Localising Transgender Identity and the Politics of Assertion: An Ethnographic Study in Assam

The collective identity formation of transgender people in Assam is a comparatively new process. Organising themselves with a regional gender identity, they are drawing from, and yet differentiating themselves from, the pan-Indian hijra (transgender) subculture. This article, which has evolved out of the author’s ethnographic research, contributes to larger debates on the collective identity formation of transgender people and the influence of regional culture. The article also examines the politics of asserting this regional subcultural identity against the backdrop of the updating of the National Register of Citizens, from which many in the transgender community were delisted. It reflects on how Assamese artefacts are being used to regionalise pan-Indian hijra rituals and explores the extensive use of the Assamese language in addressing hijra kinship.