From Life Story to Political Testimony: Re-narrating Hijra Identity in Contemporary Indian Trans Autobiography

Abstract

This paper examines the transformation of hijra autobiographical writing in contemporary India through a close reading of A. Revathi’s The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story (2010) and A Life in Trans Activism (2016). While existing scholarship has largely approached hijra autobiographies as narratives of marginalisation, trauma, and survival, this study argues that recent life writing marks a decisive shift from confessional self-narration to politically engaged autobiographical testimony. Revathi’s later memoir reconfigures autobiography as a form of activist documentation, where personal memory is mobilised to articulate collective identity, institutional engagement, and political responsibility.

Drawing on life-writing theory by Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, alongside Paul John Eakin’s conception of socially constituted selfhood, the paper analyses how narrative voice, ethical orientation, and representational strategies evolve across the two texts. It demonstrates that A Life in Trans Activism moves beyond individualised suffering to foreground a collective hijra consciousness shaped by activism, organisational labour, and negotiations with state power. By reading hijra autobiography as an evolving literary genre rather than a static archive of pain, this paper contributes to queer literary studies and South Asian gender scholarship, addressing a critical gap in research that continues to privilege early transgender narratives without attending to newer forms of political self-representation.