Upset Hindus are urging Brooklyn (New York) headquartered online retailer KR Store for immediate withdrawal of various shoes, sneakers, socks and leggings carrying images of Hindu deity Shri Ganesh; calling it highly inappropriate.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that Shri Ganesh was highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be put around your feet or 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 KR Store and its CEO to offer a formal apology.
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.
Zed further said that such trivialization of Hindu deity 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.
KR Store; which sells pillows, t-shirts, bags, tank-tops, leggings and shoes; claims to successfully ship “many products worldwide each day” and “have many happy customers in every corner of the globe”.
In Hinduism, Shri Ganesh is worshipped as god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and is invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking. There are about three million Hindus in USA.
Source : From Our Correspondent
