The Position & Predicament of Transgenders in Dattani’s Seven Steps Around the Fire: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

In the play Seven Steps around the Fire, Mahesh Dattani, a renowned playwright, portrays the deplorable position of Hijras (Eunuchs) in Indian society and his efforts to heighten the consciousness of the existential pain that these people endure as a result of prejudice in their daily lives. The goal is to evaluate how the Hijra community and the so-called sophisticated and biologically legitimate community, or the typical male and female in society, relate to one another. In the current inflexible societal framework, where their existence is neither recognised nor respected, Dattani's play Seven Steps around the Fire unpretentiously strives to disclose the additional efforts and additional changes the Hijras are needed to do in order for them to sustain themselves. Because of those limitations, they are compelled to live a life of insignificance, devoid of the status and acceptance that so-called normal males and girls naturally enjoy. Readers are moved by the play's description of the eunuchs' pitiful living conditions and are left with a deep wish to see injustice and prejudice eradicated from society. The play's tight-knit plots and supportive structure educate everyone about the Hijras' human rights, which are equal to those of other people and include the same fundamental freedoms. It exposes the appalling circumstances of the eunuchs, whose lives have been rendered meaningless by the ruling class (females/males) of society. The eunuchs are forced to live in a virtual world of humanity devoid of equality, cultural space, respect, and acknowledgment because they are given the freedom to impose their own cultural norms on this deprived class. This research paper deals with all these deliberations.