Trampling on Hindu Sentiments - Footwear with Ganesha Images
India-West, Sunil Adam, Posted: May 01, 2003
Hindu organizations have loudly protested a NASDAQ-listed manufacturer's attempt to market flip-flop sandals with Ganesha images on its insole, and American Eagle Outfitters has blinked.
Following an informal protest April 27 by Internet activist group IndiaCause.com and an electronic protest campaign launched by American Hindus Against Defamation on its Web site www.hindunet.org, the manufacturer, which has 750 stores in North America, has withdrawn its controversial product and issued a written apology.
"On behalf of American Eagle Outfitters, please accept this letter as our formal apology for our use of the image resembling Lord Ganesh on this product," said a letter from American Eagle Outfitters vice president and general counsel Neil Bulman, Jr. "This letter confirms that we will remove these flip flop shoes from our stores to maintain the good will and our customer relations with the Hindu community."
The letter, dated April 29, was addressed to India Cause, with a copy addressed to AHAD.
According to India Cause, their page registering the protest received over 4,200 hits in the first two days. India Cause thanked visitors to its Web site and activists "for their activism" and commended American Eagle management for their "positive and immediate response."
The dispute arose over what appeared to be a case of footwear design in pedestrian taste. Or worse. American Eagle Outfitters, a retailer that designs, markets and sells its own brand of clothing, swimwear and footwear, had come out with a flip-flop (slippers) version that has images of Lord Ganesha imprinted on its insole.
The flip-flops, available in AEO's retail stores across the United States and Canada, caught the attention of Hindu activists monitoring what appears to be a recurring number of cases of insensitivity of American businesses toward Hindu religious sentiments.
Taking up the issue, India Cause and AHAD demanded that AEO immediately withdraw the offensive product and apologize to the Hindu community. It has also urged all those who believe in respecting the sentiments of all faiths to lodge their protest against the offending community at its Web site, Hindunet.org.
Ajay Shah, convener of AHAD and president of hindunet.org, however, had not rushed to attribute motives to the manufacturer of the flip-flops. Shah told India-West that "ignorance and insensitivity" are the reasons why such products come into the market, implying that there need not be a deliberate design to denigrate Hindu deities.
This is not the first time Hindu sentiments have been trampled upon in similar fashion. Last year, a California-based company, Fortune Dynamic, marketed shoes imprinted with images of Hindu deities. The company has since discontinued the manufacture of such shoes.
To its credit, AHAD has been successful in campaigning against such "outrageous" products in the recent past. In particular, it was able to elicit an "unconditional apology" from Sittin' Pretty Designs, a toilet-seat designer and manufacturer, for putting the images of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Kali on toilet seats. Those products have also been withdrawn.
AHAD has been less successful in another episode involving Columbia Records (part of Sony), which produced a CD album by rock group Aerosmith titled "Nine Lives," whose cover shows "a distorted and insulting depiction of Lord Krishna."
While the rock group issued an apology and urged Columbia Records to withdraw the offensive cover, AHAD claims that Sony Music has neither apologized nor withdrawn the cover.
Currently, AHAD is also campaigning against Kohler, a plumbing-supply company, to withdraw its advertisement depicting what it says is a "scantily clad" woman that is an "unmistakable" image of Lord Shiva as Nataraja.
"The dancing pose, multiple hands, the hand gestures, the metaphor of water from the shower, too, resembles the flow of river Ganga (Ganges) usually depicted as flowing through Lord Shiva," contends AHAD. The advertisement appeared in The New York Times last October.
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User Comments
Jayalaxmi D. Appadorai on May 11, 2003 at 01:27:08 said:
Simple. Please be well informed before embarking on large-scale merchandise sales especially if you call yourself a large-scale or popular brand. Is this purely ignorance or is it deliberate? Or some form of publicity stunt? Respect others. We have enough religious intolerance in the world to handle as it is.
Rupali P on May 07, 2003 at 11:46:59 said:
I think that it is very sad that american eagle decided that they would put a hindu god on their flip flops, when you think about this in depth you realize that people would have been walking on a respected hindu god.
Deepak S on May 07, 2003 at 04:45:12 said:
It’s a shame that we Hindus have not exposed our religion to the world, I think its time we start "selling & marketing” our religion like other religions. But then one can only be a born Hindu!
Tony Roney on May 03, 2003 at 16:12:54 said:
Remarkably similar to "Crazy Horse Beer", "Pontiac" cars, "Jeep Cherokee", football team names, and on and on ... American business has been reliably been insensitive to important figures from other cultures. So much so that it almost seems deliberate.
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