Category Archives: Polygamy

Four members of a family were charred to death in Bihars Darbhanga district on Saturday (14 May) after the first wife of a man lit herself and others on fire over her husbands second marriage, as per various reports.

Bibi Parveen is Mohammed Khurshid Alams first wife. When Parveen could not get pregnant, Khurshid married Roshni Khatun from a nearby village. Parveen was unhappy with the second marriage.

The second wife recently got pregnant. After a routine but heated spat, Parveen poured kerosene on her husband, Roshni, and his mother.

All four including Parveen herself died of burns.

The incident happened around 5 am at their house in Sheikhpura colony in Supaul Bazaar area, which falls under Biraul police station.

Polygamy A Contentious Issue

Polygamy has been a practice in ancient India among kings and rulers, though not widespread. After independence, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, declared second marriage, when the current spouse is living, as null and void, and punishable by law.

Section 494 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, says:

Marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife Whoever, having a husband or wife living, marries in any case in which such marriage is void by reason of its taking place during the life of such husband or wife, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.

The section exempts divorced couples and those who have been living separately for seven years.

Though the law applies to all Indian citizens irrespective of religion or caste, personal laws are given credence over IPC in these matters.

As the family affairs of Muslims are governed by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937, which allows Muslim men to have four wives (Muslim women are not allowed four husbands), Muslims are exempted from this provision in the law.

However, over the years, several cases where Muslim personal laws have conflicted with the IPC have gone to court.

In February 2015, a Kerala court held that Section 494 of the IPC applied to all offenders (of bigamy or polygamy) irrespective of religion but subject to personal laws. The court was hearing a petition asking bigamy to be made punishable for men and women of all religions, including Muslims.

The same year, the Gujarat High Court held that Muslims cannot be booked for bigamy or polygamy under the IPC as it is permissible in Muslim personal laws. The court was hearing a petition by a Muslim man, Abbas Rasool Mohammed Merchant, who had sought the quashing of a first information report (FIR) filed against him by his first wife, Sajedabanu, in 2010 for marrying another woman while she was still alive and not divorced.

The court, however, observed, notwithstanding there is no codification by the legislation of marriages amongst the Muslim, polygamy is not encouraged and is an exception and not a rule.

The same year, the Supreme Court of India ruled that Article 25 (right to propagate and practise any religion) did not protect the right of Muslim men to practice polygamy.

The court was hearing a petition filed by one Khursheed Ahmad Khan seeking the quashing of an order by the Uttar Pradesh government to sack him from his job as irrigation supervisor for violating service rules.

Khursheed had married a second time during the existence of his first marriage without taking permission. The sister of his first wife had approached the National Commission for Human Rights against the second marriage.

A Muslim women's organisation named Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andola, led by a Mumbai-based activist, Zakia Soman, has been campaigning against polygamy among Muslim men, calling the practice "abhorrent morally, socially and legally."

The organisation released results of a survey in 2017 where they interviewed 289 Muslim women to conclude that women in polygamous marriages felt traumatised by their situation.

It is pertinent to mention that despite the Hindu Marriage Act criminalising it, polygamy continues to be practised in the Hindu community, even though by a small section and mostly restricted to certain geographies.

Polygamy, though most prevalent among men, is known to be practised among some women in India as well.

A study by Punjab University between 2013-17 found that polyandry is practised in at least one Haryana and two Punjab districts. These included Daulatpur village in Haryanas Yamunanagar district, where the Gujjar Muslim community practices polyandry, and villages Piplian in Punjabs Mansa district and Panechan in Punjabs Fatehgarh Sahib district, where the Jat Sikh community practices it.

Fresh Petition To Ban Polygamy Among Muslims

Last month, a Muslim woman named Reshma filed a petition in Delhi High Court to declare bigamy or polygamy by a Muslim husband in the absence of consent of his first wife as illegal.

As per information provided by her to the court, she married one Shoeb Khan in 2019 and had a child with him, but he abandoned her and the child, and is now preparing for a second marriage.

In the last hearing in the case held on 2 May, the court asked the centre to file its response on the matter.

Violence Over Polygamy In India

Two years ago, a sensational video came to light where a Muslim woman was seen standing over a dead body, pistol in hand. The woman, who had fired the bullets, was clad in burqa while the one lying on the road in a pool of blood was wearing a red salwar kameez.

The police said the killer was the first wife of a Muslim man named Zafar, who had killed her husbands second wife. In this case, the first wife was Muslim while the second belonged to a Hindu family who had converted to Islam to marry Zafar.

In January, a woman in Jharkhand named Dolly Devi was arrested by the police for killing her husband Ashok Sonis second wife, Kumkum Devi.

In 2021, a woman named Rehana was arrested for killing the second wife, Nazia, of her husband Jahangir. In this case, the police arrested Jahangir as well, as Nazias parents had accused him of harassing their daughter for dowry and being an accomplice in the crime.

Originally posted here:

Days After Plea Seeking Ban On Polygamy By Muslim Men, Muslim Woman Burns Husband And His Second Wife To Death In Bihar - Swarajya

Each and every episode of FXs Under the Banner of Heaven takes us deeper into the horrifying actions of brothers Ron (Sam Worthington) and Dan Lafferty (Wyatt Russell). Weve watched for weeks as the two eldest Lafferty boys found themselves pulled away from the mainstream Mormon Church and enthralled by the dark teachings of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints. In Under the Banner of Heaven Episode 5, we watch as both men finally cross horrific lines.

Ron and Dan abuse their wives, get excommunicated from the church and finally broach the topic of taking multiple wives. Oh, and we get to watch Ron murder his father by denying him much-needed medical care. All in all, Under the Banner of Heaven Episode 5 One Mighty and Strong is a nauseating watch that gets us closer to understanding how the Lafferty brothers could be driven to murder their sister-in-law Brenda (Daisy Edgar Jones) and their infant niece Erica.

FXs Under the Banner of Heaven is, of course, based on the electrifying Jon Krakauer book of the same name. While that non-fiction work weaves together Mormon history, interviews with survivors of polygamy, and true crime reporting, Under the Banner of Heaven is structured more like a traditional crime thriller. Writer and creator Dustin Lance Black created two fictional detectives Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) and Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham) to take us through the investigation into Brenda and Ericas deaths. We learn in tandem with the detectives how the Lafferty brothers fell from grace.

One of the most harrowing scenes in this weeks episode comes when Dans brow-beaten wife Matilda (Chloe Pirrie) learns that her husband intends to take her teen daughters from a past relationship as his plural wives. Its a revelation that gives Matilda the courage to make her one act of resistance weve seen so far; she aids her daughters escape from Dans house.

Yeah, its a really full on scene, Pirrie told Decider. Honestly, I dont know [where Matilda found that courage] because its such a moment where shes just faced with the enormity of that. I looked at the girl playing my daughter, a wonderful actress, and I understood what was happening. I saw it in my mind what was happening so clearly. And its really devastating.

I did a lot of research around the polygamous sex and some real life people who have been through that world, which was very helpful and moving and shocking. And when you check in with all of that it was quite obvious where that scene had to sit and what it had to do.

Wyatt Russell told Decider that he struggled with the fact that the real Dan Lafferty is a charismatic figure and he worried how playing him honestly would lend credence to his warped view of himself. You feel like youre giving something to someone who doesnt deserve it. People like this they love the attention, Russell said.

Nevertheless, Russell believes that its important to play these characters who did these terrible things.

When people start looking at things from What would I do? and they dont actually look at the world around them and assess the situation for what it isthen bad things happen. Being able to portray characters who lead with love and manipulation can be very dangerous. Playing that person right is important to getting that story across in the correct way for it to be effective I believe. I thought that was a challenge I was ready to take on, he said.

Of course, Dan Lafferty isnt the only character who veers into true terrifying evil this week. After being excommunicated from the Mormon church, Ron Lafferty essentially has a breakdown wherein he seems to delight in chasing his scared children through the house. Under the Banner of Heaven star Sam Worthington told Decider that he didnt approach it as a breakdown per se, but all fun and games.

You cant actually approach it from a negative point of view. He wants to keep playing with his kids. He wants his family together. Its how much that sense of commitment is, Worthington said. Even in [Episodes] 5 and 6 and 7, you cant necessarily play a descent into delusion. You can play a commitment to and a passion.

However thats not the worst thing that Ron does. By episodes end, we learn that Ron essentially kills his own father. Worthington once again wanted to play the juxtaposition in the scene. Instead of going loud and monstrous, he went as sensitive and quiet as he could.

I think his fathers whipped him his whole life. Thats him whipping his father, Worthington said. His father beat his own dog to death and hes now treating his father like the dog. Thats probably the harshest that youre ever going to see him.

Adding to the complexity of the scene? Worthington said he approached Rons relationships with his parents as Oedipal. Its not just that hes closer to his mother than his father, but there is something deeper going on with the matriarch of the Lafferty clan.

I wanted something Oedipal. Thats what I wanted. I wanted that it was almost sexual between him and his mum. Its not written like that. Its just something that I wanted to explore that his mum is this, its deeper than just a motherly bond, Worthington said.

If the other actor is open to it, you start discovering things about characters and scenes that [Dustin] Lance [Black] would then, you know, brightly pick up on and go, Wow, keep going down that route in Episode 5, or keep going down that route in Episode 6. And thats very cool that a filmmaker like Lance isnt just saying, this is what I see in my head and I want you to just portray that, but hes taking what youre delivering and what youre discovering, and that feeds back into a story to tell a great series.

Under the Banner of Heaven continues next week with the penultimate episode of the series.

The rest is here:

Polygamy, Abuse, and Murder: 'Under the Banner of Heaven' Episode 5 Goes to the Darkest Places Yet - Decider

Under the Banner of Heaven explores the lives of killers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who murdered their sister-in-law Brenda Wright Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter Erica in 1984.

The Lafferty brothers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and, though they were later excommunicated for their fanatical belief in Mormon fundamentalism, the way in which their faith shaped them is examined in greater detail in the FX true crime show.

The way in which Ron (Sam Worthington) and Dan's (Wyatt Russell) relationship with their wives Dianna (Denise Gough) and Matilda (Chloe Pirrie) was impacted by fundamentalism is also of particular importance to the story.

Viewers are no doubt wondering what happened to the two of them, so here Newsweek will look into everything you need to know.

Ron first met his wife Dianna in Florida while on his two-year mission for the LDS church, which he was tasked with undertaking in the state and Georgia.

Dianna was a nursing student when she first met Ron, and they got married shortly after the conclusion of his mission, Jon Krakauer reported in his nonfiction book Under the Banner of Heaven which the show is based on.

They moved from Florida to Utah so that they could be near Ron's family, and they had six children together.

Krakauer spoke with a close friend of Dianna named Penelope Weiss, who told him that the couple were "so happy for sixteen and a half years" but things took a turn when they began to struggle financially.

During this difficult period, in which Ron and Dianna failed to make their loan repayments and almost lost their home, Dan persuaded his older brother with his fundamentalist beliefs.

Weiss told Krakauer: "Dan convinced Ron that God didn't want us to have material things, that it was good to lose everything," and even started to persuade him of the benefits of practicing polygamy.

Prior to Dan's indoctrination, Ron was said to treat his wife "like a queen," but after she essentially became "his slave" and was subjugated to horrific abuse at her husband's hands.

When Ron was excommunicated and lost his job, he became "increasingly abusive" with Dianna, and she turned to his brother Allen's wife Brenda for help.

Brenda told Dianna that she needed to divorce Ron, an idea she at first thought was impossible but later realized was her only means of escape. Dianna filed for divorce from Ron and this was finalized in the fall of 1983.

Around Thanksgiving in 1983, Dianna took her and Ron's kids and moved back to Florida, and the pair did not see each other again. Though, she did testify to a Utah County prosecutor for his trial following his and Dan's arrest for Brenda's murder.

Similarly to Ron, Dan met future wife Matilda when he embarked on his two-year mission to Scotland, and the divorced mother of two girls was said to have had a "powerful impression" on him.

Dan did not consider marrying Matilda until they met again at a missionary reunion six years later, where he said he prayed to God to advise him on if he should propose to her and received a positive response.

The couple moved to California with her two children so that Dan could study at the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, they lived there for five years and it was at the end of their time there that Dan was introduced to the notion of polygamy and its supposed place in the Mormon faith.

Dan and Matilda had four children together and after finishing his training, the whole family moved back to Utah County, where he became obsessed with the practices of polygamy and discovered a manuscript called "The Peace Maker" that said plural marriage was biblically rational.

He became so fanatical with the idea of polygamy that he suggested he take on spiritual wives as soon as possible, and he told Dianna of his intention to make her eldest daughter, his step-daughter, the first.

At Ron's trial in 1996, per Krakauer, Matilda testified: "I had come to a place there was no choices. I could either go and leave my kids, or stay and accept it."

In the end, Dan changed his mind about taking Matilda's daughter as his wife and instead married a woman named Ann Randak who he'd met when borrowing a horse from the ranch she worked at.

Two days before Ron and Dan carried out the murder of Brenda and her child, Dan met with his second wife for a day and night, and the next day, July 23, he visited Matilda and their family to celebrate his youngest son's first birthday.

The family gathering was to be the last time that Dan and Matilda saw each other before his arrest.

New episodes of Under the Banner of Heaven are released Thursdays on Hulu.

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'Under the Banner of Heaven': Where Are Ron and Dan Lafferty's Wives Dianna and Matilda? - Newsweek

TLC is back with another season of 'Seeking Sister Wife'. The reality show focuses on several raw, behind-the-scenes looks at polygamous partnerships.

With the shows diverse cast of families and much like the successful hit series, 'Sister Wives', this show throws light on the journeys of three families, all of whom are in various phases of polygamous relationships; Danielle and Garrick Merrifield return for season 4, along with Sidian and Tosha Jones.

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Season 4 of 'Seeking Sister Wife' premieres on Monday, June 6, 2022, at 10 p.m. ET. You can watch the reality series on TLC.

The official synopsis reads, "Seeking Sister Wife documents the lives of three very unique families who are all in various phases of seeking, dating or transitioning a new sister wife into their lives".

Sidian and Tosha Jones

Tosha and Sidian Jones are returning for Season 4 of 'Seeking Sister Wife'. After Sidians divorce from his first wife, he and Tosha (her being his second wife), began their search for a plural wife.

Having said that, the two are pursuing a long-distance relationship with a woman from the Phillippines, called Arielle.

Danielle and Garrick Merrifield

Garrick and his wife, Dannielle Merrifield, made quite an impression on viewers throughout the one season they attempted to expand their relationship into a plural marriage.

The couple even divorced early on so Garrick could wed his Brazilian love and then-girlfriend, Roberta. The goal was to bring Roberta home and make her their sister wife. The new season might throw light on where Roberta is now and if she is committed to their arrangement.

Season 4 will also be seeing a few new faces; Steve and Brenda Foley, with a younger potential sister wife, April, the second being Nick, April, and Jennifer Davis (with April and Jennifer being legally married to each other, but consider themselves to be married to Nick, and share his last name), and lastly, Marcus, Taryn, and India Epps; a plural family on the search for another woman to join their arrangement.

As of now, we don't have an update on this front just as yet.

We're yet to see an update on this front but stay tuned.

Original post:

'Seeking Sister Wife' Season 4: 5 things to know about the TLC reality show - MEAWW

While some applauded Yuls decision to take the bold step of making his sons mother his wife, others condemned him for betraying his first wife.

Perhaps Yul might have betrayed May morally but has he done anything wrong under the law ?

According to a lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Ogun contacted by Legit.ng, the act of getting married to another person while still married is known as Bigamy.

Ogun explained that there is no Nigerian law stopping a man from marrying more than wife, However, if a Nigerian man marries under the Marriage Act (aka court marriage), he runs the risk of committing bigamy and getting jailed.

His words: Generally, getting married to another wife is a right that can be exercised by a man. It is supported by law, logic and public morality. There is no law in this country inhibiting a man from marrying more than one wife.

The only exception to this is where the man contracted the marriage under the Marriage Act, popularly known as court marriage.

A woman who does not want her husband to marry another wife must ensure that a statutory marriage is contracted. This bars the man to marry another wife till death do the parties apart. If a man married under the Act dares to marry an additional woman, he puts himself at the risk of jail terms. This is supported by Section 46 and 47 of the Marriage Act.

Excerpt from:

Can My Husband Go To Jail If He Takes A Second Wife? What The Nigerian Law Says About Polygamy - Nigeria News

The TV adaption of the best-selling Sally Rooney novel, Conversations With Friends, hits Irish screens on Wednesday.

Like Rooneys Normal People, Conversations With Friends is likewise set in Dublin and focuses on the life of a Trinity student with a tangled web of personal relationships.

Protagonist Frances begins a relationship with married man Nick - played by actor Joe Alwyn - and the series explores the complexities of love, friendship and polygamy.

My marriage has survived several affairs already, Nick tells Frances mournfully in one scene.

Ive just never been party to them.

The series is produced by the same team who filmed Normal People and director Lenny Abrahamson said that they originally flirted with the idea of making Conversations With Friends into a film:

It was being developed as a feature [film] but it was sort of hard to crack as a feature and then Normal People came out and we looked at it and it was so kind of directly episodic, he recalled to The Anton Savage Show.

Like when you read the novel, it switches between the two characters and the ebbs and flows of their relationship and it really felt like television.

However, such was the triumph of Normal People - which was streamed over 60 million times on BBC iPlayer alone - that they decided to stick with the TV format:

We came out the other side and decided, Oh thats how it works with Sallys writing. Thats a much better shape.

And so we went back to Conversations With Friends and went back to Sally, went back to the BBC and HULU and everybody and said, Look, we think this should be a TV series.

Shooting was spread over 135 days, cast and crew often worked intense six day weeks and the result is 12 half hour episodes.

New Sally Rooney TV adaption to air Wednesday

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The book was Rooney's debut and an instant bestseller; actress Sarah Jessica Parker posted on Instagram, "This book. This book. I read it in one day. I hear Im not alone.

In the US alone 121,000 copies were sold and fans across the world are eagerly awaiting the TV version of one of the most popular Irish novels in modern times.

Main image: Cast members during shooting.

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New Sally Rooney TV adaption to air Wednesday - Newstalk

A federal judge ruled Monday that North Carolina's beer bureaucrats violated the Constitution when they tried to ban a beer because they disliked the art on the label.

The offending label was wrapped around bottles of Maryland-based Flying Dog Brewery's Freezin' Season Winter Ale, and appears to show a tiny appendage between the legs of a Ralph Steadman cartoon character. Last year, the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Commission told Flying Dog that the beer could not be sold in the state due to the "inappropriate" and "in bad taste" label design.

But there's no accounting for taste in the First Amendmentindeed, the most fundamental aspect of the constitutional protections afforded to free speech is that government officials can't prohibit expression or art simply because they dislike it.

On Monday, Judge Terrence Boyle confirmed as much, writing that prior court rulings regarding commercial speech "should have placed any reasonable state liquor commissioner on notice that banning a beer label based on its content would violate the First Amendment."

"The challenged regulation is facially unconstitutional because it is overbroad and otherwise not narrowly tailored to achieve North Carolina's proffered substantial interest," Boyle concluded.

Jim Caruso, CEO of Flying Dog, calls the ruling "a resounding victory for the First Amendment."

"With the First Amendment seemingly under attack from all sides, it is heartening to see court decisions like this that protect the freedoms that it embodies," says Caruso, who is a financial supporter of Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes this website. "The First Amendment is the last defense against authoritarian and arbitrary government and it must be protected against any and all threats."

The North Carolina ABC argued in court documents that its beer label regulations are meant to protect shoppers' eyes from vulgar and sexual content. If Flying Dog wants to sell its beer in North Carolina, the ABC argued, then "it can do so in ways other than showing a naked cartoon figure with a naked cartoon penis."

A surprising amount of the legal back-and-forth in the case revolved around the question of whether the cartoon figure on the label is, in fact, sporting a tiny member between its legs. While the label "shows a small protrusion that is where one would expect to find a penis on most male humans," it is "otherwise not at all identifiable as one. There are no constituent parts of a penis, no testicles, and it is not engorged. It is a small nub that merely suggests a penis. It is certainly not sexually explicit," the brewery's lawyers wrote in court documents.

At one point, Flying Dog's lawyers entered a "super-zoom of the 'penis'" into the court record.

"It may not have all the bells and whistles, but it's a penis," attorneys for the North Carolina ABC wroteyes, reallyin response.

But Boyle noted that the state's rules are, in fact, far more expansive than merely policing sexual or pseudo-sexual content. And the judge sided with Flying Dog's contention that those rules are not only vast but also inconsistently applied.

AsReasonhas previously covered, the North Carolina ABC has blacklisted about 230 beer and wine brands since 2002 for having labels or names that offended the board's sensibilities. Ironically, the North Carolina ABC reportedly told Utah-based Wasatch Brewery that its "Polygamy Porter" could not be sold in the state because "polygamy is illegal." But the board also banned a beer named "Kissing Cousins" despite the factthat it isliterally legal to marry your first cousinin North Carolina.

Boyle concluded that the North Carolina ABC's rules prohibiting speech that regulators deem "undignified, immodest, or in bad taste" could give the state "vast" power over the type of advertising allowed.

"Indeed, the Supreme Court has recently reaffirmed 'the bedrock First Amendmentprinciple [that] Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend,'" wrote Boyle, citing the landmark 2017 Supreme Court ruling Matal v. Tam.In that case, the court found that that the federal Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)could not prevent all-Asian dance-rock band The Slants from trademarking its name, even if the name violated PTO rules against disparaging "persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute." Restrictions on commercial speech must serve a "substantial" government interest and must be "narrowly drawn," the court held inMatal.

It's obviously silly for alcohol regulators to be concerned with what images appear on beer labels, but Monday's ruling leaves no doubt that it's unconstitutional too.

View original post here:

The First Amendment Protects the Right To Put a Tiny Penis on a Beer Label - Reason

byAdminMay 9, 2022, 1:18 am

Human rights activist, KolaEdokpayi, has commended one of his friendswho married a second wife on Sunday, May 8.

According to Edokpayi, the man married another woman with the approval of his first wife.

Today, the 8th day of May, 2022, we attended the marriage of my Follower who got married to his second wife with the approval of his first wife, he wrote.

We are gradually winning the fight to legalize Polygamy in our system. We need to go back to our root.

The White Men who demonized Polygamy and brought monogamy to Africa but adopt lesbianism and homosexualism are our enemies that want our girls to remain single on the streets while they indirectly practice polygamy with the high rate of divorce.

We should not wait for the White Men to legalize Polygamy for us as Africans before we adopt it.

I want to appeal to our Churches to approve the wedding of a man getting married to a second wife.

Congratulations to Comrade. You have demonstrated that you are a real man. God bless you.

Read Full Story At: LIB.

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"We are gradually winning the fight to legalize polygamy" - Human rights activist, Kola Edokpayi - The Paradise News

FX's new series "Under the Banner of Heaven" dramatizes the real-life 1984 murder of Brenda Lafferty and her 15-month-old child in a Mormon community.

Told through the perspective of fictional detective Jeb Pyre (played by Andrew Garfield), the series, like the bestselling 2003 book before it, links the brutal crime to the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Showrunner Dustin Lance Black grew up in the church. The acclaimed screenwriter behind Big Love and Milk worked to adapt the book for years before it took form as a miniseries.

While Black has detailed the extensive research he put into the series, others including columnist and author Jana Riess feel the show mischaracterizes the faith. Shes senior columnist for Religion News Service and author of The Next Mormons: How Millennials are Changing the LDS Church.

The most troubling aspect to me is the basic idea that if you simply scratch under the surface of a seemingly respectable religion, all sorts of violent acts and thoughts are going to come pouring out, Riess says. I just don't think that that's true of my people.

On how the series represents everyday members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

So let's talk about the good things first This character played by Andrew Garfield, he is a loving family man. He's trying to do his best with this horrific murder case. What he discovers as he investigates the case is that it deals with offshoot Mormon groups that still practice polygamy [the practice of marrying of multiple wives]. In Mormon history, both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and several other key leaders practiced polygamy. They believed it was a religious principle. I have my doubts about that, to be honest. But it is a fact of Mormon history that this happened.

On how the show links early Mormon history to the 1984 Lafferty murders

So it goes back to look at Joseph Smith, the founding prophet, and then his successor, Brigham Young. After Joseph Smith was assassinated, Brigham Young took over and took the Mormons West. And it kind of draws this straight line to the present day and makes the case that Mormonism has not changed at all.

"I really don't [think that's fair]. And it's not because I am incapable of being critical of my church. In my column, I do take the church to task sometimes for various things like the role of women, like the history that denied African-Americans the right to be blessed in the temple. There are things that I criticize about the church.

On whether the Under the Banner of Heaven properly distinguishes between extremists and mainstream Mormons

I think it is trying to do so and I think it does a better job at that than the book did. I would also say that with the dramatization, particularly of Brigham Young, that is told in these flashbacks into Mormon history, later on in the series around episode five, they're making this claim. It's a little bit subtle, but it seems to be there: that Brigham Young somehow engineered the death of Joseph Smith and that he was, "running the church in the months before Joseph's death." I had to rewind that and make sure that I was hearing it correctly, because that is so completely not true. Brigham Young wasn't even in Nauvoo, which is where the Mormons were living at the time. He was on a mission in the Eastern states that was part religious and part also as a campaign for Joseph Smith's run for president. So he wasn't even on the scene. And so for the show to make a claim that he is somehow engineering these events that culminate in the assassination of Joseph Smith is really problematic.

On how the show links polygamy to the Lafferty murders

So the Lafferty brothers, again, these are the in-laws that Brenda, the one who winds up getting murdered, has married into. This is the family. Several of the brothers become enamored of early church teachings, not only polygamy, but a very violent teaching called blood atonement. They kind of resurrect that and use it as justification for killing people who they see as enemies of God, including Brenda, who was more progressive and not as obedient as they felt that women should be.

On how the show portrays women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

In some ways, I think that is more accurate. You know, that particular clip is of Brenda and her young husband who, of his brothers, they are probably the most progressive in that she has a college education. She wants to have a career. And the early 1980s, the time in which this is set, is a time when the prophet of the LDS Church tells women, you need to be home with your children. The church has changed a lot in that way as well. There's so much more work to be done. But work has happened since the early 1980s. Absolutely.

On how the show depicts violence in Mormon history, particularly the Mountain Meadows Massacre

Well, it's told in flashbacks. So the crime actually happened in 1857. In fact, it was on Sept. 11, which people have seen as a significant coincidence. This emigrant train is coming from Arkansas on their way to California. And when they're passing through Utah, they get into a skirmish that winds up far, far worse than that. And 120 some emigrants are killed, including children over the age of 8. It's the most chilling episode in all of Mormon history. I think we don't talk about it enough in the church. We don't have those conversations that we need to be having, of how could this have happened among our people? So if there's good work that will be done in the Mormon community because of Under the Banner of Heaven, perhaps that will be part of it. But to somehow claim that that was anything more than an anomaly in Mormon history, to claim that that is the underlying drive of 16 plus million people who are members of this faith is a fallacy.

On whether the show brings up important issues for church members to address

I think that there are a number of historical events and theological concepts that Mormons have not grappled with publicly in the way that we probably should. What we've seen in the last decade in particular within the LDS Church is a greater emphasis on being transparent about history. The church has made the entire corpus of Joseph Smith's papers available to the public. So there's nothing hidden. There's still progress to be made. But it's starting.

James Perkins Mastromarinoproduced and edited this interview for broadcast withGabe Bullard. Perkins Mastromarinoalso adapted it for the web.

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By breaking century old traditions, Parukutty Neithyaramma inspired The Cochin Nair Regulation of 1920, which banned polygamy, legalised Sambandham, and streamlined inheritance rights

By breaking century old traditions, Parukutty Neithyaramma inspired The Cochin Nair Regulation of 1920, which banned polygamy, legalised Sambandham, and streamlined inheritance rights

A sepia-toned photograph of Parukutty Neithyaramma, the queen consort of Raja Rama Varma XV1 of Cochin with her great grandson, Raghu Palat, is an endearing throwback. The regal matriarch stands beside a baby capped and clothed in woolens sitting pretty in a pram.

In the preface of the recently launched book Destinys Child-The Undefeatable Reign of Cochins Parukutty Neithyaramma, written by Raghu Palat and his wife Pushpa, it throws light on the royal who despite her seminal contributions to the people and state of Cochin has been relegated to the back pages of history.

Raghu, a banker and Pushpa, a former journalist have been writing alongside their careers for decades. They began their writing partnership with the first book, The Case That Shook The Empire (2019) on Raghus great grandfather Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, the only Indian member of the Viceroys Executive Council at that time.

We are focusing on writing about Kerala rulers and personages and have begun with members of our family, as it was easier and we already had collected a lot of information on them, says Raghu.

Parukutty entered into Sambandham an informal form of marriage that allowed consensual relationships but no co-habitation between Nairs and Thampurans at the age of 14 to a prince, 17 years her elder, with white hair and sixth in the line of accession. As her sambandhi had not visited her, Parukuttys father took the bold decision to take her to her sambandhi Kunji Kiddavus Palace in Thrippunithura. Cochin was ruled at that time by Sir Kerala Varma V, (1888- 1895) and the kingdom was spread over 1,362 square kilometres comprising Chittur, Cochin, Cranganore, Kanayannur, Mukundapuram, Trichur and Talapilly.

Taken aback by their arrival , Kunji Kiddavu, directed her to be housed in the outhouse. Horrified by its state of disrepair shes believed to have told the prince, I did not come all the way to live in this wretched outhouse.Bemused and impressed at the same time by the courage of the gritty girl, who was not even five feet tall,, the prince permitted her to stay in the palace.

By moving in, Parukutty became the first Nair woman to break a centuries-old tradition. The inequity of Sambandham meant that the woman and her children could not inherit the property of the partner, who also had no responsibility for their maintenance. To correct this, after Kunji Kiddavu and Parukutty ascended the throne, The Cochin Nair Regulation of 1920 was passed, which banned polygamy, legalised Sambandham, and streamlined inheritance and property rights.

Imagine the ramifications of this one step taken by the prince and her, says Pushpa adding that the Nair women and the Thampurattis (the royal women) ostracized her for this daring step. She stopped going to the family temple as snide remarks were hurled at her. Parukutty reportedly once told her great-grandsons, You have no idea about the bad things they said about me. But I always considered it beneath my notice.

After extensive research, including conversations with family members, ferreting archives and reading through many documents, including letters, the authors say that Parukutty was a woman who was ahead of her times.

Parukutty Neithayaramma with her great grandson Raghu Palat

On a visit to Chennai, where she was impressed by the Rani of Pudukottais spoken English, she urged the prince to have her tutored in the language.The prince, who by now had gauged his consorts intelligence and acumen also appointed teachers to teach her agriculture and Math along with English.

When by a sudden twist of fate, in 1914 the prince was crowned as King. Parukutty, 39 that year, though caught unawares, rose to the occasion. She graced the Hill Palace, the Rajas main house, the Thrippunithura Palace in Cochin, with dignity dealing with staff and court attendants with a maturity that surprised even the Raja.

Realising that the British were on the lookout for any reason to annex Cochin to British Malabar, she pitched for an urgent need to boost the States finances. By this time, the Raja had begun to depend heavily on her opinions. Parukutty urged him to focus on the plight of the people and not use the State exchequer to fund Capital projects. Soon a slew of public works like the establishment of schools and hospitals were started.She also encouraged the setting up of an agricultural college, something that was close to her heart and was instrumental in increasing the salaries of government employees. For her social work King George V awarded her a Gold Kaiser -i-Hind medal and she came to be known as Lady Rama Varma.

As the couple went about jointly fulfilling their royal duties, Parukutty only grew in stature. She hosted the Nair custom, Thalikettu Kalyanam, a matrilineal form of marriage, for the young girls from the two branches of her tharavad, (ancestral family home) a grand four-day affair. It upset the Thampurattis but Parukutty was strategically planning her daughters wedding with Sir Chettur Sankaran Nairs, son, Ramunni Menon Palat. With the alliance the Cochin State grew in prestige.

A telling incident of her strategic planning to achieve results was also seen in small acts, like securing Lord and Lady Willingdons support to build a harbour in Cochin. The couple met the Willingdons in Ooty.She had the Raja dress in his royal clothes with bejewelled turban and all the accoutrements of royalty. She wore an elegant white sari herself, says Pushpa. When they entertained the couple in Cochin, a grand banquet was held at the Durbar Hall. Parukutty knew exactly what would please the Willingdons, she states.

Raghu and Pushpa Palat

Parukutty surrounded the Raja and herself with loyalists, letting the English Diwan retire and pitching for an Indian one. She also struck down a few appointments and had her relatives placed in important positions. When the Raja fell grievously ill, in 1931, no news was allowed to leave the Palace. Finally, when the end came in 1932, she decided to move out of the palace to Thrissur. The town owes a lot to her as she then got many infrastructure works done, acquired land and built public projects.

Over the last years of her life, Parukutty chose to live between her home in Thrissur and in the hills of Conoor at her house, Homedale, where the charming photo with Raghu was taken. She passed away in 1963 in her home in Coonoor.

Even as a great grandmother, Parukutty was strict, remembers Raghu, She was not indulgent but was loving, he adds, recounting how she gave only a rupee as kaineettam, a customary gift from elders to children on Vishu, a cultural festival of Kerala that marks its New Year. Not a paisa more or less.

Did familiarity come in the way of writing about a family member? No, says Raghu categorically. Her life and how she lived it speaks for itself. She carved her own destiny. This is a story that had to be told.

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A new book throws fresh light on Parukutty Neithyaramma, the queen consort of Cochin State - The Hindu