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Pakistan
Second Letter to Roberto Cavalli
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 09:48:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Hindu Human Rights
Subject: Dear Mr Cavalli...
To: robertocavalli@purplepr.com, showroommilano@robertocavalli.it,
info@robertocavalli.it, press@robertocavalli.it
2 July 2004
Dear Mr Cavalli,
HHR learnt that you were in London recently and so telephoned your PR office on Monday 28 June to try to arrange a meeting with you, your team and our representatives. Unfortunately, we were told that you had just left for Italy and that you would be unable to meet us. We asked if it would be possible to meet someone in your PR team here in London.
Your representative initially seemed very reluctant to let us meet with anyone but once we explained that your designs depicting Hindu deities on underwear are something that the Hindu community takes very seriously, we were told to call back on Thursday 1 July on which day we were informed someone would be there to make the arrangements for a meeting.
Hence, in good faith we telephoned to arrange the meeting and spoke to ***** from Purple, your PR firm. However, far from making courteous arrangements, we were rudely told by Ms ***** that neither she nor anyone from your firm was in the slightest bit interested in meeting with Hindu Human Rights. Apparently, Ms **** feels that it is enough that your company has issued an apology, withdrawn the offending garments from sale and removed the pictures from your website. We were told in very arrogant tones that as far as you, Mr Cavalli, are concerned, this matter is over with. Further, that your company has been touch with the BBC to ask them to remove the pictures of your models from their site. We were told that the BBC has indeed complied and removed the pictures (although we have yet to independently verify this). By now, Ms ***** felt empowered enough to tell us that we should remove the pictures from our site and how she could not understand why we still have them on display. At this point we attempted to point out that the whole reason we wanted to organise a meeting with your company is precisely to discuss this issue and explain why we have taken it up. Indeed, it is our belief that you fail to understand why Hindus may find your work offensive and that we could help to create a better understanding of our culture which your firm seems to lack. At this point Ms Oakley suggested that we should perhaps speak to your legal department!
We explained to this abusive woman that it is not our intention to take legal action against you or your firm. The fact is that there are at least 750,000 Hindus in the UK and a billion Hindus worldwide and some of these may well be your customers. Even if you do not feel that Hindus are good enough to be your customers, it is our position that their side of the story should be told. We shall attempt to tell this side of the story.
Hindu Human Rights Group (HHR) was formed due to the fact that mainstream media ignored, and regrettably continues to ignore, the persecution, oppression and ethnic cleansing of Hindus internationally. History and events show that attacks on Hindus and Hinduism are preceded by campaigns of vilification and ridicule of our people and culture. It is in this context that we oppose the denigration of our heritage and campaign against the sale of raunchy garments depicting our deities designed and marketed by yourself.
While we are pleased to hear that you “adore” the “culture, history and people” of India and that your designs are intended to “celebrate Hindu culture” we cannot but help wonder what actions you would take if you hated us and intended to malign us. India of course is where the majority of Hindus live and is also a majority Hindu country and surely you and your design team will have noticed on your “regular” visits that Hindus do not have a habit of displaying their deities on their underwear and then showing these off in public? We have so far failed to find examples of revered images from the West making an appearance in your underwear ranges. Perhaps you do not feel other cultures are worth “celebrating” but most Hindus we have spoken to tend to think that Hindu images are abused because designers such as yourself feel that they will get away with such actions. So far, you have failed to convince us of your good faith.
The use and abuse of Hinduism is a widening problem in the West. Indeed, such abuse tends to produce a corresponding apathy in the minds of the general public, media and governments when it comes to more serious abuses of Hindus. We wonder if you know what has happened to Hinduism and Hindu Society in Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir? Hinduism was indigenous to all these places and is now facing a high likelihood of extinction within the next generation. Indeed, in your native Italy, the law does not recognise Hinduism as a valid religion. We would very much like to hear your views on such matters.
As Hindus, we have a natural tolerance and reverence for a multiplicity of life-paths and respect plurality in expressions of the divine nature of the universe. At HHR, we believe that Hinduism has offered much to the world and will continue to offer much. We reiterate that we have no objection to people in the West, and indeed anywhere in the world, searching and finding elements of Hinduism and Hindu culture (the two are interchangeable for us) to help them find spiritual fulfilment. However, we do object to a selective plundering of our heritage which is both offensive and damaging to the billion Hindus worldwide. We see this simply as another instance of Hindu-bashing.
Either you are out to deliberately hurt Hindus and Hinduism or you are ignorant of the culture you claim to “adore”. We wait to see if the range is completely withdrawn from sale. Since this collection has already been on sale for some time and you will no doubt get publicity from this incident, we also do not doubt that you have profited from this. A genuine gesture of regret should make clear that you do not intend to profit from this incident. At this stage it is unclear if you even show any regret let alone wish to make any gesture – certainly it seems that Ms ***** feels that you do not need to show any regret.
We are also concerned about what will become of all the withdrawn garments. We doubt you are aware of this, but the destruction of Hindu sacred images (which your designs contain) is a deeply offensive act against Hinduism. So we would advise that any withdrawal should be carried out in coordination with the Hindu community. We would imagine this is news to you and would very much have liked to explain this to you and your PR representative in a meeting. Worryingly, we now hear news reports that your garments have shown up for sale in sensitive areas of India, some of which have recently witnessed riots. To any sensible person, this would look to be an extremely idiotic move designed to insult Hindus further. From a public relations viewpoint, this seems consistent with the ignorant way we were treated by Ms *****. It seems you and your company are looking for more cheap publicity by inflaming Hindus rather than trying to positively engage with the community.
We had aimed to meet with you in the context of facilitating a dialogue between you and our community to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future. Assuming that on this occasion you made a genuine mistake and that you have nothing but favourable intentions towards Hindus and Hinduism, we would have liked to have proposed that future works would be shown to independent and respected members of the Hindu community before mass production and marketing. While we are happy to share our culture and heritage to all those who are interested, we do not wish to see our Gods on display in department stores. We also do not wish to impinge your work as an independent artist. However, events have shown that this assumption would be inaccurate. As far as the Hindu community is concerned, this issue is not dead and there are still many answers we require from you.
The message from your PR department is that you are not interested in listening to the feelings and sentiments of the Hindu community nor hearing our side of the story. As we made clear to Ms *****, we see her dismissal of us as reflecting a very Euro-centric attitude which believes Hindus and Hinduism to be far too inferior to warrant having a voice let alone having a right to be heard. It is precisely this stance which causes people such as yourself to denigrate our culture and then assume that a simple apology which no one has heard nor seen will pacify the situation. Ms *****’s response is simply another case of not wanting to hear the voice of the victim. Some may conclude that the entire incident was a cynical ploy by your firm to generate some controversy and cheap publicity while making a quick profit. And who cares anyway if Hindus are the victims?
We have set forth our position in this letter and we hope to hear from you soon. In any case, we shall publish this letter on our website.
Regards,
Hindu Human Rights
PS. Contrary to Ms Oakley’s assertion, your website is still displaying the images of your models with “Hindu bikinis” today (2 July 2004). With such a poorly informed PR spokesperson like Ms Oakley, it is perhaps fitting that she would seek to hide behind your legal department. Although we are outsiders to the marketing and PR business, this seems an amateur effort by any standards. In any case, it speaks volumes about the nature of your apparent “apology”.
Hindu Year 5106, Tarana "the year of safe passage"
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