THIRD WORLD USA

The cruel failure of welfare reform in the Southwest

In Nevada and neighboring states, boom times hastened the demise of cash assistance for the poor — but not poverty

By ELI HAGER
PUBLISHED JANUARY 3, 2022 4:30AM (EST)

Volunteers hand out food during an aid distribution event.

 (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)


This article originally appeared on ProPublica.

As the 1960s came to their tumultuous end, California Gov. Ronald Reagan convened a summit on the topic of welfare. He was hoping to try out one of his new ideas: that poor single mothers were, in the wake of the civil rights movement, increasingly living idly and defrauding government assistance programs.

George Miller, then the welfare director in neighboring Nevada, volunteered to do a dry run for Reagan, proposing to purge his smaller state's welfare rolls of alleged welfare cheats. It would be the first effort of its kind in the nation, he said.

Miller cut Nevada's aid program by close to 75%, stripping thousands of moms and kids of desperately needed survival assistance.

Ruby Duncan, a self-described "welfare mother" on Las Vegas's Westside, was incensed.

Duncan had grown up in Tallulah, Louisiana, in the 1930s, chopping and picking cotton on a plantation. When her uncles joined the Great Migration out of the South and headed to Vegas to work on New Deal projects like the Hoover Dam, she followed, becoming a maid at still-segregated casino hotels and a house cleaner for wealthy entertainers at the height of the city's Rat Pack glory days.

She worked from sunup to sundown for decades, and only reluctantly received minimal government help after she literally broke her back on the job. (Duncan permanently injured her spine when she slipped while carrying overloaded trays of food to customers at the Sahara hotel.)

In March 1971, in response to Miller's welfare cuts, Duncan organized a series of marches down the Las Vegas Strip, a protest movement dubbed "Operation Nevada." Thousands of welfare mothers, children, priests and nuns, union members, students and well-known activists including Jane Fonda and Ralph Abernathy succeeded in blocking the way into Caesars Palace and other casinos, threatening the bottom line of the city's wealthiest.

"It was very exciting," Duncan said. "The fancy people were grabbing their furs and closing their cash registers."

The marches received national news attention. Duncan followed them up with several "eat-ins," in which she and her fellow organizers instructed dozens of children left hungry by the welfare cutbacks to walk into luxurious casino dining rooms, order steaks, and then walk out without paying, telling the restaurant managers to bill the state welfare department instead.

Within weeks, a federal judge ordered that the moms and kids whom Nevada had slashed from public assistance would have their benefits reinstated.

In the following years, Duncan expanded her political advocacy and won more victories, including getting Nevada to provide food stamps (it was the last state in the nation to do so) and helping to popularize the idea of a universal basic income, a guarantee of a survival level of income for all.

Other Black women nationwide had also started to do this work, connecting the words "welfare" and "rights" for the first time in American history as part of the National Welfare Rights Organization. It seemed like Reagan's thesis was being defeated, and that the idea had taken hold that poor single mothers do work hard and strive, and are in many ways the backbone of this country.

RELATED: Conservatives and billionaires have a new dirty word: "Welfare"

Today, Duncan, months away from turning 90 and now largely unable to walk due to that workplace injury from so many decades ago, is less optimistic. She's still living in West Las Vegas, and still occasionally getting to engage with young single mothers. (She adores young people.) And she's still holding out some hope that President Joe Biden's child tax credit will become law in the new year and create a better safety net for Nevada's families, though it faces a tough road to passage in the U.S. Senate.

But Duncan has a long view on the history of cash assistance in the U.S., and she has been souring on its prospects ever since Reagan reached the White House and vaulted Nevada's revanchist attitude toward the working poor into national politics. (Miller, the Nevada welfare director whom Duncan thought she had fought and defeated, joined Reagan's presidential transition team.)

Then, President Bill Clinton took Reagan's notions to their apotheosis in his 1996 welfare reform law, which Clinton said would fulfill his promise to "end welfare as we know it."

In the 25 years since, welfare as we knew it did end, but not because the reform was lifting people out of poverty as promised. Federal welfare funding, which the law froze at 1996 levels, was soon decimated by inflation and demographic shifts — with rapidly growing Nevada faring worst of all, now less able to help poor children than ever. States were also given great discretion over how to spend the money, and many have since used it less to assist families than to backfill budget holes, in turn allowing them to maintain tax breaks for the wealthy.

In the process, welfare, which the new law renamed Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, has gone from serving 4.4 million families in 1996 to just 1 million today, despite the U.S. population increasing by 60 million over the same period. Yet child poverty hasn't budged: Just as was true when the legislation passed, today nearly one in five American children are living below the poverty line, twice the average rate in other developed countries.

"I know from young women talking to me that they're facing practically the same thing that went on back when I first started," said Duncan, who was so despondent and physically ailing by the time the Clinton bill was enacted that, she said, she had to go on bed rest. "Poor women throughout America," she said, "we tried to make everything better for us, and we ended up with this."
Advertisement:

Welfare Reform's Legacy in the Desert West

This year, the 25th anniversary of welfare reform, happened to coincide with a substantive debate in Congress over a new sort of welfare: the child tax credit, which has been providing low- and middle-income families nationwide with $250 to $300 per child per month during much of the pandemic, but is set to expire Friday. (Biden and most Democrats in the Senate have said they will try to get it extended permanently with a vote as soon as January.)

ProPublica has taken this moment to examine the present state of cash assistance in the U.S., focusing on the Southwest, where massive population growth and a surging cost of living for low-income parents have collided with the region's libertarian attitude toward government help for the poor.

What ProPublica discovered is an abundance of overlooked stories of bizarre — and mean-spirited — practices on the part of state governments, which were handed near-complete responsibility for welfare under the 1996 law.

And at the root of them all was that same closefistedness toward poor Americans that Reagan conceived of 50 years ago in Nevada.

RELATED: White Americans support welfare programs — but only for themselves, says new research

In New Mexico and other states, single mothers applying for public assistance are forced to identify the father of their child (and his eye color, and his license plate number) and recall the exact date when they got pregnant. In Utah, families seeking aid are subtly pushed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where they're pressured to get baptized or perform other religious activities, like reading aloud from the Book of Mormon, in order to get help. And in Arizona, poor moms who could have benefited from welfare are instead investigated, at nationally unparalleled rates, by a child services agency funded by welfare dollars.

These practices exist primarily to save money for the states, and by extension their wealthiest taxpayers. The questions that mothers in New Mexico are forced to answer about their child's father? Those are asked so that the state can go after the dads for child support — most of which the government then pockets. (In 2020, nationally, more than $1.7 billion in child support meant to go to kids instead was taken by federal and state governments.) Utah, meanwhile, has gotten out of spending more than $75 million on public assistance over the past decade by having a private agreement with the LDS Church saying that the state can "count" much of the church's charitable work as the state's own. And Arizona balances its budget by diverting more than $150 million annually in welfare funding intended for low-income families — a majority of the money that the state is provided for direct aid to the poor — to its Department of Child Safety, which then uses the dollars to surveil and sometimes separate many of those same families.

Finally, ProPublica revealed, states have hit upon yet another way to skimp on welfare: simply not spending large amounts of their welfare funding at all. Across the nation, more than $5.2 billion in federal funds that are supposed to be going toward fighting poverty are instead sitting unused in state bank accounts, while the women and children whom Duncan has fought for all her life continue to struggle.

Unlike George Miller's sudden 75% cut to welfare in Nevada in the 1970s, which prompted such immediate, dramatic collective action from the community, what has happened over the past 25 years has been a relatively slow demise.

In other words, it is precisely welfare reform's unhurried, creeping approach that, in the end, has made it so successful in dismantling cash assistance.
The Slow Smothering of Welfare in Nevada

These failures of welfare reform, ironically, have reached a kind of end stage in Las Vegas, the capital of capitalism and arguably the birthplace of Reagan's efforts to relegate welfare to the ash heap of history.

That's because the 1996 law also locked in the amount of federal welfare funding provided to states at '90s levels, regardless of inflation, population changes or economic downturns. And Nevada, due both to immigration and an overwhelming influx of tech companies and other transplants from California, has transformed demographically more than any other state, with much of that change occurring in Clark County. (Ever the landing place for newcomers, the state is now home to more adults from California than native Nevadans.)

As a result, the per-person value of Nevada's fixed "block grant" of welfare funds has declined more than anywhere else in the country.

Between 1997 and 2015, the Silver State's population skyrocketed, by roughly two-thirds, and its housing prices and cost of living shot up as a consequence. In turn, the number of kids living in poverty here more than doubled, from 67,852 to 143,407. That translated to a percentage decline in the actual value of the state's welfare dollars, per poor child, that was twice the national average.

Now, Nevada gets the smallest population-adjusted grant of federal money in the nation for addressing child poverty: $63 per child, according to 2019 statistics. By comparison, California receives $409.

Former Nevada Gov. Richard Bryan, who became a U.S. senator and was in Congress during welfare reform, said in an interview with ProPublica, "I liked the idea of a block grant because it gave governors flexibility" over how to spend the welfare fund. But, he said, "it didn't take into account differences between Nevada and slow- or no-growth states."

The drop in value of Nevada's federal welfare dollars has been especially devastating because the state has no income tax, which means that despite all the glitzy wealth here, the state government has little ability to provide its own funding for public assistance. Instead, the Legislature relies largely on sales taxes, much of which come from the tourism industry. As a result, state revenue varies season to season and plummets every time there's an economic crisis, exactly when welfare is most needed.

The Legislature did increase welfare benefits in 2018 — by $3 a month.

Danielle Frolander, of Minden, Nevada, has felt the decline of TANF in a personal, almost literal way. A dental assistant, she applied for help earlier this year after leaving an abusive relationship and struggling to support her kids on her own, she said. Her rent has ballooned amid an influx of Californians that she said has jammed the town's two-lane roads with "L.A.-type traffic."

At first, Frolander said, she was receiving over $200 a month from the program, but the amount quickly started decreasing, just like the value of Nevada's welfare funding overall. (The reason is that the state has a complex formula for weaning families off cash aid over time.) Now she only gets $50, and soon it will be $0.
Advertisement:


"It's kind of silly, these amounts," she said. "It goes into my gas tank to get to work, and that's about all."

Where Welfare Goes From Here

In the final congressional debate before the 1996 law was passed, then-Sen. Joe Biden said, "We should not fool ourselves: There will be people, many of them children, who will fall through the cracks because of this bill." But he voted for the legislation anyway, citing a "culture of welfare" that was allegedly the cause of stagnation among America's poor. (Biden has declined to say whether the vote was a mistake; a spokesperson for his presidential campaign in 2020 told NBC News that he tried to make the bill more progressive but faced a bipartisan coalition in favor of the overhaul.)

For years, the harshness and inefficiencies of TANF were not lost on Biden and other Democrats, according to a review of their past comments on the issue, but they sidelined the problem in part because the window of what seemed possible hadn't shifted since the Reagan era. Even mentioning welfare, for most of the past 25 years, has been a political third rail.

But the tide began to turn, on the left, starting with social science research suggesting that direct cash aid to households with low incomes is the most effective way of alleviating poverty, as seems intuitive. Studies showed that the simple fact of a family having more money leads to kids eating more nutritious food, going to the doctor more often, experiencing lower household stress (which in turn improves their brain chemistry), scoring higher on academic achievement tests, being more likely to go to college, earning more as adults, avoiding crime and living longer.

Research also revealed that the old narrative that most women receiving welfare don't want to work is, simply, false. These single moms are typically working multiple low-wage jobs, like Duncan was in the '60s, that don't pay them enough to support a family.

Duncan said she would prefer welfare be replaced with universal child care, as well as jobs in communities like hers that aren't make-work and that provide wages that match what things cost, plus an education system that actually prepares people for those jobs. Only then, she said, would the slogan of the Clinton law, "welfare to work," become more than hollow rhetoric.

But an improved cash assistance program, she said, "would be a start."

Last year, amid mass layoffs caused by the pandemic, Democratic politicians and members of the media seemed to latch on to all of this. Presidential candidates, including Biden, won plaudits for talking up the idea of direct cash transfers to, or even a universal basic income for, low-income parents and children bearing the brunt of hard economic times.

That conversation led to the child tax credit in Biden's proposed Build Back Better bill, which differs from welfare mainly by going out to parents and kids with no strings attached. TANF, on the other hand, requires single moms to fill out reams of paperwork attesting to all their assets in order to prove they are poor enough to qualify, and to sit through a host of seemingly extraneous programs, often including parenting workshops and seminars on healthy relationships with men.

Many women feel they spend so much time just managing their participation on TANF that they drop off the program, because it's not worth it for the extremely minimal amount of aid offered.

Continuing the direct tax credit to these families "would be just such a better way to do it," said Sheila Leslie, a former Nevada state legislator who focused on TANF issues while in office. "It would take away all the tracking of the supposed 'worthiness' of poor families, and the stigma of being 'on welfare' would be gone," she said, in part because most middle-class families, not just the poorest of the poor, would be receiving the assistance too.

According to an analysis by the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank, child poverty in Nevada could be reduced by 41% if the credit were made permanent. That's 44,000 kids potentially lifted out of poverty statewide.

Yet there is a strong chance that the child tax credit will die this year, due to the resistance of Republican and some Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Those two and several others have been explicitly saying that the plan would take the country backward to the days before welfare reform — when welfare checks, they say, fostered idleness and dependency and disincentivized poor families from striving for the American Dream.

"That's the Real Welfare"

Duncan, a Black woman, a mother and a community organizer, isn't exactly John Wayne, a hero on horseback, alone. Yet she is the embodiment of the community building and cooperation that actually won the West.

No one could have survived this brutal desert by going it alone. Native Americans certainly didn't. And the early European settlers made it across the Rockies not on their own but by circling their wagons, and then they engaged in collective efforts to build dams and irrigation systems so that the region could continue to grow.

But the fairy tale of "rugged individualism" still has great influence over American public policy. This time it's the Elon Musk type claiming to reach new frontiers not as part of a community but as an individual striver, on a rocket ship, alone. (Tesla recently moved to Nevada, lured by tax incentives.)

"The guys going to the moon, the tax cheaters, that's the real welfare," Duncan said. "Give it back so somebody else can climb, holy Jesus."

Musk has responded to ProPublica's reporting on his tax avoidance by saying he pays his fair share.
There is so much money in the U.S. and in Las Vegas specifically, Duncan argued, that surely there could be a system in which the people working such long hours in those casinos and other factories of wealth could share in that prosperity.

But Duncan has also borne witness to nearly a century's worth of deteriorating ideas about public assistance in this country. "I sit here and look through the lens of my mind," she said, "and there is just so much we could have done differently."

Mollie Simon contributed research.

ELI HAGER
Eli Hager is a reporter covering issues affecting children and teens in the Southwest.

MORE FROM ELI HAGER

Work on Rome’s water system uncovers ancient funerary complex

Online News EditorJanuary 1, 2022

 

Rome, Jan 1 (EFE).- An archaeological survey ahead of the installation of new water pipes in Rome’s Appio-Latino district revealed remains of three structures belonging to a single funerary complex built 2,000 years ago, online daily RomaToday reported.

Daniela Porro, head of Italy’s Special Superintendence for archaeology, art and heritage in Rome, said that the discovery “sheds light on a very important context.”

The tombs were erected at some point between the first century BC and AD 100 along the Via Latina, one of the earliest Roman roads.

“Once again, Rome shows important traces of the past throughout its urban fabric,” Porro said in comments cited by RomaToday.

The structural integrity of the complex, which lies about 0.5 m below the level of the present-day street, had been compromised by construction carried out in the era prior to the advent of policies to protect the city’s heritage, according to the daily, which said that one of the tombs bore marks of fire damage.

Archaeologists found an intact ceramic funerary urn containing bone fragments. EFE

/dr

Unusual inscription found inside 2,400-year-old Etruscan helmet

Online News EditorDecember 28, 2021

 

Rome, Dec 28 (EFE).- An “unusual” inscription has been found inside a 2,400-year-old Etruscan helmet that could shed new light on the military organization of that pre-Roman people.

Italian archaeologists had not noticed the inscription before, but the discovery – announced Tuesday by the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, Italy, and which will be featured in Archeologia Viva magazine – comes more than 90 years after the bronze helmet was found in the Osteria di Vulci necropolis in 1928.

The inscription, engraved within the neck protector of the helmet, consists of seven letters – HARN STE – which probably indicate a place of origin, of either the object or the owner, and which must be read as a single word, the museum said as a statement.

This is, in fact, a “very unusual” inscription that “offers fundamental information for reconstructing the military organization and the evolution of the art of war” on the Italian peninsula before the hegemony of Rome.

It is virtually certain, judging from its style and craftsmanship, that the helmet belonged to an Etruscan warrior – a member of the people who dominated an important portion of present-day Tuscany – and it has been dated to the middle of the Fourth Century B.C.

At that time, central Italy was rife with bloody conflicts among local tribes, who competed for predominance on the peninsula or simply for survival, threatened as they were by the spread of the Celts, who in 390 B.C. put Rome to the sword.

This was long before that city, founded according to tradition in 735 B.C. along the Tiber River, became the world center of power and expanded during its imperial epoch to hold sway across the length and breadth of the Mediterranean basin.

The helmet tells archaeologists something about those years of blood and war for dominion of the Italian peninsula. For example, it may be that the fact that the inscription is on the inside of the helmet indicates that its owner habitually marked his possessions in that way.

This “strengthened the feeling of belonging for an object of vital importance” for the warrior, the museum said.

But it also provides information about the system of forges in which the Etruscans made their weapons and it is thought to be “possible” that the helmet was not made in Vulci, where it was found, but rather somewhere near the current central Italian city of Perugia.

Tito Livio, a historian who lived during the First Century B.C., revealed the existence of an Etruscan camp called “Aharman” where troops gathered on the eve of the battle of Sentino during the Third Samnite War in 295 B.C. between Rome and a league of Etruscans, Gauls, Umbrians and other tribes.

The name Aharnam sounds very similar to the current town of Civitela d’Arna, near Perugia, and the HARN STE inscription, read as a single word, “could have been formed from the name of that city” or its surroundings.

On other Etruscan stone carvings and objects, archaeologists have found other inscriptions that are similar, including “Havrna,” “Havrenies” and “Harenies.”

Nevertheless, the museum emphasizes that “it is not possible to establish with certainty whether the preserved name coincides with that of its last owner,” since such objects often passed from hand to hand as trophies of war.

EFE

gsm/icn/bp

Uneven progress one year after Argentina legalizes abortion

Online News EditorDecember 30, 2021

 

By Verónica Dalto

Buenos Aires, Dec 30 (EFE).- It has been a year since Argentina changed the law to allow women to access abortion on demand in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, a progressive step that eased anxiety for many despite ongoing judicial hurdles but one that has yet to be applied equally across the nation.

The law came into effect on January 24, 2021, meaning women could access a legal and free abortion in the first three and half months of pregnancy without having to provide justification.

Previously, women in Argentina could only access abortion in the case of rape or when then the pregnancy pose a health risk.

“This year was intense,” Valeria Isla, director of the national sexual and reproductive health program, which is affiliated with the health ministry, told Efe.

Isla spent 2021 building the public policy, training teams, editing protocols and educating political authorities about the new law.

According to the health ministry, 32,758 legal abortions were carried out up until 30 November this year.

The number of hospitals and medical centers offering the procedure grew from 903 to 1,243 since December last year. The goal is to have that number increase to 5,500 by 2022.

The change of law put Argentina at the Latin American forefront in terms of abortion. Prior to Argentina, only Cuba, Guyana and Uruguay had legalized abortion on demand.

“The main thing is that it was a total shift in paradigm,” Estefanía Cioffi, a doctor and member of a leading network of pro-choice healthcare professionals, told Efe, adding that it gave autonomy to the women seeking an abortion.

She said it helped women feel more secure and less stigmatized.

Although the law was rolled out to corners of the country where even limited abortion was unavailable before, there remains a disparity when it comes to accessing the procedure.

“Inequality is a big problem,” Isla said, listing the provinces of Corrientes, in the north, San Juan, in the northwest and neighboring Santiago del Estero and Chaco in north-central Argentina as some of the areas lagging behind.

Anti-abortion activist groups filed 36 legal challenges against the new abortion law since it was approved, of which 24 were thrown out, four were archived and 11 remain active.

“The majority of challenges were dismissed, which shows the law is robust but it does create instability for the health system and health professionals, it has a negative effect,” Isla added. EFE

vd/jt/ks

January 3, 2022

In service with the LAPD, the Commando swapped out its machine guns for a long, 14-foot battering ram used to break down doors of suspects that were considered armed and dangerous.

by Caleb Larson Follow @calebmlarson on TwitterL

Here’s What You Need to Remember: Though not in American military service anymore, it was in use with the Los Angeles Police Department for a time.

The Commando was originally manufactured by Cadillac Gage, now known as Textron, in the early 1960s for use with American Military Police (MP) units in Vietnam. But despite the Commando’s original role as an MP vehicle, its unique design lent itself well to service in the thick jungles and wet Vietnamese terrain.

The relatively small vehicle had a modest, 3-man crew made up of gunner, driver, and commander but also had just enough internal space to cram a whopping 9 other soldiers inside.

One of the Commando’s strengths was its height: depending on the variant, the Commando was either just under or just over 8 feet tall. This was partly thanks to the vehicle’s large, knobby rubber tires.

The tires were of a unique construction—and despite being wheeled rather than tracked, the Commando nonetheless had excellent off-road mobility thanks to their width, which afforded the vehicle low ground pressure and prevented the Commando from becoming bogged down in sand or other soft terrain. They were also exceptionally tough—even if punctured, the wheel’s robust sidewall construction allowed for a further twenty-five miles of travel.

The four-wheel drive vehicle’s ground clearance reduced the effectiveness of mines, as the vehicle body was physically high off the ground, and gave good visibility through the tall, thick brush and vegetation endemic to the jungles of Vietnam. An excellent informational video of the Commando can be seen here and is well worth the watch.

Another of the Commando’s strengths? Its amphibious capability. Thanks to a fully waterproofed engine, and the previously-mentioned large-diameter knobby tires, the Commando could charge into rivers at speeds of up to forty miles per hour and immediately begin swimming without any swim modifications.

A number of Commando variants were introduced and in use the Marine Corps, Military Police, Air Force, and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam though the most noteworthy difference between the models were their armament.

Originally equipped with several M1919 machine guns, these were eventually swapped for other 7.62 NATO-standard machine guns to provide ammunition commonality between the Commando and crew weapons. Heavier, .50 caliber machine guns could also be substituted.

In addition, the Commando could fit a small turret that could be equipped with a 20mm anti-aircraft cannon for use against helicopters and low-flying airplanes, or a 90mm smoothbore main gun for use against armored vehicles or hardened targets. Some were also equipped with the same 76mm main gun that the British Scorpion light tank was equipped with.

Though not in American military service anymore, it was in use with the Los Angeles Police Department for a time. In service with the LAPD, the Commando swapped out its machine guns for a long, 14-foot battering ram used to break down doors of suspects that were considered armed and dangerous. An interesting afterlife for an interesting armored car.

Caleb Larson is a defense writer for the National Interest. He holds a Master of Public Policy and covers U.S. and Russian security, European defense issues, and German politics and culture.

This article first appeared in November 2020 and is being reprinted due to reader interest.

Image: Reuters

GOP DENIES HEALTH CARE TO TEENS

Arizona senator proposes anti-trans bill banning gender-affirming health care for trans youth

BY JORDAN ROBLEDO

Ted Eytan viaFlickr

Arizona medical professionals could face prison under potential legislation that bans gender-confirming procedures for transgender teens.

According to a report from the AZ Mirror, Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers proposed the Senate Bill 1045, which would make transgender health care for minors illegal.

Under the legislation, doctors would be unable to perform gender-affirming surgeries or prescribe testosterone or estrogen for trans youth under the age of 18.

If any medical staff is caught providing these health care services they will be hit with a Class 4 felony – which could lead to a three-year prison sentence.

The anti-trans bill also targets schools and their teachers and administrators.

If a minor opens up about their gender identity with a staff member, the latter would be required to report the conversation to the child’s parents or guardian.

The bill has since been condemned by activists and Arizona residents including Ryan Starzyck, a board member for the LGBTQ+ group Phoenix Pride.

“It is dangerous,” he told the AZ Mirror. “It is deadly because if (children) don’t have the foundational information, if they have nobody they can turn and oftentimes is the only one they can turn to is the professional at school before, (the legislature) is laying the foundation for students suicides.”

Rogers isn’t the only lawmaker to propose bills that target the transgender community.


Tom Daley wants to “create change” and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights with OBE


In 2021, 33 states introduced over 100 anti-trans bills to marginalise the community even further, particularly when it comes to transgender individuals in sports.

Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Montana, and West Virginia are seven states that have enacted a total of twelve anti-transgender laws this session.

Numerous organisations like The Human Rights Campaign and ACLU have condemned the bills and have even filed lawsuits against some states.

Political figures have also spoken out against the archaic laws including former US president Barack Obama.

In a June interview with The Advocate, he said it “breaks” his heart to see Republican lawmakers attempt to win over voters by targeting the transgender community.

“For many years now, we’ve seen some Republicans seek political advantage by pitting us against one another, often by going after certain groups of people who just want equal treatment,” said Obama.

“I can’t imagine how difficult it is for young people to know that some leaders — including people who are supposed to be representing you — don’t think they deserve equal rights.

“It breaks my heart. This is not who we are. America has always been at its best when we open our arms wider and help more people feel like they belong — not treat them like second-class citizens because they’re different.”

Cuban Santeria priests predict respiratory disease for 2022

Online News EditorJanuary 2, 2022

 

Havana, Jan 2 (EFE).- This year will be one of respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous system disease, according to forecasts made on Sunday by Cuban Santeria priests, known as “babalawos,” who also called for the public to exercise humility and follow good hygiene habits in 2022.

The predictions, which are part of the so-called “Yearly Letter” of prophesies presented on Sunday to the press by Cuba’s Yoruba Cultural Association and are the results of the traditional meeting between Christmas and New Year’s Day by a group of priests from all families of Santeria on the communist-ruled island.

The babalawos warned that 2022 will be governed by Obbatala, the Yoruba religion’s main “orisha” or deity who is also known as the creator of the Earth.

The warnings of the priests come within an especially significant context for the island due to its serious economic crisis and the resurgence in Covid-19 cases after authorities had managed to get the pandemic mostly under control in the last few months of 2021.

The prognostications by Afro-Cuban religions included in the Letter recommend “avoiding arrogance and bad behavior,” exercising good personal hygiene and paying more attention to the education of children and teens.

Regarding marriage, the priests recommended that couples act with greater prudence to avoid catastrophes, as well as be humble, patient and united in dealing with life’s travails.

The predictions and admonitions come after a year marked by the Covid pandemic and the closure of Cuban schools due to the prevalence and spread of the coronavirus, but also a series of social protests and increased political polarization.

The priests also called for “establishing favorable agreements on immigration policies to prevent the loss of human lives,” especially at a time when the illegal emigration of Cubans trying to get to the United States across the Florida Strait has skyrocketed.

The forecast also contains somewhat mysterious mentions of “dead king, installed king,” “I have everything, I have nothing,” “while there’s life, there’s hope” and “God gives a beard to he who has no jawbone,” all of which can – with a certain stretch of imagination – be applied to Cuba’s current context of scarcity and galloping inflation.

Obbatala will be the Yoruba deity to reign in 2022, the priests say, and combines characteristics with the Virgin of the Mercies, the patron saint of Barcelona. He is thought by Santeria believers to have created the world and sculpted human beings, and he presides over the head and a person’s thoughts and dreams, according to the Yoruba religion.

His name derives from a Yoruba word meaning “king of purity,” and thus he governs all that is clean, white and pure and does not abide a lack of respect or any form of nudity in his presence.

Santeria developed in Cuba as part of the cultural heritage brought by African slaves during the Spanish colonial era and it has been passed down through the generations via prayers, rituals, dances and even in various kinds of food.

The religion merges Catholicism with ancient African beliefs and is practiced by millions of Cubans, with most people on the island saying that they “accept” it or “consult” the religion’s priests for help and advice with assorted questions, problems or difficulties.

NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS: Cuban authorities in recent months have substantially reduced the size of EFE’s press contingent in Havana, where there are currently just two journalists reporting. EFE hopes to be able to regain its reporting capability on the island in the coming days.

EFE lh/int/dmt/bp

New Year a busy time at witchy Mexico City market

Online News EditorJanuary 1, 2022

 

By Juan Carlos Espinosa

Mexico City, Jan 1 (EFE).- From prosperity-bringing candles to the makings of spells and potions to find love: anything goes at this capital’s Sonora Market, which saw big crowds this week as Mexicans turned to the occult in hope of ensuring a healthy and successful 2022.

A stroll down Aisle 8 of the 64-year-old market fills the nostrils with the aroma of herbs and the ears with the sound of merchants hawking their unusual wares.

Among them is Isa Cruz, who touts Tarot card readings, varieties of incense, special soaps and “an infinity of things,” telling shoppers, “whatever you need, you can ask.”

With two days to go until New Year’s Eve, she is seeing a considerable increase in people seeking a year-end “cleansing,” which entails Isa’s ritually passing an egg over the client’s body to banish all of the negative energy.

Though roughly 80 percent of Mexicans are at least nominally Roman Catholics, occult practices enjoy broad acceptance and some regard them as complementing their Christian faith.

Virginia Sanchez, who has come to Sonora Market to buy New Year’s candles for her mother, “like every year,” said that things such as Santeria, witchcraft and even the Mexican outlaw cult of Santa Muerte (Holy Death) can have the same validity as a Catholic Mass.

“If you have faith, be it in a stone, you will have health and economic well-being,” she told Efe. “This comes from our grandparents and I believe we must conserve traditions.”

Life has returned to Mexico City’s “most magical” market after the pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and even a serious fire on Nov. 4 left the merchants undaunted.

“We ran toward the fire. We all have extinguishers here. We got (the shoppers) out and the firefighters arrived we already had the people outside and everything closed,” Cruz recounted.

And the flames never reached Aisle 8.

Another merchant, Fabiola Ruiz, insisted that the best way to prepare for the new year was to light some candles and soak in a tub filled with the herbal mix she calls a “bath of abundance.”

“Ultimately, we are energy, and as long as we are positive and the immune system is strong this helps us a lot. This is what most defines us as Mexicans: we are people of beliefs,” she said.

Money and health are the chief concerns driving people to the stalls on Aisle 8 of the Sonora Market.

Mexicans are contending with the highest inflation in 20 years and the country ranks fifth globally in deaths from Covid-19, with nearly 300,000 fatalities. EFE jce/dr

EFE 

BALOCHISTAN IS NOT PAKISTAN

THE BALOCH SPRING IN GWADAR

After the protests

Muhammad Akbar Notezai
Updated a day ago

When thousands came out to protest in Gwadar in November, demanding resolution of long-festering local issues, those on the outside did not take immediate notice. But as the protests in the economically and politically sensitive city stretched for over a month, the government was forced to buckle and accept all the protesters’ demands. How did this mobilisation come about? Why are people speaking up now? And who is Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, the leader whose name is on everyone’s lips?

On an early December Saturday, the bus terminal at Karachi’s Yousuf Goth is busy as usual.

People get on colourful buses heading to Gwadar, Turbat and Panjgur. Nothing has changed here over the years. One still sees the same tea shops, conductors and cleaners. The sights and sounds are familiar to me. The Al-Javed Bus office is located at the same spot where it was back in 2017, when I last took one of their buses to Gwadar.

But Gwadar has changed over the past few years and so has the conversation surrounding the area. Newspapers covering the region no longer only carry picturesque visuals of the seaport. They are finally writing about the massive protests by locals and about the prime minister taking notice of these demonstrations. The conversation on the bus has also changed in the wake of the recently concluded protests.

At 10am, the bus is ready to head off on the 10-hour journey to Gwadar. I am seated in the second row of the bus. I first tried to sit next to a local from Gwadar, but he requested I move back so he can sit next to another local from the region. His friend, who finally takes the other seat, is wearing dark glasses that he doesn’t take off at all.

Both the friends naturally start talking about the protests and Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, the local Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) leader who became the face of the protests. While the following of the Maulana has seen a remarkable growth, some are still clearly suspicious of this meteoric rise.

“Had Mullah [Maulana Hidayatur Rehman] really been a leader, he would not have called off the protests in Gwadar after [Chief Minister Quddus] Bizenjo’s guarantees that he would meet the protesters’ demands,” says the friend in the dark glasses. But the thirty-something man, who is clearly a sceptic, goes on to acknowledge that Maulana Hidayat has made the locals in Gwadar see that they can stand up for their rights and challenge the administration.

Thousands of women came out for the demonstrations 

While the local in the glasses is talking, the bus cleaner walks by. He peels a banana and hands it to the bus driver to eat. The local discreetly looks at the cleaner from his glasses and lowers his voice. He moves closer to his friend. “Mullah has got the army’s support,” he declares. “That is why he called off the protests.”

Their conversation abruptly ends, when the bus driver starts to blast music through his phone connected to bluetooth speakers. We are soon in the presence of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s voice: “Dil-i-umeed torra hai kisi ne/ Sahara de ke chhorra hai kisi ne [Someone has broken a hopeful heart/ Someone has given support and then taken it back].”

Nusrat Sahib is interrupted by a phone call on the driver’s phone. But even when the music stops, the friend of the passenger in the dark glasses does not appear interested in continuing their conversation. Maybe he does not agree with his friend’s take. Or maybe he simply does not wish to discuss it on a bus that is likely to be full of the Maulana’s supporters.

Undoubtedly, Maulana Hidayatur Rehman has emerged as an unparalleled leader in Gwadar. And things already feel different after the protests that he headed. For one, passengers are not frisked at different checkpoints throughout the journey, as was the norm in the past.

One of the protesters’ demands was the elimination of ‘unnecessary’ checkposts on major roads. More and more of these checkposts had appeared as CPEC-related ‘development’ started making locals feel like outsiders at their own homes. Besides accepting other demands, the government also agreed to remove all unnecessary checkposts.

I am not the only one pleasantly surprised at the lack of checkposts. Clearly, the Gwadar we are headed to is a different Gwadar. How could it not be? Thousands were chanting “Gwadar ko haq do [Give Gwadar its rights],” just a few weeks ago.

TRAWLERS IN THE SEA

A sea of protestors can be seen on the Gwadar port | File

The Gwadar Fish Harbour, situated adjacent to the main port area, is full of action on Sunday morning when we reach. Boats, big and small, are parked in the harbour. They have many flags, mostly for aesthetic purposes. Some are red, some are green and others black. And then there are many boats with Pakistani flags. There is a lot of foot traffic. Buyers keep pouring in — men and women, and children with their parents — and fishermen compete for their attention and business.

This fish market scene seems like everything is business as usual. But not too long ago, these fishermen were among the thousands who had gathered for the protests, and refused to budge for over a month. Chief among the demands of the protesters, who had come together under the Gwadar Ko Huqooq Do Tehreek [Give Rights to Gwadar Movement] and the leadership of Maulana Hidayat, was the demand to end illegal trawlers.

Trawlers from neighbouring areas such as Sindh and even other countries come to fish in these waters, severely impacting the catch of local fishermen.



Earlier in December, Prime Minister Imran Khan had finally “taken notice” of the “very legitimate demands of the hardworking fishermen of Gwadar,” in a tweet. He had also promised strong action would be taken against illegal fishing by trawlers.

But the issue is not limited to illegal trawlers alone. The government has given Chinese trawlers licences to fish in the waters off the coast. Locals, most of whom operate small boats, are unable to compete with larger, more advanced Chinese boats.

Javed Baloch, one such fisherman, still seems to be in a revolutionary mode, weeks after the protest was called off. He proudly wears a Che Guevara-inspired beret cap with a red star.

A file photo of the Gwadar Port | AFP

Like hundreds of other fishermen of Gwadar, Javed goes to the sea every evening. He rides in his motorboat, which he could afford only after working with a group of fishermen in Iran for three years. Javed and a fellow fisherman stay in the sea for a few hours, waiting for the sun to set so they can fish in the dark.

After his last successful excursion, Javed speaks to me on Sunday morning. “We have caught fish worth over 15,000 rupees today,” he excitedly shares. “And it has been like this for over two weeks,” he adds, pointing out how their catch has increased threefold following strict action against illegal trawlers after the protests.

But this, he believes, is a temporary relief. “We have heard that the trawlers have gone to fish in the Kund Malir area [near Lasbela, towards Karachi],” he says. “These can come back at any time, depriving us of our livelihoods once again.”

His fears are based on an understanding of the region and its history. Fishermen from Sindh and foreign trawlers from countries such as Korea, Japan and China have been fishing in Gwadar’s largely pristine waters for many decades now.

OLD PROBLEMS, NEW SOLUTIONS

Faysal Mujeeb, White Star



KB Firaq, a Gwadar-based poet, columnist and human rights activist is known as an encyclopaedia on Gwadar’s fishermen community. Fittingly, I meet him at his library where he is surrounded by books and other encyclopaedias. He tells me that, according to his research, illegal trawling has been happening in the area since the 1990s.

“At the time, I was a school-going boy,” he says. He says that Gwadar has a lot of fish stock, which is why trawlers from Sindh and outside the country come to the area.

But this long-existing issue cannot be solved overnight.

Officials from the fisheries departments from Quetta and Gwadar share that stopping the practice of illegal trawling in Balochistan is not in their hands. One of the reasons for this is the lack of resources, admits a senior fisheries official in Quetta. According to him, their fisheries department has got only four patrolling boats to stop the practice of illegal trawling in all of Balochistan.

The gravity of the situation becomes apparent to me when, during my brief reporting stint, fishermen start telling me that illegal trawlers have already started to make their way back to the waters of Balochistan. But the power of protest also becomes apparent when I visit Pasni, a tehsil of the Gwadar district, where fishermen are protesting again.

“I felt it and spoke, which is why people have been responding to my call [to join the movement], irrespective of their background,” Maulana Hidayat says. “I have become their spokesman to speak out fearlessly.” The Maulana proudly says that, with a single call, he can get thousands, including women and children, to gather.

One of the protesters’ demands, which was accepted, was that their freedom to go to sea must be ensured. Still, the fishermen in Pasni have been directed to obtain tokens to fish in the sea. “We are not going to the US,” says Inayat Baloch, one of the fishermen who are protesting at the Pasni Fish Harbour. “Then why are we being asked for tokens to fish in our own sea?” The illegal trawlers should be receiving this treatment, not the locals, the fishermen lament.

Maulana Hidayatur Rehman manages to be a part of even this small protest. Inayat calls the Maulana from his phone, and puts the call on loudspeaker for the two dozen fishermen to hear. The Maulana charges up the protesters, roaring in Balochi. “Are you all tired [of protesting]?” he asks. “No!” they respond. He repeats the same question.

“Are you all tired?”

“No, not at all,” they all shout in unison.

Within an hour, officials from the district administration and the Navy come to speak with the fishermen. Soon, the officials tell the fishermen that they are exempt from showing tokens to fish in the sea.

This is the power of demonstrations. And this is the power of the Maulana, a man whose presence can be felt across Gwadar.

THE RISE OF MAULANA HIDAYAT

Maulana Hidayatur Rehman | Twitter

Surbandan, locally known as Sur in Gwadar, is a tiny town at a distance of 25 kilometres from the main Gwadar town. Sur is inhabited mostly by fishermen. On a Monday, the blue sea around the town is calm. The sky is blue and the wind is blowing. We are driving on the G.T. Road, and the sea is flowing next to us. Soon, we take a turn and stop at the Jama Makki Masjid.

I’m taken to a parrot green-coloured room. This is the room for Maulana Hidayatur Rehman’s guests. The Maulana and his brothers, who are also fishermen, live in a house next door. The JI leader is not at home, I am told. He is in Gwadar.

But his presence is all around me. Maulana is the talk of the town. Everyone I meet in the Gwadar district speaks of him and how he has stood up for their rights. Women and children play me songs on their mobiles dedicated to the Maulana.

“A leader is the one who does not fear. And we have found a leader in Maulana,” says Mehboob Baloch, a local fisherman in Surbandan. No conversation about Maulana can be had here without others chiming in. As Mehboob speaks to me, others join in with a chant I have heard many times by now: “We are all Maulana!”

Maulana is an unlikely leader according to many locals and politicians. He does not come from money. And even though he was present everywhere, his voice hardly mattered in the past. These descriptions seem to be in stark contrast with the situation today, where the Maulana is present across Gwadar, even when he is not physically in the vicinity.

A file photo shows a security personnel standing guard in Gwadar | AFP

Born in Surbandan village, Maulana received his primary education in his hometown. He then went to Karachi, where half of his maternal family lives, to complete his education. He received a Masters degree in Islamiat from Karachi.

Maulana Hidayat returned to become a small leader in his town. He understood the woes of his people and was not afraid of raising his voice for them. The Maulana first started making waves a few months ago, when he led a five-day-long demonstration in Surbandan asking for better treatment of local fishermen.

This protest was on the mind of Maasi Zainab, a Baloch woman with no formal education who had been making waves by being at the forefront of protests in Gwadar. Zainab sent Maulana a voice note over WhatsApp during protests at Gwadar’s Eastbay Expressway, where fishermen were not being allowed to go to sea. Soon Maulana, who was nowhere near the protest site, was on the road heading to the protest.

Led by fishermen of the Mullah Band area, he sat in front of three senior security officials and spoke bravely and courageously. In a video that went viral in September, he can be seen telling the officials that Gwadar first belongs to them. He is charged up, speaking bluntly, without a hint of doubt or fear in his voice. This was only the beginning.

AN UNWAVERING VOICE

Fishermen at the Gwadar Fish Harbour | Photo by the writer

Having failed to meet the Maulana in Surbandan, I return to Gwadar and check into Gwadar’s Sadaf Hotel, where I am set to finally meet the Maulana. I receive a message that Maulana, who is still busy in Gwadar town, will visit me after maghrib prayers.

The Maulana arrives accompanied by eight young men. He is wearing a white pakol cap, white clothes and a white chador. He is shorter than he appears in videos and pictures, but he walks tall. He says salaam to me and shakes my hand lightly. Mine is only the first of many handshakes for the Maulana. As we enter the hotel’s restaurants, the entire staff stands up to shake his hand.

Finally we sit down and start our conversation.

“What have Gwadaris seen in an old Maulana after 18 years?” I ask him, referring to the many years he has actively remained in politics without having the same kind of following he enjoys today.

His answer is simple, and one that has been given to me many times by now to explain Maulana Hidayat’s rise and following. In an environment where everybody is afraid to speak, people want someone to be their voice.

“I felt it and spoke, which is why people have been responding to my call [to join the movement], irrespective of their background,” he says. “I have become their spokesman to speak out fearlessly.”

The Maulana proudly says that, with a single call, he can get thousands, including women and children, to gather. “They have seen a ray of hope in despair and helplessness,” he tells me.

The Maulana’s sceptics see him as a right wing political opportunist who has been using issues such as illegal trawling, and problems with electricity, water and checkposts, to pave the way for his own ‘right wing agenda’ under the banner of JI. This, they argue, is why he is being given space in the port town where China has heavily invested.

One of the Maulana’s first demands was putting a ban on ‘wine’ [alcohol] stores in Gwadar, which, according to his critics, has got nothing to do with public issues.

I ask the Maulana about these criticisms, and he smiles. “Everyone wants to say that the ‘mullahs’ are against wine,” he says. “I put the demand forward because it is a public issue, not a private one.”

He says that mothers and sisters have now been sleeping peacefully knowing that their sons are not drinking. “Due to alcohol consumption, mothers and sisters have become psychological patients as their sons used to come home drunk,” he shares. “It had become the source of incidents in Gwadar.”

Boats parked in the harbour | Photo by the writer

Many say the leader has a good sense of humour. He continues talking about the issue with a cup of green tea in his hand. He is always in control of the conversation. He answers questions he wants to, and evades the ones he would rather not comment on. For example, when asked about apprehensions of people who say that the Maulana is ‘backed’ by some institution, and that no one can stage such a large protest in Balochistan unless they are ‘allowed’ to, he refuses to give a straight answer.

Maulana Hidayat’s priorities are the locals, and making sure they are not treated like outsiders in their own land. He is sceptical of the development taking place in the name of CPEC in the region. “Where is CPEC in Balochistan?” he asks. “I have only seen checkposts all around in the name of CPEC, not CPEC itself.”

The Maulana has clearly had these conversations before. After the interview, he is in no hurry to leave. He has found out that I had visited his hometown, Surbandan. He asks me why I did not have tea at his home.

One can clearly see the appeal of having a leader who is so inviting, passionate about his people and accessible on one phone call. It is no wonder thousands came out at his call.

While the government has accepted all the demands, how they are implemented remains to be seen. Nonetheless, many in Gwadar appear confident in the fact that in Maulana Hidayat they have found a voice that will speak up whenever he needs to. If he calls on his supporters to step out again, they surely will.

DEMANDS PUT FORWARD AT THE PROTEST

End illegal trawling

Progress: The headquarters of the Director General of Fisheries was moved from Quetta to Gwadar after the protests. Patrolling increased to check illegal trawlers.

Freedom for fishermen to go to sea

Progress: A token system to go to sea was eliminated. Fishermen are now allowed to go without any permission.

Elimination of unnecessary checkposts on major roads

Progress: All unnecessary checkposts have been removed.

Closure of wine shops in Gwadar

Progress: All wine shops have been closed on government instructions.

Elimination of interference in cross-border trade with Iran

Progress: The government has guaranteed the end to all kinds of interference and establishment of trade markets at the border.

Establishment of a university in Gwadar

Progress: A vice chancellor has been appointed for Gwadar University, classes to start soon.

Appointments on empty seats of education department’s non-teaching staff

Progress: Selection process for appointments completed, officials sent for appointment.

Curtailing the sale of fake medicines

Progress: Inspection of Gwadar’s medical stores completed.

Waivers and subsidies on utility bills

Progress: Policy on issue to be clarified soon. The chief minister has written a letter to Quetta Electric Supply Company.

Release of seized cars and boats by coastguard

Progress: Legal team formed on the issue.

Provision of clean drinking water

Progress: Supply of water initiated, water project to be completed soon.

Priority to locals on jobs for development projects

Progress: Special desk formed on the issue in the district commissioner’s office.

Implementation on agreement with Dar Bela affectees

Progress: Compensation paid to locals impacted, separate area being selected for land compensation.

Compensation paid to Expressway affectees

Progress: Compensation paid to locals impacted, special measures being taken for remaining people.

Removal of cases on protest leaders and names from Fourth Schedule

Progress: Matter sent to the provincial cabinet.

Damages for losses due to storms and illegal trawlers

Progress: Survey completed of fishermen’s losses, matter of compensation sent to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority and orders issued for immediate compensation.

Removal of DG GDA, DC Gwadar and AC Pasni

Progress: Officials changed.

Implementation of quota for disabled people

Progress: Orders issued for strict implementation of quota.

Open Kulki point for transportation of oil and essentials

Progress: Kantani point completely opened for transport and distribution of oil and essentials.

— Based on a dawn.com report

The writer is a member of staff. He tweets @Akbar_notezai

Published in Dawn, EOS, January 2nd, 2022

HISTORY: THE TAJ MAHAL’S MACABRE MYTH

S.K. Arun Murthi

Published January 2, 2022 -

Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan’s most famed legacy, The Taj Mahal | Reuters

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and a pro-Modi media have drawn a contrast between the popularised myth of Shah Jahan’s brutal act of chopping off the hands of Taj Mahal workers after the completion of the monument and Narendra Modi’s act of showering flower petals on sanitation workers as a gesture of gratitude on the inauguration of the first phase of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor [a project in Varanasi aimed at transforming pilgrims’ experience by connecting the temple there with the ghats along the Ganga].

Shah Jahan is supposed to have committed this ungrateful act so that the workers would not be able to build another monument like the Taj Mahal.

As the Alt News article has made it clear, there appears to be no evidence for this claim that Shah Jahan chopped off the hands of workers and as such it appears to be a tale that has been spun at some point of time in history.

Further, assuming for the sake of argument, that Shah Jahan’s purpose was that he did not want any another similar monument to come up, it does not make sense that such an act serves his presumed purpose. Why?

Legend goes that Shah Jahan chopped off the hands of those who built the Taj Mahal so they could not replicate its beauty. Lately the myth is being bandied about on Indian news channels to compare PM Modi with Muslim Mughal rulers, but how true can it be?

It is because the beauty and grandeur of the Taj Mahal are the outer manifestation of the architect’s conception, imagination and aesthetic sense. Therefore, his target should have been the architect.

The ingenuity of the architect lies in the originality of the plan, design and how much aesthetic sense coupled with imagination he can express through his plan and design. Once this is concretised as a structure of the Taj Mahal, a first of its kind, it is not difficult for other planners and designers with no such skill to bring about similar structures. Masons, artisans, craftsmen and others go by the plan of the architect (though this is not to marginalise the contribution of these workmen, as there are certain intricate skills required for workmanship).

Unesco also mentions that “the uniqueness of Taj Mahal lies in some truly remarkable innovations carried out by the horticulture planners and architects of Shah Jahan.” The arches and domes that are captured by the imagination of the architects enhance aesthetic sense. In fact, the Taj Mahal project had a board of architects, led by the chief architect Ustad Ahmad Lahuri.

If Shah Jahan wanted that a similar monument should not come up, his brutality would have been directed toward the architects as well.

Myths around monuments

Ebba Koch, the Austrian art and architecture historian and a leading authority on Mughal architecture, terms this story, “guides’ tales”, in her book The Complete Taj Mahal and the Riverfront Gardens of Agra. Further, she compares this story with similar myths that are classified by Stith Thompson who has authored the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature.

She mentions three similar myths (different from Shah Jahan’s) drawing upon Thompson’s work as follows:

1- “King kills architect after completion of a great building, so that he may never again build one so great.”

2- “Artisan who has built palace blinded so that he cannot build another like it.”

3- “Masons who build mausoleum of princess lose their right hand so they may never again construct so fine a building.”

A similar story is also associated with St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square. It was built to commemorate the fall of Kazan to Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia.

“Legend has it that Ivan the Terrible blinded the architect Posnik Yakovlev to prevent him from building another church as grand as this, although this is not confirmed by historians.”

Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow

Now the question is, did Shah Jahan extend the brutal act to the architects?

This would have been more important for him if he really did not want another similar structure to come up because it is the architect who has the primary role in the conception and design of the structure.

However, modern writers have done that job of extending the brutal act of Shah Jahan to include the architects also.

The initial story of brutality that was restricted to workers was further spiced up to include the chief architect, recently, lest some people start thinking why the architect had been left out of the act of Shah Jahan.

Justin Huggler [in his 2004 article for The Independent] makes the claim that Lahuri was blinded after the Taj’s completion.

As Koch rightly remarks, these were “presented as historical facts” and by including the architect the “journalists of renowned newspapers… garnish…” their reports.

Convenient legends

The Hindutva leaders and their supporters’ proclivities for Muslim- and Christian-bashing in their thoughts and acts have become increasingly pronounced. They look for such apocryphal tales to depict a certain monstrosity in the kings from these communities.

Meanwhile, a similar unproven legend is associated with the Konark temple. A brutal condition was apparently laid by its builder, the Eastern Ganga dynasty king Narasimhadeva I. He “had set a deadline for the completion of the temple and had threatened to behead all the workers if the deadline [were] not met.”

One would also be curious to know the right-wing Hindutva groups’ response to the Ekalavya story in the Mahabharata where Dronacharya demanded the right thumb of Ekalavya as a guru dakshina (a Hindu tradition of paying an honorarium to the teacher for having imparted knowledge), even though he never formally taught Ekalavya. He was worried that his disciple Arjun would lose the status of the supreme archer if Ekalavya came into prominence. His intention of extracting his dakshina in a cruel form was to make him (Ekalavya) incapable of exercising self-acquired archery skills.

Mythical tales and legends of brutal deeds of Hindu characters are not convenient. But tales like Shah Jahan chopping hands serves a communal purpose.

The writer taught philosophy at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, Punjab

By arrangement with The Wire

Published in Dawn, EOS, January 2nd, 2022