Tuesday, March 24, 2009

CASTES AMONG EUNUCHS

The world of this stigmatized group of people is as colorful as our world. “Their world has relationships, castes marriages, funeral, crude sex marriages and even a dialect of its own”.

In Lahore there are more than 45,000 registered eunuchs, as reported by the NGO we visited, operating in various areas, a large number of whom live in Heera Mandi (the red light area) while several also live near Shahnoor film studios, Samnabad, Mazang, and other areas. These eunuchs have mainly three categories, the Moorats, the Zinanays, ans Shaitaans or Dhanda Geers. According to the philosophy of Moorat caste, they had a special spirit that makes them behave like women and they adopt a feminine way of life. The Zinanays are transvestites, most of them potent but passive and fond of wearing ladies clothes and applying make up. The Shaitans are self-converted Moorats, not impotent initially, but undergo crude-sex surgery. They undergo surgical castration Nurban. The Dhanda Geers are considered the dregs among eunuchs. They are both potent and impotnt and are only involved in prostitution. The Shaitans have spots in the city where they go for a sex-change operation, somewhat like an illegal abortion. This has always been a highly secret affair and a potentially fatal one, with a mere 20 percent survival rate. Eunuch gurus carry out all such operations. According to our research conducted, we were told that such operations are carried out inside Lohari Gate, Mazang, Qainchi-Chungi, Amer Sidhu, Shahdra and Kamoki. They said an operation costs Rs 15,000 to 20,000 and another Rs 5,000 for medicine. The medicines include high dosage painkillers and sedatives. Eunuchs also have castes, known as dairas. There are two dairas – Mirzaie and Chandni. The Mirzaie eunuchs have lived in Heera Mandi for generations while the Chandni are considered outsiders. The Mirzaie are considered the sacred descendants of Khawaja Sara and domestic servants who had seen the glory in Mughal times.

The top eunuchs of Lahore as reported by the NGO we visited are Hashim, Saima, Gogi, Komal, Ashi, Saleem, Ghora, Reema Jaan and Mehwish.




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