‘Fabindia’ copes severe backlash for appropriating Deepavali as ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz,’ deletes tweet

Fabindia, an Indian traditional garments retailer, faced severe backlash online for its latest Deepavali collection called ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ (celebration of custom).

This new collection has also been featured by the popular magazine Vogue.

To reach a wider audience, Fabindia tweeted:

“As we welcome the festival of love and light, Jashn-e-Riwaaz by Fabindia is a collection that beautifully pays homage to Indian culture.” 

The advertisement depicted several male and female models donning sarees and kurta pyjamas. 

Many social concentrators said that with missing bindis and tilak on the foreheads of the models, one thing is clear that Fabindia is not celebrating a Hindu festival but it’s secularised version.’

Puzzled also by their aversion to bindi – none of the models in that Jashn-e-Riwaz ad are wearing bindi. Don't they know – a bindi completes a look like Jerry completes Dorothy.

A woman's forehead without bindi is like mysorepak without ghee or sambar without drumstick. WDTT https://t.co/H0CjlXFtaR

— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) October 19, 2021

Few even claimed it is a deliberate attempt to appropriate Hindu festivals by a lobby that is working in India and overseas to undermine everything Hindu.

Wow @FabindiaNews great job at de-Hinduising Deepawali! Call it a ‘festival of love and light’, title the collection ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’, take Bindis off foreheads of models but expect Hindus to buy your overpriced, mass produced products in the name of ‘homage to Indian culture’! https://t.co/S47g1ArUbB

— Shefali Vaidya. 🇮🇳 (@ShefVaidya) October 18, 2021

Some users pointed to FabIndia’s audacity of not even mentioning the word Diwali or Deepavali in their latest promotional campaign.

In fact, they just referred to it as the ‘festival of love and light.’

Indian ruling political outfit Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader and National President of BJP Yuva Morcha (Youth Wing), Tejasvi Surya, took to Twitter and objected to the clothing brand’s ad campaign. 

Deepavali is not Jash-e-Riwaaz.

This deliberate attempt of abrahamisation of Hindu festivals, depicting models without traditional Hindu attires, must be called out.

And brands like @FabindiaNews must face economic costs for such deliberate misadventures. https://t.co/uCmEBpGqsc

— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) October 18, 2021

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Chairman of Manipal Global Education, Mohandas Pai, also slammed the brand for its choice of words.

“Maan you do not get it! Use of Alien terms for a Hindu festival is a deliberate attempt to take away our heritage and subvert it! You can use any brand name you want post-Diwali but at this time, linking it to Diwali shows a perverted mindset!” 

MLA of Purola, Rajkumar, tweeted:

“Deepavali is not Jash-e-Riwaaz…Period!!! Seems like Fab India has done this deliberately to hurt Hindu Sentiment.”

Many other social media users pointed that Hindu festivals bear the same significance as Muslim and Christian ones.

Some even said that making such self-depreciating and whitewashed advertisements was nothing short of disrespecting Hinduism.

Following a severe backlash online with #BoycottFabIndia trending, the tweet was promptly removed by Fabindia.