Ungrievable Lives, Commodified Bodies: Trans Necropolitics and Ethics of Care in Anosh Irani’s The Parcel

Anosh Irani’s The Parcel (2016) explores the commodified lives of hijras, sex workers, and trafficked girls, revealing the oppressive social norms and political systems responsible for making Kamathipura a “death camp” and its inhabitants necropolitical subjects. Centering on Madhu and her heated relationship with a trafficked girl known as the “parcel,” the novel demonstrates how hijras in contemporary India are systematically subjected to conditions of “death-in-life” by state power and heteronormative societal structures. Drawing on Mbembe’s theory of necropolitics and Butler’s concept of ungrievable life, the study shows how Madhu is rendered “living dead” through bodily regulation, commodification, social exclusion, and urban development. Aizura’s insight into transnational economies of desire further sheds light on how hijra bodies are consumed and discarded within sexual economies. Moreover, the present article highlights the ambivalent forms of care expressed in hijra kinship and ritual as survival practices within necropolitical violence.