Gee Imaan Semmalar

Research project

Project title: Colonial Folklores in Legal Archives: Caste and gender deviant categorisations in colonial India

Description of the project: This thesis is an exploration of the processes of state classification at the points where caste and gender deviance intersect. It will be specifically focused on how hijras or “eunuchs” (or those who we today refer to as transgender women) are classified through caste categories under British and caste colonisation in the juridical and administrative classificatory processes of the state. By relying on legal, archival state sources this study will be a critical intervention in gender and sexuality studies, legal and archival scholarship and critical colonial studies from India.