A term that translates to “eunuch,” or an intersex, transgender, or third gender person, Hijra in the novel is used to refer to Anjum and the other trans women that live with her in the Khwabgah. Some believe that Hijras are divine spirits trapped in human form, which is why the superstitious avoid getting on a Hijra’s bad side for fear of being cursed.
Hijra Quotes in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The The Ministry of Utmost Happiness quotes below are all either spoken by Hijra or refer to Hijra. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2
Quotes
“But for us the price-rise and school-admissions and beating-husbands and cheating-wives are all inside us. The riot is inside us. The war is inside us. Indo-Pak is inside us. It will never settle down. It can’t.”
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Hijra Term Timeline in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The timeline below shows where the term Hijra appears in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...child. Of course, she remembers, even in Urdu there are words for people like Aftab: Hijra and Kinnar. Still, she thinks to herself “two words do not make a language. Was...
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...to Dr. Ghulam Nabi, a “sexologist.” Dr. Nabi declares that Aftab is not technically a Hijra, what he defines as a male trapped in a female body. Indeed, male traits seem...
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...Eventually, they let him in. Aftab is fascinated by the house and its residents, mostly Hijras. Kulsoom Bi is the head of the house, and Aftab befriends Nimmo, a Hijra who...
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One day, Nimmo asks Aftab why God made Hijras. She answers her own question, saying that it was an experiment, that God wanted to...
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...ties with his former son. Meanwhile, Aftab becomes Anjum, eventually to become Delhi’s most famous Hijra. She is coveted by NGO’s and journalists, who assume her traditional Muslim family has abused...
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...her new red sari. Dismayed, Anjum speaks with Kulsoom Bi, who comforts her saying that Hijras are bodies “in which a Holy Soul lives.” Kulsoom Bi also encourages Anjum to undergo...
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...euphemizes the “Flyover Story”—a time when the police attacked a party where Anjum and other Hijras were gathering and threatened to arrest them all for prostitution if they didn’t run home,...
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...addition to possibly hexing Zainab, Saeeda has also stolen Anjum’s spot as the most famous Hijra in Delhi. Her modern image and ability to switch between Western and traditional clothes better...
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...has made the whole world sick, but she is the only one blaming a local Hijra for the attacks. Instead, Muslim communities across the world are persecuted. In India, political parties...
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...friend of her father’s, “too old to be embarrassed about being seen travelling with a Hijra.” He suggests that they visit the shrine of Wali Dakhani, an Urdu poet whom Mulaqat...
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...an emergency meeting. She speaks proudly of the history of the Khwabgah, reminding her fellow Hijras of their ancestors’ important role with Mughal royals in the historical Red Court. She reminds...
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...to the meeting, where Ustad Kulsoom Bi continues to speak proudly of the legacy of Hijras in India. She reminds the other girls that the Khwabgah is a place where “Holy...
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...remembers how she had feigned death but was discovered, only to be spared because “killing Hijras brings bad luck.” Indeed, the murderers seemed to be preoccupied with not acquiring bad luck—their...
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...she isn’t living there—she is dying there. The officers, who fear being cursed by a Hijra, leave her alone, allowing her to stay there for a small fee.
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Many of Anjum’s guests are other Hijras who have “fallen out of, or been expelled from, the tightly administered grid of Hijra...
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...Jannat. Ustad Kulsoom Bi eventually is buried in Anjum’s graveyard, along with many other Delhi Hijras. (This is how Imam Ziauddin finally receives the answer to the question he asks at...
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Chapter 3
...the sight that Anjum, Saddam Hussain, Ustad Hameed, Nimmo and their companion Ishrat, a visiting Hijra from Indore, see when they join the protest to help the poor. Nimmo has driven...
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...is shut down by someone who jokes that giving a female baby over to a Hijra would be useless, as Hijras only have use for castrating male babies. Anjum, though, isn’t...
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...and Ishrat intervene. Ishrat “wade[s] into the battlefield, intervening in the practiced way that only Hijras [know] how to when it [comes] to protecting each other—by making a declaration of war...
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