On Monday, clothing brand Fabindia took down a promotional post of its upcoming ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ collection after it created a controversy on social media. The name of the collection offended many social media users and political leaders who ended up accusing Fabindia of cultural appropriation of Hindu festivals, in view of the upcoming festival of Diwali. The outrage resulted in a call for a boycott of the brand and the hashtag ‘#BoycottFabIndia’ started trending on Twitter.
BJP MP for Bengaluru South quoted Fabindia’s now-deleted post and tweeted: “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.”
Author, and Convenor of Indic Academy, Shefali Vaidya also slammed the brand in her tweet that read, “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’!”
Meanwhile, Fabindia has taken down the controversial post and issued a clarification. In a statement to TOI, a Fabindia spokesperson said that the ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ collection is not the brand’s Diwali collection. She also added, “Our Diwali collection, ‘Jhilmil si Diwali’ is yet to be launched.”
