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Six years ago, on January 10, 2019, the Socialist Students Union of Manipur (SSUM), ETA (Empowering Transgender Association) and Nupa Manba (transmen) and Nupi Manbi (transwomen) associations of Manipur conducted a public protest against author Nandini Krishnan’s book Invisible Men: Inside India’s Transmasculine Network (published by Penguin India: Nov 2018). The protests included the public burning of her book.
The two key positions on which the protests were held included, as trans masculine activists such as Hemabati pointed out: 1) misleading the public about transgender persons, especially trans masculine persons, 2) trying to distort the history of Manipur by imposing Hindu mythology drawing largely from Mahabharata[1]. Santa Khurai, trans activist from the Meitei community in Manipur, speaking through media outlets underscored that “we are not Hindus” and also that the book focuses only on Meitei trans members ignoring the varied indigenous trans communities in Manipur[2].
Protests, writings and public statements from the trans masculine community, including the participants who were interviewed by Nandini Krishnan for her book, erupted from various parts of the country. The community repeatedly underscored that the book is a voyeuristic, Hindu-Brahmanical, transphobic exercise that is an unforgivable blot on every principle of journalistic, research and publication ethics. The power exercised by Nandini Krishnan was not merely existing in some faraway space of her book as a constant reminder of the violations she has committed on the members of the community who had reposed faith in her while sharing their stories. It had a direct impact on some of the participants who faced job loss due to the egregious privacy violations she continued to commit while conducting publicity of her book. The collective demand of the community was clear: withdraw the book and issue a public apology.
Nandini Krishnan refused to issue an apology stating that her conscience is clear. The publishers did not withdraw the book.
On 18 February 2019, a Change.org petition was started demanding that Penguin Random House India withdraw the book. Till date it has received only 606 signatures. The book continues in circulation, being sold on Amazon for almost 700 INR.
After publishing some of the criticisms most news media went back to featuring Nandini Krishnan’s work without any further reference to her actions. In 2020 and 2021, she even went on to gain popularity as a translator of Perumal Murugan’s works. One must wonder whether Perumal Murugan – if he is reminded of this significant protest that was undertaken by the transgender community –would still collaborate with an author who is comfortable working as an author divorced of all ethics when it comes to the transgender community. In 2024, she continues to appear in various literature festivals across the country.
Meanwhile, by the end of that year the transgender community was facing the unconstitutional Trans Bill 2019. Then members of the transgender community, many of whom spoke out against her, have struggled to survive through the COVID crisis, public and private violence without respite, unemployment and health crises, loss of loved ones and even disappeared from public activism. Specifically the community in Manipur are living through the on-going state-sponsored violence while also struggling to protect themselves from transphobic violence[3].
The protests and statements that emerged in the aftermath of the release of Nandini Krishnan’s book were a significant moment in the contemporary history of the transgender movement and must be remembered as such. Here, I collate some of the key material put forward entirely from community members and still available in public domain that counter Nandini Krishnan from the axis of caste, gender, saffronisation/Hinduisation of trans narratives, ethics of knowledge-production, research and publication.
Video:
The video below titled “Trans men speak out against Nandini Krishnan’s book, Invisible Men”, shot by Christy Raj and appearing on the Youtube page “Transmen speak for themselves” was published in Firstpost on 7th February 2019. The 11:30-minutes-long video includes first-person accounts from the community of the grievous violations committed by Nandini Krishnan in the production of her work. This record consists of statements from C. Priyan, Kiran Nayak, Rumi Harish, Sunil, Selvam, Gayathri (all who participated in the interviews with Nandini Krishnan), and Gee Imaan Semmalar.
Writing:
On 9th January, 2019, Gee Imaan Semmalar wrote a 10-point takedown of the book that appeared in The News Minute.
On 15th January, 2019, Jamal Siddiqui – also an interviewee in the book – wrote for Feminism in India expressing the deep discomfort he felt upon reading the book.
https://www.feminisminindia.com/2019/01/15/nandini-krishnan-book-hurts-trans-men-community/
On 31st January, 2019, Bittu Karthik – also an interviewee for the book – provided a fairly detailed account of the specific harm done to interviewees. This appears in Firstpost (before the site completely became a part of the pro-government media).
In her response to the protests and writing, Nandini Krishnan was of the puerile view that ‘no one who loves a book can burn another’. This commemorative post is not only a reminder of an important protest across the country, but also a reminder to anyone who goes to the deep-end of ‘protecting free speech and expression by the powerful’ that on December 25, 1927 the Manusmriti was burnt by Dr Ambedkar.
This is also a reminder to the members of the media that till date there has been no significant shift in the composition of media and news rooms towards actual inclusion of independent transgender persons. Nor has there been any significant change from blatant voyeurism in the perspective towards transgender persons. Even more recent pieces, and interviews, occurring across ‘progressive’ channels continue to prefer borderline ethnographic accounts of violence and discrimination, relegating all news about us to “LGBTQIA” or “the transgender angle”, with no interest in portraying our substantive views on a variety of matters that arises in the public domain.
As such all the violations and the dehumanisation recorded through these protests continue unabated. Our movements struggle through the repeated onslaughts from all systems, the distance and fractures between us increase. But this commemoration is with the faith that we will continue to draw strength from every time that we take a stand, record our resistance, irrespective of the final outcome narrated by oppressors. For, the final outcome is always our journey towards self-respect, through our complicated histories as we try to record it against an overwhelming web of false narratives.
[1] See: https://e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=4..110119.jan19
[2] See: https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/we-are-not-hindus-manipuri-trans-activists-outrage-against-nandini-krishnans-book-1995323.html
[3] See: https://en.themooknayak.com/lgbtq-news/queer-people-exists-in-every-space-looking-at-manipur-violence-through-a-trans-lens