Hindus on the international front are outraged at the blasphemous use of Lakshmi Maa by Australian fashion designer Lisa Burke in her Lisa Blue Swimwear Collection, which was displayed at the recently- concluded Rosemount Australian Fashion Week (RAFW), held in Sydney, Australia.
Hindus worldwide have staged massive protests during which they burned Australian flags for what they called the blasphemy of Goddess Lakshmi Maa.
The controversy began when models walked the ramp on May 4 in the swimwear featuring Lakshmi Maa, the Hindu goddess of fortune, leaving many Hindus furious over the insult. Burke’s Lisa Blue Swimwear claims to represent the girl of the future who can be sexy, beautiful, powerful and environmentally aware at the same time. “Most of this happens out of ignorance. They don’t realise the use of godly images, and the fact that they are actually deities worshipped,” said Ashish Soni, fashion designer to the Times of India.
Another Indian designer, Ritu Kumar, feels that many contemporary designers use Hindu imagery “without understanding the symbolism attributed to our gods and goddesses”. According to the North Indian Times, Rajan Zed, President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, said that it was disturbing to see the Goddess Lakshmi, who was highly revered in Hinduism, on swimwear displayed by models at a fashion show.
“Lakshmi was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines, and not for pushing swimwear in fashion shows for mercantile greed of an apparel company.” In India, political activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and right-wing Hindu organisation Shiv Sena held photocopies of models wearing the controversial swimwear in protest against the Australian designer as they burned an Australian flag during a demonstration.
According to Huffingtonpost.com, Lisa Blue Swimwear released a statement apologising to the Hindu community for hurting their sentiments. “We would like to offer an apology to anyone we may have offended, and advise that the image of Goddess Lakshmi will not appear on any piece of Lisa Blue Swimwear for the new season, with a halt put on all production of the new range, and pieces shown on the runway from last week removed. This range will never be available for sale in any stock lists or retail outlets anywhere in the world. We apologise to the Hindu community, and take this matter very seriously.” the statement said.
