Why Be Legible?: The Case of Transgender Minorities in India

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Abstract

Why would stigmatized minorities seek to be legible to the state, an entity that historically oppressed them? A prominent view within political science suggests that marginalized groups, with strained relationships with the state, aim to avoid being “seen” by it. Yet, understood from a different angle, legibility to the state can also entail recognition from it. For groups facing material and symbolic hardships due to the state's failure to recognize them, being seen becomes important. Moreover, being legible is often a pre-requisite for accessing state welfare, providing material incentives to want legibility. This paper develops a framework to understand the complex factors influencing stigmatized minorities' decisions to engage with state legibility initiatives. Through an in-person survey of working class, transgender women in India, I establish how they rationalize their participation in the country's transgender identification program that comes with the promise of targeted welfare benefits. I analyze how prior interactions with the state impact such individuals’ willingness to join state legibility projects and the motivations driving their involvement. Importantly, I demonstrate that material concerns, above and beyond symbolic identity affirmation, drive such individuals’ pursuit of state-issued documents validating their gender identity.

Author

• Siddhartha Baral, University of California San Diego