Magazine illustration

Elle India removes controversial illustration after receiving criticism on social media

November 1, 2021
Linda W. Vargas

New Delhi: On October 31, fashion magazine Elle shared an illustration of men wearing saffron as goons, attacking and vandalizing brands such as Tanishq and FabIndia for their “creative” Hindu festival ad campaigns. A man wearing ‘gamcha’ saffron beating a meat seller, presumably for selling meat. The illustration was designed by 19-year-old artist Lord_VoldeMau, whose social media profile is currently locked.

The post read, “This is the recurring season where Indian fashion brands learn to creatively incorporate religion when designing their campaigns. Last year, @tanishqjewellery received a non-violent lesson in how to show off jewelry without getting into the ancient Hindu-Muslim narrative. Recently, @fabindiaofficial posted and deleted a Diwali campaign titled Jasn-e-Riwaz. Little did they know that the term means long life Muslims in Urdu and is a secret ode to the Mughals.

However, within 24 hours of posting it, Elle deleted the post after receiving major backlash from social media users. Although the post was deleted from Elle India’s official Instagram handle, netizens continued to show their anger and disappointment on microblogging site Twitter.

Twitter user Swati Goel wrote: “Did a mob attack a store in Tanishq? No Did a mob attack a Fabindia store? No So why does Elle India show men in bhagwa wearing lathis charging in these stores? This is fake news, not creative freedom.”

“Now Elle India, a magazine for brain dead fashion and makeup bimb0s, is giving gyan to Hindus!” wrote another.