Soldier On

Last year, sailor Sabi Giri made history when she took the Indian Navy to court for sacking her for transitioning into a woman. Now, as she awaits a ruling, she tells Sunetra Choudhury why she won’t back down from her fight for inclusivity

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When Sabi Giri joined the Indian Navy in 2010, at the age of 18, she had achieved a childhood dream. “I had always been attracted to the white uniform and the idea of serving my country,” she says. Once she completed her training, she was posted on the INS Ganga in Mumbai, which is when things began to shift, and crystallise, in her personal life. Giri, assigned male at birth and named Manish, had always had the nagging feeling of being a misfit, of being incomplete. “Till I came to Mumbai [from Chhapra, Bihar], I didn’t even know that I was transgender,” she says. “I just knew that sometimes I would wonder what it would feel like to have breasts, to have a vagina.”

Over the course of time in Mumbai, she made friends with many from the city’s trans community, whom she had met on Facebook. Engaging with them helped her validate and voice what she was feeling all along: that she was in the wrong body. It was liberating for Giri. But now her identity and career aspirations were at odds.