Why the Surf Excel Ad is Symbolic of a Divisive Mindset

The 'Surf Excel' advertisement is much discussed today, but amidst that advertisement lies a serious issue about which those who understand and shape human sensibility remain unconcerned; and their very lack of concern nurtures separatism, fragmentation, and other such mindsets in India. On 27 February 2018, this video was uploaded from Surf Excel's official Facebook page. Shri Ritesh Pragyansh writes, the gist of the video is somewhat like this:

"A young Muslim boy living in the neighborhood needs to go to the mosque to offer namaz (Islamic prayer), but today is Holi and other Hindu children in the neighborhood are standing on rooftops with colors, gulal (colored powder), balloons, and pichkaris (water guns). Now how should the young Muslim boy go to offer namaz? What if someone spills red, green, blue, pink, or yellow color on his kurta? Another Hindu girl in the neighborhood is that Muslim boy's friend. The Hindu girl's mother uses Surf Excel, so the Hindu girl fearlessly rides out into the alley on her bicycle. All the little children of the neighborhood shower colors, gulal, and balloons from the rooftops onto the little Hindu girl riding the bicycle, and all their colors, gulal, and balloons are spent/exhausted. The Hindu girl, with a victorious smile, goes outside her Muslim friend's house and rings the bicycle bell. 2 minutes later, the Hindu girl's Muslim friend comes out of the house wearing a spotless white kurta-pyjama and cap, and sits on the back of the bicycle. The Hindu girl drops the Muslim boy outside the mosque. The Muslim boy tells the Hindu girl, 'Alright, I am going to offer namaz'

The fundamental question is: when the festival belongs to Hindus, what business does a Muslim child have in it? Why is a Muslim child terrified of the lovely colors, gulal, pichkaris, and balloons of Holi? If the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb (composite culture) was really to be strengthened, why did Surf Excel not show the Muslim child playing with colors alongside Hindu children? Why are such advertisements made only on Hindu festivals? Why are such ads not made on Bakrid? Does a child who fears the lovely, beautiful colors of Holi not feel afraid of the bloody red splashes on Bakrid? And why were a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy shown? Is there a fear in showing a Muslim girl and a Hindu boy? Anyhow, if Surf Excel really had to spread goodwill, why was the Muslim child not colored in the ad? All in all, while making a mockery of Hindu festivals, advice is to be preached only to Hindus! Is this not training in Jihad-e-Mohabbat (Jihad of Love)?"

In this country, there is no one who bothers to worry about how the mindset of looking at and considering oneself distinct from the eighty-five percent population around oneself has inflicted wounds upon this nation. Does anyone worry about what happens when, amidst children going to school early in the morning in nearly identical uniforms, there are some children who, in attire other than that uniform, march toward the madrasa (Islamic seminary) in long kurtas, short pyjamas, and Turkish caps? Does anyone reflect upon what happens when, among children living in the same country, state, city, or village-neighborhood, a large group is smeared with Holi colors and water guns like ghosts, while certain other children step out on that very day of Holi clad in stark white clothes? Has anyone ever worried about what happens when, amidst India's own local languages and dialects, someone unnecessarily starts reading and writing a completely different and contrasting language? Does anyone ponder what happens when, among people with common naming patterns, certain children are known by foreign names, and what happens when a group stands apart, isolating itself from the common festivals and traditions of society?

What happens is that at the tender age of five or six, seeds of fragmentation and separatism begin to be sown within that small group—seeds that remain just as potent even if no separate mazhabi (sectarian) education is imparted for them to flourish; and this seed of fragmentation planted at a young age grows so large one day that the entire nation tastes its poisonous fruit.

Take the Surf Excel advertisement itself and consider how a small child, who perhaps lives in a majority neighborhood, carries roots of separatism so deep within him that he cannot bear even a drop of color on his white clothes. Dogmatism is so ingrained in him that he knows even a festival of joy and celebration is nothing but kufr (unbelief) to him, coming under whose shadow would render his ibadat (worship) unaccepted. How resolute is he in his fanaticism at such a tender age that when the little girl drops him safely (uncolored) at his house of worship on her bicycle, he feels as though he has ultimately achieved victory over kufr and kafirs (unbelievers).

The mindset of considering oneself distinct right from the age of five or six gradually leads to partition and ultimately complete fragmentation, the poisonous consequences of which this country has witnessed time and again. It was this very mindset that severed Afghanistan from the land of Bharat (India); it was this dogmatism that brought about the Partition of 1947, and unfortunately, this very mindset persists today in the same form, nurturing the seeds of not just one, but multiple partitions in its womb.

This is also what the Surf Excel advertisement implies. This problem will not end merely by opposing that advertisement, because stopping that ad will not eliminate this mindset, and that is a matter of serious concern. Therefore, it is necessary to find remedies to address every mindset of separatism and fragmentation. And needless to say, since the disease is severe, the remedy must be corresponding to it.

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