Presumably, then it is a bunch of Hijras who sing the “Who can tell you more about yin and yang?” verse in the “Marriage has come to town” number in Bride and Prejudice. I had been wondering about that.
Link, John?
Link to the Classic Column Why are Indian eunuchs warned about unsafe sex
(Hijak)
Just how DOES one pronounce “Hijras?” I always thought they were the “Castrati” (?) Or was that just Italian.
Sorry about leaving out the link. I was called away after typing that much of the message, and didn’t get back to hitting the “Submit Message” button for about six hours, so I forgot I hadn’t finished.
Anyway, “castrato” is an Italian word that literally signifies “castrated one”. I’m not sure of its full range of meaning in Italian (i.e., whether it includes gelded horses, or human adult accident victims, etc.), but in English, it is used only to refer to boy singers who underwent castration before puberty, to retain a high singing voice. (By a weird coincidence, as I type, I’m listening to Kristen Chenoweth singing “Glitter and Be Gay”.) In any case, according to Cecil, a hijra is not necessarily castrated at all, and, in particular, the singers in Bride and Prejudice have adult male voices; any Westerner would, seeing and hearing them, classify them as “drag queens”.
Cecil also left out another occupation of Hijras-protection scamming. When I was last in Delhi, they were going around in a large group demanding money from businesses. If the business din’t pay up, they hung around and made themselves a nusance, driving away customers. Luckily, the locals convinced them that since we made drugs for fighting cancer they should leave us alone.