The ad for jewelry brand Tanishq that featured an interfaith couple sparked a social media storm earlier this week, so much so that the commercial was pulled. The backlash had escalated to threaten the lives of its employees. A shop in Gujarat’s Gandhidham was forced to present an apology.
The debate has been raging on social media since the commercial was first released, which shows a Hindu woman married to a Muslim family ready for her baby shower. He faced accusations of promoting Love Jihad, a conspiracy theory used to define Muslim men who cajole Hindu women into marrying with the intention of converting them to Islam. As people expressed their anger at the announcement, a section of social media users asked what would happen if the plot of the story was reversed to show a Muslim woman marrying into a Hindu family.
READ ALSO: The Tanishq Ad protesters are using Charlie Hebdo to defend outrage over the story of a Hindu-Muslim couple
The discourse on the subject has taken ugly turns exposing the polarized nature of the debate. Yet amidst all the arguments and counterarguments, people are flooding social media with their stories of interfaith marriages and how welcoming their respective families have been.
Among them was actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub’s wife, Rasika Agashe, who posted an old photo of their baby shower featuring elaborate Hindu rituals, very similar to what was shown in Tanishq’s ad.
And the internet world tells us that interreligious marriages are not a rare phenomenon in India. Muslim men who marry Hindu women, Hindu men who marry Muslim women is common, because love has no borders.
READ ALSO: Twitter is upset with Ratan Tata’s silence after Tanishq removed an ad for Hindu-Muslim couple
Example, this Muslim woman who married a Hindu in 2016 in which both families attended the wedding ceremony.
My daughter married a Muslim Indian in the US, neither of them converted. Both mothers flew there when our first grandson arrived. Together we cook, clean, and entertain family and friends. At night, the moans of Ya Allah and He Ram, they laughed and slept on hard mattresses. So fans! https://t.co/62c4VL1ebd
– Mrinal Pande (@ MrinalPande1) October 14, 2020
I have 4 non-muslim bahus in my family, one Punjabi, one KP, two Bengalis and 2 damads, one Sindhi, one Bengali, they all love and celebrate all their festivals and culture. My family gets rich and the children are truly Indian, unlike the fake Deshbhakt. @TanishqJoyeria Respect and Naman
– shahid siddiqui (@shahid_siddiqui) October 13, 2020
In fact, among all of our families we have many interreligious marriages: Hindu, Muslim, Parsi, Sikh, Jain, Jewish and Christian. No one has seen a conversion, nor has there been any request for one. This is the India where we belong and where we live with pride. #SaareJahanSeAchcha https://t.co/dIx55Dm7ve
– Suhasini Haidar (@suhasinih) October 14, 2020
Everybody says #Tanishq The ad was fake and not possible Meet Anjum Khan and Nutan Saxena See Nutan’s elaborate godbharai arranged by their in-laws with ‘ki chunni mata’ They were blessed with a girl! The haters, the trollers can sink into their communal caves! pic.twitter.com/FpZjepd7S5
– Dr. Pooja Tripathi (@Pooja_Tripathii) October 13, 2020
Tanishq faced conviction after removing the ad as people said this amounted to bowing to the politics of hate. However, the company subsequently issued a statement saying that the lives of the employees were threatened after the backlash.
READ ALSO: Tanishq’s ad showing a Hindu-Muslim couple did not end in a ‘boycott’. Threatened the lives of employees
READ ALSO: ‘Aren’t we all promoting brotherhood?’ Asks Divya Dutta after Tanishq’s announcement went off the air
Celebrities such as Harsh Goenka and author Shobhaa De also expressed dismay that the ad, which conveyed a beautiful message, had to be withdrawn.
Tanishq’s commercial description reads: She is married to a family that loves her like their own son. Just for her, they go out of their way to celebrate an occasion that they normally don’t. A beautiful confluence of two different religions, traditions and cultures.
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