The irony of the Taj Mahal
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Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines |
Thursday, January 11, 2007 |
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Perspective Rowena V. Guanzon Visayan Daily Star
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One cannot go to India without seeing one of the wonders of the world – the Taj Mahal, translated as “crown palace.” India, with about 13 billion people, and about One Million of them live in Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, is not only well –known for this monument, but notably, for having a Rule of law. That is why women’s human rights lawyers recently went to India, but the Taj Mahal was a side trip.
The Supreme Court of India is way ahead of other Supreme Courts in Asia in the use of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women or the CEDAW, which it used in the interpretation of a sexual harassment case entitled Vishaka vs. State of Rajahstan. This case involves the gang rape of a female worker. Although India at that time did not have a law on sexual harassment, the Supreme Court used the CEDAW and ruled that absent a domestic law, an international agreement such as the CEDAW must be applied.
The host and secretariat of the Asia Cause Lawyers Network this year is the Lawyers Collective Women’s Rights Initiative, with the eminent lawyer Indira Jaising, a Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court as their founder and Director. Indira Jaising has, for forty years, litigated most difficult cases including that of the Sikh Massacre, but recognizes that they have experienced many setbacks also. India Jaising is brilliant and is the most prominent women’s human rights lawyer in India, who mentors younger women lawyers, and is generous with her time and experience with her Asian colleagues.
Recently, through the efforts of the Lawyers Collective, India passed its Domestic Violence law which, like the Philippines, protects women only. Interestingly, in Thailand, the Domestic Violence law was passed only after the coup d’etat, when for many years it was hibernating in their legislature. The Asia Cause Lawyers Network will exchange challenges, problems, experience and strategies, and our lessons and experiences with the judicial implementation of our Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act or Republic Act No. 9262 will be valuable not only to Filipino women’s human rights lawyers and advocates but to our sisters in Asia as well.
But let’s go back to the Taj Mahal. It was built around 1648 by the fifth mughal emperor Shahjahan to commemorate his bellowed wife Mumtaj who died while giving birth to her 14th child. After giving birth to a 143th child, she does deserve the Taj Mahal.
The Taj is made of white non-porous marble. Its carvings of flowers – the rose and lotus – are made from single blocks of marble, using colored stones like lapis lazuli and cornelian for colors. It is said that it is most beautiful during a full moon, which happens about 5 times a month. Built by 20,000 workers, artisans and craftsmen, it took them 22 years to finish the grand monument which is symmetrical from any angle except for Shahjahan’s tomb, which was built after the Taj Mahal was finished and was not anticipated by the architect. Shahjahan went there every Friday to lay a crown of pearls on his wife’s tomb, but he died 8 years after it was finished.
Depressed for years because of his wife’s death, Shahjahan wanted to build his own monument, but his eldest son thought it was too extravagant and the money could be put to better use. Thus he imprisoned his father in Agra Fort and took over the affairs of the State.
The Taj Mahal is beautiful, and you can see its reflection in a pool in front of it. Built beside the Yamuna river which extends all the way to New Delhi, it has a double dome, which is why a voice inside can echo for 14 seconds.
Yet, outside the Taj Mahal, and even just outside your car window on the way there, many people of India are so poor. Shahjahan may not have known that in the future, people from all over the world would come to see his masterpiece. Although he was consumed by his love for his departed wife, he was blind to the poverty around him. It is said by some that he had the artisans maimed and blinded so they could not construct another, but that is undocumented. What is true for sure is that outside the Taj Mahal, the people’s hunger cannot be pacified by its beauty and magnificence.
