• Sona Chouhan
• Dr. J. K. Nair

This paper looks at how Mahesh Dattani’s play Seven Steps around the Fire depicts the volitions and frustrations of a socially marginalized group called Hijras (the third gender). Neuter sexuality is the cause of social exclusion in most of the societies but they are very severe in India. Mahesh Dattani depicts this theme deftly in his play. The play raises many questions regarding the identity of eunuchs, their life environments, their social acceptability and tolerability. Their fears and frustrations are underlined in the play. The bias against them is even worse than that against class, caste or religion. In the play Dattani very successfully throws a question mark to the face of the society and makes it re-think on the question of the eunuchs.

Hijra, Hypocrisy, Isolation, Marginalization, Parochialism, Prejudice, Social Identity, Sub-human.

"Identity as Crisis: The Despondency of Being the Other in Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps Around the Fire", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 5, page no.366-375, May-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1905J56.pdf

"Identity as Crisis: The Despondency of Being the Other in Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps Around the Fire", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 5, page no. pp366-375, May-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1905J56.pdf