Two books impossible to find

•  Akhter Hussain Balou.   A study of sociology of trans-sexuals of Sindh. 2010.  This book is not offered in Amazon, not even Amazon.IN, not in AbeBooks, not in Anna's Archive.

From Imtiaz Ali's review, the year of publication:

Tracing history of trans-sexuals based on different published sources, Balouch said that one of the tragic aspects of conquering of the countries by kings was that “beautiful boys” used to be “gifted”’ in the past. Trans-sexuals gained prominence during the Mughal era, especially during rule of Mohammed Shah Rangeela, and Alauddin Khilji.Khilji appointed a trans-sexual, Malik Kafur as chief of the army and ordered him to conquer Deccan in 1307 with 100,000 troops under his leadership.

Talking about emergence of this genetic breed in Sindh, the book points out that “Ganga Ram” was first known trans-sexual who migrated from the present-day India to Sindh. ‘Her’ supporters termed themselves ‘Suhagi Faqir’ and they did not like begging.

 

Banikar was first trans-sexual who established a ‘Dera or Murhi’ in Hyderabad around 300 years ago. Transvestites gained prominence during the rule of Talpurs in Sindh.

 

Akhter Balouch referred a tragic incident in his study that occurred in May 1929 in Jacobabad city. A famous local personality, Pir Abul Hasan had developed an extraordinary interest in a Hindu trans-sexual, ‘Sago’ who used to act in stage dramas as a girl.

 

One day, Pir died mysteriously while watching the drama. It triggered Hindu-Muslim riots, in which around 10 Hindus were killed.

 

The British rulers ordered an inquiry into the incident led by a Parsi, Sukhia (in order to ensure impartiality in the Hindi-Muslim clashes, the British rulers used to appoint Parsis). Sukhia in his inquiry report, unearthed a ‘conspiracy’ allegedly hatched by big feudal lords and religious leaders.

• Barbara Daniel. She’s No Lady: The Story of Jamie Lee Hamilton. Toronto: Cormorant Books Inc 300 pp 2005.  Amazon. 

Several booksellers actually list this book, but nobody has a copy.   I once tried and failed to get it through interlibrary loan.  As it was published in Canada, there should be a copy in the National Library of Canada, but there is not.

My account of Jamie Lee Hamilton (1955-2019) Sex worker, activist, political candidate.