Offendedistan is at it again – trawling the World Wide Web to find things to take offence at and then calling for #boycott of whichever brand. The reasons range from the frankly absurd as in the case of the call to Boycott Bingo to that umbrella term for taking offence – hurting religious sentiments. Now Fabindia is the latest brand in the dock. Here’s why people are calling for #BoycottFabindia
The brand has a new line out in time for the festive season, called Jashn-e-Riwaaz. They also have the Punh collection that promotes an eco-friendly theme of recycling and ethical sourcing, the Blush collection and so on. It is the Jashn-e-Riwaaz collection that some decided to take umbrage at.
One BJP MP tweeted this: “Deepavali is not Jash-e-Riwaaz. This deliberate attempt of abrahamisation of Hindu festivals, depicting models without traditional Hindu attires, must be called out. And brands like @FabindiaNews must face economic costs for such deliberate misadventures.” Others also joined in the anti-Fabindia chorus, citing hurt religious sentiments, insult to Hinduism and the ‘de-Hinduising of Deepawali’.
This hashtag was soon trending and Fabindia appeared intimidated enough to take down their tweet. As of now, the tweet in the picture is no longer available; only its screenshots are.
There were many who claimed that they would no longer be buying Fabindia products and some who also posted videos /images such as these to show that they were discarding products bought previously. The video accompanying this tweet shows a shirt with a Fabindia label being used to clean shoes. Few others posted images with the product labels crossed out and so on (many responded by pointing out that this was a bit of a self-goal since Fabindia already had their money). Many others pledged never to buy any products from the brand again.
There were some who also posted screen grabs from the brand’s Wikipedia page to show that the founder of the company is John Bissell and that the current CEO is William Nanda Bissell (presumably to underline the non-Hindu ownership of the brand).
First a disclaimer – I am not a Fabindia fan. I like some of their fragrances, soaps and skincare products, but find their clothes to be overpriced. To me, the clothes are not good value for money, so I don’t buy them. That said, I find no particular reason to boycott the brand.
The BJP MP who took umbrage seems to come up in the headlines with tedious regularity, mostly when he decides to make some inflammatory communal statement. Previously he was known to read out a list of Muslim names in an alleged hospital scam in a video that went viral. Here he (and others) have taken objection to the ‘Abrahamisation’ of a Hindu festival. I am not sure how this is the case.
The collection doesn’t specifically mention Diwali, just the ‘Festive Season’. The women in sarees and salwar kameez, with flowers in their hair and jewellery with traditional Indian motifs, could belong to any religion. I can only imagine that the reason for taking offence has to do with furthering a particular narrative or a specific othering agenda. I cannot imagine that anyone would be so petty as to be genuinely offended by a fashion line with an Urdu name.
The term Jashn-e-Riwaaz is an Urdu term; which is a language born at the confluence of Indian and Persian cultures and very much rooted in India. Urdu uses the syntax of Hindi with Persian words added to it. It is actually a symbol of our syncretic, plural culture and history. Some of the subcontinent’s finest poetry finds expression in this language. Is it this plurality and syncretic culture of ours that troubles some people? Do these people see India not as the union of marvellously diverse and vibrant ethnicities, languages, religions, food and clothing habits but as a bland, uniform, homogenous monolith?
I would say that the Jashn-e-Riwaaz collection is just one great way to #CelebrateIndia and Indians celebrating festivals of different types: today is Eid Milad-un-Nabi which is the birthday of Prophet Mohammad and the start of the Islamic calendar. Next month we all celebrate Diwali and then Christmas the month after. Isn't that what being Indian is all about?
While I'm not about to buy Fabindia clothes (overpriced, remember?) I do applaud the brand ethically sourcing products from weavers, their recycling initiatives (if genuine) and so on. And if they choose to speak about an inclusive, varied and multi-cultural India, I applaud that as well.
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