The history of the third gender in this region is also the history of the anxieties of the two dominant genders. The eunuch, the khawajasera, the heejra, the transvestite, the transgendered human being, and the hermaphrodite are all different labels with which men and women try to contain a threat to an amorphous, but full of desire, human presence.

The oppression of the third gender in this region, like everywhere else, is generally linked with the numerical dominance of the two genders: male and female. But, before the arrival of the British colonisers, the social sphere was more lenient towards their presence because the khawajasera was the ideal employee and guardian of the royal household because he-she did not pose any threat to the royal Mughal "honour".

With the arrival of the British, the situation changed for the worse for the heejras because the new social order was informed by a rigid idea of the white male as an emancipator and civiliser of the "primitive" natives of India. In 1871, when the Criminal Tribes Act was introduced, the eunuchs were also labelled as a criminal tribe.

The Clause 24 of the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 reads: "The Local Government should cause the following registers to be made and kept up by such officer… a register of the names and residences of all eunuchs residing in any town or place to which the Local Government specially extends this Part of this Act."

Other than being a problem of governmentality, the eunuchs were also a difficult category of human beings to define. The Act defined them as: "The term 'eunuch' shall, for the purpose of this Act, be deemed to include all persons of the male sex who admit themselves, or on medical inspection clearly appear, to be impotent."

The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 also penalises such mode of being. The clause 26 reads: "Any eunuch so registered who appears dressed or ornamented like a woman, in a public street or place… or who dances or plays music or takes part in any public exhibition… or for hire in a private house may be arrested without a warrant."

Such was the intensity of the moral anxiety of the coloniser at keeping public order that the indefinable human being could have his or her property confiscated.

Now after independence, those whose biological fate or life choices render them as numerically marginalised are the target of governmental redress all over again. A male dominated system of justice distribution has asked the male dominant provincial governments to keep registers of those whose gender is the source of a stigma.

It all happened because an all-male police formation attacked a group of eunuchs dancing at a wedding in Taxila and looted their possessions. Now, after a Supreme Court order, the provincial governments are supposed to register them so that these "victims of victims" can get their Computerised National Identity Cards, Birth Certificates, and other such rights.

Upon hearing this, I approached the first eunuch I saw on the street and asked if he-she was happy with the decision. Gori (a fake name to hide identity) batted her fake eyelashes and just looked at me: "Darling, how happy are you men and women with the way things are in Pakistan? If the government cannot provide you men and women with electricity, what can it give us?"

I was speechless. Every male and female friend I have talked to seems to be an electricity refugee. Some well-off friends moved from Karachi or Islamabad to have more electricity-hours in their nights.

I gathered my courage again and broached the topic: "Have you tried to register?"

"Listen," she said now fed up, "what do you want me to say? Will we get better doctors? Will we get education? If all of you who are so many are able to get something, we also have some hope. What is in this country for any ordinary woman or man or us?"

Again some uncomfortable silence followed.

"Can I talk to your leaders? Do you have a union?"

Yes, we have."

"Give me your number. I will make someone call you and disillusion you further," she let out a sardonic laughter.

After this, I called an employee of NADRA and asked if any new policy had been introduced for the registration of eunuchs. He confirmed there was a new policy but he had not read it and I should call after an hour. I called after an hour. The answer was still the same with new directions for me. Now wait for my call, the officer said. The call never came.

Gori was right. It is not an issue of being recognised in a state document but the overall tendency of a public sphere towards justice. If the males and females are begging, if the bait-ul-maal does not operate, if the taxpayers' money is usurped without any return for them, if all the youth want to migrate as soon as possible, then the state anomie is for everyone and the transgender community may have found more trouble than relief in the mandatory registration process. It may even become 1871 all over again because there are no laws against data protection. The police may have access to all the details and can round them up for use in any unsolved crimes.

If the case of Shumail Raj and Shahzina Tariq is any indication, the logic of the existing order of things is going to remain implacable. Shumail Raj was a transgendered man who married Shahzina Tariq, his cousin. Shumail was born a female but had gone through the biological transition of becoming male. The Court ordered a medical examination which, according to an IGLHRC document submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in 2008, revealed that "Shumail had undergone gender re-assignment surgery, but the judge nevertheless pronounced Shumail 'a girl' and accused the couple of perjury for lying about Shumail's gender."

It seems the law in Pakistan has no provisions in place for recognising the natural rights of transgendered people. Here, some of the eunuchs are transgendered and others are gender-confused at birth. So, it is going to be a big bureaucratic mess when the state functionaries come knocking.

Email: urrehman@gmail.com

Edward S. Curtis

The Collection

Early Photographs of the First

Americans

Publisher: Chartwell

Books, INC

Year of publication: 2008

Price in Pakistan: Rs3908

(Available at Readings, Main Boulevard, Lahore)

"It is such a big dream, I can't see it all," wrote Edward Sheriff Curtis, American photographer, who set out on personal quest to photograph North American Indians between 1900 to 1937.

Curtis' monumental work of 2,200 photogravures appeared in 20 volumes published over a period of 27 years. The present volume; "Edward S. Curtis: The Collection", spans Curtis' life and vision in an alluring introduction by Don Gulbrandsen, and an equally brilliant synopsis of his entire body of work by Wayne Youngblood.

This collection is divided into twenty comprehensive chapters based on selections from each of the twenty original volumes. Each chapter begins with a detailed map of the area and tribes it covers. The volume contains 600 superb images of Native Americans (Early photographs of the first Americans) that seem to look intently at you with all the compassion, which Curtis was able to record out of his devotion and sheer respect to these people. "The faces stare out at you," wrote Gulbrandsen, "images seemingly from an ancient time and a place far, far away. Their names are just as arresting -- Shot In The Hand, Two Moon, Bear's Belly, Raven's Blanket -- monikers that don't immediately register as human…. eyes filled with dignity, but also with sadness and loss -- representatives of a world that has all but disappeared from our planet."

Sheriff Curtis lived with the people he wanted to photograph. He took a total diversion from a settled life, quit studio, his wife filed divorce and for a time he was bankrupt, dejected and discarded. But he continued to pursue his personal quest even when he was empty-handed. Denied by New York publishing houses, each time he returned to the tribes of Native Americans and planned more field work. Even midway through this monumental task, Curtis once again went through a jolting series of personal disasters. He was eventually adopted by the Hopis and allowed to experience their sacred snake dance. He seemed to share with them a wild spirit and bondage more powerful than any other experienced by his contemporaries. "They are so happy and contented as they are," he wrote on seeing a group of Indians on Nunivak Island.

The discovery of Curtis' remarkable 20-volume work after several decades of his death stunned the photographic world and debates about an utter negation of self in the wake of a colossal task and non-compromised commitment to accomplish it began to appear more frequently. Beyond that, his perception of the power of culture and tradition once again shifted the focus of photographic artists of the era from pictorial to the real, laying strong foundations of modern day archival and photo journalistic genres in photographic art. Edward Curtis wrote in a letter, "the passing of every old man or woman means the passing of some tradition, some knowledge of sacred rites possessed by no other. Consequently, the information for the benefit of future generations, representing the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once." And it was this great fear of losing unsaved information, which led Curtis to record every bit about the lifestyle and tradition of the Native Americans.

His graphic vision and deeper understanding of human nature reflects well in his epic portraits. It was only because of this achievement that he was picked up by Cecil B. De Mile to work as Director of Photography for his extravagant epic film 'The Ten Commandments.'

The present volume in this regard becomes a very special treatise on Edward Curtis' complete work that it is probably the only published document which encompasses artist's rare vision as well as a comprehensive overview of his 20 volumes of work with elaborated episodes from his personal life to illustrate the accomplishment of a historic effort. The mystic span of spirituality, which casts a haunting aura about the outlook, and presentation of the volume under discussion is hardly witnessed about any other work in photography. It is deeply stemmed into Curtis' unconditional love and respect for the Native Americans.

The 500 plus pages compiled from 20 original volumes of Edward Curtis' unshakable quest over three decades are not just a mere ethnographic record or romantic portraits, but a dazzling tribute to the dignity of human spirit and an elegiac note on vanishing of a great race.

Before Michael Jackson, the genre of music video did not exist and even if it did it was in a raw, rudimentary form to which most did not pay any attention. Actually with the release of the early Michael Jackson music videos the entire trend of presenting music changed. It was a drastic shift from being an aural form to one that was both aural and visual.

From then on the releases of music exclusively as sound tracks had a rival in the music videos, which started to challenge the monopoly with the marketing of "Thriller" about 30 years ago.

That change was not only limited to the United States or Europe. It infected the music industry throughout the world. All over, including India and Pakistan, the music was not released as music only but in the form of music videos. The forms of music that were more amenable to this short audio-visual art form were given a boost in the arm while the more purer forms, particularly classical musical forms, received a setback.

Michael Jackson's innovation had a very solid basis because, besides being a vocalist, he was a great dancer. It was clear that he wanted to capitalise on his exceptional skills as a dancer to support and complement his music. The two, sound and movement, coalesced to form a visual treat more than merely a piece of music to be heard. The result of this coming together was truly exceptional. This changed the entire trend of music release whether the vocalist was a dancer or not. In most cases the vocalists were not dancers and they had to resort to antics to fill in the space of true dance unlike Michael Jackson.

As most of the music recordings released these days are on video format, the sound is necessarily accompanied by visual images. These visual images have been of two kinds -- one that provides some kind of connection with the content of the song in the form of characters and some suggestions of a storyline, while in the second form the surfeit of visual images seem to stand out on its own as an independent entity. The imagination is stretched quite a bit in trying to find a connection between with the contents of the song and flood of visual images.

The former is a more conventional manner of connecting the visual to the contents of the song as the entire productivity of film music has depended on this obvious connection. The latter is a recent trend perhaps necessitated by the post-modernistic sensibility that is averse to finding integral links between the various parts of a presentation because it denies recognising it as a living unified organism.

It can be said that the music videos are feeding on an integral link and connection that the performing artists in the subcontinent have known all along. The visual coupled with the aural has been exploited in the films. But the essential difference lies in the fact that in film music the visual imagery was subservient to the sound because of the links with the grand tradition of music in all the centuries when the visual aspect was totally non-existent in the Indian subcontinent. The musical expression had developed to such an extent that its progenitor, the films, despite being a composite art could not escape the virtuosity that the musical tradition nourished.

The music released on the video has the basic similarity with film music. It is eclectic like film music ranging from classical to folk; it has lent itself open to music from all over the world. The classical symphonies of the western classical tradition, the samba and tango dance tunes of Latin America, the jazz of United States and the pop music that has spread like wildfire all over the western world after the Second World War.

Whether it is finding meaning at a deeper level or to stress that no connection exists between the song and the visual imagery is the pointer that will take this musical form forward. If it follows the postmodernist trend of denying the linkages then it is really on the verge of evolving into a new form of expression that requires its own critic -- if not then it will linger on as an abridged form of the visual-aural connection initiated by the films.

For the ordinary listener, this placing within a certain context was of crucial importance. Most people understand music through the words or the lyrics, thinking its musical rendition to be a mere interpretation of the text, the situation in the film provided yet another context to them. Film more than any other medium provided this external reference with great deal of facility. Michael Jackson too with his dance and movement combined his music to form some kind of a complete entity that served the aesthetic needs of the time well.