The Indian government is apparently unaware of the backlash that brands face for using Urdu in their ad campaigns.
During the Dec. 16 Lok Sabha session, the government was asked if it was aware of threats faced by firms who advertise products in Urdu—a language primarily associated with Muslims—and whether it was taking any action. “No such incidents of miscreants threatening the firms who advertise their products in Urdu language have come to the notice of the Ministry of Minority Affairs,” minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in response.
Maybe Naqvi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is currently in power, did not receive an official complaint, but their outright dismissal was a surprise to many. Especially when the evidence is overwhelming, as anyone with access to newspapers and the internet in India will tell you.
In October 2021, Fabindia, a 61-year-old fashion retail brand, was forced to pull its Diwali campaign using the Urdu language, Jashn-e-Riwaaz (celebration of tradition), after the some claimed it was “damaging the Hindu festival” of lights. As soon as the commercial went live, #boycottFabindia began to trend on Twitter $TWTR. FabIndia eventually denied that it was the Diwali collection at all.
Fabindia isn’t an anomalous example. Several other companies have suffered at the hands of right-wing rhetoric, and the laundry list extends well beyond language:
The response by Naqvi—who has time and again defended the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir by the Modi government—shows the government would rather turn a blind eye to this burgeoning problem.
Ironically, BJP itself does not shy away from using Urdu in its slogans, as lyricist Javed Akhtar pointed out.
For years, artists painting Urdu text have faced threats from Hindu nationalists, and Urdu as a language has slowly been edged out of schools and the parliament, among other arenas. This year, several groups disrupted Muslims offering namaz (praying) in public places in the northern Indian city of Gurugram. Elsewhere, they’ve been warning Muslims against working in Hindu shops.
