Today is Ganesh Chaturthi and I was shocked to see an ad released by The Times of India Bangalore edition. It distorted the image of Lord Ganesh with different objects including building, buses, trucks etc. I was shocked to see that and my feelings were hurt. Being a secular country does not mean that you show disrespect to Hindu Gods.
I’m sure pseudo-secularist will argue that it is ‘modern art’ and ‘freedom of expression’ but would the Times dare to do the same with Jesus or Mohammed? Then why Ganesh? I wonder how would editors/publishers of The Times of India react if we were to portray their family members in a distorted fashion. Show some garbage coming out of their mouth, their hair made of wires, their legs made up on tubes etc. I’m very sure that they won’t take it nicely.
My religious sentiments are hurt and I’m for sure thinking ways to make The Times of India responsible.
Here is the image that hurt my feelings.
4 comments
Wise If the image posted is clear
Hey Pushkar,
Nice to see Upper Middle class India finally shed Pseudo- secular trapppings! that was a very Gutsy post! I second you… A cartoon of Prophet Mohammed has the Islamists planning an attack against Denmark!
And we in India willingly do this to symbols! Sure, God is beyond the Symbol, but obviously, we venerate the symbol too…
Honestly, I don’t see any disrespect in that image. There have been several representations of Ganesha. This is just one of them.
And btw Pratibha, it wasn’t the cartoon of Mohammed but two distorted images that were not even carried by the newspaper (i.e propaganda by some extremists) and that caused the havoc against Denmark and a few other countries.
They spare none. Did you see Lost Supper last week – http://bit.ly/aZCdWM
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