Negotiating modernity: NGO interventions and the transformation of hijra families in South India

Development discourse often positions families as harmful for young cisgender women in the global South. In India, NGOs make similar claims about gender non-conforming hijras’ families, asserting they harm younger hijras. To what extent are such interpretations related to understandings about modernity and the place that families occupy in the lives of individuals? How do these ideas impact hijra responses to such criticism? Through a case study of 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork (including over 75 interviews) with hijras and staff of a large NGO in Bangalore, I show NGO efforts to ‘mainstream’ hijras do not simply expand opportunities for gender non-conforming people, but actively remake notions about hijra kinship, personhood and vulnerability. Such interventions rely on modern notions of autonomy and empowerment, privileging younger gender non-conforming people while rendering elder hijras and hijra families disposable. I find development discourses that equate empowerment with individuated subjects justify dismantling hijra kinship, even as elder hijras depend on these ties for survival. Curiously, these elder hijras respond by appropriating modern NGO forms in ways that defend their traditions. Rather than rejecting or celebrating these interventions, I emphasize the enduring power of ideas about modernity in the lives of marginalized groups.