The family of vegetarian Indian pacifist icon Mahatma Gandhi is fighting mad over an Australian company using their beloved ancestor to sell their products and has asked the Indian government to intervene.
The firm is Handi Ghandi — “Great Curries…No Worries” and its curries reportedly include meat curries…including beef…which is a no-no for Hindus. Reuters reports:
“It’s offensive,” Tushar Gandhi, the activist’s Bombay-based great-grandson and head of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, told Reuters. “It goes absolutely against all his beliefs. Using his image to sell beef curries and such doesn’t gel.
“He was not a foodie.”
Indeed: Gandhi was best known for his hunger strikes.
But it probably wouldn’t be lucrative for the Australian firm to sell customers empty cartons, so they they could hold one of their own.
Although that could make a great weight reduction product.
Even so, Mahatma Gandhi — who is to India what George Washington was to the United States (one of “reborn” India’s founding fathers) — did admit to trying beef, just to see what it tasted like (he was not a beefeater after that). It’s hard for westerners to realize just how cherished the memory of Gandhi is, even though modern Indian governments have not followed his ideals of nonviolence and vegetarianism. Gandhi was assassinated in 1948.
Contacted by telephone in Australia, Handi Ghandi’s Troy Lister told Reuters “it’s not a good time to chat at the moment” and to call back Monday.
It is not clear if the company’s spelling of the name is intentional or not, but “Ghandi” is a common Western misspelling. A handi is also a popular earthen cooking pot.
Handi Ghandi’s Web site also features a line-drawing of Gandhi holding what appears to be an American-style Chinese takeout box.
What’s so commercial about that?
And what’s so offensive?
After all, the drawing of Gandhi is only holding a takeout box of food that could presumably contain the company’s meat and beef products.
Would Americans be upset if car dealerships used John F Kennedy’s image to sell convertibles?
How about Abraham Lincoln’s image over the popcorn stand at Ford’s Theater?
The copyrighted site was only partly working Friday, but Tushar Gandhi said it also included a jingle with a male voice singing, “I am Handi Ghandi, eat my curries.”
“They have tried to get somebody to sound like Ben Kingsley,” he said, referring to the actor who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Gandhi in the eponymous 1982 box office hit.
Although Gandhi’s name and image are protected under India’s constitution and national emblems laws — the same as the national flag — Tushar said he had no legal recourse in Australia, where the company is legally registered.
Reuters notes that this is not the first bro-ha-ha involving Indian icons:
Last month, a U.S.-based Indian lawyer said he would sue a California brewery for $1 billion over a beer label showing the popular Hindu elephant god Ganesh holding a beer in his trunk.
Again, what’s wrong with that?
Would some Americans be upset if a company in India sold nails with a picture of Jesus on the label holding a hammer?
Just wondering…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.