Syeda Shagufe Hossain

The blood itself has no opinion on any of this. It cannot announce whether it belongs to a soldier, a bride or a girl on an ordinary Tuesday. Menstrual blood is no more capable than the blood of a soldier, a sacrifice or a bride of announcing what it means. What changes is the social order into which it appears.

A body is assigned a meaning before it has any say in the matter. Adults begin assigning meaning to bodies through categories of sex, caste, race, beauty and belonging long before children understand those categories.

The Oraon, Chakma, Marma, Santal, Garo, Mro, Bawm, and other Indigenous peoples carry histories older than this state.