Madhu Patel
Chicago: A large group of Indian Americans here asked the Dallas headquartered luxury fashion retailer “Neiman Marcus” to immediately withdraw Lord Ganesha shaped cufflinks, dubbing it highly hurting the feeling of devotes across the globe
The pitch is that Lord Ganesha is highly revered in Hinduism meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to secure the cuffs of dress shirts, misused as a fashion and thrown around loosely, etc.
Neiman Marcus claims to be “an elevated retail experience for more than a century”; should not indulge in religious appropriation, sacrilege and belittling sacred Hindu deity. It deeplytrivialized Lord Ganesha through flaunting like this
The protestis led by Rajan Zed President Of Universal Society of Hinduism and he emphasized that inappropriate usage of sacred Hindu deities or concepts or symbols or icons for mercantile greed or other agenda is not okay as it hurt the devotees. He also urged Neiman Marcus, its CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck and Board Chairman Paul Brown to offer a formal apology; besides withdrawing $940 “Ganesha Cufflinks” from Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman stores and websites.
Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.2 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought. Any insensitive handling of faith traditions resulted in pillaging serious spiritual doctrines and revered symbols.
In Hinduism, Lord Ganesha is worshipped as god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and is invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking.
Made in USA “Ganesha Cufflinks”, “sterling silver plated with rhodium”, are claimed to be “hand painted in a process that takes 7 hours”. Neiman Marcus Group, with history going back to 1907; conducts integrated store and online operations under the brands Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Last Call.
