The Perennial Denial and Tormented Self: Delineation of Transwomen’s Struggle for Space and Social Validity in Megha Majumdar’s ‘A Burning’

Indian English Literature has seen various representations in the past few years and the remarkable progress it has made in reflecting the society and its way of living is to be acknowledged.Literature has always been a cornerstone in not only reflecting, sharing the point of views of different stakeholders of the society.The elites as well as the underprivileged find a space in the literature.Literature has been recognizing, establishing and acknowledging their identity, their thoughts, aspirations, thus making the society more inclusive in nature.Indian literature with its multiple languages, cultures and rich thinkers and visionaries brings a nuanced understanding of the dispossessed, disadvantaged groups, their needs, contributions to the society.The third gender is also represented by Indian literature.Third gender has been previously represented in classical Indian epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata.But concerning the contemporary times, there has been a dearth of talks and discussion on third gender and their roles in the society.Third gender, a community encounters unforeseen pains, pressures, humiliations and mistreatment.They are socially excluded and struggle for a space to speak up as a stakeholder of the society.They are ignored, misunderstood and criminalized and labelled as useless to the society.Their marginalization knows no limits as most of the times they are not considered as human beings.They struggle for a space to stand and raise their voice as they do not conform to the binary genders.The society fails to grant them positions of respect and give them acceptance.In the heteronormative world they are ignored and marginalized which makes their life meaningless.There has been many autobiographies, memoirs and non-fiction writings but Megha Majumdar's novel 'A Burning' is perhaps the first Indian fiction to have a transgender woman as a main character and she gives her a central place in this narrative.Here, transwomen are portrayed more empathetically and their struggle for space, dreams and success makes this literary piece a unique one.Far from the stereotypical description, here Majumdar brings a freshness to this character with his unique ways of fighting and succeeding.The transwoman Lovely, who wants to become a film actress in Bollywood makes a statement that she is not worthless, rather by her talent she can reach anywhere.The main objective of the paper is to demonstrate the transwoman's struggle for basic human rights, social standing and the impact of social marginalization on their mental condition and personhood.