This Body Is Not a Temple – Paul, Priyanka

A zine printed on handmade, textured paper, juxtaposing trans bodies against the phrase “My body is a temple”. Given that the temple exists, and that Dalit / marginalised-caste people aren’t allowed inside the temple due to untouchability, trans bodies find themselves ousted from the temples of cis-hetero normativity. The idea is to abandon the temple, to reject the confines of the temple, and to go beyond. Divinity is everywhere. The temple is merely a space in which untouchability is further validated. Something can be holy only if something/someone else is deemed unholy or impure. The zine aims to challenge prevailing norms surrounding gender, caste, and societal hierarchies by equating the experience of a transgender body to the concept of a temple, ultimately advocating for the transcendence of restrictive brahmanical gender norms.