Meena Harris, the popular niece of Democratic VP candidate Kamala Harris and daughter of the Democratic VP campaign chair, has been criticized for modifying an auspicious and holy picture of the Hindu Goddess (Devi) Durga in reference to the Presidential US 2020 elections and the Hindu festival of Navratri.
Taking place on Sunday (October 18), Meena Harris had taken to social media platform Twitter to post a modified and misrpresented image of Durga Maa, riding a lion and killing a Mahishasura (known as the King of demons). The modifications involved superimposing Durga’s face with Kamala Harris’s face, while replacing Mahishashura’s and the lion’s image with President Trump and PM candidate Biden’s face respectively. Durga Maa is often referred to as Shakti Devi (the Goddess of Strength) and is worshiped by hundreds of millions of devotees worldwide. She has been revered by Hindus globally and the oldest temple dedicated to her, the Mundeshwari Devi temple in India, is almost 2,000 years old.
While many Hindus tweeted to Meena Harris and the Democratic party on how the image was insensitive and belittles Hindu symbols, a number have urged Meena Harris and Kamala’s campaign team to do more research before making a decision when it involves a groups religious or cultural beliefs. Some further questioned if Meena would post an image superimposing Jesus and Mother Mary’s face with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for a greeting to Christians on Christmas Day, and similarly for other major religious holidays. Most of those who questioned Meena , later tweeted how they had been blocked by her without any response.Durga Maa, a primary figure for many Hindus worldwide, symbolizes the Divine forces (positive energy) that are used against the negative forces of evil and wickedness. She represents pure energy (positive), known as divine light or jyoti that is the embodiment of feminine and creative energy. Her Lion symbolizes uncontrolled animalistic tendencies (such as anger, arrogance, selfishness, greed, jealousy, desire to harm others etc.) and Her sitting on it reminds us to control these qualities, so that we are not controlled by them. Hence, Presidential candidate Biden was probably not intended to be symbolized by the Lion’s traits as depicted for Hindus.
Beyond the issue of superimposing someone’s religious symbols and conflating it with the ugly political discourse of the 2020 US elections – the modified image further polarized the Goddess as many in the Christian base of the Republican party could view the ‘Evil Hindoo Goddess’ as a symbol to kill their President. It also alienates Hindu Republicans who worship Durga Maa as depicting the slaughter of their PM candidate. “There’s just nothing good that can be interpreted by the modified and insensitive image’ a Hindu-American based in California told us. In early October, YouGov and John Hopkins-SAIS published a report that concluded as 72% of Indian-Americans supported the Democratic Party. Indian Americans contain a large number of Hindus and are said to be one of the most Democratic-leaning immigrant groups in the USA.
Some younger Hindus on social media were afraid that the modified image could be used as a meme, and later help normalize the editing of Hindu symbols for other random campaigns. “It can set a dangerous precedence when you have someone as large an influencer as Meena Harris mix politics and sacred symbols of minority groups and cultures” one person tweeted. Another wrote “Dear Meena and the Democratic Party, my ancient culture and religion is NOT your aesthetic”. Many cultural and minority rights groups have spent the last decade advocating on how it is not healthy and morally ethical to use other people’s cultures as props.
Ironically, this controversial tweet was posted days after the beautiful and enlightening “#MyNameIs” campaign was started to help resist racism for immigrants and Americans with non-western, non-Abrahamic names. This campaign was instigated after a follow US senator had mocked the pronunciation of Kamala’s first name. Such an act shows the lack of concern of alienating small minority religious and cultural groups.
Meena’s tweet is also an example of how some political campaigners use someone’s identity to further their agenda. Meena, joined twitter in 2012, has tweeted twice in October 2020 alone about the Hindu festival Navratri as did her aunt Kamala Harris. However, an advanced Twitter search confirms that in the last 8 years and before Kamala Harris became VP candidate, there was not a single greeting towards Hindus for Navratri. Such an uptick in activity can be seen as treating the growing Hindu-American community as an audience available for votes and fundraising without any genuine effort to engage and understand the community. A Hindu-American and Biden supporter tweeted “The fact that PM Biden’s presidential campaigns was supposed to be the benchmark for INCLUSION and PLURALISM, they’ve managed to further alienate the Hindu community as dumb voters with no cultural sensitives and worthy of education on our faith”.
Further alienating Hindus and normalizing hinduphobia – the next day after Meena’s Durga Maa tweet, a video emerged from anti-Trump protests in Boston where a group of white protestors smothered and ate a symbolic heart of President Trump while yelling ‘Kali Maa’ who is another avatar of Shakti Devi (Durga Maa). The video had emerged close to 2Million views on Twitter in a single day and Hindus took to the comment section to explain how it was hinduphobia reminiscent of the Indian Jones:Temple of Doom movie which is often argued as the most Hinduphobic Hollywood movie produced. One person commented “It’s not 1980 where Temple of Doom type movies are easily written and produced, its 2020 and its silly to see political protests demonize Hindu symbols in bigoted ways. Coincidentally this happens day after Meena inappropriate tweet”
Just earlier this month, Rihanna had encountered similar controversy where a sacred Islamic text was used in a fashion show promo. After outrage on social media globally, Rihanna and her partners immediately confirmed the song being deleted and apologized to the Muslim community. Rihanna was applauded for her quick response and taking the time to apologize to those who felt hurt and alienated. We hope Meena Harris and the many official Democratic Party handles who shared the tweet can find inspiration and Rihanna and apologize to the Hindus who were offended.
We reached out to Meena Harris and the Democratic Party for any statements or paology around the controversy, but she did not respond. As of October 19th, the tweet mocking Durga had been tweeted, but no apology has been given so far.
By Sai D.
Sai was born and raised in the US midwest and tracks hinduphobia in US politics during his spare time.