The Transgenders and Tusu: Exploring the Forbidden Culture through my Lens

 Brati Majumdar (Chatterjee)

Third gender individuals are often ridiculed in the society, and excluded as outcasts in the Indian Chauvinist society. We often see them as a problem while travelling in trains and buses and try our best to ignore them. 

In January 2025, on a cold Makar Sankranti Day, I travelled to a remote village in the Odisha-Midnapur border area, to shoot Tusu celebrations. I was invited by renowned social worker Dr. H. Mahato, as he wanted me to experience something extraordinary.

We were guided to the field adjacent to the temple, which was decorated with flowers, colorful flags, a typical village fair was going on. The smell of jalebis,  fried nuts, potato fritters, singara, and above all Mahua (a typical tribal drink of festivals), filled the air along with families gathering with children. 

In a corner, crowd has gathered, as cheer and whistle filled the air, where "MOROG LORAI", is going on, with cruel laughter filling the air, as a poor Cock lost his life...

 In another part of the field, the TUSU dance troupes were seen practicing thoroughly for the final showdown later in the evening....

Leaving the hullabaloo, we quietly strode with Dr. Mahato towards a dance troupe, practising aloof. Some people were gathering along mocking with cunning smiles. As we came close, we understood that they are THIRD GENDER PEOPLE. I got introduced to their USTAD JI...who was correcting the steps of the child dancers and music troops. Gentle and smiling, he greeted me with their usual term "JAY JOHAR", and offered me to sit. 

I was quite surprised, when he introduced himself as a normal person, not a third gender. He is a trained musician and dancer. He told me his story of how he lost his child, who was born as Third Gender, when he was branded a DAYAN and killed mercilessly. Grief Stricken he and his wife didnt turn hostile, as they were aware of the Social Taboo,  the tribal society feels towards the third gender. They have turned their small home into an ashram, where he and his wife give shelter to the THIRD GENDER children, abandoned by their parents and heckled by society.  

Denied education in local schools, he is now training the children to perform in local fairs, act in small plays (in road plays), perform Bhadu song, Tusu Song. With help from Dr. H. Mahato, the children are also taught to deal with society, not to beg and given basic primary education. He gave me the nod to click the long forbidden TUSU Dance of the Third Genders, which was barely seen in public before. 

In the evening 3 pm, as the GOLDEN LIGHT of the Sun encircled the field, (a perfect one for Photography), the Third Gender TUSU Troupe, (as they are announced) inaugurated the programme. Their song and dance enthralled the village audience, with lyrics mainly containing words of pain and anguish they face in the society. The lyrics also depicted that they are biologically deformed, which is not a curse, and asked people to treat them with dignity. 

In the remote village, A Social Worker and A Local Dancer, cum playwright, and above all A GRIEF STRICKEN FATHER, taught us the lesson how to forgive, and bravely face the hostile society to give a dignified life to the neglected sect of the Society, THE THIRD GENDER.

**Student, Department of Geography (1996)