Fabindia, Taj Mahal roasted for using Urdu in ads

Hyderabad: India has 22 official languages, but the use of just one of them has made brands like Fabindia and Taj Mahal tea face the ire of rightwing outfits on social media. The rightwing groups first began crying foul after garment and furnishings retailer Fabindia released an advertisement ahead of Diwali, publicizing a collection of […]

Hyderabad: India has 22 official languages, but the use of just one of them has made brands like Fabindia and Taj Mahal tea face the ire of rightwing outfits on social media.

The rightwing groups first began crying foul after garment and furnishings retailer Fabindia released an advertisement ahead of Diwali, publicizing a collection of garments it called Jashn-e-Riwaaz, an Urdu term that means ‘celebration of tradition’.

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Though the use of phrases from Urdu or Hindi or any such Indian languages for advertisements that are otherwise in English are nothing new, rightwing outfits found this ‘hurting their religious sentiments’, and went to the extent of alleging that Fabindia was appropriating Diwali, which was a Hindu festival and “not a Jashn-e-Riwaaz’. The accusations forced Fabindia to delete its tweet and remove the Urdu phrase from even its website.

After Fabindia, it was the turn of Hindustan Unilever Limited’s Taj Mahal tea, with a hoarding near Andheri, Mumbai being targeted by the rightwing groups for the usage of another Urdu phrase, ‘Tohfa-e-Khaas’.

While what happened to Taj Mahal’s ad is yet to be known, the anti-Urdu crowd is celebrating that Fabindia deleted its tweet.

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