Narrating the Margins: Transgender Identity, Social Exclusion and Resistance in I Am Vidya

This research paper explores how Living Smile Vidya's autobiography, I Am Vidya (2007), shows the complex interplay of identity, exclusion, and agency of a transgender person. While contemporary scholarship often frames transgender experiences through static, marginalising social lenses; this study identifies a distinct Evolution of Resistance as a developmental process. It turns historical silence into speech and invisibility into visibility. By analysing the narrative through the theoretical lenses of Intersectionality and Performativity, the paper traces Vidya’s journey from the Internalized Resistance of her childhood and the radical Bodily Resistance of her medical transition (Nirvana) to the Institutional Resistance of her post-transition life as a scholar and activist. The study fills a critical research gap by examining the “Mirror” as a spatial threshold of self-reclamation and the “Morse code’’ of rhythmic clapping as a sonic act of defiance. Ultimately, Vidya’s narrative transforms the transgender subject from passive object to empowered spokesperson.