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This article offers information on the Hijras of India, a religious community of men who dress and act like women and whose culture centers on the worship of Bahuchara Mata, on the of many versions of the mother goddess worshiped throughout India. Hijras are identified with other ascetics and are regarded with the same ambivalence. However, unlike many ascetics, Hijras lead their daily lives within their own highly structured social communities. This article will cover the social relationship and spiritual life of Hijras as a third gender.

The article focuses on the gender identity of hijras. The view of hijras as an alternative gender category is supported by linguistic evidence. The most widely used English translations of the word hijra, which is of Urdu origin, is either "eunuch" or "hermaphrodite." Both terms, as used in India, connote impotence--an inability to function in the male sexual role--and the word hijra primarily implies a physical defect impairing the male sexual function. In both cases the irregularity of the male genitalia is central to the definition: Eunuch refers to an emasculated male and intersexed to a person whose genitals are ambiguously male-like at birth. Impotence is the force behind both the words "eunuch" and "hermaphrodite" as they are used in India, and impotence is central to the definition of the hijra as not man.

The article focuses on Hijras of India. The hijra, an institutionalized third gender role in India, is 'neither male or female', containing elements of both. The hijra are commonly believed by the larger society to be inter-sexed, impotent men, who undergo emasculation in which all or part of the genitals are removed. They adopt female dress and some other aspects of female behavior. Hijras traditionally earn their living by collecting alms and receiving payment for performances at weddings, births and festivals. The central feature of their culture is their devotion to Bahuchara Mata, one of the many Mother Goddesses worshipped all over India, for whom emasculation is carried out. This identification with the Mother Goddess is the source both of the hijras' claim for their special place in Indian society and the traditional belief in their power to curse or confer blessings on male infants. The most significant relationship in the hijra community is that of the guru (master, teacher) and chela (disciple).