Thank You Tanishq
A beautifully made ad by Tanishq that shows a “gaud bharai” (गोद भराई) ceremony of a Hindu lady married into a muslim family, has evoked angry reaction, a boycott hashtag and then taking back of the ad by the company. And a lot has been discussed on what was wrong with the bullying attitude with which the ad was targeted naming it subtle case of promoting “Love Jihad”. All poppycock ofcourse.
But I am glad that this controversy happened. It leaves the progressive youth thinking and doubting their blind support to the right wing extreme divisiveness pervading in the Indian society currently. Let me explain
There is a substantial — and increasing chunk of young educated Indians who are global citizens literally and by mindsets. They have grown up and got educated in environments where religion has gradually become a personal matter rather than a societal norm. I have been a teacher for last 25 years and see teenagers and college students mingling in groups without any concerns to their religion. Increasing numbers of interfaith marriages in our society are a testimony to this change.
A marriage between hindu-muslim couple (either ways) still evokes sharply sentimental resistance but most other interfaith marriages have become quite acceptable — in fact commonplace. The uproar on the Tanishq ad for the first time also saw increasingly large number of moderate — silent voices speaking up and questioning the needless noise on the ad. Many Hindu women married to Muslim men have started to express solidarity with the spirit of the ad. Questions are being raised on why this ad would have been more acceptable had the girl been Muslim and boy Hindu. If so, is it not just a male chauvinism/dominance in the garb of opposing religious conversion. BTW — the narrative itself is false there are large number of Muslim women married to Hindu men in this very diverse, plural and panoramic country India.
Agreed that this change is largely visible among urban educated people active on the social media. But the change is that they have spoken and have shown the discomfort with the narrative. Those milking the issue for political gains have their eyes on the rural — sub urban households where the insecurity of Hindu-Muslim marriage is still writ large — but the edifice has cracks and will hopefully eventually crumble, one believes. That is heartening. We need to thank Tanishq for this realisation.
Let me end this piece by a quote from a FB post of one Saloni Anand — a Hindu lady married to a muslim man
India today needs more of the moderate, middle of the path voices to sit up, speak their heart and minds to those who are vocal and noisy and seem to be setting the narrative on the social media. If you are one of those and have not spoken yet — go out and speak once. It’s important.