Built lives: Khwajasaras, Jouno‐Karmis, and the Politics of Non‐Normative Kinship and Citizenship in South Asia

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines how relationships are ‘built’ among khwajasaras [non‐normative non‐binary persons] and female jouno karmis [sex workers] in two sites in Pakistan and India respectively. We focus on the non‐normative nature of these relationships, first, to disassemble gender normativity itself; second, to argue that the colonial legacy of bureaucratic norming of kinship in South Asia, anchored in legal consanguinity and affinity on one hand, and territory and patriarchy on the other, erases these found relationships. Finally, in formulating what we term, ‘relative kinship’ –authenticating one's identity and belonging as a citizen typically through a male kin –we trace the current impetus in Pakistan and India to algorithmically converge biographies and biometrics to recalibrate citizenship. We ask, how may we understand the built lives of those deemed by the state to be legally out of place as ‘aliens’ or ‘foreigners’. Through the lens of kinship and gender modalities in marginalized communities, the article has wider implications for thinking about the kinship‐nation continuum and the ways in which one does or can belong, if at all.