An edition of The invisibles (1996)

Invisibles

A Tale of the Eunuchs of India

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Invisibles
Zia Jaffrey, Zia Jaffrey
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Last edited by ImportBot
September 24, 2023 | History
An edition of The invisibles (1996)

Invisibles

A Tale of the Eunuchs of India

  • 3 Want to read

In 1984, Zia Jaffrey traveled to Delhi, and there glimpsed a group of cross-dressing men who had walked, uninvited and unannounced, into a wedding. They sang out of tune, hurled insults at the guests, and were finally paid to leave. She learned that these often-castrated, elusive figures were known as the hijras - "neither male nor female" - or the eunuchs, of India.

They existed in thousands in every major city, were tolerated yet reviled, thought to bring good luck to newlyweds and newborns, yet also called extortionists and kidnappers.

Jaffrey set off on a journey to understand the forces of caste, poverty, sexual ambiguity, and the tradition itself that had allowed the hijras to persist into the modern age. In an investigation that points to her own sense of "otherness" in relation to Indian culture - she was born in New York of Indian extraction - Jaffrey delved into the mysteries of the hijras' closed world, uncovering details about their past, their daily lives, and their complex social structures.

In this spellbinding book - at once travelogue, history, interview, and fiction - Jaffrey invents a hybrid voice to match her subject, as she meets journalists, police commissioners, detectives, and doctors and tries to trace the hijras' tradition through layers and layers of obfuscation and denial, as well as through Hindu, Muslim, and British history. She is drawn into a labyrinthine network of connections, coverups, and contradictions as mysterious as India itself.

Publish Date
Language
English

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: The invisibles
The invisibles: a tale of the eunuchs of India
1998, Phoenix, Orion Publishing Group, Limited
in English
Cover of: The invisibles
The invisibles: a tale of the eunuchs of India
1998, Vintage Departures
in English - 1st Vintage Departures ed.
Cover of: The Invisibles
The Invisibles
December 15, 1998, Random House Value Publishing
Hardcover in English
Cover of: Invisibles
Invisibles: A Tale of the Eunuchs of India
1997, Orion Publishing Group, Limited
in English
Cover of: Invisibles
Invisibles: A Tale of the Eunuchs of India
1997, Orion Publishing Group, Limited
in English
Cover of: Invisibles
Invisibles
1997, Orion Publishing Group, Limited
in English
Cover of: Invisibles
Invisibles
1997, Orion Publishing Group, Limited
in English
Cover of: The invisibles
The invisibles: a tale of the eunuchs of India
1996, Pantheon Books
in English

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Book Details


The Physical Object

Pagination
296
Weight
0.533

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL48127584M
ISBN 13
9780297840985

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September 24, 2023 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
June 17, 2023 Created by ImportBot Imported from Better World Books record