Service and Third Gender of the Third Genre on Mughal Court and Harem Part-2

The feeling of being inferior might be accurate in certain instances but was certainly not the sole real-life experience of the lives of eunuchs.

There have been two instances in which eunuchs voiced their pain at being absent. One of them was when Aitbar Khan cursed his parents for denying human’s most cherished pleasure’. The second was the case of Daulat eunuch, who lost his nose and ear and cried about being turned into a eunuch two times over. Contrary to these instances, there are numerous instances where the eunuchs faithfully worked for their masters and helped the Mughal State, with no feeling of being inferior because of their gender. A eunuch from Murad Baksh, the brother of Aurangzeb, even sacrificed his life to support him.

The modern informers have been harsh towards the eunuchs by calling them baboons and animals with a desire for riches and engaging in sex acts.

The lens of historical service permits us to look beyond these representations and contextualize them within the broader politics of bodily rituals, the power of politics gendered essentialization, and the everyday power and control sinews that extend beyond the courtroom and bazaar as well as the Harem.

In this context, it is easy to comprehend why there are other depictions of eunuchs complaining about them having more power than they were entitled to have. However, the nature of the information reported contrasts with how the royals treated the eunuchs close to them and conferred them with titles to show they were loyal, trustworthy, and trustworthy. These titles, like Itibar and Aitmad that both refer to being reliable and trustworthy, are given time and time again to famous eunuchs, from Akbar until Shah Jahan’s reign, indicating their trustworthiness to their superiors, who were usually males.

The issue of social exclusion cannot be ignored. Unjustified persecution of eunuchs is evident in the source documents. The obvious instances of persecution could be accompanied by more subtle, regular oppression that eunuchs face.

Incredibly, eunuchs appear not to have developed an identity solely because of their gender. However, there are numerous instances in which they repressed their fellow…