India's first all-trans-women band
January 28, 2016 1:02 AM   Subscribe

The 6-Pack Band, a collaboration between Bollywood composer Shamir Tandon and Indian tea brand Brooke Bond Red Label, consists of 6 women from the hijra community in India. They have two singles out: Hum Hain Happy, a remix of Pharrel Williams's Happy, and Sab Rab De Bande (with playback singer Sonu Nigam) based on a central Sikhism tenet of "we are all children of God".
posted by divabat (15 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
Ah...all things change. I recall Phil Spitalny

He rose to fame after he brought together an orchestra with only female musicians, a novelty at the time....during the 30s and 40s
posted by Postroad at 7:19 AM on January 28, 2016


Interesting stuff, thanks for posting! Also particularly intrigued by the concept of a famous playback singer.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:21 AM on January 28, 2016


Okay, I though I was more than done with "Happy", but that was a great version of the tune. Thanks, divabat.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:21 AM on January 28, 2016


That "Happy" video was fantastic. I really like them, thanks for sharing!
posted by xingcat at 7:29 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


This is the best thing ever. Thanks, divabat!
posted by koeselitz at 8:06 AM on January 28, 2016


"Trans women" is not the correct term for hijras. A trans woman is a woman who happens to be trans. Hijras do not identify as women, they identify as hijras.

See here for more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender#India

'You really do not understand. I am the third sex, not a man trying to be a woman. It is your society's problem that you only recognize two sexes.'

If you are looking for an English term, "third gender" is more appropriate than "trans woman".
posted by splitpeasoup at 8:36 AM on January 28, 2016 [6 favorites]


It's a little more complex than that. Much as trans is used as a catch-all for a variety of identities, not all hijra relate to their identity in the same way. The dominant cultural narratives are usually the ones we reach for, and the terms we use, but it does not mean that individual realities aren't more complex than that. So while it is absolutely correct in the abstract to say that hijra is not the same as trans woman, unless you have information about this particular group of people we don't, you can't necessarily make the claim that they aren't trans women (or indeed that they are).
posted by Dysk at 9:24 AM on January 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm chiming in here because I had the same reaction as splitpeasoup. Have these hijras described themselves as trans?

Much as trans is used as a catch-all for a variety of identities, not all hijra relate to their identity in the same way.

Certainly this is true. Tell me, though, is trans used as a "catch-all" in Indian hijra communities, or are you referring to its usage where you're from?

unless you have information about this particular group of people we don't, you can't necessarily make the claim that they aren't trans women (or indeed that they are).

"Trans" is not an ahistorical, acultural, universalist category. It emerged in a particular time and place. Imposing it on people who have their own identity categories or forms of identification seems really, really troubling to me.

You ask for more information about hijras? You can start with Gayatri Reddy's wonderful ethnography of a hijra community in Hyderabad: With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India.

There's also a wonderful discussion in that book about exactly why categories like "gay" and "trans" should not be treated as universalist, and the harm it does to treat them as such. Reddy argues very persuasively that these categories, which emerge from the global north, achieve a kind of global hegemony that ends up subsuming -- oftentimes in harmful ways -- other (historically-embedded) identity categories that people find meaningful.

Now, if you want more info about this particular group -- so do I. I want to know if they have voiced a preference to be understood as trans over and above being understood as hijras.
posted by mylittlepoppet at 12:16 PM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Certainly this is true. Tell me, though, is trans used as a "catch-all" in Indian hijra communities, or are you referring to its usage where you're from?

I'm referring to its use in the English language. English-speaking hijra communities are split on whether or not they consider hijra to be a trans identity.

"Trans" is not an ahistorical, acultural, universalist category. It emerged in a particular time and place. Imposing it on people who have their own identity categories or forms of identification seems really, really troubling to me.

That it emerged in a particular time and place does not make it unique to that time and place - we can use modern language to refer to historical realities. We can use English language to refer to non-Anglophone communities in ways that they might not refer to themselves absent that language. I know that, for example, it is in many ways not possible to discuss trans identities in the same ways in Danish and English - this does not mean that Danish terminology and conceptions are not used to discuss trans communities and realities in Anglophone countries, and vice versa.

"Trans" is not an ahistorical, acultural, universalist category. It emerged in a particular time and place. Imposing it on people who have their own identity categories or forms of identification seems really, really troubling to me.

Actually, I didn't. I'm fairly familiar with hijra identities and communities, as it happens. I am interested in hearing more about and from the particular six individuals under discussion, however. Absent a consensus from anglophone hijra on how they conceive of their identities, I feel it would be presumptuous to make categorical statements on the people under discussion without their input.
posted by Dysk at 12:40 PM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


First, just to clarify, I don't see this as a linguistic issue (much less as an Anglophone vs non-Anglophone issue. English words are routinely incorporated into other subcontinental languages).

Second, I am also fairly familiar with (some of) these communities, and I genuinely don't understand why you would consider it "presumptuous" to refrain from using a contentious term until that time when members of the community explicitly make clear whether or not they identify with that term. In other words, you seem to be arguing that the default is "trans until otherwise specified," and I am arguing that the default is "hijra until otherwise specified".

I suppose we're at an impasse on the question, but I appreciate your reply.
posted by mylittlepoppet at 1:17 PM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


splitpeasoup: The group itself refers to themselves as "transgender", and it's pretty common for the hijra communities to refer to themselves as "trans women" or "transgenders" when dealing with the English-speaking world, because the nuances of hijra are lost on them.
posted by divabat at 4:51 PM on January 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


In other words, you seem to be arguing that the default is "trans until otherwise specified," and I am arguing that the default is "hijra until otherwise specified".

I am arguing no such thing. I explicitly said that it was presumptuous to make any categorical statement on whether trans is an appropriate term in this instance either way. At any rate, given divabat's update, it is entirely academic at this point.
posted by Dysk at 5:26 PM on January 28, 2016


Inequality Within India's Third Gender Community

I really hope the band members are not exploited. It's pretty concerning that we know nothing about them - their names, their lives, their interests.
posted by divabat at 9:31 PM on January 28, 2016


Given the way this kind of explicitly commercial manufactured pop works pretty much all over the world, I'd be surprised if it wasn't at least a faustian bargain...
posted by Dysk at 9:55 AM on January 29, 2016


The Indian government officially lists hijra as 'transgender' in Aadhaar cards, for one.

I saw this a couple of days back with the first vid. It's all very progressive and nice, but here's my problem with it; nowhere do they mention anything about the band members themselves. Not on the official site, not on any of the reporting, nowhere. All that we know about them is that they're hijra/ transgender. What are their names? What are their back-stories? Let's get more of their personalities out.

Thing is, hijra performances or drag vaudeville has been staple entertainment for ages in Asian societies; they often take the role of the village jester, where, precisely because they're excluded from the mainstream, they can comment on the powerful during their performance and still get away with it. Kumar in Singapore is a great example of this. So in essence, I don't see why we ought to see this as groundbreaking; it still pigeon-holes hijras, although in a slightly more welcoming, perhaps progressive, envelope.

My other problem with it are the Hindi lyrics. Happy was so infectious because the original English lyrics simply don't take any role or perspective, other than being an abstract exhortation to be happy. Unfortunately, the Hindi lyrics are actually quite a bit hetero-normative and dare I say, middle-class, talking about moms and bosses and girlfriends; feels like the tune had been rung through this Bollywood magic-making machine, with the free-spirited original English lines somehow having been damped by some strong preservative-based flavours. This is actually made worse by English subtitles that try to add an edginess that isn't there in the actual Hindi lines being sung ("Expenses tear your clothes (you) down" somehow becomes "inflation tears your boxers and briefs" for instance.)

Liked the thick Mumbaiyya accent floating through in both English and Hindi though ("n"s being pronounced like ñ's, for instance), that was fantastic, spots of authenticity that I was looking for. Which makes me wonder how it would have been had they let the band have some more creative control over the music.
posted by the cydonian at 5:56 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


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