From Badhai to Miss Transqueen India: Celebrating the Hijra Body as a Socio-cultural Text

Abstract

The paper aims to explore the popular beauty contest Miss Transqueen
India (originated in 2016) as a cultural phenomenon that reevaluates trans
performativity within the realms of fashion and glamour. As an aesthetic and political
platform, such beauty pageants challenge existing ethics of beauty, offering a space
for gender plurality, trans inclusivity, and social sustainability. By tracing the
transformation of hijra identity—from traditional Badhai (congratulatory gift)
performers and ‘obscene’ street dancers to the recognized participants of
(inter)national beauty contests—this study examines how the hijra body, once
criminalized under the 1871 Criminal Tribes Act (CTA), renders into a socio-cultural
text, inscribed with alternative discourse of beauty and trans empowerment. With a
focus to archival documentation, the paper analyses how beauty pageants serves as a
site of symbolic integration for a historically marginalized hijra community. Engaging
with Erving Goffman’s (1963) stigma theory, this study critically examines the
tension between stigma and public representation, highlighting how embodied
experiences of fashion, style, and the body negotiate visibility and agency within
contemporary society.