Fabindia has found itself in the thick of a controversy after its ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ collection sparked massive outrage online. People on the internet were not happy that the brand had not acknowledged Diwali in its festive collection and had come up with a bizarre Urdu name for it.

Fabindia gets brickbats for ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ collection

The cultural appropriation has left social media users uncomfortable, just ahead of another Hindu festival. Not many favored Diwali being loosely translated to ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’.

Author, speaker and textile enthusiast, Shefali Vaidya slammed Fabindia for ‘de-Hinduising’ festivals. “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’!” she tweeted.

Dr. Vishal Garg, a twitter user firmly states "Our Diwali is not your Jashn-e-Riwaaz ... Our tradition can't be your interpretation Your products are not meant for us Get lost from Indian market .. #BoycottFabIndia"

Several users gave a call to boycott the brand. 

On October 18, a massive social media campaign against clothing brand Fabindia was launched by netizens. National President BJP Yuva Morcha, Tejaswi Surya, also slammed the brand in a tweet where he wrote, “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 Fab India must face economic costs for such deliberate misadventures.”

Calls for a boycott were made by others as well. It appears that the brand has taken cognizance of the dissatisfaction of its customers over its Jashn-e-Riwaaz collection and has chosen to do away with it completely.

After the backlash, the brand silently removed all campaign traces from its account on Twitter.

Now, it appears, the brand has come up with a brand new name entirely for its festive collection. Fabindia has decided to call it ‘Jhilmil si Diwali’, which is much more in line with the ethos of the Hindu festival.

However, by the time report was over the news, the campaign was still live on their website, Facebook handle, and its UAE handle on Instagram.

Interestingly, FabIndia has not mentioned the word Diwali or Deepawali even once since November 2020.

In the ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ campaign, the word Diwali was entirely skipped by the brand. The basic idea, it seems, behind the campaign was to make the festival of Hindus a secular one by removing its original name completely.

Forceful cultural appropriation of Hindu festivals 

Interestingly, the advertisement campaign released by the brand is a complete mismatch with the title chosen for the Diwali collection. Fabindia’s ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ video campaign ironically features the rich culture and tradition of Rajasthan.

The campaign starts with a Rajasthani lad taking a group of friends belonging to different ethnicities to his home to celebrate the festival of Diwali. While driving amidst the different traditional aspects of Rajasthan, the boy wonders how his friends might be perceiving the timeliness tradition and history of the state. 

The ad then focuses on Rajasthani traditions, rituals, food and finally the couture to highlight the richness, heritage and legacy of Diwali, a festival celebrated by lighting diyas, bursting crackers and distributing sweets amongst other traditions to mark the win of good over evil.

One of the most significant Hindu festivals, Diwali commemorates the return of Lord Shri Ram after defeating the evil that was Ravana. This is precisely why several users were left bewildered with the usage of a heavy Urdu phrase to name a traditional collection exclusively designed for a Hindu festival.

Fabindia founder: a beneficiary of Ford Foundation

Fabindia was established in the year 1960 by John Bissell, an American beneficiary of the Ford Foundation. He had come to India as adviser to the Cottage Industries Emporium on a Ford Foundation Grant.

The Ford Foundation is an American charitable organisation, which casts itself as a group engaged in advancing human welfare, whereas, in reality, it is a ‘cesspool of intolerant and bigoted left-wing extremists’ as revealed by whistleblower Christopher Brunet on his Substack KarlStack.

These left-wing ideologues and extremists, the whistleblowers had claimed, go to great lengths to propagate their communist views while advocating the ‘cancel culture’ and harassment against those who dare to voice opposing views and dissenting opinions.

The current managing director of the company is John’s son, William Bissell. 

‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ is not the only attempt to appropriate Hindu festivals

The Indian brands and advertising agencies have never been reluctant in using Hindu festivals for their vague social preaching and awareness campaigns.

Just before Fabindia’s ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ fluff, Ceat tyres featuring brand ambassador Amir Khan released an ad campaign preaching ‘how roads are to be used to drive vehicles and not burst crackers.’

Clubbing the cricket as well as the Diwali season, Khan ‘educates’ the society kids about bursting crackers only in the compound of the housing society and not on the road if their cricket team happens to win. 

This ad campaign too received a huge backlash from netizens asking why is the same message not communicated highlighting the regular religious practices of other faiths. 

Jashn-e-Riwaaz by Fabindia is not the first attack on Diwali

Another notable point is that it is not the first time someone has tried to skip the name Diwali while mentioning the festivities. In 2018, The Wire called the festival “Jashn-e-Chiraghan”, which was carried forward even in 2019 (by Outlook) and in 2020 by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor who called it “Jashn-e-Chiraagh” in a post.

Continuous attacks over fireworks and other traditions associated with Diwali have been happening from all directions, including intellectuals, so-called environmentalists, government and judiciary. From calling the festival ‘reason of air pollution’ to denying its due credit for reviving the economy, Diwali has been one of the most favourite targets to demean Sanatan Dharma.