Fashion
Upset Hindus have urged for the immediate withdrawal of leggings carrying images of various Hindu gods and goddesses, sold on a Melbourne headquartered online marketplace Redbubble, calling it highly inappropriate.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that Hindu deities printed on Redbubble leggings—Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Krishna, Ganesha, Durga, Lakshmi, Skanda, Saraswati, Hanuman, Kali, Seshnarayana—were highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be worn around one’s legs. Inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, also urged Redbubble CEO Martin Hosking and Board Chair Richard Cawsey to offer a formal apology.
Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled, Rajan Zed noted.
Zed further said that such trivialization of Hindu deities was disturbing to the Hindus world over. Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the followers, Zed added.
Award-winning Redbubble, founded in 2006 and listed on Australian Securities Exchange, which also has offices in San Francisco (USA), claims to be “a global online marketplace powered by artists” and sells “high-quality, everyday products”. “More than 4.2 million Customers from over 196 different countries have shopped on Redbubble”, it states.
