CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M; JD

Chinese nationals living in Sydney allegedly swindled $148 million from investors around the world

By Heath Parkes-Hupton
Posted Thu 8 Dec 2022

Two teenagers were arrested in October over the alleged investment scam.

(Supplied: AFP)

Police say four Chinese nationals living in Sydney used dating sites, job ads and messaging apps to swindle at least $US100 million ($148 million) from people around the world.

Key points:Four men were arrested in raids over October and November
They have been charged with dealing in the proceeds of crime
It is alleged they were behind a "sophisticated" scam using fake and legitimate online trading platforms

It is alleged the group set up businesses and bank accounts in Australia to launder money obtained through the "sophisticated" investment scam.

The men, who are allegedly part of a criminal syndicate, are accused of manipulating victims to gain their trust before offering investment opportunities.

Victims were allegedly directed to a mix of fraudulent and legitimate online trading platforms, dealing in foreign exchange and cryptocurrencies, which were altered to show phoney positive returns.

Most of the alleged victims are based in the US, with the Australian Federal Police's (AFP) cyber security team leading the joint investigation after a tip-off from the United States Secret Service in August.

AFP officers swooped on four men over two separate raids in October and November.

Two men, both aged 19, were arrested in Pyrmont on October 20, and were charged with recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime.

On November 24, officers arrested another two men alleged to be the "controllers" of the group at Sydney and Melbourne airports respectively.

It is alleged the men, aged 24 and 27, had bought one-way flights to Hong Kong set to depart on the day of their arrests.

They have been charged with dealing in proceeds of crime in money or property worth $10 million or more.

Officers raiding a Pyrmont home in October.(Supplied: AFP)

The two men arrested in November have been remanded in custody to re-appear before Downing Centre Court on January 18, 2023.

The two 19-year-olds will next appear in the same court January 19, 2023.

The investigation — codenamed Operation Wickham — was conducted alongside a NSW Police probe.

It is alleged the AFP has restrained $22.5 million from 24 bank accounts linked to the syndicate.

Investigators are yet to ascertain the full scope of alleged fraud committed against Australian investors.

Analysis of the group's alleged activities has identified $US100 million in losses based on victims reports.

AFP Cybercrime Operations Eastern Command Detective Sergeant Salam Zreika said more people were falling victim to cyber scams every day and, with some losing their life savings.

"It is essential people exercise the utmost caution if cold-approached online or on the phone by people trying to sell financial or investment services. Criminals are ruthless and will stop at nothing to take your money," she said.

"Refrain from investing in foreign exchange, crypto-currency or speculative investments with people you've only ever encountered in the online environment. If you are unsure, get a second opinion from a professional, in-person."

Detective Superintendent Martin Fileman, from NSW Police's Sydney city command, warned that if something "sounds too good to be true, it probably is".

UK  

Kwasi Kwarteng: Ex-Chancellor says Liz Truss government 'blew it'

Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted he "got carried away" during his brief stint as chancellor.

By Press Association

Reflecting on Liz Truss's disastrous seven weeks as prime minister, the chancellor she sacked after he implemented her tax-cutting agenda said her government "blew it".

Mr Kwarteng has spoken publicly only a handful of times about his disastrous mini-budget and ousting from Government, as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt promptly shifted direction in a bid to reassure financial markets.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Mr Kwarteng said: "People got carried away, myself included. There was no tactical subtlety whatsoever.

Liz Truss with Kwasi Kwarteng (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)

"My biggest regret is we weren't tactically astute and we were too impatient. There was a brief moment and the people in charge, myself included, blew it."

This is not the first time Mr Kwarteng has spoken about his experience in Government.

The MP for Spelthorne in November claimed he told Ms Truss to "slow down" her radical economic reforms or risk being out of No 10 within "two months".

His latest intervention came after Mr Hunt unveiled so-called his "Edinburgh reforms" - 30 changes to "turbocharge" growth, including by easing capital requirements for smaller lenders.

Mr Kwarteng had hoped as chancellor to oversee a "Big Bang 2.0" - a reference to Margaret Thatcher's 1986 policies which kicked off a massive change in the City of London.

The now-backbench MP criticised Ms Truss's "mad" decision to sack him as chancellor for implementing her plans, while refusing to apologise for the financial turmoil unleashed by their disastrous mini-budget.

Using more than £70 billion of increased borrowing, he set out a package which included abolishing the top rate of income tax for the highest earners and axing the cap on bankers' bonuses, on top of a massively expensive energy support package.

The mini-budget triggered turbulence in the financial markets, sending the pound tumbling, forcing the Bank of England's intervention and pushing up mortgage rates.

Two days later, he signalled more tax cuts were on the way, spooking markets further.

Mr Kwarteng's latest comments came after Ms Truss's former chief speech writer said she took a "Spinal Tap approach" to government, demanding the volume was "turned up to 11".

Asa Bennett said the former prime minister had arrived in Downing Street determined to put "rocket boosters" under the economy and that it was a matter of "bitter regret" that her efforts had failed.

Ms Truss's short-lived premiership ended in humiliation after her mini-budget led to chaos on financial markets forcing the Bank of England to take emergency action to prevent pension funds collapsing.

Ms Truss resigned after only 44 days in office, with her economic measures swiftly ripped up by new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and her successor in No 10, Rishi Sunak.

Monsters, meditation and Marie Kondo: the religious roots of Japan’s ‘waste not’ ethic

The impact of centuries-old Shinto and Buddhist rituals and stories continues today.

Monsters and spirits –including 'tsukumogami,' which are made of everyday objects – in the 'Hyakki-Yagyō-Emaki' scroll, painted between the 14th and 16th centuries. (Wikimedia Commons)

December 6, 2022

By 

Kevin C. Taylor

(The Conversation) — The word “waste” is often frightening. People fear not making the most of their time, whether at work or at leisure, and failing to live life to the fullest.

Warnings against waste run especially deep in Japanese culture. Many Americans are familiar with the famous decluttering technique of organization guru Marie Kondo, who wrote “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” Travelers to Japan may hear the classic expression “mottainai,” which means “don’t be wasteful” or “what a waste.” There are even gods, spirits and monsters, or “yokai,” associated with waste, cleanliness and respect for material goods.

As a scholar of Asian philosophy and religions, I believe the popularity of “mottainai” expresses an ideal more than a reality. Japan is not always known for being environmentally conscious, but its anti-waste values are deeply held. These traditions have been shaped by centuries-old Buddhist and Shinto teachings about inanimate objects’ interconnectedness with humans that continue to influence culture today.

Soot sprites and ceiling lickers

The idea of avoiding waste is closely tied to ideas of tidiness, which has a whole host of spirits and rituals in Japanese culture. Fans of the famous animator Hayao Miyazaki may recall the cute little soot sprites made of dust in his films “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away.” Then there’s the ceiling licker, “tenjōname”: a tall monster with a long tongue said to eat up the filth that accumulates in hard-to-reach places.

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RELATED: The untidiness of Marie Kondo’s eclectic spirituality

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“Oosouji,” or “big cleaning,” is an end-of-year household ritual. Previously known as “susuharai” or “soot sweeping,” it is more than a chance to tidy up. The rite is believed to expel the negativity of the previous year while welcoming the Shinto god Toshigami: a major deity, considered grandson of the gods who created the islands of Japan – and who brings good luck for the new year.

Out with the defiled and old, in with the purified and new.

A scene of housecleaning in preparation for the new year by artist Kitagawa Utamaro in the late 1700s.
Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images

Revenge of the tools

There are countless varieties of monsters in Japanese folklore, including “yokai.” As Japanese folklore scholar Michael Dylan Foster points out, the category “yokai” is nearly impossible to define, because the meaning is ever-changing – and many yokai themselves are shape-shifters.

For instance, “yurei” are truly terrifying, vengeful ghosts. But another category of yokai is the living, shape-changing “bakemono” – including the mischievous “tanuki,” a raccoon dog, and “kitsune,” or fox, often depicted in statues guarding shrines.

One special class of yokai is known as “tsukumogami,” referring to animated household objects. This concept originates in Shinto, which literally translates as “the way of the gods,” and is Japan’s native folk religion. Shinto recognizes spirits, or “kami,” as existing in various places in the human world: from trees, mountains and waterfalls to human-made objects.

It is said that when an object becomes 100 years old it becomes inhabited by a Shinto spirit and comes to life as a tsukumogami. The “Tsukumogami-ki,” or “Record of Tool Specters,” is a text written sometime between the 14th and 16th centuries. It tells the story of how just such objects, already 100 years old and possessed by kami, were cast out in the trash after the annual housecleaning ritual. These animated household objects took offense at their casual disregard after years of loyal service. Angered at the perceived disrespect, the tool specters went on a rampage: drinking, gambling, even kidnapping and killing humans and animals.

A poster of monsters by Japanese artist Utagawa Shigekiyo, published in 1860.
Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Despite the Shinto elements, this is not a Shinto story but a Buddhist one. The animated household objects’ frenzy comes to an end when Buddhist priests intervene – meant to convince the audience that Buddhist practices were more powerful than local spirits associated with Shinto. At the time, Buddhism was still cementing its influence in Japan.

Laying objects to rest

If the “Tsukumogami-ki” is Buddhist propaganda, it is also a cautionary tale. The cast-aside objects lash out in anger for being treated without a second thought.

Reverence for objects has persisted throughout Japanese history in many forms. Sometimes this is for practical reasons, and sometimes more symbolic ones. The samurai sword known as the “katana,” for example, was often considered the soul of the warrior, symbolizing devotion to the way of the warrior, or “bushido.” In a more everyday example, cracked teapots are not discarded but rather repaired with gold in a process called “kintsugi,” which adds an asymmetrical beauty like a golden scar.

A bowl restored with gold along the cracks, using the traditional ‘kintsugi’ restoration technique.
Marco Montalti/iStock via Getty Images Plus

This reverence also persists in the form of funerary services for a host of objects considered deserving of respect, such as doll-burning ceremonies performed at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. No-longer-wanted but not-unloved dolls are collected so that the spirits within can be honored and released before the end of their lives. A similar practice exists for artisans’ sewing needles, which are put to rest with a memorial service.

Karma and clutter

The roots of these attitudes toward material things are therefore religious, practical and psychological. As a Japanese philosophy of waste, “mottainai” keys into Zen Buddhism’s emphasis on emptiness: minimalism to empty the mind and bring insight.

This desire to show respect also stems from Buddhist beliefs that all things, living or not, are interconnected – a teaching called “pratītyasamutpāda.” It’s closely tied with conceptions of karma: the idea that actions have consequences, especially moral consequences.

In short, Buddhism acknowledges that things shapes people, for better or worse. Unhealthy attachment to objects can manifest in different ways, whether it be the perceived need to buy an expensive car or reluctance to let go of unneeded items.

But that does not necessarily mean throwing away everything. When we are done with material goods, we don’t need to simply cast them into the trash to fill up landfills or pollute the air and water. They can be given a dignified send-off, whether through reuse or responsible disposal.

Failing that, the story in the “Record of Tool Specters” warns, they may come back to haunt us.

Now, that’s scary.

(Kevin C. Taylor is director of religious studies and instructor of philosophy at the University of Memphis. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

‘After School Satan Club’ at California elementary school stirs controversy

After School Satan Clubs are sponsored by The Satanic Temple, a nontheistic religious organization based in Salem, Massachusetts, that pushes for the separation of church and state.

The Satanic Temple After School Satan Club logo. Image courtesy of TST

By 

Alejandra Molina

(RNS) — An “After School Satan Club” aiming to teach students about inquiry and rationalism is set to begin in early December at a California elementary school, triggering controversy among parents and guardians who say the club shouldn’t be allowed, according to local news reports.

After School Satan Clubs are sponsored by The Satanic Temple, a nontheistic religious organization based in Salem, Massachusetts, that pushes for the separation of church and state. They meet at select public schools where other religious clubs meet, such as the Good News Club — an after-school program hosted by the Child Evangelism Fellowship to “bring the Gospel of Christ to children.” 

The Satanic Temple, which is separate from the Church of Satan, was founded in 2013. It does not worship Satan and its tenets declare that the freedoms of others should be respected, that people should have control over their own bodies and that scientific facts shouldn’t be distorted to fit one’s beliefs.

The After School Satan Club is to launch Dec. 5 at Golden Hills Elementary School in Tehachapi, a city in Kern County about 115 miles north of Los Angeles, said June Everett, an After School Satan Club campaign director. After School Satan Clubs are set up at the request of local parents, educators or other community members, according to the Satanic Temple website. Everett said a parent reached out a few months ago requesting the club, which will gather once a month through May 2023.

“The fact that others find our club controversial when they have absolutely no issues with the other religious clubs operating in their public school is puzzling to us,” said Everett, an ordained minister with The Satanic Temple.

Tehachapi Unified School District Superintendent Stacey Larson-Everson, in a Nov. 15 letter obtained by The Bakersfield Californian, announced the district had approved the After School Satan Club to host gatherings after school hours in the elementary school’s cafeteria.

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RELATED: No, they do not worship the devil, and other myths dispelled in new book on satanism

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By law, Larson-Everson said, the district can’t discriminate among groups wishing to use its facilities or distribute flyers “based on viewpoint.” The superintendent noted that religious groups are among those the district has allowed to rent its facilities over the years.

The 2001 Supreme Court ruling Good News Club v. Milford Central School paved the way for After School Satan Clubs to exist in public schools. The High Court ruled that schools cannot discriminate against religious organizations offering a club on its facilities.

Sheila Knight, grandparent to a fifth grader at Golden Hills, told Bakersfield CBS affiliate KBAK that the After School Satan Club is “disgusting.”

“I understand the school by law has to allow them because they allow other after school programs such as the Good News … but I can’t imagine why anyone would want their child to attend,” she told KBAK.

“Just the name alone, ’Satanic Temple,’ is negative and these elementary kids don’t need that,” another woman told the news agency.

Additionally, Tehachapi News reported that news of the club had generated so much controversy on social media that administrators of the Tehachapi Raves and Rants Facebook group shut down comments at least once “so they could sleep.” The administrator of the Tehachapi Ask Facebook group decided to remove comments about the topic, the news site reported.

Paul Hicks, identified as a volunteer with the After School Satan Club, told KBAK that Christian-based clubs such as the Good News Club are a main reason the After School Satan Club is necessary. “We want to give an alternative point of view,” he said.

“I’m not teaching these kids that they need to hail Satan or identify as Satanists. What we’re doing is we’re thinking critical thinking, we’re teaching science, we’re teaching empathy,” Hicks said.

According to Everett, there are two active After School Satan Clubs in the country, one in Moline, Illinois, and another in Lebanon, Ohio. One such club is launching Nov. 28 in Wilmington, Ohio. Three clubs are pending approval in Eaton, Ohio; Chesapeake, Virginia; and and Endwell, New York.

The Satanic Temple said it uses the word “Satan” in the name of the club because “Satan, to us, is not a supernatural being.

“Instead, Satan is a literary figure that represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny over the human mind and spirit,” it states on its website.

The presence of evangelical after-school clubs “not only established a precedent for which school districts must now accept Satanic groups, but the evangelical after school clubs have created the need for Satanic after school clubs to offer a contrasting balance to student’s extracurricular activities,” according to the Satanic Temple.

 

Friction over LGBTQ issues worsens in global Anglican church

(AP/RNS) — The divide came into the spotlight four months ago at the communion’s Lambeth Conference, typically held once every decade to bring together bishops from the more than 165 countries.

FILE - Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, front row, centre right poses for a photo with bishops from around the world at the University of Kent, during the 15th Lambeth Conference, in Canterbury, England, Friday, July 29, 2022. Friction has been simmering within the global Anglican Communion for many years over its 42 provinces’ sharp differences on whether to recognize same-sex marriage and ordain LGBTQ clergy. In 2022, the divisions have widened, as conservative bishops – notably from Africa and Asia – affirmed their opposition to LGBTQ inclusion and demanded “repentance” by the more liberal provinces with inclusive policies. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP, File)

December 7, 2022

By 

Chinedu Asadu, David Crary Of The Associated Press, Catherine Pepinster Of Religion News Service

(AP/RNS) — Friction has been simmering within the global Anglican Communion for many years over its 42 provinces’ sharp differences on whether to recognize same-sex marriage and ordain LGBTQ clergy. This year, the divisions have widened, as conservative bishops – notably from Africa and Asia – affirmed their opposition to LGBTQ inclusion and demanded “repentance” by the more liberal provinces with inclusive policies.

Caught in the middle of the fray is the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the seior bishop of the Church of England and the ceremonial leader of the Anglican Communion, one of the world’s largest Christian communities. Welby has acknowledged “deep disagreement” among the provinces, while urging them to “walk together” to the extent possible.

The divide came into the spotlight four months ago at the communion’s Lambeth Conference, typically held once every decade to bring together bishops from the more than 165 countries with Anglican-affiliated churches. It was the first Lambeth Conference since 2008, and the first to which married gay and lesbian bishops were invited.

The conservative primates of Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda refused to attend, while other bishops who share their opposition to LGBTQ inclusion pushed unsuccessfully for the Lambeth gathering to reconfirm a 1998 resolution rejecting same-sex marriage.

Now those primates, and their allies worldwide, are looking ahead to a conference in Kigali, Rwanda, in April. They’re expected to discuss their dismay at support for same-sex marriage in some Anglican churches and what they see as Welby not taking a tough stand against such marriages.

Welby, in turn, says neither the Lambeth Conference nor he individually has the authority to discipline a member province or impose demands on it.

In Nigeria, Anglican leaders say a formal separation from the global church over LGBTQ inclusion is more likely than ever. They cite Welby’s comments at Lambeth and the subsequent appointment of the Very Rev. David Monteith – who has been part of a same-sex civil partnership since 2008 – as the new dean of the Canterbury cathedral.

Bishop Williams Aladekugbe of Nigeria’s Ibadan North Anglican Diocese said same-sex unions are “ungodly and devilish” and their recognition by some provinces is a major reason “we cannot continue to fellowship with them.”

“If it is going to cause further division, let it be,” Aladekugbe told The Associated Press. “If they don’t worship God the way we worship him, if they don’t believe in what we believe in… let us divide (and) we go our own way.”

Henry Ndukuba, primate of the Anglican church in Nigeria, cited such divisions during an interview with a church-run television network.

The archbishop of Canterbury “is a symbol of unity” in the Anglican Communion, Ndukuba said, but “because of the way things are going, we are not tied to the apron of Canterbury.”

The umbrella group for the conservative bishops is the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GFSA). Its steering committee is headed by South Sudan Archbishop Justin Badi, and includes archbishops from Bangladesh, Chile, Congo, Egypt, the Indian Ocean region and Myanmar.

At the Lambeth Conference, the committee issued a stern communique – in effect demanding their views on LGBTQ issues hold sway throughout the Anglican Communion and that the “revisionist” provinces be disciplined or marginalized.

That threat was aimed at the provinces which have embraced LGBTQ-inclusive politics – including the Episcopal Church in the United States, and the Anglican churches of Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. For now, the Church of England refuses to conduct same-sex marriages, but some of its bishops want that policy to change.

The GFSA leaders contend that conservative-led jurisdictions are home to 75% of the global Anglican Communion population, which is estimated at 80 to 85 million.

“For too long the Anglican Communion has been driven by the views of the West,” Badi told news media during the conference. “We often feel that our voice is not listened to, or respected.”

In their communique, Badi and his allies stressed they are not defecting. Yet they questioned whether the global Anglican community, under current circumstances, could consider itself a truly unified body.

“If there is no authentic repentance by the revisionist Provinces, then we will sadly accept a state of ‘impaired communion’ with them,” the communique said.

Welby, instead of reprimanding the LGBTQ-inclusive provinces, commended the sincerity of their approach to human sexuality.

“They are not careless about scripture. They do not reject Christ,” Welby said at Lambeth. “But they have come to a different view on sexuality after long prayer, deep study and reflection on understandings of human nature.”

The Most Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, saw this as a breakthrough.

“What shifted in the rhetoric,” he said, “was a genuine acknowledgement that both sides had arrived at their views through serious study of scripture, theology, and modern understanding of human nature.“

The Rev. Chuck Robertson, a top aide to Curry whose dossier includes relations with the Anglican Communion, described Welby’s comments as “a game-changer.”

“It reflects that those who’ve been going beyond traditional teaching have done so with deep care,” Robertson said. “This is something new — a corner had been turned.”

The conservative bishops’ frustrations with Welby intensified in October when Monteith was appointed the new dean of the Canterbury cathedral.

While Welby did not personally make the appointment, he issued a statement expressing delight at the choice made by a selection panel. Within days, the GSFA steering committee conveyed its dismay.

The announcement “puts in question the seriousness with which (Welby) wants to pursue the unity of the Communion,” the committee said. “We take exception to the Church of England’s accommodation of a person in a same-sex union being appointed to an office of spiritual authority over the flock of God’s people.”

A Rwandan bishop, Alexis Bilindabagabo of the diocese of Gahini, said he condemns the ordination of gay priests because “weak” people shouldn’t stand at the pulpit.

“A gay man must be led, but he should not lead others,” said Bilindabagabo.

LGBTQ activists say most Anglican churches in Africa are led by conservative priests, including many averse to even discussing homosexuality.

“For Uganda, the Anglican church has almost played a leadership role in being intolerant,” said Frank Mugisha, a prominent LGBT leader in the East African country where a lawmaker once introduced legislation seeking to punish some homosexual acts with execution.

In some cases, Mugisha said, Anglican priests take a hard-line stance because they fear losing their flock to more conservative evangelical groups.

In contrast to other Anglican provinces in Africa, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa has considered letting dioceses conduct same-sex marriages, though it has yet to take that step.

The church is based in South Africa – the only African country to legalize such unions – and also represents dioceses in several neighboring countries. It was led for many years by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was a staunch advocate of LGBTQ rights well as leading foe of apartheid.

The Southern Africa church has been critical of Anglican leaders elsewhere on the continent who support harsh laws against LGBTQ people.

“It is evident that some of the draconian laws in some African countries are in fact violations of human rights and some bishops of the Anglican Church in these countries have openly supported these laws,” said Bishop Allan Kannemeyer, who heads the Diocese of Pretoria.

It’s unclear what lies ahead for the Anglican Communion. The GSFA leaders, in their October statement, say that if Welby does not take the lead in “safeguarding the Church’s teaching,” there may be an opening for conservative bishops to increase their influence.

That topic will likely be paramount at the April meeting in Rwanda, to which GSFA bishops have been invited. It will be hosted by the Global Anglican Future Conference – known as Gafcon – which includes the archbishops of Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda, as well as leaders of conservative Anglican entities that already have split from the Anglican Communion, such as the Anglican Church in North America.

No one from the Anglican Communion’s head office in London is expected to attend.

“Some in Gafcon see it as a movement for biblical renewal, which is fine, but others as a rival to the Anglican Communion,” said Gavin Drake, the communion’s communications director. ‘There is a growing frustration within the Communion at this ‘political wing’ of Gafcon.”

By the time they meet in April, Gafcon and GFSA members might be further angered by events within the Church of England, whose General Synod will gather in February to consider proposals on same-sex marriage developed during a lengthy discussion process. There’s a possibility of an unprecedented vote allowing Church of England priests to conduct same-sex weddings for the first time.

A significant development came in early November, when Steven Croft, the bishop of Oxford, became the church’s first diocesan bishop to speak in favor of same-sex marriage. He published a 50-page essay urging a lifting of the ban and sent it to all members of the College of Bishops.

At stake, he said, was the Church of England’s claim to serve the whole of society. Its anti-LGBTQ stance “is leading to a radical dislocation between the Church of England and the culture and society we are attempting to serve,” he said.

Five other Anglican bishops have publicly backed Croft’s call for change.

___

Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria; Crary from New York and Pepinster from London. Associated Press writers Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg, South Africa, contributed.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

 

SERIES

LGBTQ Belief and Belonging Around the World

For India’s ‘third sex,’ acceptance is slowed by colonialism’s legacy

Nineteenth-century British colonial rulers dramatically altered the prevailing cultural understanding of gender identity and morality.

Contestants compete in the Miss Trans Northeast 22 beauty pageant in Guwahati, India, Nov. 30, 2022. In a celebration of gender diversity and creative expression, the beauty pageant in the eastern Indian state of Assam brought dozens of transgender models on stage in Guwahati. Sexual minorities across India have gained a degree of acceptance, especially in big cities, after transgender people were given equal rights as a third gender in 2014. But prejudice against them persists and the community continues to face discrimination and rejection by their families. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

December 8, 2022

By 

Kalpana Jain

(RNS) — The Hindu epic Mahabharata tells the story of a warrior, born as a female named Shikhandini, who seeks to avenge a dishonor in her past life. To do so, she transforms into a male, taking the name Shikhandin. Shikhandin causes the fall of the great warrior Bhishma, who had taken oath not to fight a woman or one who had been a woman.

Shikhandin is not the only transgender hero of the Mahabharata. Arjuna, a key warrior, takes on the appearance of a beautiful woman in order to live incognito in exile. 

Indian philosophy, said Lavanya Vemsani, a scholar specializing in Indian history and religions, has long considered the soul beyond gender identity. The supreme being from whom the universe emerged, Brahman, appears in the ancient sacred writings known as the Vedas, without gender. Innumerable mythological stories affirm that a person can choose to embrace the male or female form, depending on the circumstances.

When the country’s Supreme Court handed down its landmark 2014 ruling recognizing transgender Indians as a third gender separate from males and females, declaring that all persons have the constitutional right to self-identify their gender, the judges were in a sense affirming ideas about gender that had circulated in India for thousands of years.

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RELATED: India’s pioneering transgender activist defends gains in pandemic

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The court’s rulings were aimed primarily at hijras, a broad demographic that includes transgender, transsexual and intersex communities, who were once widely accepted, as gender fluidity was throughout South Asia. 

But public attitudes toward transgender people have been slow to change, still hewing to European ideas about sexuality introduced by 19th-century British colonial rulers. This foreign elite dramatically altered the prevailing cultural understanding of gender, attaching considerable stigma and discrimination to the transgender community that continues today. 

It took four years after its 2014 ruling for the high court to scrap a colonial-era law that criminalized gay sex. A year after that, India’s Parliament passed a law protecting transgender rights. But hijras are still India’s most socially excluded group.

The hijras’ fortunes began to fall in the 1830s, according to research by Jessica Hinchy, a historian at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Before then, hijras had received patronage from the Mughals, Muslim rulers who controlled large parts of South Asia for more than 300 years, and from the Marathas — Hindu kings who ruled much of central India.

Khushi Mir, left, a transgender Kashmiri, relaxes with friends after a meeting of community members in the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, on June 4, 2021. Mir and four others created a volunteer group to distribute food. They provided ration kits for hundreds of people, many of them makeup artists, singers and matchmakers who have lost their livelihoods during the pandemic. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

In the 18th century, in northern India, hijras would be invited to perform for noble and royal women. Another transgender community, the Khwaja sara, who live mainly in today’s Pakistan, were employed as guards, military commanders, high-ranking state officials or even as spies or tax collectors. “Hijras were generally of humble status but deserving of the patronage of state and performance culturally valued,” said Hinchy.

From the 1830s onward, as Hinchy found in her research, in some regions of British India hijras began to be seen as “ungovernable and a threat,” she said. Public nuisance laws enacted in the 1850s allowed policing of transgender and other marginalized people in “respectable spaces.” More concerted campaigns, which had the support of elite Indians, called for “extinction or for hijras to die out,” Hinchy said.

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the law undone in 2018, was introduced in 1861. Reflecting Victorian morality, it designated gay sex as “unnatural offences” and “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” said Anjali Gopalan, executive director of the Naz Foundation Trust, a nonprofit that first challenged the law in court in 2001.

These oppressive laws and customs have left a lasting impact. Hijras today mostly live on the fringes of society, earning their livelihood through sex work or by performing blessings at weddings and the birth of a child. More broadly, all transgender communities suffer stigma and discrimination. Suicide is disproportionately common among transgender Indians and children who are trans often drop out of school due to bullying. Often families are the first ones to shun their own transgender members. “Just because laws change does not mean attitudes will change,” said Gopalan. 

COVID-19 lockdowns further worsened the situation of transgender people, especially sex workers, as many of them lost their livelihoods. Falling back on their families was not an option for many. Aruvi, a transgender person in Hyderabad, started a “transkitchen” with the help of three friends from the queer community, who cooked food and delivered it to the hijra community and other marginalized groups. “Hunger was a big killer,” said Aruvi, “as there weren’t many resources for cheap and free food.”

Despite Hinduism’s numerous accounts of gods with male and female attributes, Vemsani said, the conservative values held by many Hindus today “have very little to do with India’s ancient tradition.”

It’s not that the stories of the gods’ gender fluidity are suppressed. In one of his forms, the prominent god Shiva is joined with his consort, Parvati, and depicted as the half-male and half-female Ardhnarishwara. In the Hindu tradition of Vaishnava, the deity Lakshminarayan is a composite form of Vishnu and his female consort, Lakshmi.

The deity Ayyappa, worshipped mostly in southern India, is believed to be the result of the union between Shiva and Vishnu that took place when Vishnu took on the form of an enchantress, Mohini, to save the world from a demon.

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RELATED: Transgender women are finding some respect in India, but a traditional gender-nonconforming group — hijras — remains stigmatized

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These tales live side by side with the legacy of European sexual morality. “Colonization left a huge damage psychologically, morally and emotionally,” said Jeffery D. Long, a professor of religion and Asian studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. “So much knowledge has been erased or distorted. It may be time to rediscover and understand the lost past.”

Today’s Hindus need look no further than the saint Basavanna, a legendary devotee of Shiva, who rejected the limitations of gender in a devotional poem written in the 12th century: “Look here, dear fellow, I wear these men’s clothes only for you,” it reads. “Sometimes I am man, sometimes I am woman.”