CHICAGO: Members of Indian community here joined the global Indian diaspora in expressing their dismay and anger over Hong Kong headquartered e-commerce company CowCow.com for commercial use of Lord Ganesh images on various bikini-bottoms. They have demanded their immediate withdrawal and an apology by the company.
Dubbing it as highly inappropriate, Rajan Zed, president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that Lord Ganesha is a highly revered deity and was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to adorn one’s buttocks/crotch. Inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial or other agenda is not okay as it hurt the devotees, he said.
Echoing the same sentiment Sohan Joshi, a former president of National Federation of Indian Associations, observed that it has now become a fashion for many such short sighted firms to trivialize the images of Hindu deities like Ganesh and Shiva without thinking that it would hurt millions of people across the world. He pitched for a formal apology from the concerned company besides withdrawal of Lord Ganesha bikini-bottoms.
Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 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.
Products of CowCow.com, founded in 2003, include “t-shirts, dresses, skirts, leggings and all other types of clothing”. It claims: “Over 11 million designs spread out on more than 500 unique products ranging from clothes to bedding, bags to umbrellas.” Headquartered in Kwun Tong (Kowloon, Hong Kong), it lists CS Department in Houston (Texas, USA). The objectionable Bikini Bottoms, named “Grace of Ganesha”, are priced from $34.99 to $35.99.
Madhu Patel
