The last three months of a calendar year are important in India from a businessperson’s point of view. The collection of many festivals like Christmas, Diwali, Dussehra and the psychological need for rest after a year’s worth of hard work and events make this quarter lucrative.
Tanishq is a jeweler with branches all over India and has big names like Titan and Tata Group behind it. The brand value allows the jeweler to command a price premium over local counterparts and smaller companies.
The company launched an interfaith advertisement. Our nation
is secular and the governments go out of their way to promote interfaith and
intercaste marriages with financial incentives. The advertisement which caused
the storm features the religion of Hinduism and Islam.
A Hindu woman marries a Muslim man, and now the woman is having her baby shower. The husband’s family accommodates the woman and has the celebrations as per her religion.
The participants of various social media online have taken strong offense at the advertisement.
The most common response has been the assigning the advertisement as a promotion of something called “Love Jihad” which means a Muslim man marrying a Hindu woman and making her convert to Islam against her will.
Another common reaction is a question if the company will be willing to reverse the role of the man and the woman i.e. a Muslim woman and a Hindu husband.
Some of the Twitter users are asking the motive behind the advertisement, what is the narrative the company is attempting to promote.
Some people are challenging the ability of the people promoting the boycott if they can afford Tanishq in the first place.
A very faint noise in the favor of Tanishq is being heard with few on Twitter claiming that interfaith marriages are the future and ask question why the people are so paranoid.
Still, even fewer are saying that what “Bhakts” are asking to boycott, they will do the opposite.