Of bikinis and Lord Rama
If you feel that the heading's been lifted straight out of TOI, I would not blame you because I actually lifted it from there :-) About a month ago, there was a controversy about some UK company which had released a line of bikinis which had been imprinted with pictures of Lord Rama (or maybe Lord Krishna). Nowadays, since several Hindu organzations act as watchdogs against such debasement of Hindu religious symbols, a swift protest was lodged and the line was quickly removed from market. This however was not the only incident. More recently, a line of slippers has been spotted with the sacred symbol Om on them. Before this, there have been toilet seats featuring Lord Shiva and recital of sholkas from the Holy Gita at inopportune settings like the orgy filmed in Eyes Wide Shut.
So why does the West insist of taking our religious symbols and putting them on the strangest (that was the only adjective I could think of) things? One explanation of course could be that they are not aware of the myriad religious symbols us Hindus possess. Everything from the cow to the much defamed Swastika is holy! But I do not think this is the reason. After all, it does not take a rocket scientist to comprehend that Lord Rama is a God worshipped by most Hindus. Why then this insensitivity to Hindus? After all, no Indian company would even think of releasing underwear bearing images of Christ. Or even images of a God with no followers in India.
I think the reason for this difference in attitude lies in the way Hindus think about God and holiness. In India the concept of God comes attached with many preconcieved notions. Footwear is unclean - so no footwear inside temples. Meat is unholy - so no meat inside most Indian temples, no meat on holy festivals etc. And it is because of this that when we see a pair of slippers with Om imprinted on it, many of us feel hurt. On the other hand, to someone who is not aware of these prejudices, our sensitivities to such things would most probably appear childish! The other day, I dropped a book on the floor of my office while my officemate was there. Just to see her reaction, I made a great show of touching the book on my forehead as many Hindus do. She looked quite amused by the entire ritual and even when I explained her about how Hindus consider Knowledge holy, I could see that she hadn't got the point!
So rather than labelling the West "insensitive", we should be calling them "ignorant" of our culture. And we should try to actively educate them about how we feel about and treat things that are holy to us.
posted by Priyendra at 5:35 PM
2 Comments:
Has any UK company manufactured slippers with Cross imprinted on it? Or are there any toilet seat in West featuring Jesus Christ? God resides in heart, that is why even in west, people wear cross in the neck and not get it imprinted on slippers!
Aren't they insensitive when they do not care to see how such acts can hurt the sentiments of people belonging to different culture?
Is it really ignorance or superiority complex? Btw it is really difficult to teach people who do not want to learn. A search string like "hindu religion" or "hinduism" would have surely given them all necessary information.
12:27 PM
I do not think it is superiority complex on the part of these people. Their religion teaches them that there is only one God. All their lives they have been told that. So don't you think it will be unfathomable for them to understand that we have not one but something like a million Gods. I read an article on this somewhere which said that in Christianity and Islam, the very concept of God is strongly associated with the idea of singularity. So at a subconscious level, Christians and Muslims find it difficult to imagine a multitude of Gods - and so when they see the number of religious images and Gods/symbols we possess, they sort of assume (subconsciously of course) that these can surely not be Gods for there are so many of them!
As an aside, I remember reading about a Christianity sect whose members insisted on having the Holy Cross imprinted on all articles they wore/used. And if I recall correctly, this sect was also affiliated with the Catholic Church. And as far as Western companies releasing slippers with God's images is concerned, I haven't heard about that. But considering that I have just come to the US and considering that such news will most probably not reach India, I would probably not have heard even if such slippers were released. But from what I have seen till now, I would tend to believe that there are enough people here who would willingly wear a slipper with the Holy Cross or wear bikinis with images of Christ because they do not consider these things unholy in the same way as we do.
2:08 PM
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