kerala she is revered as Yellama, in the eastern states she goes under the mantle of the great goddess Kali, or Durga. The cult of self-mutilation, virginity and chastity is more or less the same everywhere in India, however, and the goddess, ironically, is at the same time held to be the bestower of fertility and granter of wishes for male offspring. In the latter case, some worshippers believe that, if the prayer is granted, the son should be offered to the deity. Thus are a few children ceremonially emasculated and dedicated to the next generation of eunuchs.<p>A eunuch remains different even unto death. According to one Delhi sociologist who has studied the customs of eunuchs, their funerals are among the most secretive affairs in the world. "A eunuch death is tearless," she reports. The rites take place in the middle of the night with the mourners accompanying the corpse in white robes. The deceased is carried to the burial ground not in a recumbent position but erect, on its two feet. The dead body is tied by ropes with wooden sticks strategically placed to hold the body erect, then covered in white robes to make it indistinguishable from the mourners. Two of them holding the body might appear as if they were merely helping a weak friend struggle with his walking. This element of defiance of the evidence of death - defiance, perhaps, of a society that treated her as dirt in life - may be the eunuchs' final way of flaunting their difference to the world. <p>from Asiaweek, November 19, 1962, pages 24 - 30.<p>[two photographs of Mohamed Vora can be found in The World of Sexual Behavior: Sexwatching by Milton Diamond (New York: Gallery Books, 1984). Page 42 has him/her nude, showing clearly the castration scar, and page 43 has "her" beautifully dressed in a sari. There is also a photo of the group of eunuchs which he joined. ——JA]