YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS SHIT UP😈

Musk Shares a Nazi Meme Then Tells Twitter to Vote Republican

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling
Mon, November 7, 2022 

Life comes at you fast. Six months ago, Elon Musk wrote, “For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally.”

On Monday morning, weeks after buying the platform for $44 billion, he shared a meme featuring a Nazi soldier then told his 115 million followers to vote Republican in Tuesday’s midterms.

“To independent-minded voters: Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic,” he wrote.

Musk has faced criticism for snuffing out roughly 50 percent of the company’s employees last week, including those responsible for monitoring disinformation days ahead of Election Day. The purge was likened by some critics to a Category 5 hurricane.

“Hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side,” Musk added on Monday, “so independent voters are the ones who actually decide who’s in charge!”

The CEO’s tweet on voting red garnered over 43,000 retweets and nearly 180,000 likes a couple hours after posting. His Nazi meme, which used a photo of German Wehrmacht soldier with a cage of carrier pigeons during the Nazi invasion of France, had about 14,000 retweets in the three hours after it was posted.

Musk, who in late 2021 surpassed Jeff Bezos in wealth with a reported net worth of $219 billion, has had a rocky start to his latest tech foray, blaming a recent “massive drop in revenue” on “activist groups pressuring advertisers,” rather than his own antics.

At a campaign event in Chicago on Friday, President Joe Biden called out the site after Musk shared—then deleted—a baseless conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi, calling Twitter “an outfit that spews lies all across the world.”

In an effort to change his fortune and turn a profit at the historically unprofitable social media platform, Musk has proposed a pay-to-play verification system and an end to permabans, including one on Donald Trump.

But the new plan didn’t stop the thin-skinned billionaire from suspending comedian Kathy Griffin on Monday after she changed the name on her profile to Musk’s and encouraged people to vote Democrat.

“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” he tweeted.

Twitter Suspends Kathy Griffin After She Changed Her Handle to ‘Elon Musk’

Elon Musk tells his Twitter followers to vote for Republicans the day before the midterms, despite saying Twitter should be 'politically neutral'

Nicole Gaudiano

Mon, November 7, 2022 

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.Danny Matson/Getty Images for SXSW, BRITTA PEDERSEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

• Elon Musk told his followers on Monday to elect a Republican Congress in the midterm elections.

• In August, Musk was reportedly a VIP guest of House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy at his annual donor retreat.

• The billionaire reportedly complained about his tax bill at the retreat.

Tesla CEO and Twitter's new owner Elon Musk urged his Twitter followers on Monday to elect a Republican Congress on Tuesday in an appeal to "independent-minded voters" on the eve of the midterm elections.

"Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic," he tweeted, adding "Hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side, so independent voters are the ones who actually decide who's in charge!"

In August, Musk was reportedly a VIP guest of House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy's at his annual donor retreat in Wyoming, multiple outlets reported. Axios reported that McCarthy interviewed Musk in a fireside Q&A chat and that Musk complained during the event about the $11 billion tax bill he incurred in 2021 after selling Tesla stock.

Attendees also told Axios that the US would benefit if the Democratic Party stayed "out of people's wallets," and Republicans stayed "out of people's bedrooms."

Musk announced in May that he would vote Republican in the upcoming election cycle after years of voting for Democrats.

Responding to Musk's tweet, Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman tweeted that Musk has "long been friendly with Kevin McCarthy."

Musk's acquisition of Twitter ended last month. Reaction to his tweet came swiftly.

Democratic strategist Max Burns tweeted: "The @GOP ought to list your Twitter acquisition as an in-kind campaign contribution."

Reuters journalist Kanishka Raj Singh dug up a tweet from Musk in April in which he said Twitter should be politically neutral.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was among those killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, tweeted that "shared power in the market place curbs excesses. I recommend buying Mustang Mach E or Hyundai Ioniq over Tesla as we need to curb this maniac and his wealth who is trying to influence election outcomes."

Twitter Reacts to Elon Musk Tweet With Nazi Soldier Image: ‘He’s Exactly What We Thought He Was’

Sharon Knolle
Mon, November 7, 2022

Amidst the Twitter verification brouhaha and suspensions of verified users who changed their name to “Elon Musk,” Musk drew more fire Monday for sharing an image of a Nazi soldier.

In the photo, a WWII-era soldier has three carrier pigeons in a cage on his back; the text “3 UNREAD MESSAGES” has been added to the photo. Musk’s own caption, “How times have changed,” was innocuous enough, but the fact he chose an image of a member of Hitler’s Wehrmacht is not.

Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko tweeted, “Wait. Elon endorsed Republicans AND shared a picture of a Nazi soldier? So he’s exactly what we thought he was.”



Others shared the archival photo’s listing on Getty Images, which confirms the image’s origins. “A German Wehrmacht soldier carries a cage of carrier pigeons used for relaying messages, on the western front during the German invasion of France, known as the Battle of France, in WWII, circa May 1940,” reads the Getty caption.

It comes with this note on Getty: “Please note: images depicting historical events may contain themes, or have descriptions, that do not reflect current understanding. They are provided in a historical context.”

Some floated the theory that Musk simply shared the image without being aware of its context. ‘”It’s easy to read this as “Elon Musk keeps posting Nazi s—” but I think the actual story is that because he loves stealing posts form his replies, there are a bunch of people trying to get him to post Nazi s— and succeeding because he’s easily manipulated. Seems worse!” tweeted Cooper Lund.

Also Read:
Twitter to Delay New Blue Check Subscription Launch Until After Midterms Amid Concerns of Election Misinformation

Although the photo does not include Nazi insignia, the helmet worn by the soldier appears to be a Stahlhelm, which was part of the Germany army’s uniform.

Musk has already been blasted for his refusal to moderate ethnic and racial failures on the platform, as well as blatantly pro-Nazi tweets.

Read a roundup of more Twitter responses to Musk’s latest misstep below.

 

Hundreds of Twitter employees on H-1B visas fear being deported if Elon Musk fires them

Ryan Hogg, BI
Sun, November 6, 2022 

Hundreds of Twitter employees on special visas could be deported after Elon Musk's job cuts.

He cut thousands of jobs with the mass layoffs equating to as much as half of the company workforce.

A Forbes report suggests nearly 700 Twitter employees were on H-1B employment-tied visas.

Elon Musk's cost-cutting plans may have left hundreds of Twitter employees on high-skill work visas on a countdown to deportation.

At least 250 Twitter workers appear to be employed on H-1B visas, according to official records, and now face an uncertain future.

And according to analysis of US Citizenship and Immigration Services data by the National Foundation for American Policy, that number could be as high as 670, or 8% of the company pre-cuts, Forbes reported.

Musk began culling the social-media giant's workforce on Thursday night, Insider reported, with access to work applications like Slack suddenly cut off for many now-former employees.

About half of Twitter's workforce, or about 3,700 people, are expected to have lost their jobs, per Insider. But for some of these workers, the consequences could be even more severe.

According to data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Twitter has given "initial approval" to 168 H-1B visas since 2020. The company has received approval for 673 such visas since 2009.

Companies give H-1B visas to people from other countries with "highly specialized knowledge" and a relevant bachelor's degree, per USCIS. They are intended to last for three years, but can go up to six.

If sponsored employment is lost, a migrant has 60 days to find a new job before facing deportation. The US allows 65,000 successful applications a year. Workers on H-1B visas are able to stay in the US if they can find new employment, according to "portability" rules.

Records suggest Immigration Services granted "continuing approval" for 242 visas earlier this year, suggesting hundreds of employment-conditional migrants were working at Twitter before Musk's layoffs.

Musk asked vice presidents to compile lists of employees deemed least worthy of staying as he endeavors to radically alter the way Twitter works. It is unclear what departments visa-tied Twitter employees work for, or how susceptible their positions are to layoffs.

According to immigration law, Musk must pay the "reasonable costs" of transportation of migrant workers whose employment has been terminated before the end of their authorized stays.

According to multiple reports, Musk himself was able to stay in the United States after finishing his college degree thanks to the H-1B visa. He previously reprimanded Donald Trump in 2017 for Trump's decision to suspend the special work visas.

Musk also faces a lawsuit from former employees for not giving adequate notice over mass layoffs, which may provide some from of respite for vulnerable workers. The billionaire has since tweeted that the company offered everyone who got laid off three months' worth of severance, though some staff have disputed his claim.

Twitter user @maybettl, who said they were laid off from the company this week, tweeted that some staff were offering to be laid off to save their colleagues on work visas. Insider wasn't able to verify this information.

Twitter didn't respond to Insider's request for comment on the number of employees on special work visas, or the number of those employees it had laid off.

Elon Musk is a ‘brutalist decision-maker’: Twitter employees are flooding Blind with bad reviews
Jyoti Mann
Sun, November 6, 2022 

Twitter laid off nearly half of its workforce on Friday.Getty Images

Twitter employees are posting bad reviews about the company and Elon Musk on anonymous forum Blind.


One person called Musk a "brutalist decision-maker." Another said he has "no idea" what he's doing.


Posting on the day the layoffs were announced, one user said management was causing "stress."


Twitter employees are flooding the employee forum Blind with bad — and some good — reviews about the company and its new CEO, Elon Musk.

Insider trawled through the community app, where employees can anonymously write reviews and post about their workplaces, to see what Twitter staff are saying about the company.

Twitter laid off thousands of employees on Friday when Elon Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of the platform. After axing nearly half of the Twitter workforce, Musk tweeted on Friday that there was "no choice" as the company was losing more than $4 million a day.

Blind requires that users give their work email address, the company they work for, and their job title when they sign up. The site does not verify employment, but requests that people use their work email to "gauge the professional status" of users, Blind's website states.

Users have posted a total of 953 Twitter reviews to the site since 2020 and the company has an overall star rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars. Each poster adds a star rating to their review. Some of the reviews were posted the day some staff members learned of the mass layoffs the next morning, but the majority are from earlier.

One poster who described themself as an engineering manager said on Wednesday: "Brutalist decision-maker at the helm. Emergency driven work is exciting for those who like thrills. Pay is no longer tied to the stock market fluctuations."

The anonymous poster, who gave Twitter a two-star rating, added: "The absolute and swift destruction of a compassionate, human-first corporate culture is leaving Tweeps feeling like we've lost our family."

Another user, who posted the day the company sent staff a memo announcing layoffs, said it "was good until Elon take over."

The self-described senior software developer listed getting to "work for Elon" as a "pro" of working at the company, then put being treated as a "labor robot" on an accompanying list of "cons."

"Sense of achievement on delivering mission critical projects with 24/7 working and sleeping at office," the post said.

A Twitter employee tweeted a picture of a manager sleeping at the office this week after Musk took over. Musk announced plans to launch new product features, including a verification subscription for $8.

A software engineer said on November 2 that before the company was made private, it was an "incredible" place to work.

They added: "Elon mother flipping Musk and his ego the size of mars. Twitter is already chaos, but come layoffs Friday, it will a massive dumpster fire. The man has no idea what he's doing and I'd bet $8 Twitter won't be around or relevant in a couple years."

It is not possible to tell which of these posters, if any, had been laid off.

Another Blind user wrote on Thursday that the management changes are creating "stress" as a result of people being fired or quitting.

Twitter did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

Not just job cuts: Elon Musk eliminated Twitter's ‘Days of rest’ and work-from-home policies last week — pushing a '24/7' work culture hard. 

Jing Pan
Mon, November 7, 2022 

Not just job cuts: Elon Musk eliminated Twitter's ‘Days of rest’ and work-from-home policies last week — pushing a '24/7' work culture hard. Here are 3 other investments the billionaire likes

If you are a Twitter employee who has a satisfying work-life balance, you may not want to hear what the new boss has to say.

Elon Musk has completed his acquisition of Twitter, despite saying that he overpaid for the company. And now, he’s finding ways to reduce expenditures at the social media giant.

The billionaire entrepreneur cut close to 3,700 jobs at Twitter, or half of the workforce, via email last week.

Musk has also removed Twitter’s “Days of rest” — monthly days off for employees to rest and recharge — in his push to implement a “24/7” work culture.

Additionally, Bloomberg reported that Musk plans to end the company’s remote work policy and ask remaining employees to return to the office full-time.

Who would want to join Twitter now? It's still hiring for more than 90 roles despite cutting thousands of jobs
Jyoti Mann

Sun, November 6, 2022

Elon Musk now owns Twitter.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Twitter is still hiring to fill more than 90 roles despite laying off half of its workforce.


Twitter's careers page advertised 92 jobs a day after the mass layoffs.


Twitter posted seven roles on LinkedIn's jobs section a few days before Elon Musk took over.

Twitter is still hiring for more than 90 roles despite the company laying off half of its workforce on Friday.

Twitter's careers page listed at least 92 open roles on Saturday. More than a third of the positions are based at its headquarters in San Francisco.

Twitter first advertised seven roles, all of which are based in London, on LinkedIn two weeks ago. Six jobs are for software engineers, despite one London-based senior engineer being fired while he slept.

Elon Musk sent a memo to Twitter employees on Thursday telling staff they would find out if they were being laid off via email on Friday. Some employees learned their fate on Thursday night after being cut off from accessing their work emails and laptops.

The Tesla founder took control of Twitter last week after his $44 billion deal to buy the platform was complete. He immediately fired top executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, and Ned Segal, the chief financial officer.

Musk later floated new ideas for the company, including charging users $8 to gain a "verified" status along with seeing fewer ads.

A growing chorus of companies including Pfizer, General Motors, and Volkswagen have since paused ads on Twitter amid concerns over the platform's approach to content moderation.

Musk told some of the leading advertisers on the platform in a call that Twitter will have varying tiers of how it would moderate content, likening it to age ratings for films, The Financial Times reported.

Musk then tweeted Friday that Twitter's "strong commitment" to moderating content remained "absolutely unchanged." He also said in another tweet that he had "no choice" but to make mass layoffs because the company was losing $4 million a day.

He said: "Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required." Some Twitter staff have disputed that claim.

Twitter didn't respond to Insider's request for comment.

Elon Musk wants to nickel-and-dime Twitter users for features that were once free just 7 months after saying he 'didn't care about the economics'

Samantha Delouya

Sun, November 6, 2022

Elon Musk carrying a sink into Twitter's headquarters in San FranciscoElon Musk/Twitter

• Elon Musk is haphazardly suggesting ways to "pay the bills" at Twitter as debt interest payments soon come due.

• His approach is starkly different than when he said he "didn't care about the economics" of buying it in April.

• Musk has reportedly suggested paid direct messages and "paywalled" videos to advisors as ways to make Twitter more money.

Not long after Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion in April, he said he "didn't care about the economics at all" of the purchase.

"This is just my strong, intuitive sense that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization," Musk said at the TED2022 conference.

Seven months later, the world's richest man seems to have changed his tune, haphazardly suggesting ideas to his advisors, and even his Twitter followers, in an attempt to make the platform profitable.

Earlier this week, Musk announced that Twitter would begin charging $8 per month for its "blue check" verification program, which was previously free to those who qualified.

"We need to pay the bills somehow!" Musk wrote in a tweet responding to complaints about the fee.

But that's not the only idea Musk has in mind to squeeze cash out of his new company. The New York Times reports that Musk and his advisers have weighed adding a service that would allow users to send direct messages to high-profile users for a fee and "paywalled" videos.

Musk has also considered charging for user analytics and reviving the short-form video platform, Vine, according to his interactions with followers on Twitter.

The rushed attempts to drum up new revenue streams at Twitter are at odds with how Musk spoke about the purchase of the social media platform last spring when he extolled the platform's virtue as a "de facto town square" and compared the Twitter deal to Jeff Bezos' purchase of The Washington Post.

Now, Musk has Twitter employees working 24/7, trying to find a way to make to eke out money from the platform as Twitter will eventually be expected to pay massive interest payments. Musk borrowed $13 billion from banks to partially fund the deal, and the company will have to pay $1 billion in annual interest as a result. Twitter's entire cash flow last year totaled less than $1 billion, according to the Times.

Charging for previously free services isn't the only way Musk has tried to save the company money. On Thursday night and Friday morning, large swaths of Twitter's staff learned they had been laid off, either via email or by simply losing access to their Slack and email accounts.

Vice President Harris is wrapping up her midterm campaign push by meeting with union leaders a day before the elections
Juliana Kaplan
Mon, November 7, 2022 

Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) tours an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) training facility on September 7 2020 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with union leaders on Monday in California.


Harris will meet with United Farm Workers and dial in to a Unite Here get out the vote call.


Unions are popular right now among Americans, making them a rarity among many issues.

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with union leaders on Monday to discuss the Biden administration's continued support for workers, according to a White House official.

Harris, who has her own union and activism roots, has emerged as one of several high-level members of the Biden administration on the frontlines of meeting with workers and supporting the resurgent labor movement.

Harris will meet with leaders from United Farm Workers in Los Angeles, along with joining a Unite Here call focused on turning out the vote in swing states like Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

UFW recently staged a 24-day long march in an effort to get California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign onto legislation that would ease the process for farm workers to unionize. Newsom eventually signed on to an amended version of the bill. Unite Here represents service workers across restaurants, hotels, and other leisure and hospitality businesses.

Harris has hit the road ahead of the midterms, bolstering mostly female candidates and focusing on reproductive rights as Democrats pull out all of their stops to try and fend off a potential red wave. Along the way, according to a White House official, she is prioritizing meeting with local labor leaders.

Harris chairs the Biden administration's task force on strengthening unions and union membership. In May, Harris — along with co-chair Marty Walsh, Biden's Secretary of Labor — welcomed union organizers from the likes of Starbucks and Amazon to the White House. The president made an appearance at that event, which Alex Speidel, a lead organizer with United Paizo Workers/CWA, told Insider was "an unbelievable surprise."

The Biden administration has made clear its intentions to embrace organized labor. One of Biden's first actions in office was to dismiss Peter Robb, the Trump-appointed general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board. Instead, Biden installed Jennifer Abruzzo, an NLRB veteran who had been serving as a union-side lawyer for the Communication Workers of America. Abruzzo has already made her mark on the agency, working towards ending the practice of mandatory anti-union meetings. Petitions for union representation are up 58% in the first 9 months of fiscal year 2022 compared to fiscal year 2021, according to the NLRB.

"President Joe Biden and I are determined to lead the most pro-union administration in America's history," Harris said in April remarks. "Unions negotiate better wages and safer working conditions for millions of workers around our country."

Organized labor has emerged as a rare issue that Americans seem to largely be on board with. Unions are at their highest approval level since 1965, according to Gallup, with 71% of Americans approving of them.

That comes as Americans' confidence in everything from religion to Congress have wavered. Another Gallup poll from June surveyed Americans about their confidence in 16 major institutions, including the presidency and the Supreme Court. Only organized labor did not see a drop in confidence from the year prior.

Now, as Democrats head into the uncertain midterms the administration is again turning towards organized labor.

Harris "has been focused on reaching women, young people, and communities of color," a White House official said. "There's an inherent link to labor unions and the members that compose those unions, and just the critical importance of this moment to recognize what's at stake in this election and the progress that the administration has made, but that we need to continue to build on."

In Pakistan's Sindh province, Hindu culture fights the odds

 

RIAZAT BUTT
Sun, November 6, 2022 

SUKKUR, Pakistan (AP) — On the sandy banks of the Indus River, which flows top to toe through Pakistan and into its southern Sindh province, Hindus waited for brightly colored boats to ferry them to a peaceful island that has housed a temple for almost 200 years.

Cheers rang out across the water as the marble and sandalwood Sadhu Bela temple complex heaved into view. “Long live Sadhu Bela!" the boat's passengers cried.

The temple attracts tens of thousands of Hindus from within Muslim-majority Pakistan every year for festivals and rituals, including the recent celebrations of Diwali, an important Hindu holiday.

The island was gifted to the Hindu community by wealthy Muslim landlords in Sindh two centuries ago. It would have been an unthinkable act in modern-day Pakistan, where Hindus are often marginalized, persecuted, and even killed.


Around 4 million Hindus live in Pakistan, or about 1.9% of the country’s population, and 1.4 million are in Sindh.

There is no ban on Hindu worship in Pakistan, but Hindus say openly practicing the faith is not a matter of routine. Decades of political hostility between majority-Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan present a challenge for the minority community, as many in Pakistan equate Hindus with India. The reverse exists in India where Muslims complain of discrimination.

But the landscape of Pakistan, and Sindh in particular, retains their imprint. It has temples, although their numbers have plummeted. There are Hindu-run businesses as well as education and healthcare institutions, many established before the country was created in 1947. They are part of Pakistan's heritage, even as Hindus are forced into the shadows.

As Sadhu Bela came alive with the delight of devotees exploring the courtyards and gardens, Dewan Chand Chawla, a local politician and general secretary of the Pakistan Hindu Temple Management Committee, spoke proudly of the temple's origins and features. The shrine, which celebrates its bicentennial in 2023, was built by craftsmen from the Indian city of Jodhpur and reflects the architectural style of the Taj Mahal.

“A large part of the Hindu population migrated to India after Pakistan came into being, but those who stayed here are happy and prosperous,” Chawla said, keen to stress the harmonious relationship between the Muslim majority and Hindu minority. “I am thankful to the Muslim community of Pakistan, which fully supports us on all occasions. We follow the law and we are supported by the government.”

His assertion about a happy and prosperous Hindu community is not the majority view, however. Rights groups have long alleged that Pakistan is not doing enough to protect Hindus' freedom of religion and belief. They cite temple desecrations, attacks on businesses, homes, and individuals and the abduction, forced conversion, and forced marriage of young Hindu women.

Chawla is not the only politician to emphasize an image of religious coexistence in Pakistan. “Most of the Hindu population of the country live in Sindh province satisfactorily, peacefully and without any fear or threat," said Waqar Mahdi, a senior advisor to Sindh’s chief minister.

Mahdi said provincial officials have prioritized protecting the rights of minorities like Hindus and Christians.

But Zahida Rehman Jatt, a University of Sindh lecturer in anthropology and social sciences, said there has been a surge in discrimination and marginalization of Hindus because of rising extremism and fundamentalism in the country. This intolerance risks undermining Pakistan's ties to its Hindu heritage, she said.

“It’s sad because their (Hindus’) contribution is huge to Pakistan," she said. "Most Pakistanis are not aware of the importance of Hindu heritage or the contribution that Hindus — and Sikhs — made for the betterment of Pakistani society.”

Some Hindu-founded institutions had their names changed after Pakistan was created, she said, citing Hyderabad’s Kundan Mal Girls’ School as an example. It was founded in 1914 by Hindu philanthropist Saith Kundan Mal, but is now known as Jamia Arabia Girls School. Such changes are one reason why Pakistanis don't know about the contribution of minority faiths, she said.

Other institutions still bear the names of their Hindu benefactors, including a red brick college and two hospitals in the city Shikarpur, around 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Sukkur.

On the first night of Diwali, one of the most important festivals in Hinduism, clay lamps subtly illuminated doorways and windowsills in Shikarpur. But there were no elaborate light displays or street festivities, and traditional Diwali firecracker fun took place away from the public gaze.

The city of about 200,000 people has a rich Hindu history and traditions, now gradually fading.

One of the keepers of that history can be found in a vast courtyard off a side road. On a recent day in late October, sweet shop owner Dewan Narain Das, 67, enjoyed the cool air. Vats of food bubbled away, children ran and played outdoors, and people gathered to exchange Diwali gifts and good wishes on the holy occasion.

His family has owned a business in Shikarpur since the late 19th century. It started as a soft drink store and, after partition, became a sweet shop. It is famous in the city for falooda, an ice-cream-based dessert with noodles. Das is so well-known in the city that it is easy to find him just by asking for “Dewan Sahib, who owns the falooda shop.”

“People who have lived here for a long time say that the taste they enjoyed 20 years ago is still there in our products,” said Das.

He said Shikarpur once had a sizable Hindu community and scores of temples, a number that has since dwindled. “Rich people used to organize picnics at the Indus River,” he said. “They used to live here, but their businesses spread to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mumbai.”

Many Hindus left after partition, and their properties were taken over by a government trust. Today, Pakistan has a population of some 225 million people.

Jatt, the scholar, said that the properties were allotted to refugees coming into newly created Pakistan from India. Most of the tenants paid minimal rent and were often unable to take care of the properties. “They (the residents) are very poor and these properties are grand, previously owned by wealthy Hindus," Jatt said.

After partition, politicians trying to forge a Pakistani narrative emphasized the Muslim heritage, downplaying the contributions of other communities, Jatt said.

“I don’t think we will see this kind of legacy or contribution again from Hindus, the opportunities are on the decline,” she said. "There may be individual cases of philanthropy, but the scale of building and philanthropy will decrease.”

A man buys sweet at a famous 67-year-old sweet shop run by a Hindu businessman, in Shikarpur, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. The landscape of Pakistan, and Sindh in particular, retains their imprint. It has temples, although their numbers have plummeted, businesses, education and healthcare institutions, many established before the country was created in 1947. These places are part of Pakistan's heritage, even as Hindus are forced into the shadows. 

(AP Photo/Fareed Khan)