Soap in BBC ignites Hindu ire

A programme has kicked up a row with the Hindu Human Rights decrying that it has "insulting digs at Hindus".

Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee, a programme aired by BBC has kicked up a row with the Hindu Human Rights decrying that it has a "series of cheap and insulting digs at Hindus".

HT Image

"Meera Syal’s much vaunted programme once again shows their inability to provide a positive portrayal of Hindus in Britain. This programme continues the tradition of the Western media’s denigration of Hinduism and Hindu culture," the HHR said.

Hindu Human Rights said they have recently been flooded with verbal, written and electronic complaints about the portrayal of Hindus, and Hindu women in particular, in the British and Western media. While complaints are quite common, what makes the current sense of outrage peculiar is that the vast majority of complaints received are from Hindu women born and brought up in the West.

And according to the group, the BBC has made it to the top of the complaints charts with their new entry straight in at number one.

HRR complained that in addition to ridiculing of the Hindu religion, there is the worrying aspect of how this programme reinforces deeply ingrained stereotypes about Hindus.

"Starting off with a stereotypically scene of 'progressive Hindu woman' being sexually fondled and who’s character later insults a much esteemed Hindu deity. We also wonder why was goddess Kali Mata, revered by millions, is represented as being equivalent to evil in this programme? What was the point of the remark about Sita if you cannot be bothered to actually give an accurate account of its Dharmic significance?" HRR asked.