iamcapricious Transgender is an umbrella term. Under transgender umbrella there are lot of other communities like Transsexuals (people who surgically and hormonally transform their bodies to the opposite sex). Intersex (people who are born with AIS or any other intersex conditions), Crossdressers (people who cross dress for comfort, fun or sexual arousal), Hijra (is a religious community, that people get initiated into through a initiation ritual called Nirvaan, Majority of people in hijra community are usually cross dressers, and a small minority of Hijras opt for castration ).
Indian transgender umbrella has 2 major categories:
1) Non religious groups : People under this group do not have any religious initiation into the community, they belong to and follow their birth religion. They live normal lives, mostly within their birth or wedded families & have normal jobs just like any other people .
Example: transsexuals, Intersex people, gender non confirming people , non binary etc.
2) Religious Groups : people under this group do have a religious and Hindu ritualistic initiation into the community. They also have a community gods (Bahuchara Mata, Aravan etc). These people usually do not live with their birth family, they live within their initiated community house and do the jobs allocated to them by the community heads. Most people of these communities are into a organized form of prostitution and begging.
Example : Hijra, Aravani, Kinnar etc etc.
I am not a scholar in this topic. But being an community insider have a fair idea of how things work and basic terminologies.
Regards,
Ney
