Artist By Roots: Padma Shri Awardee Trans Woman Manjamma Jogati

I came across an inspiring soul in Bengaluru recently! Manjamma Jogati aka Manjunatha Shetty, India’s first trans woman was the President of Karnataka’s Janapada Academy from 2019 to Oct. 2022. She was felicitated in 2021 with the highest honour of Padma Shri by President Ramnath Kovind in New Delhi for her incredible efforts in the domain of North Karnataka, South Maharashtra, and a part of Andhra Pradesh’s famous Jogathi Folk Dance forms. Amma was honoured with a Doctorate degree by Karnataka’s Sharanbasva University, Kalaburagi on 7th Feb. 2022 as well. She was also invited by the Parliament House, Lok Sabha Secretariat to deliver a session in the presence of the Lok Sabha Speaker Sh. Om Birla on the subject of ‘Transformation’ in New Delhi on 23rd January 2023.

For the last 40 years, Manjamma has been in the profession of folk dancing. One of Manjamma’s unique dance forms I saw was where she placed the metal-crafted Yellamma deity on her head and danced.

People fondly call her ‘Amma’. A big red bindi on the forehead with sindoor, simplicity on the face, pattu cotton saree, countless glass bangles, and a fascination for gajara (flowers) in hair is Amma’s style statement.

Today at the age of 66 with her 11 members team, Amma through her registered trust – Padmashri Mata B. Manjamma Jogathi Pratistana is struggling hard and works for the betterment of the trans community, teaches them in Folk art forms, offers skill development, provides shelter to the old age trans community, and gives respectful legal rights to the community people. She is conserving Jogati Padya (singing), nritya (dance) forms and has developed various non-verbal dance movements in the performing arts. Today many Jogati communities are learning this art and giving their stage performances PAN India, viz. at Hampi Utsav, Bangalore Samaroh, etc. In 2010, Manjamma received the Rajyotsava Award from the Karnataka Government.

Amma’s voice Vikram B.K. an engineer by profession and a contemporary dancer connected with Amma in 2017. He shared with me the miserable tale of Amma, her distressing childhood days, and the tough battles of life. He said, “Amma was born in a middle-class family in Karnataka’s Kallkamba

village near Bellari district on May 20th, 1957 as Manjunatha Shetty aka Manjamma. She was one of the blessed children out of 21 siblings. But among those children, only four survived. Manjunatha studied till class 10th. With a male body but a woman from deep inside, Manjunatha was inclined towards girly stuff and activities since childhood. For this, he got bullied quite a lot by other children. He loved to wear his mother’s sarees at home and helped her with daily kitchen chores. His father and brother were entirely against his behaviour. Feeling isolated and ignored by his family, this one time, Manjunatha was so disappointed with life that he took poison. But the almighty had different plans for him.

At the young age of 18, the village Panchayat suggested his parents for allowing him to lead the life of Jogati. While leading the life of Jogati the child/person is given to Renuka Yellamma deity. The child or that person is expected to worship the goddess, stay away from home, and survive by begging. The Jogati praises the deity through folk dance and tells stories about the goddess and their pain to the masses. A ritual of ‘Muttu Kattodu’ where a pearl is tied to a Jogati and it is believed that the power of the goddess passes into her through this ritual. In South India, a sacred thread ‘Udadhaara’ is knotted to the waist of a boy. By cutting this sacred thread the male child becomes a girl. From here his life got transformed and he was offered to Goddess Yellamma. Manjunatha became Manjamma and was adopted into the culture of Jogati life. After these rituals, Manjamma left her house.”

Then onwards Manjamma started selling idlis and taking tuition classes. One fine day on the streets of Devanagere town she saw a boy dancing and his father was singing with an instrument. With enthusiasm, Manjamma joined them and learned their art form. Gradually, seeing Manjamma’s popularity and potential a trans woman ‘Kaalavva Jogati’ approached and asked her to join their group of transwomen artists. Kaalavva wanted some active members of the group to perform street plays and dance. Manjamma started contributing her acting and dancing skills to their group. After Kaalavva’s death, she proudly took forward the legacy that Kaalavva initiated.”

Amma is a mother figure to Vikram B.K. and while attending the baby shower ceremony of Vikram and his wife Ramya, Amma gave an inspiring message to the couple and eventually, Vikram and Ramya took a pledge of equality and acceptance. Amma said, “If a child will be born like me, nurture him/her without any gender bias discrimination. And, if you find a child like me in your neighbourhood give the child the same respect you would to any fellow human. This is one of the noble deeds you can do for people like us.” Tailing Vikram and Ramya, a few more people in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu took the pledge and this practice is now famous as “Samaanteya Seemantha” which means ‘Baby Shower of Equality’. With a heavy heart, in the end, Amma told me, “I have got many prestigious recognitions by the grace of almighty and it has given hope to many LGBT artists and communities nationally and worldwide as well. However, people from my clan are living an isolated life. Society has a fear of mingling with us. I think, despite getting legal rights from the government, a society with a changed mindset needs to accept the transgender community with open arms.”