Power, identity, resistance, and the Supreme Court: The story of Koovagam

For us Kinnars, marriage is not made in heaven. We get married on a battlefield.”

This is what Amina said to me while she prepared for her wedding. Amina is a Kinnar, a term her community prefers over other alternatives like Khojja or Aravani or Hijra. She and hundreds of other Kinnars were queuing outside a small temple dedicated to Lord Aravan in the remote village of Koovagam, around 200 km from Chennai.

Their bridegroom was the stiff-moustached, red-faced, fiery-eyed deity who rules over the half-world to which they belong.

Every year, on a full-moon day in the Tamil month of Chithirai, a huge number of transgender people come to Koovagam to marry the village temple deity Aravan, who is also known as Koothandavar. It’s a pan-Indian, 18-day event that’s taken place for hundreds of years – certainly the biggest occasion for the community to come together and share experiences and opinions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.