An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Bulbul Gupta (Visiting Research Fellow 2021; M.M. Postgraduate College at Modinagar):
Transgender Worlds and the question of human dignity
The paper builds on two premises viz. one, the meaning and implications of human dignity for a transgender person differs substantially from that for a cisgender person, and two, in case of transgender people, the understanding and promotion of human dignity needs to be necessarily forged in the crucible of their life experience. The paper aims to explore the question of human dignity of transgendered people who confront brutal attacks on their worth or value (and thus identity) quite frequently and in varied ways such as sexual violence, psychological, physical and emotional torture, social exclusion, poverty, to name a few. It examines the issue of dignity of trans people vis-à-vis the trans protagonists of autobiographies of some of the popular transgender people of India namely, Me Hijra, Me Laxmi by Laxminarayan Tripathi, and The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story by A. Revathi. The aspect of dignity of transgender protagonists in the two autobiographies is explored in context of the theories of dignity given by two philosophers, Immanuel Kant and Martha Nussbaum. The paper is based on the hypothesis that human dignity should not be treated as an abstraction and the theory of Martha Nussbaum corresponds better than that of Kant to the reality of transgender life in all its complexity and is more relevant in the formation of laws in securing a transgender person’s dignity.
Please note the earlier start time of 12:00 GMT.
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81322391722
Passcode: Vr8f3ew2