India's Bizarre Case of the Rampaging Eunuchs

April 16, 2008

Eunuchs, who are perhaps best described as castrated males, have been around at least since 900 BC. The practice of castrating portions of the male population is believed to have begun in China, and the eunuchs were initially utilized to stand guard over royal harems. Often thin and hairless with shrill voices, they can be an unsettling spectacle for the unsuspecting passerby.  Although their numbers have dwindled drastically in most parts of the world, it is believed that approximately 1 million eunuchs still exist today in India where gangs keep the practice alive. Known as hijras in that country, they have become a source of fear, and for good reason.

The gangs of Indian eunuchs, it appears, have apparently turned from their traditional role of bringing good fortune to people by dancing at weddings and performing ritual blessings on newborn children, and are now instead using violence and threats of violence to extort money by menacing tourists and the general population in India's largest cities. Nowadays they rub on thick coats of rouge, lipstick, and facial powder in their quest to parade around like women and, dressed in traditional women's clothing, they stop people on the street shouting foul language and threatening to flash their altered genitalia to passersby unless they are paid upward of 100 rupees. Most people pay up rather than facing the humiliation and embarrassment of the unsavory encounter. They also pay up because many people in India believe that the eunuchs possess supernatural powers that even the police fear. Nowadays, they are also known to show up at new homes to demand cash instead of performing a traditional house blessing. Instead of being revered like they were in the past, today's eunuch, at least in India, has become a thing of terror and dread as can be seen by the stories of two men who met with a particularly unpleasant fate at the hands and blades of eunuchs and lived to talk about it.

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