Surf Excel made an ad for Holi, and media praised it for 'promoting Hindu-Muslim harmony'. Some people questioned the ad - and media called them 'trolls'.
The ad shows an apartment colony on Holi. The children of the colony are bombarding people with colours. Then a girl comes and tells them to throw colours at her. She keeps doing this till all their colours are finished. Then she calls somebody out. He is a boy wearing a skullcap and white kurta-pyjama. She goes with him to a mosque and he goes inside to pray.
On the face of it, it seems to be a nice ad that promotes positive feelings/relations among people of different religions. Now let us look at it a little more closely:
1. If it weren't for the girl, the children would have ruined not just the Muslim boy's white clothes but (more importantly) his trip to the mosque and his prayer. The apartment colony is India and the children are Hindus. So:
a) Minorities (Muslims/Christians) have different circumstances and therefore special needs.
b) Hindus are ignorant of this and hence trample on Muslims/Christians' special circumstances/needs.
2. Children suffer from ignorance - so Hindu children ill-treat Muslims/Christians due to ignorance. But adults don't suffer from ignorance - so Hindu adults ill-treat Muslims/Christians not due to ignorance but due to bias/prejudice.
3. The girl is a liberal who protects the Muslim boy and opens the eyes of the Hindu children. Similarly, liberals protect Muslims/Christians from Hindus and educate Hindus about their bias/prejudice.
The ad shows an apartment colony on Holi. The children of the colony are bombarding people with colours. Then a girl comes and tells them to throw colours at her. She keeps doing this till all their colours are finished. Then she calls somebody out. He is a boy wearing a skullcap and white kurta-pyjama. She goes with him to a mosque and he goes inside to pray.
On the face of it, it seems to be a nice ad that promotes positive feelings/relations among people of different religions. Now let us look at it a little more closely:
1. If it weren't for the girl, the children would have ruined not just the Muslim boy's white clothes but (more importantly) his trip to the mosque and his prayer. The apartment colony is India and the children are Hindus. So:
a) Minorities (Muslims/Christians) have different circumstances and therefore special needs.
b) Hindus are ignorant of this and hence trample on Muslims/Christians' special circumstances/needs.
2. Children suffer from ignorance - so Hindu children ill-treat Muslims/Christians due to ignorance. But adults don't suffer from ignorance - so Hindu adults ill-treat Muslims/Christians not due to ignorance but due to bias/prejudice.
3. The girl is a liberal who protects the Muslim boy and opens the eyes of the Hindu children. Similarly, liberals protect Muslims/Christians from Hindus and educate Hindus about their bias/prejudice.
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