DeTect: Were the hands of Taj Mahal’s artisans chopped?

Earlier this month, the renovated Kashi Vishwanath Dham was inaugurated by PM Modi. He showered flower petals on sanitation workers as a gesture of gratitude. 

A TV news anchor praised the PM’s act while criticizing Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, saying that the latter had in fact chopped the hands of those who built the Taj Mahal. 

Alt News found that a decades-old urban myth targetting Shah Jahan was amplified. There is no historical or documented evidence that he cut off the hands of the workers who built the Taj Mahal.

First published on www.altnews.in