Rihanna's "topless" photo with the god Ganesha that sparked outrage in India
The singer received strong criticism and was accused of "cultural appropriation" in social networks
The American singer Rihanna shared a photo of her topless and with a necklace of the Hindu god Ganesha on social networks. Criticisms of her did not wait, as various users and politicians in India attacked her, calling her disrespectful.
Ganesha is one of the most worshiped deities in India, characterized by having a human body and an elephant's head, representing abundance, intelligence and fortune.
Rihanna appears in the image only with shorts, a pair of large earrings and the long necklace with the figure of Ganesha, all combined in purple, while she looks to the side of the camera.
Although many praised her beauty, hundreds of other people were outraged with the image and accused the singer of "cultural appropriation" for using the god as an aesthetic resource within the photograph.
"Ganesha is a god in Hindu culture and you do not make accessories with sculptures of gods just to use it as aesthetics," criticized one of the users (@invisiblestring) immersed in the debate about whether or not Rihanna had disrespected with her photo
The controversy grew so much that even Indian politicians began to criticize the American. For example, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with whom Rihanna got into controversy in early February for talking about the agricultural protests, said it was "appalling to see Rihanna shamefully mocking our beloved Hindu god Ganesha."
The legislator of the nationalist party added that the singer had "no idea or respect for Indian culture, tradition and our problems here."
“Isn't anyone going to talk about her wearing a Ganesha necklace? (Hindu goddess)? ”, questioned a netizen in the photo of Rihanna, while another comment on Instagram stressed:
Adding a locket of Ganesha is not an aesthetic thing to do. Ganesha is a god worshiped with great devotion and this is culturally appropriate and also hurts the religious feelings of many Hindus!
The Hindu World Council, a group affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party, also spoke on the subject and assured that it had filed complaints with the Facebook and Twitter police for action against Rihanna's accounts.
This is not the first time that the American singer has friction with Indian politicians. In early February, Rihanna criticized the government of that country for the agricultural protests that were taking place.
"Why aren't we talking about this? #FarmersProtest, ”she wrote on her Twitter account and shared a CNN report about internet outages in Dehli during farmers' protests.
This tweet was followed by an international condemnation by various human rights groups and Minister Modi accused, without specifically mentioning Rihana, that there were “foreign individuals” and celebrities of “sensationalism” speaking about the events in her country.
In addition to the American singer, other figures who took a position on the issue were activist Greta Thunberg and Meena Harris, niece of the Vice President of the United States.
In response to the comments, the Indian Foreign Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and the Minister of the Interior, Amit Shah, assured that "no propaganda can prevent the unity of India."
