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The designation of the hijra as a loose-tongued upstart has continued to the pre-sent day, although it is now Indian journalists and sociologists who carry on this descriptive genre. Authors frequentły point to the hijras’ idiosyncratic and non-conforming use of language, particularly to their mixing of feminine and mascu-line speech styles, as indicative of both gender dysphoria and sexual perversion. They contrast hijras with women by referring to the hijras’ lewd jokes, their love of excessive obscenity, and their aggressive conversational style; they contrast them with men by referring to the hijras’ penchant for gossip and their tendency to chatter excessively, to babble without content. Like the court eunuch described by Manucci in the 1600s, the hijra is portrayed as a foul-mouthed gossip; her dual naturę, in the opinion of modern-day Indian authors, enables her to outdo the most negative verbal stereotypes associated with either side of the gender divide.

The work of Govind Singh, the author of a popular study entitled Hijró ka Samar (The world of the hijras),¹⁴ is but one example of this descriptive trend. Throughout his book, Singh portrays the hijra as a linguistically conflicted entity who, as he explains in the two excerpts reproduced here, shifts between positions of coquettish cursing and foul-mouthed flirting: