9058009551

in the hijras’ use of feminine and masculine reference. When Rupa explains the import of the guru-disciple relationship, she frames her discussion in terms of a father-son relationship; in particular, she compares the leader of the group to a father and its members to his sons. ‘It’s just like the relationship of a bap lafka’ [‘father and son’],⁵ she remarks, later using the Sanskrit-derived phrase pita putra [‘father and son’] to imbue the relationship with even morę prestige. She similarly explains the structure of the hijra lineage by using masculine terms of reference, among them dada guru [‘pater-nal grandfather guru’], guru bhat [‘brother disciple’], bare bap [‘older father’], and caca guru bhat [‘paternal uncle fellow disciple’]. She maintains this use of masculine kinship terms, however, only when speaking in the third person about other hijras from the adopted standpoint of an outsider. When Rupa mimics her own interactions with other hijras in the community, using first- and second-person forms to do so, as in excerpt (10), she shifts from the masculine to the feminine: